So begins the our Midseason Report Card.  Unfortunately, we don’t root for Stanford.  There won’t be grade inflation.  Let’s start with QB.

TwistNHook: Let’s start this off with the bizarre.  At the sports bar where I was watching the ASU game, when they showed Riley warming up, people started cheering.

Yellow Fever:  Is it sacrilegious to suggest that Tedford prepare for next year by putting Riley in for the rest of the year?  I can’t say I’ve been able to see either of the last two games, but with most of the year’s major goals already being out of reach, isn’t it time to consider the possibility?  I’ve always thought our passing game should be much more explosive than it has been this year given the talent at wide receiver.  I don’t know if this is a case of "what have you done for me lately?" but…really, what has he done in the past few games?  Maybe it’s the injury, maybe it isn’t all his fault, but it might be time to shake things up.  Call it knee-jerk if you want, but I’m also a guy who thinks the Eagles should stick with McNabb over Kolb.  So there. 

Ragnarok:  I don’t know about sacrilegious, but part of preparing for next year is getting back to winning games this year.  Just benching the seniors and playing the young guys doesn’t really work if the younger players don’t get to experience winning.  And I’m not sure Longshore, even injured, doesn’t give us the best chance to win football games.

HydroTech:  I think Longshore’s injury has affected his game, somewhat.  I think fans are a little too quick to point out that the ankle is the reason why he hasn’t been playing so well the past few games.  Surely it has some effect, but not as much as most fans would lead you to believe.  Yes, Longshore doesn’t always step into his throw but it’s not just because of the ankle.  It’s because of defensive pressure in his face, and -as I’ve stated earlier- he doesn’t always step into his throws in the first place.  He’s always sort of slinged passes from a flat stance. 

Anyways, I think the criticism that Longshore is receiving is the classic case of QBs getting too much love when the team wins and too much fault when the team loses. 

TwistNHook:  That first INT yesterday was like a Farve throw.  Across his body on his back foot into quintile coverage or whatever.  Is that due to the injury?  Maybe, but even for a great QB that’s just a bad throw.  But he also had some great throws yesterday.  He hit Robert Jordan on some sick throws including one where he hit him in stride, which I think was on 3rd down.

But here we are trying to look at this more long term.  Yes, Longshore had a rough game yesterday, but how has he done all year?  Well, earlier in the year many were saying that he hadn’t seemed to get it together.  We had such amazing skills players and the one limiting factor seemed to be Longshore.  He was having trouble with some of his longer passes.  I had my concerns, but hoped that with times thing would improve.  Unfortunately, whether it is the injury or not, things do not seem to be improving.  Certainly, worrisome.  Is Riley the key at this point?

I’d say No.  Tedford is a)very loyal to his QBs (see Ayoob v. Levy) and b)known for helping QBs develop.  I think we can overcome this, but I admit that I am puzzled by how this season has turned out for Longshore.  I had higher expectations for his play.  I have said that this offense could be truly amazing, but we have only seen that in 1 quarter.  The 1st quarter v. Arizona.  What a quarter!  What a quarter, indeed. 

With all the bad news coming in these days about Cal football, it’s good to finally have some good news.  The tree-sitters apparently are out.  Here is the Chron article.

Of course, this is written by Carolyn Jones and the Chronicle, so who knows if it’ll stand up.  But if true, it is just what the doctor ordered for a post-ASU "blue" period.

GO BEARS!