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Cal falls to Arizona 24-20, Rose Bowl still in sights
Posted by Eric | November 11, 2006 at 5:15 pm | In Games | 10 Comments
The Bears fell today in a heartbreaking loss in Tucson, AZ. The offense struggled against a tough Arizona defense who played with great heart, and quarterback Nate Longshore looked uncharacteristically off-tempo. However, the Wildcats were assisted by poor officiating and one particularly criminal pass interference call.
This loss will mar Cal’s national recognition and ranking, and it also takes the team out of the running for the national championship. However, USC already fell to Oregon State. Thus, barring a complete meltdown by either team, the Pac-10 championship (and winner of the Rose Bowl bid) will still be determined by the winner of next week’s Cal-USC match-up.
Hopefully the Bears will gain new focus and learn lessons from this loss and be prepared more than ever for the important game next week. The bottom line: Cal still controls its own destiny. The Bears must recover their confidence and look to beat USC.
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First, I’d like to say that Arizona played harder than Cal in the 2nd half and just seemed to have a bit more spring in their steps. Was Cal looking past Arizona? Possibly. Arizona looked like they wanted it more. Reminded me of the Lousville- Rutgers game, that in the 2nd half for long stretches Nate Longshore was off rhythm and looked lost, just like Brian Brohm did on Thrusday.
Ok, now the gripes. It’s not been a good year for Pac-10 officials, has it? That pass interference should have been a no call, both players were pushing off. There were some other small things I noticed at the time that pointed to that the refrees didn’t quite have it all together. Is it because I see more Pac-10 games, or is the quality of refereeing like this across all of college football.
Ok, deep breath. Cal is still 8-2, still going to the Rose Bowl if they beat USC next week. Cal is a good team, and I am proud how well they have done this season so far. This is why the following concerns me about next week’s game:
Where has happened to the Cal defense over the season? Did we not shut down Oregon’s running attack? Is it the design of the defense to have the linebackers make all the tackles on run plays, or is our defensive line undersized? For 3 games running the opponents have controlled the line of scrimmage, there is no pressure on the quarterback and the opposing running backs are not being shut down. It’s exciting for the networks be a bend-but don’t-break defense, a gambling, big break defense, but… as a Cal fan I wished the defense was more shut-down and less exciting.
The o-line is not the run-blocking monster like it was last year. If a fan like me can see that Cal hasn’t been able to run up the middle this year… and Arizona looks like it figured that out. And made sure Lynch couldn’t get outside on sweeps. If Cal can’t run, then the defense can just go after Longshore. Yikes.
Longshore… I forget that this is in reality his first year of starting in college. He’s going to make some mistakes, and has played great overall. Way early to look ahead, but can you imagine how much better and less flustered he will be next year, especially in situations like this? (here’s hoping Lynch will stay, and then Cal would definitely make a run at the title next year. Yeah, and if there was a tooth fairy, Dameion Hughes would stay also.) Pac-10 looks super tough next year.
That’s just me ranting, I think Cal can and will beat SC. They just need to come out on fire like they did against Oregon. I am looking forward to next week. Thanks for letting me rant about some things I’ve been wanting to say about Cal all year.
1. Comment by Jack — November 11, 2006 @ 6:06 pm #
“criminal” is an understatement.
2. Comment by kaminari — November 11, 2006 @ 6:06 pm #
Rose Bowl still in sights? I wish I felt as optimistic as you. I know that we control our own destiny, but after today I’d say our chances are slim to none. What we just witnessed just may be the most crushing Cal loss in my lifetime, and I’ve been a Cal fan for over 30 years. You could almost feel the momentum of the season draining away with each passing second. Our defense is overrated, our offense hasn’t been on target since the Oregon game, Dunbar’s play calling is dubious at best, and it’s becoming clear that Longshore simply cannot play on the road. All of those things add up to what could be a horrible, horrible game next week. I’d like to see the Bears prove me wrong, regroup, and come back focused next week but I’ve been a Cal fan for far too long to see the Bears come back from this.
3. Comment by Josh — November 11, 2006 @ 6:07 pm #
Yeah, the Bears have been shaky lately. But the difference this year is multiple players with game-breaking ability. I think they have a decent shot at beating USC. They didn’t seem very focused today, but if they’re not dialed in for the game next week, they don’t even belong in the Holiday Bowl.
I’m fired up to see what happens. Anybody know if there is a spot where Cal fans gather to watch games in Portland, Oregon? If you do, email me at karijosh@msn.com
Go Bears!
4. Comment by Josh in Portland — November 11, 2006 @ 9:56 pm #
Longshore had an uncharacteristically “off” game.
But what is going on with the defense? Seems like there’s a pattern of poor play lately.
I can’t claim to be a fan for 30 years like Josh. I’ve only been rooting for the Bears for 20 years. And as for me, I can think of a lot of losses that left me feeling far, far, far worse than this one.
That said, a couple of my favorite WINS were against USC in 2000 and 2003. The tie in 1990 in a near-empty stadium was surprisingly exhilarating, too.
The letdown after this game is because we’re “spoiled” during this Tedford era.
Here’s to Tedford and the team spoiling us fans some more with another win over USC next week and a long-awaited trip to the Rose Bowl.
5. Comment by Chispa — November 12, 2006 @ 12:35 am #
No need to add the caveat “baring a complete meltdown by either team”, the winner of next weeks Cal-USC game goes to the Rose Bowl. See http://cal.thecrawfordfamily.net/blog/?p=298 for full analysis.
6. Comment by Ken Crawford — November 12, 2006 @ 10:11 am #
go bearz
7. Comment by football dude — November 12, 2006 @ 12:15 pm #
No doubt this has to be the most shocking loss in Cal history. Listen, people, we not only had a chance at the championship game but by the end of Saturday night, had we beat Arizona like we should have, we would have been in control of winning out and ending up the BCS #2 team and going to glendale, AZ to face either MI or OSU. You ask how the hell could this be possible? Well, with a win in Arizona, we would end up at #5 behind OSU, MI, SC, FL. If we ended up beating SC next week (which is a formidable task by the way, but not huge dogs like years past), we would have moved up to #2, since either OSU or MI would drop after playing each other, and FL would drop (even if they beat the big time WESTERN CAROLINA CATAMOUNTS). For this reason, the AZ game was so huge and we blew it. It makes me so sick.
8. Comment by mike.cal.96 — November 12, 2006 @ 1:06 pm #
“the most shocking loss in Cal history”? Hardly. My history only goes back to the mid-80s, but I can think of several others worse than this one. Without question, the worst I have witnessed was the total meltdown in the 1991 Big Game, in which a typically undisciplined (but talented) Bruce Snyder team personal-fouled their way to one of the biggest upset losses to Stanford in history. And just during the Tedford era, there is Holiday Bowl 2004 and UCLA 2005 that stung far more. Moreover, while painful, this loss to the Cats is virtually meaningless–as was last week’s win over UCLA. Because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, the Rose Bowl was always going to come down to the SC game. And the BCS “championship” you ask? Well, Ray Ratto was right in this morning’s Chronicle: that dream died for good on opening day in Knoxville.
9. Comment by Pete Morris — November 12, 2006 @ 7:48 pm #
[…] These rankings are insignificant to Cal’s bowl destiny, as we described on Saturday. The Bears have two possibilities: beat USC at see the Rose Bowl, or lose to USC and end up in the Holiday Bowl. Furthermore, as Ken C correctly pointed out, this is not dependent on a Big Game win over Stanford. […]
10. Pingback by The Cal Football Fan Blog » Cal drops to #17-AP, #17-Coaches/Harris, #15-BCS — November 13, 2006 @ 10:49 am #