UCLA Recap

(Apparently, this is Jahvid Best "smiling").
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Like a number of wins this season, Cal’s win over UCLA on Saturday wasn’t completely satisfying. In fact, I would say that the first two and half quarters consisted of some of the sloppiest play on offense I had seen in quite some time. While Cal did manage not to turn the ball over, nearly every other aspect of Cal’s offense appeared to be out of sync and at times, nearly unwatchable. Although the outcome of the game was never really in question, considering UCLA’s ability to rally back in close games, I was still a bit anxious going into the fourth quarter with the Bears holding on to a four point lead.

With that said, I was encouraged to see Cal really pull it together and close the game strongly. The flea flicker re-energized the crowd and gave Cal the spark and momentum to dominate the remainder of the game.

Let’s get to a couple of points:

Defense Bears, Defense
Cal got back into its winning defensive ways against a lackluster UCLA offense. Cal absolutely shut down the UCLA running game, holding the Bruins to only16 total rushing yards. While the Bruins weren’t ever a threat to run the ball, it was a great opportunity for the Bears to regain some swagger and get back to the basics of following their gap assignments, shedding blocks, and wrapping up with solid tackles.

Moreover, the Bears made the day miserable for UCLA QB Kevin Craft, and consequently, Coach Rick Neuheisel who was seen verbally taking Craft to the woodshed on the sidelines at various points through the game. Those moments usually came after the 4 interceptions Craft threw, two of which were taken to the house for touchdowns.

While the Bears did allow Craft to throw for 206 yards, mainly on some soft zone coverage, the Bears did hold Craft to completing less than 50% of his passes. Also, you can’t ever really complain when your secondary comes up with four interceptions on the day.

(Craft about to get the business.)
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

All in all, the Bears did what they were supposed to do against a much inferior offense. I would have been much more concerned about the remainder of Cal’s season had they allowed more points. Really, the Bears kept the Bruins out of the end zone on offense until the waning minutes which was really the result of some poor Special Teams play. Which reminds me…


Special Teams
..Yeah, it was not a good day for the Special Teams. The Bruins jumped out to an early lead after blocking and recovering Bryan Anger’s punt in the end zone. The Bears also nearly gave up a fake punt play that would have converted, had Aaron Perez, UCLA’s kicker, thrown the ball a yard further.

The Bears also had to burn a timeout midway through the third after lining up with only ten players on the punt return team, and the kick off team also gave up a huge 82 yard kick off return late in the game which set up UCLA’s only offensive touchdown.

Needless to say, not a bright day for Pete Alamar or his ST unit. This is an area that can and will continue to hurt the Bears as they face off against some solid special teams squads in the next three weeks, unless they turn some things around.

I was encouraged however, to see kicker Giorgio Tavecchio’s continued progress as both a place kicker and field goal kicker. The Italian Stallion (not an official nickname, I’m just rolling with it right now) showed off a pretty decent leg on most of his kickoffs, placing most inside the five yard line, and was good on both field goals from 26 and 42 yards out.

Quarterback Play
The ongoing saga of this season’s quarterback controversy opened another chapter on Saturday with Riley taking the field as the starter, after losing the job to Nate Longshore the previous games.

How’d he do?

The good news was that Riley avoided committing any costly turnovers, something that was a relief to most Cal fans in the stadium, who cheered heavily for the fan favorite QB after his name was announced as the starter.

The bad news, was that Riley didn’t really set the field on fire, as he and the offense continued to misfire on a number of facets. The offense struggled to move the ball through most of the game, and Riley went into the half with only 33 yards passing.

While Riley did pick it up a bit in the second half, his performance (11-22, 153 yards, and 2 TDs) wasn’t enough to get most to jump for joy. It was enough however, to make one think that Riley will most likely be the starter going into the Oregon game.

Wide Receivers Consistent in Inconsistency
The wide receiver play didn’t really help Riley or the offense all that much on Saturday. The receivers continued to drop a number of balls. Granted, a number of the catches were certainly tough catches and at times, a bit overthrown, but still ones that just had to be caught in some of those situations. Cal was fortunate that the drops that stalled a number of the drives didn’t end up ultimately costing the game for the Bears. However, it wouldn’t surprise me a single bit if similar performances to the one that the Bears’ receiving corps. had on Saturday ended up doing just that in the near future.

You see that Lightning?
It was a bit of a relief to see Cal’s running game come in and put on a dominant performance against a porous run defense. UCLA had come into the game 97th in the country in rushing yards allowed per game at 182.6. Cal was able to appropriately take advantage of the Bruins’ patchwork defensive line, piling up 232 yards on the ground.

It also was good to see Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen get near the same number of carries. I said last week, that Cal would need to distribute the load a bit more between both backs to prevent Best from getting too worn down early on. The results were encouraging with Best gaining 115 yards and a TD on 17 carries, and Vereen amassing 99 of his own on 14 rushes.

Best appears to be back to his usual self after that dislocated elbow. That 34 yard touchdown run? Absolutely ridiculous. Watch that one in slow motion. He just made a number of Bruins look silly.

Oh and Tracy Slocum, there you are! I was wondering where you went. Ahh, 34 yards on 5 carries? Okie gotcha.

Miscellaneous Bits
-Some of the penalties were absolutely brutal. It was by far the sloppiest game of this season in terms of drive ending penalties.
-The Cal half time show was one of the best ones in recent memory. One of the best reenactments of the play thrown together with awesome sports broadcasting music? Classic.

Certainly, one of the most entertaining since the infamous video game half time show.



Moving Forward
Okay look, I’m not usually a “sky is falling despite a 3 touchdown victory” kind of guy. Naturally, one has to be encouraged by a lot of the things seen on Saturday. The re-emergence of some creativity on offense. A solid running game. Defensive domination.

However, there appear to be a number of issues that one would have hoped to have progressed by this point in the season. Namely: stability in the passing game, the emergence of a few go-to receivers. Furthermore, the injuries and inconsistency in the offensive line grow with each week.

My concerns can best be summed up in the statement that the current Cal offense has no identity. Granted, they can run the ball, but as we’ve seen in a number of halves, and some games, it’s not always a sure fire thing.

Going back to initial expectations, it’s a bit unfair for anyone to expect too much from an offense that currently features eight new starters. However, what is reasonable is to have assumed that there would be more progress with the season more than half way completed.

Cal faces a tough stretch the next few weeks with Oregon, USC, and Oregon State on the slate. Appropriately enough, these are the three teams that figure to be in the top third of the conference pecking order this year. Whether Cal can shore up its issues will determine whether they can show that they belong there as well.