Cal Still Has to Work Some Things Out if It Wants to Beat Oregon

For California fans, a 41-20 victory over UCLA Saturday was a great sight to see from a defensive standpoint, for the most part. Bob Gregory actually had the team getting pressure on UCLA's quarterback, Kevin Craft, who threw four interceptions—two of which were run back for touchdowns. As much as that pressure was great to see, though, the defense as a whole still left much to be desired. 

The reason is once Craft started rolling out of the pocket, the pressure Cal had brought disappeared. Craft started getting chunks of yards and it was almost scary to watch because, most of the day, the Bruins were still in the game, even with all the interceptions.

Therein lies the reason why Cal may be in trouble when Oregon comes to Berkeley. The Ducks feature the spread offense and have two solid running backs in Jeremiah Johnson and Lagarette Blount; UCLA didn't have a running threat and that's what allowed for the pressure by Cal's defensive line. The Ducks, on the other hand, have a solid running game and the type of offense that could pose problems for the Bears.

The spread offense run by Jeremiah Masoli, and what may give Cal fits, is that mobile quarterback getting out of the pocket because, any time Masoli has the ball, he could run it. The scary part is when Craft was rolling out of the pocket, his throws were better and he was able to hit wide open receivers. The good news was that he made more bad throws than good throws, which led to the four interceptions.

The other problem Cal has is, offensively, the Bears should have had a lot more points scored against UCLA, even though they did score 41 points. Cal has had too many dropped passes this season and, even though some of the passes were a little off, they were passes that should have been caught.

So, it continues, Kevin Riley didn't do anything in this game to warrant another start—he went 11-of-22 passing in the game, and it wasn't like he was playing a solid defense.

Yes, Cal did win the game on the rushing attack of Jahvid Best and Shane Vareen. The problem seems to be is when either Best or Vareen don't get more then a few yards and it gets to be 3rd-and-6 or longer. In situations like that, the Bears have a hard time making the throw to get the first down; whether it's Riley or Nate Longshore, the receivers or tight ends aren't able to make the play.

The Bears aren't able to sustain long drives and milk the clock. They are too fast-paced and they just don't have that ability to run the ball and use the clock to their advantage.

Riley did get somewhat better in the second half, but it still wasn't solid enough to take away any doubts of who should be the quarterback. So expect another week of both Longshore and Riley to share the reps in practice.

So, Cal takes the win, but if it wants to be successful for the rest of the season, the two things it needs to do is be more consistent on offense and stay aggressive and keep the pressure on the quarterback for the full game.