(Written by kencraw)

I didn’t do a OTRH podcast this week, in part because I wasn’t at the game. Things got a little bit crazy on the home front and I just couldn’t justify going. So I had the odd sensation of watching a game on TV that I had paid for 6 tickets for the family (and from the looks of it, we could have sat just about anywhere). Of course having to miss the game means things are in dreadfully bad shape and thus the likelihood I’d be blogging anytime soon is negligible. So Wednesday it is before I had time to write something down.

As for the game itself, I think Cal did just about everything right in this game. I kinda wish we had saved this performance for OSU. The defense looked really strong again. It might just be the conference’s best defense at this point. While the corners get called occasionally for pass interference, they’ve found a way to harass the receivers relentlessly without getting called most of the time. As for the front 7, anybody who dares to run against them, particularly on the inside, looks destined to fail (with the possible exception of Stanford).

Maynard looked to have gotten back to his form of the Utah game and a big part of that was the play-calling. It was very geared towards him and he bloomed on the first couple drives with it. I really hope that seeing it happen twice is all the evidence Tedford needs to get it through his sometimes thick skull how to game-plan for Maynard.

The other thing I like about the team I saw play on Saturday was their mental state. Seeing the joy on Will Kapp’s face when he scored that TD was awesome. This team seems to have a joy for playing that’s very healthy. Plus, they’ve got a lot of fight in them. I don’t think this team looks at OSU as their last shot at bowl eligibility (although I think everyone including the team and the coaches agree it would be nice to get it out of the way). This team truly believes they can beat Stanford with the right game and frankly doesn’t even see ASU as overwhelmingly challenging.

And you know what… if the run defense can be as good against Stanford as they have been recently against pro-set offenses (OK, I know that’s a BIG if) and the secondary continues to play well, theirs a 30% shot at a win. I still remember the Luck who got rattled two years ago when the Bears won the line of scrimmage in the 2009 Big Game. Yes, yes, I know Luck is a lot better now, but in part that’s because he’s got so much confidence in his team and his team doesn’t often let him down. His uniform is usually ridiculously pristine at the end of the game. If we can rattle him, there’s a chance, in part because he doesn’t get rattled very often. We need some guys in the backfield, A LOT. And guess what, the Luck I saw in Corvallis on Saturday was not Luck at his best. He’s got some mediocre games in him. And I’m pretty sure he remembers what the Bears did last time we were all in Stanford stadium.

But long-shots aside, I think this is a team that in many ways is starting to gel at the right time. This feels more like 2009 than it does like 2010. And for those who have forgotten, we beat two of the best teams in the conference, teams we were both supposed to lose to, to turn the season on it’s head after mediocre play to start the season. Yes, I remember the face-plant against UW and Utah (in the bowl). But I think people forget the other part, beating UA, a team that at that late point in the season controlled their destiny to the Rose Bowl with Oregon coming to town after the Cal game, and Stanford, a team that hadn’t lost at home all season and has only lost one game since (@Oregon last season).

Particularly since this next game against OSU is at home, I feel a lot better about things and it’s starting to feel like UCLA was the aberration, not Utah or WSU. Look at how Utah has done the last two weeks. Teams that are on the rise don’t often make step-functions. They have regressions. UCLA was a massive regression. More regressions are possible, but it’s feeling like the team has turned the corner.

GO BEARS!