The Cal Bears did not lose this game because USC beat them. Cal lost because of their own mistakes. The worst one cost them a touchdown.
Nyan Boateng was trying to get Jeremy Ross to get off the line. He didn't, and it cost the Bears a touchdown by Shane Vareen.
There were other plays that the Bears could have gotten points, whether it was field goals or touchdown. Nate Longshore also threw two interceptions that were reversed due to USC's defensive mistakes: one was a roughing the passer and the other was pass interference.
Instead of taking advantage of the Trojans' mistakes, they decided to move backward and not forward. A couple of false starts and holding penalties hurt the Bears.
It was almost foreshadowed that the Bears were going to shoot themselves in the foot during the first series Cal had the ball. Javhid Best got a nice gain on first down and again on second down ran it to make it third-and-1.
Yet, instead of just doing what the Bears should have done by again handing the ball off the ball to Best or heck, even their fullback, Frank Cignetti calls for a direct snap to Best in the shotgun formation. The snap was high and it ended up as a six-yard loss.
Again, the wide receivers failed both Nate Longshore and Kevin Riley. Dropped passes, running wrong routes, and not being lined up correctly as mentioned earlier cost them a touchdown.
This is the reason why Cal lost. It wasn't USC beating them, it was Cal not doing the things they needed to do to get the first down.
Yes, USC's defense played solidly, but Cal's defense came to play too, which definitely surprised me on how well they played against the Trojans, holding Patrick Turner to two catches and making Sanchez work. Also, they got great pressure on Sanchez and the defense kept them in the game.
So in the end the win goes to USC, but in actuality it was Cal giving the Trojans a gift.
Also, on a side note in another controversy surrounding Pac-10 officials there were two plays that should have been reviewed that weren't.
The first was when Anthony McCoy stepped out of bounds and was given an additional eight yards on the play.
The second was the one that gave Patick Turner a touchdown, which should have been ruled an incomplete pass.
4 comments Last one added 8 months ago — Leave a Comment
Jonny Solovy 8 months ago
Sorry dude I like a lot of your articles but this one bleeds your cal blue and gold biased thoughts... USC outgained Cal by nearly 300 yards!!!!!!!! USC was driving down for a TD easily and Mcknight made a remarkable run, then stayed on his feet too long for Cal defender to make a good play and strip it. It's not like USC played a great game dude. Cal did have some penalties for sure... but they had 2 fewer than USC... USC had 10 penalties for 105 yards!!! MANY, MANY of Cal's drives were done and over....then a USC defensive holding on a 3rd down or a roughing the passer on a 3rd and long continued Cal's drives. You are completely discrediting USC's defense, the best in the nation by the way, who held your CAL team to under 180 yards of offense!!! They were averaging well over 400! They hadn't scored fewer than 24 points in a game this year, they put up 3.
Cal's defense played extremely well for sure. But USC's defense swarmed Cal and beat them down. If you watched this game, looked at the stats and still thought Cal lost this game you need to check your pulse, sorry. USC dominated the game but could never put enough points up. I could right this very same article about USC playing like crap and putting up 3 times the offensive numbers as Cal and they had over 100 yards of penalties and still one. Even as a USC fan I think Cal is vastly underrated and a great team...I root them on a lot and hope they do well every year as long as they lose to USC :-) And if Pete Carroll wanted to be a jerk like a lot of other coaches who run up the score like Oklahoma... USC could have scored a TD or kicked a field goal at the end of that game when Cal turned it over on downs...giving USC the ball in the red zone...but they didn't. Tedford is a great coach... they will continue to be a good team
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Leonard Estrada 8 months ago
Typical Cal. Everytime they lose, they say "the other team didn't beat us..we beat ourselves" Did you not see the game? Both teams were playing lousy, with plenty of penalties on both sides, USC gave them plenty of opportunities to score, but they could not capitalize, because of their lack of talent and not to mention the #1 defense in the country.
So quit making excuses, and just admit that the Cal Cubbies do not have the coaching or talent to win when they need to.
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Steven Resnick 8 months ago
It was Cal's lack of execution that lost the game not USC's defense. The Bears had wide open receivers that just didn't make the plays needed. When Cal actually had a player wide open and the ball got to them their touchdown was wiped away because of an illegal man down the field.
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Rorik Strindberg 8 months ago
This game in recent years has always been one of the most exciting. Personally, I think it will only get better in years to come. Cal's move to the 3-4 has made Cal, not just an 'above average,' Pac-10 team. Not only is the 3-4 a better defense for recruiting, it is much easier to recruit good linebackers then defensive linemen, but Cal is becoming a more balanced team in the sense their defense is better.
As for USC, I personally would like to see them in the National title game. One thing i have noticed about USC, is that they rarely loose to teams they get pumped up for. They always seem to have a WTF game. Like Oregon State, Standford, ect. I would put my money on USC against any of the Big 12 or SEC teams in the National Title game.
(P.S, It seems if USC wins, the talking heads on TV start screaming Pac-1. And if USC looses, its USC must not be that great if they loose to a Pac-10 team. But if this were the SEC and Florida lost to say Old Miss, the pundits would say, 'this demonstrates just how good the SEC is.' The same is said if Florida wins. The SEC can't loose. Though, i would agree the SEC is the best conference in the nation, right now, but look how high Auburn was ranked this year. There is always an Auburn in the SEC, some team that has no business being in the top ten.)
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