After 42-3 Loss to Oregon, Can Cal Salvage Their Season?

A day later for the California Golden Bears football team and there's one lingering question for the humiliating loss handed to the Bears by the unranked Oregon Ducks and that is can this team recover from the loss?

The Bears schedule doesn't get any easier next week with USC coming into Berkeley for the biggest game of the season for the Bears. What also will be interesting is how California comes out against the Trojans energy wise as well as confidence wise.

In the loss to the Ducks the Bears offense and defense did nothing right. You can make the argument that the Bears did what they were supposed to do let Jeremiah Masoli throw, except for the fact that the Bears defense didn't get any pressure on Masoli.

I believe that is one of the major flaws to Bob Gregory's defense. When the Bears are taking on teams they should beat like Eastern Washington and Maryland, the Bears defense can become aggressive once Cal builds a big lead.

When the teams play in a big game against teams that the Bears should hang with, the defensive pressure is usually non existent. With Gregory's system it's predicated on the defense being disciplined, but when a quarterback has all day to throw they are going to carve the defense up and that's the reason why the Ducks were able to score 42 points.

It also didn't help the Bears defense that they couldn't stop short passes that didn't even get to the line of scrimmage, which in turned opened up the running game for the Ducks.

On the offensive side of the ball Kevin Riley was dreadful and the first offensive play from scrimmage of the day foreshadowed what was coming all game long. Riley in turned looked like the quarterback that came off a game going 4-16 for 95 yards.

There were some big things that didn't happen for the Bears. First off Jahvid Best was never really given a chance to take off because on the first two series for the Bears, Best wasn't even utilized and instead the Bears tried to ride Riley's arm.

On the second series the Bears threw and Riley had Verran Tucker wide open and if he actually put the ball where it should have been Tucker would have possibly scored a touchdown, but instead Riley through behind Tucker for an incompletion.

At that point it's a wonder what Ludwig was thinking. The Bears are a team that establishes the run then the pass not the other way around. Riley hasn't show the consitency to be a quarterback that can throw first and then let the running game do the work.

Also, if the Bears wanted to get the passing game going why not utilize Best or Shane Vereen out of the backfield? Instead of trying wide receiver screens that didn't really go anywhere.

What's funny the Ducks played a perfect game and called for short passes that were easy throws for quarterback Jeremiah Masoli enabling him to build confidence. Masoli used that to his advantage because the Bears on three or four different occasions were not able to stop the short pass to a wide receiver out in the flat.

On top of that Masoli's favorite target was his tight end Ed Dickson, who had been quiet in his first three games of the season, but against Cal he caught 11 passes for 148 yards and three touchdowns.

Again something that Cal should have been doing utilizing their tight end. Anthony Miller is a big target for the Bears and if they had used him like the Ducks used Dickson for safe passes and about seven yards per catch, the Bears could have stayed in the game with the Ducks.

What's even worse is the fact that last week when the Bears defeated the Minnesota Gophers I stated in the article titled "California Holds on for 35-21 Victory over Minnesota" that "If the Bears come out with the type of effort that started from the second quarter to the middle of the fourth quarter the Bears have no shot against USC or maybe even Oregon."

I hate to say I told you so on it, but I told you so. When I stated that the Bears would have a difficult time if they showed that kind of effort against USC or even Oregon, I knew the Bears had no chance.

The sad part is the Bears looked like they had the effort in the early part of the game, but with the Bears offense doing absolutely nothing and having the defense on the field for most of the game it was just a matter of time before the defense was going to get burned.

Right now I would say that the USC game in Berkeley is the biggest game of Tedford's career at Cal. The 42-3 loss to the Ducks was the worst loss under Tedford and it will be a testament to Tedford on how Cal comes out against USC.

If the Bears come out with the same effort they did against Oregon it will be another long day for the Bears. If the Bears come out and beat the Trojans then it will show that this Bear team isn't going down without a fight and that the Bears can salvage the season.

There's one more question that is looming and and that is who's going to be a leader on this Bears team and who is going to step up?