The Circle Closes (Cal 45, Tennessee 31)
(Written by jsnell)
Wow. What a game. You couldn’t have scripted it much better. The game went back and forth, with each team getting momentum and then losing it. At one point with Cal up 17, I was convinced that the win was in the bag. Not two minutes later I was convinced that Cal was going to blow all 17 of those points. It was that kind of day.
I’m not sure what the deal was with the Cal defense. Last year it seemed the pattern was: terrible first quarter (or first half), followed by adjustments. Today there were times when the defense didn’t seem to be able to stop Tennessee, and yet they also had an incredible goal-line stand.
It may be that Tennessee isn’t a very good passing team. When Erik Ainge passed, Tennessee’s chances of success seemed to drop. Sometimes he was inaccurate, and other times his receivers just dropped the ball. In the fourth quarter when it was certain that Tennessee wouldn’t be running anymore, all of a sudden the Cal defense looked great. So I’m going to put two and two together and suggest that Tennessee’s running game was really tough to defend, and left Cal’s defense off balance. But by any measure, the performance of the defense in general wasn’t impressive. But they had some incredibly fine moments.
The best moment, other than the goal-line stand, was on the first drive, when Zack Follett clocked Ainge and Worrell Williams ran back the resulting fumble for a touchdown:
On the offensive side of the ball, things were a whole lot better. It took a while for Justin Forsett to get warmed up, but in the second half he really ran roughshod over the Vols defense. And freshman running back Jahvid Best really impressed all of us when he touched the ball. Best is fast, by which I mean not only burst-running fast but jerky-movement fast. Two of the first three times he touched the ball, he was electric. And Best seems to have a trait that I love to see in my running backs: he hates to go down. In just a few touches I got that Marshawn Lynch feeling, as Best just kept running despite the fact that a mortal man would’ve taken a FieldTurf nap long before.
Nate Longshore generally looked good, although there was a weird set of possessions in the third quarter in which he was completely out of sync and horribly inaccurate. I’m not sure what happened there, but he eventually got his mojo back and began hitting his receivers on the hands. With the exception of those two weird drives, Longshore was pretty darned good.
It helps if you’ve got receivers like Longshore’s. I can’t describe how impressed I was with Cal’s corps of receivers. They’re fast, yes. But more impressive: they catch the ball when you put it on their hands. I noticed few if any drops of catchable balls. And several catches happened simultaneously with nasty, nasty hits from the Tennessee defenders — but the receivers held on to the ball. DeSean Jackson in particular took a nasty hit in the first drive and he held on tight. What a great thing to see.
Oh, yes, I’ve finally mentioned Mr. Jackson. You may have heard that he returned a punt in this game — and for a touchdown, no less. What can I say about that play? It was hilarious. Unreal. Everybody in the stadium was ready for an exciting return, but when the punt was lofted high and the defenders were closing in around him, it was clear that all Jackson would be able to do was fair-catch the kick. Except he didn’t. And then he made two or three moves and was gone, baby, gone. You had to laugh. He may never see another punt all year. One of the Tennessee punts after Jackson’s runback was a 12-yarder out of bounds.
DeSean Jackson is like Barry Bonds. They’re just not gonna let him beat them. Break out the rubber chickens and the Chicken Dance. DeSean will not be returning many punts this year unless he puts on glasses, a fake moustache, and someone else’ s jersey.
Short Takes: See the best of my game photos here… I’ve complained about Cal’s amateurish stadium multimedia before and I’ve got lots of new material to add to the heap after today’s game. Videos playing as quarterbacks stepped to the line to snap the ball, excruciatingly loud music, use and abuse of the Mic Man — it was embarrassing. How hard can it be to get something like that right?… To counter the “S-E-C” chants that rained down on Cal last year, we chanted “Pac-10-Football” at one point. I’m sure the SEC hard-liners will find some lame excuse to explain this game’s outcome… Best wishes to Tennessee defender (and Long Beach High graduate) Xavier Mitchell, who was injured on a defensive play very late in the game and had to leave on a cart — the Cal fans gave him several rounds of cheers as he left the field… What the heck happened to Tom Schneider? (I guess he pulled a muscle in warm-ups!)… Thanks for the classy post-game follow-up, Rocky Top Talk.
And now it’s time for me to ride off into the sunset:
A year ago I was in Knoxville, where the people were hospitable and the game was horrific. This feels so much better. And now the circle closes, and this whole Cal-Tennessee series is wrapped up with a second home win.
Good night, Jeff Tedford, wherever you are.
September 1st, 2007 at 11:59 pm
How can we not become USC with the LAME music and sounds effects? Where do I complain? Grrr….
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:05 am
Don’t get me started. I’ve got an entire other post to write about how terrible they’re handling the stadium experience. But I’m saving it for another day.
September 2nd, 2007 at 2:42 am
My favorite part was when they started playing No Doubt and the Village People. As if SEC fans need more reinforcement of Cal stereotypes.
September 2nd, 2007 at 7:39 am
Well, if you watch almost any new show this fall you’ll hear that Gwen Stefani song in the pilot episode. It’s everywhere. But I did chuckle mightily when they played “YMCA.”
September 4th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Your photos are EPICALLY better than mine. I need a better camera. Can I borrow a thousand bucks????
What camera do you use?
September 4th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I asked Jason the same question via e-mail last year when I was doing reporting. If it makes you feel better, I believe Jason borrows his camera from his wife. She’s got some uber-cool Canon or Nikon digital SLR with the latest unobtainium technology and lenses with the shake-reduction features. From the sounds of it, it’s pretty sweet.
Doesn’t matter… real men buy their own cameras. 🙂 That’s my excuse anyway for my bottom rung Pentax Digital SLR… it’s not unobtainium, but at least I bought it myself.
Seriously though, at these evening games where the light is less than ideal, the key is to get an SLR with a lens with a low F-stop (which means it has the capacity to let in a lot of light). Sub F3.5 is ideal although expensive and remember that with zoom lenses the number goes up as you zoom in. The other nice feature is the shake-reduction (some cameras have it in the lens, some in the body). It has the effect of allowing you to take pictures at slower shutter speeds (which allows in more light) without it getting blurry. To some degree this is less valuable for sports because you don’t want a slow shutter for action shots anyway, but in stadium lighting I’ve found that it still helps. Finally, if you’re going to be shooting into the sun (east side of th stadium), you’ll find that both UV and polorized filters will help you prevent over exposure while still getting good exposure on the field.
But to add on to Twist’s comments, yeah, Jason, those are some awesome shots.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Technically the camera is mine, but the lens is one I bought for my wife. So it’s a shared deal — kind of like marriage.
It’s a Canon Digital Rebel with a 70-300mm zoom lens with image stabilization.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
By the way, you can get a Digital Rebel for as low as $550 in some places, with a basic lens.
Currently the Canon EF 70-300 IS lens is on amazon for $555. If you’ve got steady hands you can get one without IS for $200, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it, especially when things get dark.
So yeah, it’s $1100 worth of kit…. but it’ll last you a long time and makes for awesome pictures.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:20 am
I’m 26, I’m not in a position to be spending like 1K on a camera right now. Oh, how I wish, tho. I just have a regular Cannon Powershot. I find Cannon to be the best brand out there for digital cameras. My F-Stop range is only 2.6 to 8. Plus, it doesn’t really matter, it’s not the camera that’s really taking those photos it is the lens. And I just have the basic lens the camera came with. It’s not even in the same celestial orbit as your camera and lens.
Once the sun went down in the 2nd half, it didn’t matter anyway. I don’t like using the flash, but I lack the hands of a surgeon. So, if I went without flash it’d just be all blurry. I wish I could bring in a monopod, but I find it highly doubtful the security would allow that incredibly blunt object in.
In a perfect world, I could bring a sick zoom lens and a monopod. When it gets dark, open up the apeture for like a few seconds and get some really sick shorts of like DeSean just standing there while blurred motion goes all about him and/or vice versa.
Basically, I envy you.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I got the camera as a bonus from work, from my previous (awesome) boss. Nice $1000 gift! But I’m also ten years older — cool cameras will come to you in time.
Yeah, the lens is a big deal. I love, love, love that zoom lens. It lets me take those images without a tripod. Also I’m at the 35 yard line so I’m a bit closer to most of the action, and I pick my spots. I was totally lucky in getting the fumble and TD in the first quarter. Usually I miss those cool plays.
Of course you can take video with your camera, and I can’t with mine. Also you might want to play with your camera’s Manual mode – you may be able to get better night shots than you suspect.
(Love your guys’s blog, by the way.)
September 7th, 2007 at 7:24 am
These are some great pictures. I brought a $3000 camera with a $2000 lens and they did not come out nearly as nice as these. I bought the camera myself. My wife bought the lens for me because she was sick of me looking it at every weekend when we went out and about. She finally go to the point of saying either I buy it or she will buy it, but we are not coming back again to look t it. Needless to say I had a tough time shelling out the money so she bought it.
Sitting in the young alumni section on the East side of the stadium is not ideal when the sun is setting. The lighting was horrible. So what this says is it dioes not matter how expensive the camera it is location and operator that makes the difference. Great job Ken.
September 7th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Thanks, Al, but those are actually my pictures — and they’re from the Alumni section facing away from the sun, so the difficulty level is MUCH less from where I’m sitting.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:18 am
You got some great shots. I am very jealous. I am a big fan of the yellow jerseys and your shots make them look even better (my wife is not a fan of the yellow). Take care.