(Written by kencraw)

I finally got around to re-watching the game last night. Here are my thoughts from that:

• It’s worth noting that Hansen seemed to have more trouble throwing on the run. While they didn’t use it extensively, Colorado did do some rollouts to keep the pressure off of Hansen. However, it generally didn’t work out very well for them, because of his inability to be accurate while throwing on the run. I also stand by my previous statement that Hansen really didn’t have that good of a game. If Luck was playing for Colorado, Cal would have been crushed with all the open guys that Hansen missed, even when he wasn’t on the run.
• Richardson obviously was key later in the game, but he also had 3 key catches on the 1st drive of the game. In addition he had a long reception on the 2nd drive, just after Maynard’s interception, that got Colorado down to the Cal 25. (As an FYI, that catch and a screen for 15 yards was all it took for Colorado to get the field goal, as the Bears stopped it right there. As for Richardson, there’s no doubt he played a very physical game. He was a powerful combination of a big possession receiver and speed.
• Maybe it’s just because I’ve got an aging memory, but I didn’t remember that Maynard’s interception was in between Colorado’s first two drives. Cal had been moving the ball well before that poor decision. But instead of stealing the momentum from Colorado by taking it all the way down the field, it allowed Colorado to get right back into their rhythm that they had established on the 1st drive.
• Of course everyone remembers the booth review later in the game where the Bears got robbed, but there was another one on the first drive where they didn’t overturn the receiver being out of bounds that in my mind the Colorado receiver was clearly out of bounds. The key being he didn’t have reception until very late, not that he didn’t drag a toe. We didn’t get a very favorable game from the replay booth.
• HA! I didn’t remember the “Colorado revenge weekend against the Bay Area” puff piece by the sideline reporter. Colorado lost to Cal and the Raiders handled Denver. So much for the “revenge” 🙂
• Jeez the refs were bad/confused in this game. It’s not so much that they made bad calls, OK, there were a couple bad ones, but it just took them a lot of talking to make the right decision. Pass interference at the spot of the foul -> nope only 15 yards, etc.
• After watching the blocked extra point, I’ll take back my criticism of Tavecchio on that. He got the ball up pretty quick. The key to the block was a defender getting through the A-gap, somewhere you just CAN’T afford to let someone through. So when you’ve got a guy 4 yards in the back field and it goes off the top of hit arms 7 feet in the air, Tavecchio got his ball up enough. Seeing as how one of the two blocks at Fresno State was a combo low-kick, too much penetration problem, that means only one of the 3 misses was fully Tavecchio’s fault. The bigger issue seems to be blocking by the long snapper and the guards (the other blocked kick penetration was up the middle as well).
• The attempted halfback pass by Sofele that ended up being a “sack”, was a rare bad play call for the game. Tedford seems to have a weak spot for seeing that trick pass plays don’t work inside the redzone. There’s just not enough field for the receivers to get the sort of separation needed for someone who doesn’t have quarterback level accuracy to be able to make what needs to be an easy pass to a wide open receiver. That just doesn’t happen on a short field.
• The screen passes in my mind are one of the most distressing things about the game. I can tell you right now that our next few opponents are going to be trying screens a lot until we prove conclusively that we can stop them. What was so distressing was just how inept the Bear defense was in sniffing them out. They were out of position. They got suckered into over pursuing to the QB. And finally their pursuit to the ball after the pass was less than stellar. We haven’t seen a lot of screens lately in the Pac-10. Perhaps they’re coming back and we’ll see more of them in the new Pac-12 thanks to our new members seeing an opportunity.
• Colorado had 3 TD’s but none of them were from inside the redzone. The closest was from 37 yards out. In fact, Colorado only had 3 trips into the redzone resulting in 2 field-goals. If the Bears had managed to prevent the long pass plays, this game may never have been close. I had a fair amount of confidence going into OT because, even though I didn’t have the numbers in my head, I felt the Bears had been doing better in the redzone. My only concern was if it got into a dual of field-goal kickers, which luckily it never did.
• Miller’s touchdown in the 3rd quarter was SUCH a thing of beauty. The way he carried that defender into the endzone was very impressive. I think it also made a statement about playing physically. Colorado had scored their first touchdown and was starting to dominate more in the trenches. Miller said “Not while I’m out here” to conceding the physical battle to Colorado.
• Richardson’s first long TD was pretty frustrating because two defenders should have had him. Josh Hill who was covering him took a really bad angle on him and then DJ Campbell looked a little lackadaisical in his coming up to tackle him. Richardson accelerated away, and it was all over from then. By contrast, the 2nd TD was man coverage situation where Richardson just had a speed advantage over Marc Anthony.
• Another note about those two TD’s… the Bears had a 3-and-out in between the two possessions, which didn’t give the defense much time on the bench to make any adjustments. Not so on the drive that followed where the Bears drove 80 yards, taking 5 minutes off the clock. That gave the defense lots of time to catch their breath and to make the needed adjustments.
• Really, except for the first couple drives of the game, the only real Colorado drive was the final field-goal drive that tied the game. Everything else were big plays. Having re-watched it, I was less impressed with Colorado’s performance. Don’t get me wrong, a big play offense can be quite impressive, but in this case, it didn’t seem like Colorado really had that much that was special that got them the big play ability. It makes me really worried about the Cal defense. There’s only so much I can blame on altitude.
• In the 4th quarter the Bears whiffed on a number of potential sacks. It wasn’t that the Bears weren’t getting pressure in the 4th quarter, but that Hansen was a bit elusive and poor angles by the Bears D-Linemen.
• Talk about divergent overtime possessions. Colorado had strong runs on both their first two plays inside the tackles. Things looked really good for the Buffs. But the Bears stiffened at that point. By way of contrast, the Bears managed to get themselves in 1st and 30. Things couldn’t have looked more bleak.
• That 32 yard pass from Maynard to Allen, it was nearly a touchdown pass. If Allen could have accelerated away just a little quicker, he would have been in. As it was, he was tackled from behind just a moment before getting into the endzone.
• Call me a naysayer for the “brotherly connection” being really meaningful. Allen’s a good wide receiver. Maynard’s a fine QB and a gunslinger. But to think that he wouldn’t have thrown the same ball to win the game to Marvin Jones if that’s what had been dialed up… I just don’t buy it. There’s been very little in my mind that has suggested that Maynard is over-emphasizing Allen. Nevertheless, a great way to finish the game.