USC Did Not Beat Cal; Cal Shot Themselves in the Foot

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.