Is There Such a Thing As a Disappointing Win? Ask California

When you're in sports you learn that a win is a win, but can a win be disappointing as well?

The answer is yes!

The California Golden Bears, coming into Los Angeles to play the UCLA Bruins, needed a win, but more importantly they needed to show that the defense, offense, and their special teams were back on track.

One out of the three keys played at an acceptable level, the other two, specifically the defense and special teams were awful. The score 45-26 is deceiving, the Bears should have had this game wrapped up in the first half, but let Bruins hang in the game.

If it wasn't for a short armed throw by Bruins quarterback Kevin Prince, this could have been a different story for the Bears as well.

For the offense though, the numbers look good espcially with Shane Vereen, Jahvid Best, and Kevin Riley finally playing well. The issue with the offense is still playcalling especially on first down.

In the game the Bears threw rarely on first down, so the Bruins defense was ready for the Bears rushing attack. Specifically for Jahvid Best. They did an excellent job of containing him.

Only a handful of plays for Best went for positive yardage and he rushed for 103 yards on 18 carries. He had runs of 93 and eight yards—that means on 16 carries he went for two yards. The 93 yarder went for a touchdown.

Luckily for the Bears, Vereen stepped up and gashed the Bruins defense for 153 yards on 17 carries. The last three carries were basically to stop the clock and those went for about a yard each. So, really it was 14 carries for 150 yards and a touchdown for Vereen. His best run was a 42 yarder for the aforementioned touchdown.

Marvin Jones caught two touchdowns today as well. He made some very nice catches, but the Bears stuck to the run and barely looked his way. He ended the game with four catches, 89 yards, and the two touchdowns.

Best caught the other touchdown pass for Riley when he faked like he was taking the handoff and instead just ran up the sideline with a UCLA linebacker trying to cover him. Riley hit Best in stride for an easy 51 yard touchdown catch for Best.

Also, on that same play Jeremy Ross was also wide open and if Riley had thrown the ball to him he would have scored too. Basically Riley had his choice of who to go to on the play.

Riley played well, finishing the game 14-23 for three touchdowns and no interceptions. Riley finally showed his pocket presence by not just taking a sack, but instead running the football.

He had a nice gain of 17 yards by calling his own number and also had a nice seven yard scramble when no one was open.

The problem with the offense is that even though it came back after a rough two games, they still had issues. Too many three and outs and too many situations where it was third and long.

In the third quarter this example stands out in my mind of just bad playcalling. The Bears ran an option on one side and got maybe two yards. The very next play the same call is made except on the opposite side, UCLA read it perfectly and the Bears lost eight yards on the play, so it went from 2nd and eight to 3rd and 16.

This is when I noticed that the Bears on first down did not throw, it was either a running play to Best or Vereen.

Defensively you'll look and see Mychal Kendricks had a touchdown after intercepting pass. On the play, Bruins quarterback Prince didn't make a full throw—all he had to do was get the ball over Kendricks and it would have been a touchdown for the Bruins.

Also, what was disappointing about the defense was the lack of a pass rush on a redshirt freshman quarterback. The Bears got to Prince just three times and one of those times he fumbled which helped set up a touchdown for the Bears.

Prince then was able to pick apart the Bears secondary. I will also say there was sloppy tackling as well and the Bears allowed a 74-yard touchdown run by Johnathan Franklin. Marcus Ezeff was not in position to make a play on Franklin and because he wasn't, Franklin was able to score easily.

It was a good run, it was good blocking, but it was also poor execution by Ezeff for not being in position.

Prince was also able to make all the throws because there was hardly any pressure on him. What also hurt Prince was that there were a couple of drops as well and a majority of the time those were plays that should have been made.

Finally the special teams! There's really no other word to describe it but they are absolutely pathetic! Bryan Anger is the only positive in terms of special teams players.

Today the Bears got sliced up by Terrence Austin and it didn't help that Vince D'Amato cannot kick the ball anywhere near the endzone on a kickoff. A majority of his kicks didn't even make it to the 10-yard line.

Which, made it extremely difficult for the Bears special team players to make a tackle on Austin. In fact, on one of the kickoffs D'Amato had to slow Austin down.

You'd figure that one of the areas of emphasis by the Bears was not allowing teams to get good starting field positions. If you look on the Bruins side, their kicker was able to get the ball deep into the end zone and only once or twice did the ball not reach the end zone.

At this point the Bears are in control of their own destiny, but they still have some major things to work on—basically throwing more on first down and playing more aggressive defense.