Thoughts at 5-2: “There’s still a chance”

CC Times’ Jon Okanes: “Bears down but not out after slide”

Now that Cal’s players apparently have talked themselves off the ledge following their crushing 30-21 road loss to UCLA on Saturday, it seems they’ve regained some perspective on the rest of the season. No, the Bears aren’t going to win the national title this season, but they haven’t been relegated to spoilers, either. The Rose Bowl may seem like a long shot, but it’s still a possibility. And finishing with a two-loss season would make them a factor on the national scene no matter how the rest of the Pac-10 standings shake down.

“Everybody has to know that it’s not over,” Cal wide receiver Robert Jordan said. “That’s the motivation that will keep us in it, knowing we still have a chance at the Pac-10 title and to get in the Rose Bowl. Everybody just has to relax. The way the college football season has been going, a lot of people can still lose. You never know what’s going to happen.” …

“Everybody had their heads down and everything,” Jordan said. “We just can’t give up on the season like this. There’s still a chance. It’s not too late for us to compete for the Pac-10 championship. Everything will be all right, and we’ll beat Arizona State.”

Oakland Trib’s Gary Peterson: “Tedford dwelling on his play-calling, like Cal fans”

“Trust me, I’ve been awake a lot the past couple days,” [Jeff Tedford] said Tuesday at his weekly media confessional. “As a play-caller after every game, I go back and think, should we have done this, should we have done that? I’m not going to call the perfect play every time.” …

At the top of Tedford’s To-Review list this week were the two running plays he called near the end of Saturday’s loss to UCLA. Cal, trailing by two points, had a first down at the UCLA 35-yard line with 2:40 to play. The Bears needed 20 yards to reach the outer limits of the chip shot zone. …

“We’ve won a lot of games around here doing things the way we’ve done them,” he said. “I’m not sure we should change anything. I don’t think it’s time to hit the panic button.” …

One of the things that won’t change is Cal’s commitment to the run. For starters, Forsett is second in the Pac-10 at 116 rushing yards per game.

SJ Mercury’s Jon Wilner: “How did Cal implode so quickly?”

In eight stunning, perplexing days, Cal plunged from the brink of No. 1 in the nation to fifth in the conference. From a national title contender to the outskirts of the Bowl Championship Series standings. From a Rose Bowl favorite to a Sun Bowl wannabe. And from 5-0 to . . . a three-game losing streak? …The reasons for Cal’s plunge are numerous and somewhat unsatisfying. …

Year after year, the Bears have headed to Los Angeles with a lot on the line, and year after year, they’ve come up short. … During Cal’s six winless years in Los Angeles, UCLA has been beaten at home seven times and USC has been toppled in the Coliseum by Stanford. You’d think that Cal, which has had arguably the second-best program in the league over that span, would have broken through once – if for no other reason than chance. …

And yet, despite their October plunge, the Bears (5-2, 2-2) are not out of the Rose Bowl race.

It has been all of 10 months since a team made the Rose Bowl with two losses in conference play (USC), but the climb to the top of the standings will require help. The Bears need Oregon to lose again, they need ASU to falter, and they need UCLA to stumble at least twice. Oh, and they need to regroup emotionally, get Longshore healthy, find some answers on defense, hold onto the ball and run the table.

SF Examiner’s Glenn Dickey: “Cal alums should see bigger picture”

FACT NO. 1: Cal is two botched plays from a perfect season. …

FACT NO. 2: Jeff Tedford is the most successful Cal coach since the early Pappy Waldorf years, when the Bears went to the Rose Bowl three straight years — 1948-50. Waldorf’s last winning season was 1952, exactly half a century before Tedford’s first season at Cal. …

FACT. NO. 3: Since Tedford has been at Cal, the graduation rate of football players, which had been below 50 percent, has risen dramatically.