Well, we finally got a glimpse of what this offense is capable of.  21 points in the first quarter.  Longshore looked good, nay great.  We were running all over the place.  All cylinders.  All cylinders.  That is what I know this offense is capable of.  Sure, the D we were facing wasn’t the best.  But the final piece in the puzzle (Longshore) was finally there.

The next 3 quarters weren’t kwite as good, though.  Like the first 3 games, I came out of this one saying "We looked great out there at times, but can improve."  I’m sure that is the exact same message that Tedford relayed to the team.  If we play like we did in the first quarter, we will win the National Championship.  Period.  Yes, I’m biased.  And judging by the preliminary poll results on the right there, few people agree with me.  But can we sustain that level for the rest of the season?  I sure hope so and can’t wait to find out!

Before the game, I met up with some friends at Top Dog, one of which proceeded to realize he had forgotten his ticket back in the City.  Ai!  So, we went on a long tramp to try to buy a ticket (first from the ticket offices which were sold out and then from a scalper who was unreasonable).  You don’t care about that, but during our ever delightful walk across Berkeley, we passed by the Oak Grove.  Might care to see an update on that.  A decent amount seemed to have changed since last week.  We still had police cops (or zoo-keepers as one might term them) all over the place:

 

There was a little encampment in the front of it now.

 

This guys sign reads "We can have Oak Trees and New Gyms."

 

 

This sounds a bit odd to say considering they have lied at nearly every step, but I feel like the tree people are the most genuine of Cal’s opponents.  At least you know where they stand.  They want the trees to stay at any cost.  They probably wouldn’t spend money to watch a Cal game or anything.  But they aren’t like the Panoramic people who pretend to care about increased traffic when in reality they just hate the stadium and want to do away with it.  Or the City which says its cares about earthquake safety, but are just being obstructionist for the political sake of obstructionism.   

Sure, they lie about it.  But at least the Ewoks insanity is all in the forefront.  I guess you kind of have to respect that. 

They had some new signs up.  Like the one on the right that says "Bears Love Trees."

 

And this one that says "Home Is Where The Trees Live." 

 

There were some effects out there that might have been very confusing.  For example, this is a list of military people from Alameda who died in WWI.

 

Seems a bit out of place.  But if you remember their flyer (as detailed here), the Ewoks say that the Oak Grove is a WWI memorial, because it abuts the stadium.  Another example of them co-opting ANYTHING that might help them succeed.  

Dude, where does Runnie Dub buy his pants?  He had the purple tie dye and then the bright yellow.  Now, it’s bright red leisure pants (caution:  photo blurry).

 

He was ranting about global warming, which again seems to be totally out of context.  Until you realize that they claim the loss of these 50ish trees will uncontrollably hasten global warming.  Yeah…

I decided to get a different angle by going to the back.  I’d never been back there and there was actually a decent amount of people milling around.  I mean Cal fans were taken aback by all this.  I fear to know what the Tennessee fans thought of all the proceedings.  If this process was taking place in Tennessee, the fans would be out there illegally hacking down all the trees themselves.  Sometimes I wish I was a fan of ANY other team.  Esp. one playing in a sane city.   

 

You can actually see the encampment a lot better from the back.  The tree branches don’t block it as much. 

And here we see the rarest of beasts.  A human being in their incomprehensibly non-natural habit: a tree.  Yes, a tree.  A person living in a tree. 

 

I tried to stay out of "bucket of urine throwing" range.  Easier said than done.   

Also wandering by the oak grove were the Arizona mascots.  Are they married or do they live in sin?  The dude one is named Wilbur.  Yeah, that really strikes fear into the hearts of the opponents.  Wilbur.  Might as well make him a pantless dog, that’d be more scary.   

 

What an exciting time to be alive!  After dodging buckets of urine, we headed into the stadium to snag some shots of players warming up et al.  That’ll be Part II.  GO BEARS!