Bears rout Arizona State, inch up in polls

Yesterday, Cal obliterated then-ranked Arizona State, sending them home with a painful loss and blasting them out of the top 25.

ESPN: No. 22 Arizona State had some questions entering its Pac-10 opener. The answers weren’t good. No. 21 Cal blasted the Sun Devils 49-21 in Berkeley

Associated Press: California walked all over the Sun Devils in a 49-21 victory Saturday, and [Daymeion] Hughes’ pivotal pick capped a 42-point first half that showed the No. 21 Golden Bears have made significant strides in the last three weeks.

Bear Insider: Speed kills. Absolute speed kills absolutely. With apologies to Nicolo Machiavelli, nothing could sum up Saturday’s 49-21 Cal victory better or more concisely. The #21-ranked Golden Bears allowed ASU to rip off a 12-play, 74 yard touchdown drive to open the football game.

Scout.com: Arizona State had one of the top-ranked defenses heading into last Saturday’s showdown with Cal. The Sun Devils got sun burned by four Nate Longshore touchdown passes in an impressive 49-21 statement win for the Bears. Had smoking-hot Cal scheduled Tennessee in late September, rather than on the opening weekend, we all might be labeling the Bears a dangerous darkhorse contender for a national championship.

Contra Costa Times: The highly regarded Cal team that everyone expected to debut on Sept. 2 at Tennessee showed up Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

The Golden Bears, who were ranked No. 9 in the preseason polls, opened their Pac 10 season with a 49-21 win over No. 22 Arizona State, which simply had no answer for the Bears’ bevy of playmakers. No. 21 Cal (3-1, 1-0) scored in explosive fashion, racing to a 42-14 lead by intermission. Six players scored Cal’s seven touchdowns.

Sports Network: Nate Longshore tossed four first-half touchdown passes to lead 21st-ranked California to a 49-21 thumping of No.22 Arizona State in the Pac 10 opener for both teams at Memorial Stadium. Longshore completed 18-of-26 passes for 270 yards with an interception, and Marshawn Lynch rushed 17 times for 124 yards. Lynch also caught a touchdown and DeSean Jackson hauled in four passes for 67 yards and a score, while also returning a punt 80 yards for a touchdown for the Golden Bears (3-1, 1-0 Pac 10), who have now won their last three games following a season-opening loss to Tennessee.

Coach Jeff Tedford: We had a lot of speed on the field and our playmakers really stepped up well on offense and defense. I thought special teams did a nice job. I thought Andrew Larson did an excellent job of punting with really great hang-time to allow us to cover his punts. I think in all three phases of the game we played fairly solid but we’re still not where we need to be. We need to be able to put four quarters together and we haven’t done that yet this year. I thought our offensive line did a nice job. Coach Gregory did a nice job. He did a nice job of mixing his calls up and making adjustments.

ASU Coach Dirk Koetter: We talked to the team about when you’re on the road against a good team with a loud crowd, whenever that onslaught comes, you’ve got to be able to answer it, and we just couldn’t answer it. What Cal did to us today is exactly what happened to them at Tennessee, it’s exactly the same thing. That’s the difficulty of playing on the road – not just playing on the road, but playing against a good football team.

After the pressure starts to build from their blitzes, even the most routine plays become difficult.

Cal’s very talented. All of those wide receivers, three tailbacks, the corner [Hughes] is outstanding. They’re by far the most athletic team we’ve played – by far.

Despite this huge in-conference throttling of a top 25 team, the polls again showed Cal little respect. In the AP poll, Cal moved up one spot to #20. The Coaches’ poll left Cal at #20, like last week. In both votes, Clemson leapfrogged Cal due to their win over ACC bottom dweller North Carolina. Regardless, pundits are turning their eyes back to Cal with this win and recognizing the big-time potential for the season.

As an aside, in addition to the plethora of highlights from the Bears, there was one brutal lowlight from ASU. Cornerback Justin Tryon laid DeSean Jackson out with a dangerous and vicious cheapshot during a punt return, receiving only a personal foul flag. In my opinion, he should have been ejected or at least benched by his coaches. Fellow bloggers at Sturdy Golden Blog and Bear Territory agree as well, and you can take a look to see what they think.