*Prior to the game starting I thought that Cal would come out running the ball.  The first play of the game was an aggressive pass play out of a running formation.  This surprised me.  It looks like Tedford wanted to really take the crowd out of the game with a big play.  Unfortunately, the pass was incomplete.

*Immediately after the pass I became immensely frustrated with Longshore.  I have been very patient with Longshore’s performance on the road as opposed to some Cal fans, but after that play I was tired, frustrated, and impatient.  But then I told myself to calm down and understand that it was just one pass, we still had just under an hour of gametime left, and I was just uptight because of the importance of the game and being a little stressed out from midterms. 

*Oregon’s defense really came out pumped up.  It was role reversal from last year.  Last year our D was on Oregon’s O from the start and this year their D was on our O from the start.

*At first glance, Tedford’s playcalling was excellent.  I wrote down my usual notes as I watched the game and upon a glance (I don’t have enough time between my midterms to really break things down right now), it seems to be a very logical gameplan.  Lots of motion, lots of rolling of the pocket, lots of max protect, and lots of uncommon plays being called.  If you thought the playcalling was vanilla the past two weeks, then the playcalling for this game was rich Godiva dark chocolate.  Seriously.  It’s not that we ran a bunch of fancy trick plays but we ran a lot of plays that we don’t use very often - such as draws from the weak-I. 

*I like how THA1 got so many touches.  Obviously it’s critical that you put the ball in your playmaker’s hands, but what really impressed me the most was that we didn’t force it.  Or I guess I should say Longshore didn’t force balls to THA1.   

*Forsett took some flak from the telecasters about not having a good average in the first half.  This criticism, I felt, was unwarranted.  That criticism should have been directed more to our offensive line which was being dominated.  In the second half, everything turned around.  Our OL dominated Oregon’s DL, Forsett had bigger running lanes, and gave Forsett more space to maximize his abilities. 

*Forsett really put the team on his shoulders in the second half.  He really came through in the clutch.  When our offense needed a spark, he (and the OL’s run blocking) was that spark.  I felt like Forsett plays with a chip on his shoulder for all that "he’s not an every down back" talk he heard over the off-season.

*Now Longshore.  I think his performance should be enough to quiet his critics.  Playing on the road is always tough, nevertheless the high expectations of Cal fans are justified considering his abilities, potential, and surrounding talent.  So what does Longshore do in the face of the high expectations and criticism?  He had about a 66% completion percentage, and didn’t throw a single interception.  Not to mention he stuck in the pocket despite getting batted around and injured.  And him coming back into the game despite his injury really says something about his toughness. 

*I was rather impressed with THA1’s run blocking.  He was about as aggressive as he can be without putting his thumb in much further risk and despite being 170 lbs or so.  Obviously, I want THA1 to be as physical and dominating as he can be when he run blocks, but I also don’t want him to reinjure himself or injure something else.  I think he struck a nice balance between the run-blocking and preserving himself. 

*Marcus Ezeff.  One of our best defenders in the past few weeks, his personal foul late hit penalty almost cost us the game.  I don’t blame him though.  That could have gone either way.  Judging by Tedford’s reaction, or lack thereof, I don’t think Tedford blamed Ezeff either.  That’s just a guy playing snap to whistle and trying to win.  Can’t knock a guy for doing that. 

*I was fairly happy with the lack of penalties.  I think we only had one false start, and one delay of game but other than that I don’t think we had any other penalties that were induced by the crowd.  And to be honest, the delay of game penalty might have been on Tedford and not Longshore.  You might ask, howso?  Well, while Longshore is responsible for managing the huddle and the offense, he’s at the will of Tedford’s timely playcalling.  If Tedford doesn’t call a play in a timely manner, it won’t be signaled in with enough time for Longshore to read the signals, look at his wristband, call the play in the huddle, line up on the ball, move any men in motion (if applicable), and snap the ball. This happened last week against Arizona.  Tedford didn’t call a play until the playclock was around 10 seconds or so, Van Meter signaled in the play, and by the time the offense broke the huddle there was only 5 seconds or so on the clock and a delay of game resulted.  So, I’m just sayin’ not ALL delay of game penalties are the QB’s fault. 

*Stat of the game: Oregon turnovers - 4, Cal turnovers - 0.  Many of you football fans probably know that the turnover margin is one of the more accurate determinors of who will win the game.  I remember hearing that in the NFL, a +3 turnover margin means something like a 75% chance of winning the game.  Obviously things are different in college, but a +4 turnover margin should mean a team has a pretty darn good chance at winning.  Thank god we had forced those turnovers because if we hadn’t… well, let’s not go there.

*Attacking Dixon.  Our Gregory’s defensive philosophy was different from last year.   Last year we blitzed Dixon frequently and got him nervous and out of rhythm.  This year, we used the BBDB (bent but don’t break) and it worked.  Oregon’s 500 yards of offense resulted in 24 points, which isn’t bad.  If you want to think that every 80 yards should be a touchdown then Oregon should have had around 42 points or so.  Plus, we got an interception from the BBDB courteous of Anthony Felder. 

*I was hoping we’d have a few more long and sustained drives.  We had 5 three-and-outs.  I felt that Tedford was trying to make some long and sustained drives in the first half but things weren’t just clicking.  It didn’t seem like he was calling plays for touchdowns so much as he was just calling plays for first downs.  Obviously, there were a few plays which were intended big-plays but for the most part, I think we stuck to just aiming for the imaginary yellow line (the LOS) and not the endzone.  Nothing wrong with this.  It’s just conservative high-probability playcalling. 

*Okay, and how about Longshore attempting 43 passes.  Or I guess I should say, how about Tedford calling 43 pass plays?  I don’t remember any (Jeff Tedford era) Cal quarterbacks attempting so many passes in a long time… if ever.  That’s a lot of pass attempts.  And actually, in proportion of our 33 rush attempts, we passed more than we ran which is highly unusual of Jeff Tedford.

Those are my thoughts for now.  I have to get back to studying for a midterm.  I’ll try and put together another mini-analysis later this week.  

GO BEARS! 

Additional Thoughts:

How could I talk about Ezeff’s personal foul penalty without talking about his game-winning forced fumble?  There’s not much I can say about it but AWESOME. 

Here’s something interesting to consider.  In this interview, Ezeff said he got "picked" on that play.  If you don’t know what that means it’s basically like a basketball pick.  Setting a pick in basketball is LEGAL whereas "picking" in college football is ILLEGAL.  In college football a offensive player can "incidentally" run a route which just so happens to get in the way of a defensive player but the offensive player cannot overtly strive to make physical contact in a blatant attempt to impede the defender’s progress towards the other offensive player.  It’s not a very objective penalty - it’s very subjective.  Anyways, after reading this I checked out the play on the tivo.  The original camera view makes it very hard to see if Ezeff was truly "picked."  In the final play Ezeff is in man-coverage covering the slot WR on the bottom side of the TV screen.  The two Oregon WRs run a scissors combination route with the outside WR (who is covered by Brandon Hampton) running on an inside slant towards Ezeff.  It’s hard to see if the outside Oregon WR invites contact but it’s clear that Ezeff had to run and work his way around the WR.  If Oregon had scored the touchdown, but Ezeff truly was picked, AND the refs called the "pick" then wow, that woulda been crazy gift from god touchdown-negative penalty.  But that didn’t happen.  Oregon didn’t score.  We can’t tell if Ezeff was truly "picked" and … yeah.  That’s it.  Just wanted to talk about that. 

#3, how are you doing?  A pleasure to make your acquaintance.  It’s been a while.  Hope you’ve been well.

What a weekend!  And next week, Go Florida!  But for all times, GO BEARS!

Moments like the ones we had today are so pure.  This pure emotion always expresses itself in very involuntary ways that might seem hilarious or embarassing.

For example, when the touchback originally occurred, I jumped up into the air along with a male friend of mine and we hugged in mid-air, screaming as we fell back down to the floor.  Then, when the ruling stood, I, as noted below, fell on the floor and then got back up to run around my kitchen, pound on the counter tops, and yell things not appropriate for ExcuseMeForMyVoice’s family friendly atmosphere.  It was all very reminiscent of when TO caught that TD in the 1998 Wild Card game to FINALLY beat the Packers in the playoffs (for you Niner fans out there).

So, what hilariously embarassing things did you do?   

Im just sitting on the photo gallery page at Yahoo! Spots and hitting refresh.  I WANT MORE!  Finally, there is one of the touchback.  Or, as it most likely will go down in history as, The Touchback ™.

I feel like I saw a photo of DeCoud with that blue stuff on his tounge after the Tenn game.  I wonder what that is. 

TWISTNHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK! 

After they announced the ruling on the field stood, I just went crazy, alternating between collapsing on the floor and running into my kitchen and pounding the countertops with my hands.  I think I freaked all my friends out.  But screw them (esp. the one who is a USC alum)!  GO BEARS!  

SCIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMSOMS.  That was insane.  That is not a game Ill forget too soon.  It went back and forth and back and forth.  My heart goes out to Longshore battling through the pain there.  I hope that he gets healthy.  Goddamn, I hope he gets healthy.

Offensive player of the game- DeSean.  No brainer!  And that 1 TD where he just turned on the jets.  He was just all "Hey, how you doing?  Oh that’s great yeah, look, I gotta go, we’ll talk later, though, don’t worry."  He then made the international symbol for "call me."  Damn, I mean damn.

Defensive player of the game - Whole defense.  Classic Bend but don’t break D, there.  Especially in the first half.  All my friends agreed at half, Cal was lucky to only be down 7.  Oregon couldn’t throw, but man could they run.  And we had tackling problems.  It seemed like we could stop them behind hte line of scrimmage, but couldn’t complete the tackle.  Then, in the 3rd I felt they stepped up.  But in the 4th it got iffy again.  Thank God, they finally got some turnovers there. 

Certainly I wish that Cal had done more with the 2 of those turnovers.  And certainly I thought that FG was good.  But I will take it.  It was a divine miracle from on high.  Thankfully, they were just going for the tie.  If Oregon was going for the win, there’d be a lot of Oregon fans talking smack about how Oregon basically won except for the Deus Ex Machina.  Since it was just to tie, that removes that line of whine.

Speaking of Oregon fans, all this week I noticed that they were acting very unreasonable.  As I noted earlier in the week with my  "Why" post, Cal fans were really nervous going in.  Ducks fans were boasting as if the game was already won.  Cal fans were all "If Longshore is good and if the D can hold and if and if and if, we could win."  Ducks fans were all "If a terrible bus accident occurs and the Ducks team is injured, Cal can win."  I’ve never been a big fan of being a sore winner.  But I can’t think of a better time than now.  Well, unless we beat USC.  Thats a better time.  Maybe we should just mock USC fans for us beating Oregon.  Doesn’t make much sense, but then again neither did all the stuff Oregon fans were saying before the game about this being an easy Ducks victory.

Fouts needs to be banned from doing an Oregon game.  He was actively rooting for the Ducks.  It was obscene.   After Oregon TDs, I thought they’d go to the booth and he’d have his shirt off, rubbing his nips. 

So, those are just some quick thoughts.  I’m sure gallons of e-ink will be spilled on this instant classic.  We will have first hand accounts and photos from Ragnarok as soon as he gets over his upcoming hangover.  Let’s root for Auburn tonight, so not only can Cal move up to 3, but maybe if Florida then knocks off LSU, Cal could be the #2 team in the nation without even suiting up.

OHMYSCIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!  GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BEARS! 

…we didn’t after Tennessee, but after some of the comments we got on our Oregon roundtable this week, I’m interested in seeing whether "Autzen owns you" and "No Roses this year!" will be back to admit they were wrong.  Much props if either or both of you do, but I’m not counting on it.

Penalty!  On Cal! 15 Yards!  Part II

Penalty!  On Cal!  15 Yards!  Part I 

Well, we finally get to the game.  Exciting times.  Before the game, the Mic-GenderIsMerelyASocialConstruct reminded us all to do the Hawk.  But not the vertical Hawk.  No, the horizontal hawk.  From side to side instead of up and down.  Said it was more aggressive.  Not sure if thats truly, really.  But true to the Mic-Dudes word, when Hawk scored a TD he came running over to the Student Section and did the Hawk and he did it horizontally.  So, just a reminder, its the Horizontal Hawk.  Not the Vertical Hawk.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWK!" 

Again, the Mic-Guy did a frigging Roll On You Bears chant before the game even started!  WHAT?!?!?!  But one of my friends nearby reminded me that traditions are fluid.  They come and go organically and Tedford alone knows how many traditions have been birthed and died at Memorial Stadium.  Things that seem so ancient might have just come from a few years back.  So, I guess it’s OK.  It’s a new tradition.  Do Roll On You Bears whenever the Mic-Man feels like it.  yay…………………………………….

As for the game, it was not really all that close, as you might have noticed.  We shut down their running game, forcing Tuitama to throw throw throw.  A lot of times Tuitama was off the mark.  To wit, look at #23 for the Cats:

"Why’d you throw it to the cheerleaders?" 

On the other side of the ball, Forsett was unstoppable.  Look as he is literally floating through air on his way to what I can only assume is another huge gain.

"Lighter than air!" 

Best, jealous of all the attention Forsett is getting, decided to score a touchdown.  What is he averaging now, like 3 TDs per touch?  Impressive tally.  Also, note how he’s all blurry while the D players are not.  Trick of the camera or real life?????

Even when Tuitama was able to put the ball in the right place, sometimes he wasn’t helped by his receivers.  I remember on this play, the Arizona receiver dropped the ball:

With all the scoring in the first quarter, fans were very, very happy. 

"A defensive TD???  I didn’t see that coming at all, but I’ll take it!" 

"28 sez ‘I’M OPEN FOR THE LOVE OF TEDFORD!!!!!!!!!!!!’"

Also, just for fun a photo of the Chancellor wandering by our section.  He’s got the best seat in the house! 

In the 2nd half, things got a bit testy as Arizona started to mount a bit of a comeback.  And the Refs got a bit bored.  Decided to spice things up with random penalties at the oddest times.  Well after plays ended.  Middle of time outs.  I think one ref even called an unnecessary roughness penalty against Cal for its use of gravity.  You just had to start laughing, it was so preposterous.   

"15 yards for illegal use of a stationary bike?? What???" 

All in all, it was an exciting 1st quarter, followed by 3 more quarters of Tedford keeping everything close to the chest.  Fair enough.  I’ll take another Cal blowout with some moments of boredom and frustration as Arizona mounts a comeback as long as it means Tedford has some arrows left in his quiver for Oregon.  My prediction?  

Legal use of gravity!  GO BEARS! 

• Our esteemed Ragnarok made yet another appearance on a college football podcast, this time over at CFBweekly.com.  For what it’s worth, he thinks he did a good job, but said, "um" too much.  Listen and judge for yourself!
• And two more links from ESPN.com on the game of the week.  First from Ted Miller we have a story on all the playmakers our Bears have - did you know Jahvid Best is averaging more yards per carry than Noel Devine?) as well as another article on Dennis Dixon, this one from Mark Schlabach saying that playing baseball over the summer helped him as a football player.  That sounds like one of those after-the-fact rationalizations where the one probably really didn’t have anything to do with the other (at least not significantly), but I suppose if Dixon himself believes it, then there probably is some truth to it after all.

• A couple of notes for tomorrow: if you’re going to the game, wear blue, because Oregon told their fans to wear yellow.  And gold can be mistaken for yellow.  So wear blue.  Also, apparently the game will be on ABC HD.  This is unconfirmed, but what else are they going to show on HD at that time?
• Some under-the-table, hush-hush notes that the stadium plan is definitely going through.
• Ted Miller’s Pac-10 Notebook has a few notes - the 14 penalties for 121 yards last week were the highest ever during the Tedford era, which isn’t a surprise.  Our Bears are also averaging 25 more penalty yards per game than last year as well.  I don’t think there’s any obvious reason for it, so I’m going to go with the belief that it’s early in the season and things will even themselves out over the course of the year.  And Miller adds that, again, Malele is probable, and Ta’ufo’ou and Follett are questionable.  Man, I hope Follett plays.
• Todd McShay actually has a decent bit of analysis about last year’s Oregon/Cal game (box score) where he says much of the Bears’ success was due to the defense’s increased blitzing and effective pressuring of Dixon into mistakes.  He also says Dixon is much improved, but I’m withholding judgement until this Saturday night.
• Bill Curry, Mike Gottfried, and Jim Donnan break down the game, with Curry taking over Cal and Gottfried taking over the Ducks.  I particularly enjoy these snippets from Curry: "Bottom line for my guys: we have the better team," and, "The goal: Stuff Stewart and fence Dixon into the pocket. If this becomes a game where Dixon has to beat us throwing, Oregon is in trouble."  Let’s not get into who Donnan picked to win the game.
• Or who Feldman picked.
• But we will, however, highlight this pick because ESPN simulations usually tend to be extremely accurate.  Except for 2004, where they somehow projected our Bears to lose to the Sooners in the national championship game.
• Mel Kiper rates his top draft prospects and lists Thomas DeCoud as the fourth best safety prospect in the senior class; Andrew Larson the fourth best punter; Longshore, THA1, and Alex Mack the best at their positions in the junior class, and Follett the fifth best outside linebacker.
• Kiper’s really developed quite a crush on DeCoud.
• Miller also adds that Oregon’s best wide receiver, Brian Paysinger, is out for the year.  I’d never even heard of the guy before this discussion.  Apparently he’s a man’s man for NOT playing, but DeSean is hurting is his team (in that they’re still scoring 40+ points with him taking up space on the field) by playing.  Go Bears.
• CBS Sportsline notes that Robert Jordan has caught a pass in the last 34 games.  He must be the James Thrash of the offense by this point - two catches every week for the 2001 Eagles.
• Another rather generic story on the back story between the Ducks and Bears.
• Maisel and Schlabach both pick our Bears to make the Rose Bowl against the Buckeyes.
• Make your picks.
• And I was originally planning on heading out to go see The Game Plan, but then I got offered a 150 dollar bonus if I put in a 14 hour day today.  I’m gonna do it, because cash rules everything around me.  C.R.E.A.M.!  Get the money.  Dolla dolla bill y’all.

"I’m in your backfield. Stealing your snaps."

If you were like me, you noticed that two of the TDs cal scored on Saturday were direct snaps to Forsett. And if you were like me, you were impressed, but without much knowledge on the subject. And if you were like me, you went and asked your friend who used to work for the team. And if you were like me, you learned he was busy with 1L midterm(s) (ah, the good ole days) and couldn’t really write up a post about it right now. You lazy bastard, HydroTech.

But if you are a nice guy like me, then you offered to just make a quick post with his thoughts regarding the Wildcat play.

“Wildcat” formation is from Arkansas putting McFadden at QB. It’s not new, we used it last year against aTm. Money ran for a goalline touchdown out of that formation. Spreads out the defense thus making it easier to run up the gut. Defense has to spread out to cover the other 5 “receivers” (which includes the QB). As for throwing out of that formation, I’m sure Forsett can throw. He doesn’t need to throw far so much as accurate (we have used it only in goalline situations that’s why he doesn’t need to throw far).

There very well might be some variations on that play where the “QB” (Forsett) does something else other than run. Actually, probably not. If he’s going to throw, you might as well have NL do the throwing since he’s a better passer. And it probably isn’t a lateral/east-west run since we spread out the defense and you usually don’t want to run side-to-side after spreading out the defense. You’d rather run east-west when you make the defense compact, drop into the box and not be so wide.

In a Bearinsider interview, NL joked that Forsett knows the “fade” hand signal. It’s without a doubt that he does if even I know it too. If the defense’s CBs sneak in prior to snap and don’t cover the QB thinking that it’s just going to be a run, maybe Forsett will pass to NL. Who knows?

For now, all that Cal fans are left with is speculation since Tedford hasn’t publicly shown variations of that play."

Here’s hoping that this Saturday, you see in the box score "Forsett to Longshore. Touchdown." Also, "Cal wins!"

So, in a fit of spontaneity, I’ve decided to head up to Eugene this weekend to see the Cal-Oregon tilt in person. Yes, I’m massively in debt from my recent wedding, so I wasn’t planning on going, but free tickets + and offer to crash on the floor of a friend’s hotel room (they say that college is all about making connections, and they’re right!) have made this trip a lot more affordable. Add in my wife, my dog, a couple friends and an eight-hour drive, and we’ve got ourselves a road trip! Yeah, baby!

Now, what I don’t have is a good idea for a large sign to wave behind the GameDay crew during their morning broadcast. Large ‘Script Cal’ flags are always appropriate, and who can resist a classic ‘Duck Hunt’ reference? Still, it’s the creative, original signs that really get noticed. So, anyone got any good ideas? If someone comes up with a good one, I’ll do my darndest to get it on television. I wish I could hand out prizes (see above paragraph, where I mention that I’m massively in debt), but recognizing your handiwork on national television will have to do.

Oh man, this is going to be one heck of a weekend!