(Written by kencraw)

The Bears instantly became a new nemesis of Oregon Duck fans when they took Oregon’s offensive coordinator as their head coach. Every Oregon game in the Tedford era had been a nailbiter including the previous year’s 28-27 victory in Berkeley. With the surprisingly difficult victory over WSU, there wasn’t much hope for a victory from realistic Bear fans until they found out that Oregon was going to be without their veteran quarterback Clemens who had a season ending injury the previous week. Dennis Dixon would be starting his first game in Clemens place. Perhaps Oregon being without a quarterback would level the playing field…

The Bears received the ball to start the game at the 35 after the kickoff was out of bounds. The rainy conditions showed their ugly head on the first play as Ayoob couldn’t hold on to the snap. Saving the team from disaster, Ayoob astutely dove on the ball. After Lynch was stuffed on 2nd down with Oregon loading the box, Ayoob was unable to complete the 3rd and long pass forcing the Bears to punt right away.

Oregon went straight to the quarterback draw on 1st down to loosen the Cal defense. The fruit of that strategy came on the next play when their running back was able to bust a big play over right tackle getting all the way down to the Cal 21 yard-line, instantly threatening to score. After a false start penalty and a poorly throw incompletion setup 2nd and 15, the Bears were able to clamp down and force the field-goal attempt. Life got even better for the Bears when the 37 yard kick sailed wide, keeping the game scoreless.

The Bears didn’t help their cause on their next possession when Lynch’s predictable runs on 1st and 2nd down netted only two yards. After a false start penalty setup 3rd and 13, the Bears opted for a screen to keep the pressure off Ayoob which would have been successful had it not been 3rd and 13, picking up only 9 yards before having to punt.

Oregon got the ball back just on their side of midfield. After the Bears defense pursued well on both 1st and 2nd down setting up a 3rd and 11, Dixon showed why he had so much promise completing his 1st 3rd down conversion as a starter. The Ducks escaped disaster of their own when the replay officials didn’t review a fumble that would have given the Bears the ball. The Ducks made the most of the opportunity on two plays, the first a swing out pass that got the Ducks in the redzone and the second a slant into the endzone for the Ducks first touchdown of the game. The Bears were in a hole early, 0-7.

The Bears found a way to get Lynch the ball in a way that Oregon wasn’t expecting, having him lineup in the slot receiver position but coming back to run a “narrow reverse”. That play seemed to loosen up the defense as both Lynch and Forsett were able to power their way down to the Oregon 22 yard-line. Ayoob made his first big mistake of the game on 1st down trying to make a desperate completion as he was about to step out of bounds instead of just throwing it away. To add insult to the injury of the interception that resulted was that the receiver had no shot at catching the ball.

The upside for the Bears was that Oregon was forced to start from their own 3 yard-line. It was all the Ducks could do to get some punting room in 3 plays. The Bears got the break they were looking for when DeCoud took a great route to the punter and was able to block the ball and it went flying out of bounds at the 1 yard-line. It only took the Bears one play running Lynch up the middle to tie the score at 7-7.

The Ducks got a good kickoff return out to the 40 yard-line. While the Bears were able to prevent the big play, the Ducks were able to chip away at the Bear defense getting the ball down to just outside the redzone when the 1st quarter ended. Another quick out pattern got the ball into the redzone, setting up 1st and 10 from the 13. The Bears sniffed out the next set of plays well, capped by a rushed throw on 3rd down when Mebane got through the line quickly. This time the field-goal attempt was good, although just barely and the Bears were back in a hole, this time 7-10.

The Bears half squandered what would have been great field position on kickoff when a 15-yard penalty (assumably a late hit personal foul) put the ball at the Cal 33 yard-line. Ayoob hit a nice out-pattern to get the Bears into Oregon territory. A misdirection play to Lynch then got the ball down to the Oregon 35. Unfortunately a sack on 3rd and 6 pushed the Bears out of marginal field-goal range. Lonie and Hughes did their best to make the most of the punt with Hughes batting the ball back out of the endzone after it landed at the 3. In the pros, the ball would have been at the 2 yard-line, but in college since it crossed the goal-line the ball came out to the 20.

After the Ducks got a single 1st down, the Bears brought a lot of pressure on every down of the next set and were able to force a punt with Dixon unable to find the open men in the few moments he was given. A short punt and a middle return by Mixon put the ball just on the Cal side of midfield. Sadly, Ayoob tried to force a 3rd down out pattern to DeSean Jackson which was intercepted at the Oregon 37 yard-line.

The Bears defense forced Dixon out of bounds for a 7 yard loss on 1st down. After a misdirection pass didn’t work as well as Oregon had hoped, Dixon tried to force a pass of his own. This time it was Hampton who was able to step in front of it and managed to run it all the way down to the Oregon 1 yard-line. Unfortunately an illegal block penalty brought the ball all the way back out to the 40 yard-line, killing what was likely a sure touchdown. Ayoob completed a 3rd and 8 pass to Jordan to keep the drive alive and Lynch ran a surprisingly quick outside run to get the Bears in the redzone. That allowed the Bears to salvage at least a field-goal after the 3rd down screen pass came up a couple yards short, tying the game 10-10.

Summing the 1st half, Ayoob had played yet another mediocre half and his two interceptions were ugly as they get. To some degree his first interception was ignorable because of the blocked punt on the ensuing Duck possession setup a Cal touchdown. The bigger picture however was that the Ducks were able to dramatically slow the Cal rushing game because they didn’t respect Ayoob’s passing game and Ayoob had done nothing to punish Oregon for taking that risk. The defense had played reasonably well, keeping the Bears in the game and getting the key stops necessary to prevent two redzone opportunities from turning into touchdows and only one being converted for a field-goal.

The Ducks went right to work after receiving the 2nd half kickoff. Again the running-back Whitehead had another big middle of the field running getting the ball down to the Cal 32. After Cal held at that point Oregon attempted a 49 yard field-goal which just cleared the crossbar by no more than a yard. The Bears were behind again, not 3 minutes into the 2nd half, down 10-13.

Ayoob made a big mistake on the 2nd play of Cal’s ensuing drive. On a 3 step drop he held onto the ball too long and instead of either throwing it away or taking the sack he tried to scramble just as he was being hit. The ball popped loose where Oregon was able to jump on top of it before Cal fans could throw up their hands in disgust. One play later a tired Cal defense put up little resistance to the 18 yard run by Whitehead and the Bears were in serious trouble, down 10-20.

After the Bears and Ducks traded punts, the Bears finally got some offense going. Manderino started off with a nice 14 yard catch and run off the rollout. Lynch kept it going with a another run where he bounced it outside going for 26 yards. After a stuffed run, an incomplete pass and a false start penalty setup a 3rd and 18 from the 35, Tedford called for a run play to ensure they got into field-goal range. Schneider rewarded the confidence with a near perfect 45 yard kick with plenty of leg to spare. The Bears were within one score, 13-20.

After the Bears forced a second consecutive 3 and out for the Ducks, Lynch busted a long touchdown run off right tackle where he found a sizeable hole to explode through and got to the endzone untouched. The Bears had unbelievably tied the game towards the end of the 3rd quarter, 20-20.

The Bear defense yet again held Oregon from making a 1st down. Ayoob had another chance to redeem himself when DeSean Jackson was streaking down the center of the field more than 5 yards behind his defender. Instead of Ayoob laying out a catchable ball, he over threw him yet again, for at least the third time in the game. One play later the Bears were forced to punt.

Although the Ducks were able to manage a 1st down on their next possession, they were still forced to punt by the ever stiffening Bear defense. Mixon nearly broke the return all the way only being barely forced out of bounds by the punter after Mixon had returned it for over 40 yards. For once Ayoob was not to blame for the mistake that killed the drive however. DeSean bobbled a well thrown ball and Oregon’s safety was able to cradle the ball before it hit the turf. It was the third interception of the game and yet another one in Oregon territory.

Oregon and Cal again traded punts. The one notable aspect in the trade was that Cal yet again missed an opportunity to pin the punt deep in Oregon territory. Lonie punted the ball where it bounced about the 7 yard-line in a textbook punt. DeCoud unfortunately decided to catch the ball instead of bat it back into play. It was unfortunate because while DeCoud was able to get to it before it crossed the goal-line he was unable to stop his momentum from crossing the goal-line and the ball came all the way out to the 20.

After Oregon got a couple 1st downs, the Bears again forced a punt with just over two minutes remaining. Of particular note was the final 3rd and 1 where Desmond Bishop shot through the line and caught Whitehead 4 yards in the backfield, not even giving Oregon a chance to think about going for it on 4th down around midfield.

The first key play of Cal’s final drive of regulation was a delayed handoff that got the ball from the 13 to the 45 yard-line. The next key play was a non-call on fairly blatant pass interference on a deep ball to DeSean Jackson. However, DeSean got a retribution pass interference call on the next play, a 3rd and 2 where instead Ayoob sent another deep pass after fake. With the ball now on the Oregon 33 with just under a minute remaining, Cal was marginally in field-goal range. However, Lynch was not only stuffed, but caught behind the line for a 7 yard loss back to the 40 yard-line, a key loss of field position. To make matters worse, a shovel pass was also caught in the backfield and the Bears were now at the 44 yard-line. Additionally, both of the previous plays left the clock running so timeouts had to be called, leaving Cal timeout-less with 30 seconds remaining. On 3rd down Cal needed approximately 10 yards, preferably 15 yards, and the clock stopped after the play. Instead a busted play had Ayoob running up the center of the field dragged down at the 37 yard-line. Miraculously, the special teams unit managed to both get on the field and get the kick off. Schnieder’s rushed attempt was long enough but a bit wide-left, missing by no more than a few feet. It was a noble attempt, but a failed one nevertheless.

Summing regulation, the heroes for Cal were the defense and Marshawn Lynch. Lynch was responsible for the vast majority of the offense in the game, and managing nearly 200 yards when the defense knows that Lynch is all the Bears have made it particularly impressive. The defense however was the more important of the two heroes, holding Oregon scoreless for nearly the entire 2nd half. Even the point total of 20 for Oregon was only half of their normal production. Sadly the offense as a whole was not living up to their side of the bargain with Ayoob under center.

With Brady Leaf taking over at quarterback in overtime (he had played a few series during the game), Oregon’s pass offense had the precision of a traditional Cal offense and on 6 plays, Oregon was in the endzone. With Cal needing a touchdown to match, desperation had set in. With Oregon determined not to let Lynch beat them, Ayoob was forced into action on 2nd, 3rd and 4th down after the rush on 1st down only gained 2 yards. Of particular note was the 4th down pass which worked to perfection, minus Ayoob’s execution. Ayoob over-threw the ball and had no touch on a ball that should have been dropped in there.

And so Cal lost another game. Another game that was eminently winnable. Ayoob continued to look worse and worse with each game instead of improving with each game as most Tedford coached quarterbacks, even the mediocre ones, seemed to do. To make matters worse, unlike the WSU game, a game that gave some hope that despite being inconsistent Ayoob may have some clutch throws in him, Ayoob was anything but clutch in overtime.

To make matters worse, the next game on the calendar was USC instead of some patsy. The USC game was supposed to be the showdown for the conference championship and it was in Berkeley. Instead it was a desperate and unlikely opportunity to get back on the winning path instead of falling through the floor.

Would Cal pull off the now unlikely upset? Find out on Thursday.