(Written by kencraw)

With the Bears back at home after their trip to New Mexico State, Cal fans were excited to see their 4-0 team. Despite the easy competition in those games, expectations were high. Traditionally Arizona had not been a respected program in the Pac-10. However, there was a great deal of hope in Tucson that by bringing in Mike Stoops, former Oklahoman defensive coordinator, as head coach would turn around this program. The hope was re-enforced by the media’s respect of Stoops and his family’s coaching tradition.

Now in his second season, it was thought Stoops would at least have the defense playing well for the game against the Bears, despite Arizona being 1-2. At a very least it would be a test for the somewhat inconsistent Bear offense. On the other side of the ball, the general feeling was that the Bear defense was a superior unit to the young and inexperienced Arizona offense.

The teams traded 3-and-outs on their first possession, confirming the consensus about which units would dominate. On their second possession, the Bears leaned on Marshawn Lynch, who was fresh back from his broken hand injury. A 29 yard run play by Lynch got the Bears down to the Arizona 22 yard-line on the fourth play of the drive. However, a sack and a holding penalty put the Bears in 2nd and long. Ayoob made his first big mistake as the starting quarterback, forgetting to account for the corner on a out-pattern giving Arizona an easy turnover.

The Bears were given a similar gift 3 plays into the ensuing Arizona drive. Arizona quarterback Hovalcheck tried to make too much of a busted play when he was hit as he threw a wounded duck up that was easily intercepted by Mixon.

After Ayoob made the least of the Bears next set of downs, thowing the ball at DeSean Jackson’s feet on first down and over-throwing an open receiver running down the seam on 3rd down, Bear fans got to see Mike Stoops first melt-down of the game. On the punt, the Cal coverage team gave too much room up the middle allowing for a big return down to the Cal 5 yard-line.

Luckily, there was a holding penalty away from the play that negated the return sending Stoops into a rage. As is usually the case, Stoop’s rage did little to invigorate his team and Arizona was forced to punt when they couldn’t covert on 3rd and less than a yard.

The Bears tried to match Arizona’s return game when Mixon found a nice seam that got well into Arizona territory. Unlike the fuming Arizona sideline, the Cal sideline was able to rejoice their penalty-free return. The Bears got their rhythm back on that drive, mixing run plays and quick passing plays to get into the redzone. A busted play gave Ayoob an opportunity to run the ball down to the 1 yard-line where Lynch was able to power it in for the first score of the game with nearly one quarter of the game complete, the Bears up 7-0.

After the ugliest 3-and-out of the game gave the ball back to the Bears, Marshawn Lynch re-injured his hand on 2nd and 3. The resulting fumble was picked up by Arizona just on their side of midfield. Another 3-and-out ensured that the only penalty the Bears would feel from the fumble was the injury to Lynch’s hand as Forsett took the field on the ensuing drive.

Forsett, as he had all season, made the most of his opportunity. His 5 rushes got the ball down to the Arizona 21 yard-line as the offensive line asserted its dominating size. The Arizona defense stiffened in the redzone, holding Forsett out of the endzone on 3rd and goal from the 1. Tedford uncharacteristically went for it on 4th down and Ayoob walked into the endzone on the option play, putting the Bears up 14-0.

Arizona finally found some offense, gaining 3 first downs, the frist to Steptoe for a 30 yard gain, the second on a marginal pass-interference call and the third on a nice slant pattern from Hovalcheck to Johnson for 16 yards down to the Cal 23 yard-line. Again the defense stiffened forcing a 3rd and 6. On that important down, Hovalcheck was forced into an intentional grounding situation, setting up a 50 yard field-goal attempt that was blocked as the kicker didn’t loft the long attempt enough to clear the leaping Cal defense. The grounding penalty in effect preserved the 1st half shutout.

Summing up the half, the defense was indeed the unit that lived up to its billing holding Arizona to 74 yards and only a handful of 1st downs. On offense, the Bears relied on the ground game to be the difference. With the defense holding Arizona in check so thoroughly, it’s hard to argue with the strategy. For Ayoob, his touch over the top was still lacking on his couple of attempts. However, generally speaking, when he was able to muscle the ball to the receiver, his accuracy was more than acceptable and his reads generally the right ones minus the single interception.

To start the 2nd half, Arizona was able to maintain some of the offensive rhythm in their only drive late in the 1st half. A couple of good passes, spelled by good running by Bell got the ball down to the Cal 30. On 3rd down Hovalcheck forced the ball to a crossing receiver playing into the hands of the waiting Hughes who intercepted the ball inside the redzone and ran it out to the 38 yard-line.

The Bears took advantage of the opportunity on a busted play. Ayoob again made use of his legs, this time to avoid the rush. Buying time running to his right, he was able to hit a streaking Robert Jordan in stride, and one wonders why he only had this touch while running for his life, for an easy touchdown, putting the Bears up 21-0.

After the teams traded punts, Arizona took advantage of their punt return opportunity with Steptoe taking the ball down to the Cal 19 yard-line. Giving the ball to Bell play after play, they got the ball down to the 2 yard-line for a 1st and goal. The Cal defense pushed back Bell on both 1st and 2nd down forcing passing attempts on both 3rd and 4th down, neither of which were complete, keeping the shutout intact when perhaps it wasn’t deserved on what would otherwise have been an easy field-goal late in the 3rd quarter.

After the Bears had to punt (twice with a drive saving roughing the kicker penalty in between), Arizona managed to complete a nice fade pattern into Cal territory. Yet again the defense stiffened and forced a punt.

After the Bears were yet again the forced to punt, the Cal defense seemed to settle into what we now call the Bend-But-Don’t-Break defense. Forcing Arizona to chip away with less than 8 minutes left, Cal allowed Arizona just past midfield when Hovalcheck made yet another mistake while throwing on the run on 3rd down. The ball was thrown straight into Hughes hands for his second interception of the night. Adding insult to injury, the ineffective drive had taken another 3:22 off the clock.

The Bears put the game away on the next possession. Just when Arizona had seemed to lock down the powerful Bear running game, the play-calling was switched up despite the textbook approach which argues to run out the clock. Instead the Bears threw a handful of safe passes that allowed the Bears to both take the clock under two minutes en-route to a Ayoob to Manderino touchdown to put the Bears up 28-0.

Summing up the game, while the shutout was a statement for the Bears, the reality is that the shutout was a combination of weak play by Arizona, a number of procedural penalties by Arizona and Arizona playing from behind and not taking their easy points in addition to the strong play of the defense.

On the offensive side of the ball, it was yet again another uneven performance. On the positive side, the offensive line was able to assert itself throughout the game and Ayoob continued to show good decision making skills. While his deep throws still have significant touch issues, his shorter passes were crisp and on target. Add in the powerful combination of Lynch and Forsett in the backfield and there was plenty to be excited about.

Yes, the Cal faithful believed they had a great team on their hands. A team that should easily break the southern California curse that Tedford had to date been unable to win in that half of the state, by beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl

You’ll be able to see how that game turned out next Wednesday.