USC Recap 2010

I know this is a bit late, and people are probably a bit sick of reading about the Bears and their loss at USC, but I might as well get a few last thoughts out before we move on to looking at Arizona State.

Cal’s loss at USC was nothing short of embarrassing. I’ve had my share of games in which I’ve walked away frustrated, angry, heartbroken, beaten up, the list goes on. However, last Saturday’s game was one of the first in which I was just embarrassed. Look, there’s no shame in losing to USC, especially at USC. Despite all their shortcomings this year, and the fact that they’re nowhere near some of the USC teams from past years, they’re still USC and still feature the top talent in the league. Especially given Tedford’s struggles at the Coliseum, there would have been little else to do after a USC loss except to chalk it up as another loss and move on.

However, this wasn’t just another loss. It was one of the worst performances I’ve seen from a Tedford coached team, and one of the worst halves of football I’ve seen the Bears play—period. The Bears simply shot themselves in the foot in all three phases of the game early on, and were unable to display the mental fortitude to weather the storm and bounce back from the early deficit, going on to lose 48-14.

Now, I’m far from thinking the Bears are an elite squad in the conference, but they really shouldn’t ever lose a game the way they did last Saturday. “It happens,” you might say, but the growing frequency of these losses are concerning.

Such a loss forces one to wonder what to attribute the loss to. Was it poor coaching? Lack of talent? Lack of execution? An absence of mental focus? I think the answer lies in shades of things, with some having more to do with the outcome than others.


It’s Not (All) on Riley
Usually you can’t pin a blowout loss on a single player. A poor performance from an individual player or a major gaffe usually leads to fairly close losses. Something like last Saturday’s game is a systematic meltdown on a number of different levels.

So fans who have been bashing Riley and calling for a backup need to make sure their emotions are based on an honest assessment of what they’ve seen from Riley over the years, and what they know about the backups rather than pinning it on this loss.

I thought Riley’s day was horrible, as his numbers were hurt by some drops and quite frankly, his numbers could have been a lot, I repeat, A LOT worse given the pressure he was seeing on Saturday. With that said, his two interceptions were back breakers. The pass to Ladner was just short, and the screen pass that got picked off, well, yeah I don’t know what the hell was happening there.

Offensive Line Takes Two Steps Back
This one is particularly frustrating to talk about, because for all my gripes on this offensive line, I thought they had been slowly progressing this past season. But the Bears o-line was manhandled both in pass protection as well as in the run game. The Bears were getting killed on the inside especially, with the guards on both sides getting simply manhandled USC’s tackles and standout DT Jurrell Casey.

The fact remains that the Bears simply don’t have the talent across the board right now to really compete for the top of the conference. I do think there are bits and pieces that might allow the Bears to catch lightning in a bottle, but I don’t see anything right now that leads me to believe we’ll be able to that on a consistent basis this season.

At this point, I’d like to see Dominic Galas and Matt Summers-Gavin get more playing time. While I’m not sure yet that they’re the best offensive linemen at the guard or tackle positions respectively, I think they do bring a bit more nastiness to the table, something that might instill a bit more tenacity on this line.

Also, let’s not dismiss the level of coaching and its effect on how the offensive linemen have performed the last few seasons. Just throwing it out there.

Drops
Dear Cal wide receivers and tight ends. Please don’t drop passes thrown in your direction. Thank you, and Go Bears. That is all.

Defensive Mishaps
I wasn’t too concerned with the defensive performance early on. USC was firing on all cylinders, was working with shorter field position, and to be honest, Robert Woods’ touchdown was an amazing catch despite some pretty good coverage by Marc Anthony.

Then, things just fell apart. With the offense unable to generate any drives, the Bears’ defense allowed USC to impose their will. Barkley was connecting with his receivers at will, and the Trojans run game was averaging over six yards a carry.

In my Keys to the Game, I wrote about the Bears needing to keep Barkley in the pocket, but sure enough, most of Barkley’s biggest throws came on bootlegs and designed rollouts. To make matters worse, the Bears appeared to play a lot of man defense on Saturday, which allowed the wide receivers enough time to improvise when the initial looks weren’t there.

Another downside of the man coverage was the way our secondary bit on the pump fake on a number of occasions. Some of the wheel routes just killed the Bears as their overaggression allowed some big yardage through the air.

Some Other Sweet and Sour on Defense
On the bad side, I thought the normally outstanding Mike Mohamed had a rough day. Despite recording ten tackles, he was often out of position on a number of USC’s misdirection runs, and struggled to shed some blocks leaving him out of the picture from making some defensive stops.

On the other hand, I thought Chris Conte has been very good thus far this season, and was every on the field, notching 16 tackles on the day. Conte has really excelled since making the switch to safety. Unfortunately, it’s not always a good thing when your free safety leads your team in tackles.

I also though Steve Williams played pretty well, and I’m liking the promise from the redshirt freshman. I’d be shocked if he wasn’t manning one side of the field next season at the DB position. In fact, don’t be surprised to see him their some time this season.

Special Teams…Steady?
Whoa there, special teams. You’re on the verge of giving up a score on special teams this season. Steady now.

Outlook
Moving forward, despite the disturbing nature of the loss, it still counts for just one loss in terms of the Bears’ conference and overall record. Yes, it’s a painful loss, but there’s no use in dwelling on it, and we might only do our best in turning our attention to the games ahead.

As it stands now, the Bears are 3-3 on the season, with a 1-2 record having played both Arizona and USC at home. They finish the season with four home games, and the remaining road games include a visit to Pullman.

The Bears are unlikely to see much success in any major overhauls in either scheme or personnel at this point. There’s little benefit in making any type of major change at this point in terms of evaluating whether to keep certain coaches or switching offensive or defensive approaches. They can let the season play out, but with an increased urgency and critical eye to all components of the game.

The Bears can use this Saturday’s game against Arizona State as a fresh start of the season, hoping to not let the effects of three crushing losses affect their ability to perform for the rest of the season. For all those wanting to jump off what they perceive as a burning bridge because of the first half of the season, let’s see how the Bears perform down the stretch.

After all, if we’ve learned anything about this team, it’s that we never know what we’re going to get.