Quick Thoughts
- Brent Musburger’s ripping of the treehuggers was quality stuff. His rebuttal of Running Wolf’s argument that his ancestors who died during World War II were buried on the same ground as the oaks, when the oaks were put up BEFORE WORLD WAR II and telling them that trading three oaks for one (as in the University’s proposal to plant three new oaks for each one chopped down) is a great deal, was priceless.
- Jahvid Best looks great, but so does Forsett. I came up with this analogy: Marshawn = Joe Igber, Forsett = J.J. Arrington, Best = Marshawn. Full circle. You’ll get it.
- Lavelle Hawkins did a great job with the opportunities he was given in single coverage, because of the amount of attention that was being paid to THA1.
- THA1’s punt return was amazing. Totally out of a video game, only even better because I can never manage to coordinate my fingers enough to spin, juke, and sprint all in the same run. I’m more of a sprint/spin/stiff-arm kind of guy. The buttons all require different fingers, you see.
- It would have been nice to see more of a vertical passing game, but you can’t complain about how our offense was doing at all. The gameplan worked, except for perhaps the two three-and-outs in the second half once the Bears got up 17 points. Then again, that was only two possessions out of the whole game, so let’s not get worked up.
- Our defense could use some work, and for the first half our linebackers outside of Follett didn’t seem to be doing too well in coverage. Our secondary held up much better this time, or maybe it only seemed that way because Ainge never challenged them vertically, but the team defense looked a lot better than it did last year in Neyland, and there’s reason to believe that Follett will be a huge force off the edge pressuring the quarterback. The defensive line was stout early on and may have gotten tired later on because of the no-huddle, but there’s also reason to believe here that facing a more conventional offense, our defensive line could be much better than it was last year.
- Best wishes to Xavier Mitchell, seriously. His full speed collision with Eric Berry’s hip didn’t look pretty, and you could see the whiplash to his neck even in slow motion. Also, it was nice that the "shoot him like a horse" chants which I’m sure were there - since I recall participating in them rather lustily while a student - weren’t audible on TV. Or maybe they weren’t there, and people paid attention to our post about staying classy.
- I’d write more, but I’m just happy we won. And so should you.
Great game tonight, folks. Y’all looked absolutely fantastic.
Comment by Rocky Top Talk — September 1, 2007 @ 10:12 pm
I really want to see the musberger interview, hopefully it’ll be posted online somewhere soon - the price you pay for going to see the game live.
The punt return was amazing to watch from the Gold Zone - great performance bears!
Comment by Nick — September 1, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
Was at the game student section, there were no “shoot/horse” chants at all.
That looked like a terrible injury considering how long he was down.
Comment by 07 — September 2, 2007 @ 12:51 am
That was a fantastic game. There was a “Shoot him like a horse” chant where i was in the student section, but we all told the guy to shut up. DeSean’s punt return was incredible, as were Forsett’s and Best’s runs and Hawkin’s receptions, but it looked like we had trouble stopping the run (or so it seemed to my amateur eyes) and we weren’t able to stop the screen/flat passes until the third quarter (again, I am no expert). We (the crowd) were able to get hella loud and that seemed to make a difference. Great game all in all. GO BEARS!
Comment by George — September 2, 2007 @ 1:01 am
I described the game in one word. Satisfying. Wasn’t exactly joyous, but I’m glad to get the monkey off the back.
Comment by Avinash — September 2, 2007 @ 3:44 am
A great college football game by two very talented and well-prepared teams who are both going to win a lot of ballgames this year. Cal’s run defense did just fine. Some of the tackling was a bit sloppy–although nowhere near as bad as last year–and the ends need to get more consistent pressure on the QB. Erik Ainge is a great college QB who played a fantastic game yesterday, but unfortunately, the Pac-10 is loaded this year with similarly experienced signal callers. To reach the heights that we all wish for the Bears, they need to generate a pass rush from the front four, because Follett can’t blitz every down. And finally, let me echo the warm wishes for Xavier Mitchell. We’re all hoping for a speedy and complete recovery.
Comment by California Pete — September 2, 2007 @ 9:40 am
The Bears Are Roaring (Leftovers from Cal-Tennessee)
So I said I’d write up some analytical thoughts…but the Cal football blogosphere seems to already be a thousand steps ahead of me. It makes my job easier to focus on the mundane and the sublime, and turn over the analysis to them. Here are…
Trackback by Bears Necessity — September 3, 2007 @ 4:02 pm