Let’s Speak of It One More Time: Cal-Maryland Report Card

First of all, everyone’s looking for a scapegoat to blame Cal. The humidity, the weather, the turnovers, the coaching. Clearly, Maryland did nothing to win that game; this was all Cal playing below their level, right?

Fine, if you’re going to blame someone, blame me. Here’s what I said before the game.

Again, this being a young team, expect some growing pains (first game, then first road game, now first national TV game), but Cal will have to kill themselves repeatedly to fall.

To be fair, Cal didn’t have to kill themselves much in this game. Maryland did all the killing for them.

And this.

Nervous? Jittery? Wouldn’t you be?

An innocuous jab at Maryland, but a jab nonetheless. Just damned stupid, especially knowing Cal -14 was going to be a trap line all week long. Someone meet me on San Pablo and place a pickaxe through my skull. For more stupidity, I added in that dumb poll on the sidebar to project Cal’s season, that included an option for Cal going to the National Championship game, which was insane. That answer has been eliminated, and voters who are wiser than me were smart enough not to pick it.

Goddamn 66-3. It made me channel my best Bill Simmons impression. I jinxed the team. And for my last moment of Sports Guydom, I’ll admit I’m an idiot.

It’s my fault, damnit! Give me all the blame!

Alright, time for some fairly grim grades.

Quarterback: That interception was horrid, although it might have looked worse than it actually was–there is a possibility that the receiver on the play was caught slipping on the play and the D-back jumping into the route of the pass. But many of Riley’s balls did the same thing against Washington State–sail. It seemed the easier the pass was, the further the ball drifted away from the receiver.

Some of these passes were against tight coverage, so I can’t totally blame him. On the other hand, he was holding onto the ball a long time, making a few receivers frustrated they were not getting the ball in time

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