Big Game Recap 2009

(Mmm...tastes so good.)

“All week long the talk was about how physical they are, how they were going to run the ball on us, things like that. Our motto all week was, ‘We’re going to find out on the field.”’
-Cal Coach Jeff Tedford

Ok, I think I’ve settled down enough to be able to write this with some bit of rational thought. I think I’ve got it all out of my system. Here we go.

WOOOOOOOOO!!!

Blog post fail.

Let’s try this again.

Saturday’s game was a classic, and for all the right reasons. It was an emotional roller coaster of a hard-fought rivalry game, filled with inspiring individual performances, gritty team play, that came down to a stunner of an ending when Cal LB intercepted Andrew Luck on what would have been the game winning pass.

It was a fitting conclusion for the perfect game to match the Big Game hype that preceded the contest. The rivalry that had become nearly inconsequential for one team in terms of conference standings for much of the last decade had made itself relevant again. The Big Game was a contest, one in which the outcome was in question until nearly the last play. In a sense, it was how it should be: exciting and significant.

But more than just excitement, I felt an enormous level of pride. I would be hardpressed to think of a time when I was as proud of this team as I was on Saturday. Down 14-0 early in the first quarter, it would have been all too easy for this team to fold it up. It could have been almost permissible for the team to roll their eyes, begrudgingly put on their helmets and go, “Man, it’s going to be one of these games again.”

But the Bears never quit, and they never died. They battled back and played inspiring ball to score 24 straight points through the next three quarters. They fought together and held off a furious late rally by Stanford to seal the game and keep the axe.

In a way, it was indicative of the Bears’ season. After two nightmarish performances early on in the year against Oregon and USC, almost everyone had ruled the Bears out. The Bears could only count on themselves. They stuck together when the bandwagon was nearly empty save for a few confused stragglers, and proved their fortitude to themselves.

Let’s get to some specifics.


Let’s Clap the Defense Off the Field
The defense has shown over the last two weeks that they're capable of playing to heightened preseason expectations.

Following a solid performance against Arizona’s offense, I knew the Bears’ defense would have to play one of their best games of the season against a Stanford offense that had been at the top of standings in nearly every offensive statistically category. Well they topped it by playing their most complete game of the season.

Sure, some numbers might jump out at you. Actually just one really, Toby Gerhart’s 20 rushes for 136 yards and 3 TDs. But everyone expected Gerhart to do some damage. Take away his 61 yard run (yes I know you can’t do that, but let me make my point), Gerhart ran 19 times for 75 yards for a 3.94 ypc average. Mediocre by his standards. I thought by and large the Bears did a fantastic job in limiting Gerhart, save for a few bad angles and botched tackles. I wrote in my Keys to the Game, that we would have a real shot at winning this game if we kept Gerhart under 125 yards. Pretty close.

But all in all, Stanford was held to just 345 total yards of offense. While that in itself isn't amazing, it because a bit more special when one considers that this offense had just rolled up 505 yards and 55 points against the Ducks and 469 yards and 51 points against the Trojans.

Stanford's Passing Woes

Stanford QB Andrew Luck was held to a miserable 10-30 passing performance for 157 yards and an INT. Again, like last week's win over Arizona, I absolutely loved what I saw from the Cal pass defense. Other than a blown coverages, the Bears did an excellent job of mixing up zone and man, and never allowed Andrew Luck to really get comfortable in reading the coverages.

The secondary also benefited greatly from some good pressure on Andrew Luck. While the Bears didn't ever record any sacks (although Luck had some botched snaps), the Bears did a great job of flushing Andrew Luck out of the pocket, and generally disrupting his rhythm. On a number of occasions, you could tell he threw the ball much earlier than he or his receivers wanted, because he felt the pressure coming. One might recall a specific play that Luck tried to zip the ball to Toby Gerhart on 3rd down because he was trying to avoid the sack. Gerhart hadn't even turned around his head.

All in all, I'm surprised Stanford decided to pass as much as they did. I know they were down, but I'm shocked that they had Luck throw the ball 30 times, especially given that it was evident early on that it simply wasn't going to be his night. But hey, that's their call, not mine.

Finally, while there were some great individual defensive performances on Saturday, let's give it up for Mike Mohammed who is far and away the best linebacker playing for the Bears right now. While he hasn't excelled in one particular area, he's always been solid in nearly every phase of the game, and bounced back from the missed tackle on Gerhart in the waning moments of the game to notch the game winning interception. Oh and he notched another 10 tackles to solidify his position as the leading tackler in the conference. He's on pace to have the most number of tackles for a Cal defender since Desmond Bishop's insane number of 126 back in 2006.

Offense Rolls
Watching the offense roll on Saturday, you got a bit of a sense that the product on the field was exactly how Coach Tedford envisions his offense: a balanced offense that protects the ball, controls the line of scrimmage, and run or set up short passes on first and second to set yourself up for some manageable third downs and some play actions.

Cal did exactly that on offense, and you couldn’t argue with the results. The Bears put up 34 points, owned the time of possession category, holding the ball for 39 minutes to Stanford’s 21, and were 11 for 19 on third downs (58%), after coming into the game averaging just 35%. The Bears also played their most balanced game on offense all season, rolling up 477 yards (242 rushing and 235 passing). You couldn’t have written it up much better.

It all started with the offensive line. The o-line got a good push on most running plays, and opened up running lanes long enough for Vereen to quickly push forward for two to three yards each time, allowing for some favorable and easily convertible third downs. This created less strain on the passing game, as Riley wasn’t expected to launch as many low probability passes, and could help march his team down on shorter patterns. More on the passing game in just a second.

Also, the Bears played a pretty mistake free game on offense, with just two penalties. As a coach, you’ve got to be thrilled when your team comes out and plays that efficiently without any drive-killing errors.

Passing Game
Early on, it looked like the Bears passing game was going to shoot itself in the foot. I counted at least four dropped passes in the first half, all of which were critical to either move the chains and one that could have been for a touchdown. Riley was just 7 for 18 for 89 yards and an INT.

The entire passing offense collected themselves at halftime though, and came out firing in the second half. Riley finished 10 of 13 for 146 yards and a TD. The entire receiving corps came up with one clutch over another, with Miller, Ross, Lagemann, and Jones all coming up with critical grabs. Not only was it a step up in performance, but I thought the playcalling on passing down were much more suited for the Bears’ receiving corps to hurt Stanford’s secondary. I noticed a number of plays in which Riley was given the opportunity to roll out of the pocket, and hit quicker and shorter passes (curls, outs, slants, etc). These were far more effective than what we had seen in games when Cal’s passing offense struggled, where it appeared the playbook consisted solely of deep balls or screens. It also didn’t force the offensive line to sustain their blocks nearly as long, limiting the probability of some coverage sacks that have hurt the Bears this season.

And again, props to the offensive line. They didn’t allow a single sack, which is the first time in—well a while, that I can say that.

Run Shane, Run
My goodness. How impressive was Shane Vereen’s performance on Saturday? Last year, I was giddy over Jahvid Best’s game which followed in the tradition of some big individual Big Game rushing performances (19 carries for 201 yards and 3 TDs). Saturday night, I was simply impressed.

Shane Vereen had jawdropping 42 carries for 193 yards and 3 TDs. His performance has already named him the Walter Camp Foundation national offensive player of the week, and made him one of the four nominees for the AT&T ESPN All-America Player of the week.

More than just his numbers though, it was the absolute tenacity and drive with which Vereen ran the ball that was so impressive. He never appeared to quit or allow himself to go down without stretching forward for each inch or yard, and despite a number of instances in which he was caught at the line of scrimmage, would crab walk or crawl forward for anything he could get to keep the drive alive. It was an inspiring performance for the ages. Years from now, we’ll talk about how Vereen gashed the Stanford defense, when he carried the ball like, 70 times. Yeh, it was that good of day for Vereen.

Special Teams
Again, if there was one aspect of the Bears that induced any perpetual head-shaking, it was the special teams unit.

I've been saying that the Bears were due for a blocked punt, and sure enough the Cardinal got in on one Saturday. That led to an easy score as Stanford started their next drive from the Bears 19 yard line. Down 14-0, it could have been it for the Bears.

And look, I get the squib kick special. With Owusu back there, you don't want to risk anything. But at the same time, if you're going to gamble with it, you better sure as heck make sure you're going to nail a blocker in the chest each time, or you're dancing with fire.

More than anything though, I think such a strategy is simple proof at the lack of confidence right now with this unit. Other than Anger's consistency, this unit hasn't seen any real consistent improvement over this season. My biggest beef is real with the return coverage unit, which continues to be an absolute liability for this team. I stated after the Minnesota game this year that this unit would cost the Bears a game this year. We're certainly fortunate that Saturday wasn't the day.

The Coaching Call
Just a quick thought about the decision to take a kneeldown to line up for the field goal late in the game. I've heard varying thoughts on it, from the biggest Negative Nancies calling the call gutless, to the more Positive Paulie's understanding the conservative call.

Personally, I didn't like it too much, but I understood it. With the game the defense had been playing, you trust them to put hold off Stanford with the Cardinal out of timeouts. But given that Special Teams had been struggling, you did have to consider the option of a big runback.

More than anything, I thought the Bears most certainly could take at least a moderate shot at the first down without really much risk. Even a simple draw play, or a run up to the weakside gets you an additional yard or two, and allows you to center the ball. The biggest risk was a fumble which wasn't even in Vereen's dictionary that night. With the way the offense was moving the ball, I would have liked to have seen some effort (albeit a conservative one) to take one last shot at picking up the first. I thought the benefits of potentially putting the game away was far greater than the risk that Stanford might force a turnover and start their drive at the 15 yard line.

At the end of the day, Cal won, so you can't really argue too much with it. Again, I understood the call, but wasn't too pleased. But heck, I wasn't pleased with all of Bill Walsh's calls either, and I was a youngin then.

Moving Forward
I don't know about you, but I'm still going to savor this win for a few more days before resorting back to typical Cal fan panic mode and declaring a Washington loss.

[Editor's note: I'll be honest, I've recently been predicting losses in hopes that the opposite might happen. So far I'm 2-2 after switching to this strategy so I might have to predict a Washington blowout.]

We can sort out the bowl situation later, as much of it is out of the Bears' control. As it stands now, I'm learning to enjoy and take pride in the way the Bears have responded this season.

They're currently 8-3, 5-3 in the conference, a nationally ranked team, and in prime position to move into the Top 15 assuming they can win out. A 10 win season is impressive no matter how you slice, and made even better when you consider it means they would have gone 5-1 on the road, with wins at Stanford and UCLA.

As I said earlier, I'm darned proud of this team, and will continue to savor one of the best Big Game experiences of the last decades.