(Written by jsnell)

It’s telling, just how far Cal has come in the last six seasons, that a 30-point win at home doesn’t leave me walking on sunshine. Oh, I can see the sunshine from here, and I may go walk on it a little bit later. But enough things happened in this game that made it feel… incomplete.

• DeSean, get your head in the game. Today DeSean Jackson played like a guy who wanted to pad his Heisman highlight reel (or singlehandedly win the game), and instead he got exposed. He fielded several punts he shouldn’t have, and I have to guess that the coaching staff wasn’t thrilled about it, since he wasn’t out there to field the last La. Tech punt. He also dropped two balls, both of which were probably touchdowns. One of them was a bit tough — the pass was low and he was looking back at the sun — but he still probably should have caught it, and would have if he hadn’t been thinking about turning upfield and running for an ESPN highlight.

• Penalties’ll kill you. Lots of yellow flags today, including way too many false starts and a dumb (is there any other kind?) unsportsmanlike conduct foul. When you end up winning by 30, I suppose it doesn’t matter. But in a close game, those kind of penalties will kill you, and if you’re jumping like that at home, imagine what might happen on the road.

• Longshore’s inconsistency. Look, compared to Joe Ayoob, Nate Longshore is the second coming of Joe Montana. But while Longshore is a more accurate a passer than his predecessor, he has bouts of inconsistency where he struggles with his accuracy. During much of this game, Longshore’s passes were off, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot. I guess what I’m saying is, when he’s good Longshore looks like a prototypical Tedford quarterback: efficient, if a little robotic. But sometimes, for long stretches, he struggles to complete a pass. Let’s hope he steps up now that Cal’s headed into the Pac-10 schedule, because one of those cold streaks could lose a game down the line.

• Pac-10 officials? Avert your eyes. Several terrible calls from the officials, most stunningly the obvious fumble that was called a fumble on the field, overruled by another official who decided it was an incomplete pass, and then upheld as an incompletion after a review. Guys, the guy took multiple steps and lowered his head while running with the ball. It could not have been incomplete. And yet after looking at the tape, the replay officialy decided he couldn’t overturn the call. Gritting my teeth for another year of bad Pac-10 officiating…

Anyway, on the brighter side. Cal’s defense played much better, giving up yardage repeatedly on one over-the-middle pass but generally doing its bend-but-don’t-break thing with excellent results. Special teams, led by LaVelle Hawkins’s opening touchdown return, also generally did well. What a bad day for the Louisiana Tech kicker — he had a field goal try blocked, missed an extra point, and had a kickoff returned for a TD. At least the Bulldogs went for two after their second touchdown, sparing him yet another indignity.

Now let’s talk running backs. Despite the legend of Jeff Tedford, the wise trainer of efficient quarterbacks, I am getting the feeling that this year’s Cal’s team is best on the ground. Justin Forsett churned up 152 yards and three touchdowns, showing power and speed that remind me of J.J. Arrington in his prime.

And every time Jahvid Best touches the ball, it’s electrifying. He had a great kickoff return, as well as a mind-blowing end around. On the end around, there were at least two Tech players in good position to stop him. It’s the sort of play you see a lot, where enough defenders are in the area to blow the play open. Except, with Best, you just know that there’s no way those guys are going to get to him. And they didn’t. Jahvid The Jet turned on his afterburners and blew right past them. What an exciting player. As electrifying as DeSean Jackson can be when he’s not preening for his Heisman close-up, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Jahvid Best is already threatening to supplant DeSean as the team’s most exciting player.

So in the end, while the pass offense’s sputtering made me a bit more nervous about this game than I should probably be, it’s still a 30-point win at home on a glorious late-summer day in Berkeley. I’ll take it.

Short Takes: See the rest of my game photos here… Cal public address announcer Dick Callahan, or as we prefer to call him, “AnnouncerBot 2.0 beta,” was nowhere to be heard today. Did his software crash? (Phil tells me he was subbing for Roy Steele at the Coliseum. Did you misplace your loyalty plug-in, AnnouncerBot 2.0 beta?)… Speaking of the public-address system, it was much less obnoxious today than in game one. Still not great, but not quite as bush-league a feeling as I got two weeks ago… Brought my kids to the game for their annual Berkeley trek, and let me tell you, the magic age appears to be 6. My daughter’s almost 6 and she was really enjoyable at the game today, which she hasn’t really been since she was very little. Of course the three-year-old was a handful, but whatcha gonna do?… Driving home listening to KGO, I was amused to hear Lee Grosscup on the post-post-game show, not because of anything Lee said but because after the Tennessee game the Cupper mysteriously disappeared and was replaced by a KGO broadcaster rambling about water rights in the Central Valley…. The crowd didn’t know whether to cheer or boo when it was announced that USC was losing (early) to Nebraska. I cheered, because my dislike of USC overrides even my pro-Pac-10 urges… Speaking of which, UCLA got spanked by Utah. Shows you how ridiculous pre-season rankings are. Did any of you really think the baby bears were good? As long as Dorrell is there, they’ll always be badly coached underperformers. Long may Karl reign over Bruins Nation… Stanford finally wins a game at the new Stanford Stadium! Even though Chelsea won there first… Cal really needs to schedule a series against Texas. When Texas was trailing in its eventual narrow victory over Central Florida(!), the score was announced to loud cheers. Yes, Mack Brown, we Cal fans will remember you and your big mouth until the day we play in Pasadena on New Year’s Day… And bringing up the rear is: Notre Dame! Insert your own punch line here.