(Written by kencraw)

Sac State was by far the biggest patsy on the 2005 schedule for the Bears. But with questions abound regarding the QB position, no one seemed to care before the game. Longshore was given the starting nod over Ayoob, although Ayoob was promised playing time later in the game.

The first thing of note when watching the game was the commentators spending a fair amount of time on Longshore’s improved footwork. It struck me in retrospect a lot like American car companies spending all of their commercial time telling consumers about their quality.

In the first series the Bears leaned on a conservative run-run-pass game plan. This seemed wise at the time because of the strength of the Cal running game, the weakness of the opponent and the fact that Tedford was breaking in a new QB. However, this was notable to me because of some of the criticism he received in later years for overly conservative play-calling, particularly against lesser foes.

That said, the strategy worked on the first drive. It gave Longshore a number of 3rd and short situations that were easy to complete and the Bears marched down the field with ease. The drive was capped with a 31 yard touchdown pass from Longshore to DeSean, their first of many touchdown connections in their years together.

Sac State’s first possession was not nearly as effective. In fact, they looked out-matched in just about all of their possessions. They went 3 and out on each of their first three possessions and only managed one first down on their fourth possession before having to punt again.

Had the Bears been able to keep their offensive game-plan on track, the game would have quickly gotten out of reach. Unfortunately for Bear fans, the offense sputtered. Sac State put more pressure on the run game, stifling the run-run-pass plan. In addition the execution was not nearly as sharp with a combination of penalties, bobbled snaps and handoffs as well as a failed trick play all combined to stall two consecutive drives.

On Cal’s ensuing drive, Longshore made his first big mistake, one that he would repeat a number of times in future seasons. He didn’t account for the corner jumping the route on an out pattern and was picked off as the Bears were finally getting their rhythm back.

After another punt by Sac State (although they did manage a first down again) that pinned the Bears at their own 3 yard line, the Bears went back to work, focusing in on the ground game again. They were able to bring the ball out to mid-field. Unfortunately a rare dropped ball by DeSean, where minor pass interference broke DeSean’s concentration on a well thrown deep fade route by Longshore, coupled with a busted up screen play ended the otherwise promising drive.

On the other side of the ball, Sac State was finally able to generate some offense. Two big plays, first a tailback sweep that went for 21 yards followed by a wide-receiver screen that went for another 15 yards, put the Hornets in the redzone. Luckily for the Bears, Cal’s defense stiffened and Sac State’s Chris Hurd missed an open man in the endzone, resulting in a Sac State field-goal to bring the Hornets within 4, down 7-3.

Longshore responded with a long pass of his own. A deep crossing route by DeSa left him wide open and Longshore hit him in stride for a 44 yard gain. Unfortunately, and far more so that anyone realized at the time, that play would be the undoing of the 2005 season. Longshore’s ankle was broken as a Sac State defensive end dived at his feet as he threw the ball.

Of note regarding this was that the announcers were told that x-rays were negative. That was particularly surprising to hear since I know that by the time the papers came out the next morning, we all knew Longshore’s season was over.

Joe Ayoob came in with a fresh set of downs and the ball at the Sac State 33. He was perfectly position to come in and lead the Bears to glory. Instead he threw three consecutive incompletions, each looking horrific. He started by throwing into triple coverage. On second down he massively over-threw the ball. On third down he made a bad read and threw the ball into double coverage missing an open receiver.

It’s interesting to note that while Longshore was given a gentle introduction into the game with a run-run-pass game-plan, when Ayoob came into the game, he had 3 straight passing plays. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Was Tedford less concerned with breaking Ayoob in? Was the play-calling trying to out-think Sac State who would be thinking with a new QB they’d return to the run? Or was it just a case of trying to make the most of the clock late in the 1st half? It’s hard to say, but the play-calling didn’t help Ayoob gain confidence in what was a very shaky beginning.

Luckily for the Bears, a young Schneider was ready to prove his mettle and hit a 49 yard field goal to put the Bears back up by 7, 10-3.

The Bears and Ayoob got one more shot before halftime after another Sac State 3 and out. Instead of making the most of it, Ayoob made the absolute least of it, throwing three incompletions that were worse than his first three, if that was even possible. The Bears went into halftime only up 10-3 in a game where they should have been blowing Sac State out. Luckily for the Bears, one half of their team was living up to their billing. The defense had shutdown the Sac State offense on all but two plays despite the frequent opportunities the Hornets were presented to try again.

After another 3 and out by Sac State to start the half, the Bears got the ball back less than two minutes into the 2nd half. Lynch quickly ripped off a 21 yard run up the middle to get the Bears into Sac State territory. Unfortunately another two poorly thrown balls by Ayoob forced yet another punt by the Bears.

Another 3 and out by Sac State had them punting again. This time Mixon made the most of the opportunity and retuned the ball to the Sac State 23. After Ayoob threw yet another stinker, the play-calling switched up, handing the ball off to Lynch again who ripped off two consecutive big gainers and another touchdown to his name, putting the Bears up with the first semi-comfortable lead, 17-3.

Taking an intermission from the game action, who would have thought/remembered that midway through the 3rd quarter that the Bears were only up 10-3 over what turned out to be a miserable Sac State team? All I had remembered when I began to watch the game was that Longshore was injured, the backups looked shaky, but the Bears managed to blow out Sac State anyway. I hadn’t remembered just how late and how special-teams/turnover heavy those blowout points were.

Back to the game, Sac State finally managed a first down on their third possession of the 2nd half, but the result of the drive was yet another punt.

Joe Ayoob was given one last chance to get his game in gear after a 4 yard rush on 1st down was negated by a false start penalty by Andrew Cameron on 2nd down. Twice more he botched the opportunity, the first time indecisively pulling the ball down and trying to run for a 1 yard gain and the second time air-mailing yet another one. Ayoob walked off the field for the last time during that game and Cal punted again.

Sac State made their first big mistake of the game, fumbling the ball on first down, giving it back to the Bears. Steve Levy, who came in for Ayoob, managed to be even more unimpressive in his first throw, badly under throwing the fade and giving Sac State an interception. Luckily for the Bears, DeSean managed to strip the intercepted ball from Sac State and the loose ball recovered by Cal. (It’s pretty impressive/unusual for the same team to lose a fumble on consecutive plays (by either team).)

Levy continued the “winning ways” of the backup Cal QB’s and threw 2 more incompletes bringing the incomplete string to 13 combined for Ayoob (10) and Levy (3). Luckily the fumbles had happened in Sac State territory so Schneider was able to make the most of the situation, kicking a 27 yard field-goal, putting the Bears up comfortably 20-3.

Another 3 and out for Sac State later (at least they’re consistent), Levy made the best of the situation and completed a 46 yard touchdown pass to Noah Smith making the 14th pass after Longshore’s injury BY FAR the best one yet. Nevertheless and despite the offensive ineptitude, the Bears were up 27-3 at this point.

At this point the Bears were playing nearly all 2nd string players on defense including Follett and a number of other names that are now the starters in 2007 and 2008. That didn’t stop Sac State, who had played a mostly mistake free game up until these recent miscues, from fumbled again giving the Bears the ball in the redzone. Not wanting to chance that Levy’s turn-around was temporarily, the Bears went back to the run game and in two plays scored a touchdown (Manderino), now up 34-3.

After this, the game was full of backups on both sides of the ball with each coaching staff trying out new combinations with different players to see who would be best. About the only notable thing that happened after this point was that DeSean was able to return his first punt return of his career (he had been back for a previous punt, but it was partially blocked so he was unable to catch it) for a touchdown, giving the Bears and the game its final score, 41-3.

To summarize the game: The bright spot for the Bears was the defense. They completely shut down Sac State. While it was difficult to tell just how good they were considering the opponent, it would have been easy for them to give up 20ish points for lack of effort. Instead they only gave up 3. In addition, the turnovers forced by the defense put the Bears in great field position that directly resulted in 10 easy points.

The special teams were also special this day, with 7 points directly to their name through DeSean’s punt return and an additional 7 on their shoulders through Mixon’s long return that setup an easy touchdown for the Bears. In addition, the kicking game was in full-force with Schneider going 2 for 2 including a 49 yarder. The punt-blocking team also got close to two punts, fully blocked one (I didn’t elaborate above on THAT odd play that resulted in a Sac State first down) and partially blocked a second one.

All in all, 24 points came from the effort of the defense and special teams making the remaining 17 points the Bears offense accounted for driving the field, far less impressive than the final score of 41 seemed to indicate.

Despite the weakness of the offense and their measly 17 points of their own doing, minus the QB situation, things looked pretty strong on the offensive side of the ball. There were a number of wide-receivers who were coming into their own. The offensive line, tight-ends and Lynch at tailback were all as advertised. However, particularly once it was known that Longshore was out for the season, the QB situation was as dire as dire could be. Ayoob and Levy were a combined 2 for 17. Considering what happened later in the season, it’s particularly interesting to note that Levy played by far the better game against Sac State yet he was passed over for the starting job by Ayoob who would start again the following week.

But you’ll have to wait until next Tuesday to read about that…