1) I thought they were holding back to avoid letting Dixon get by them on a scramble. The way he moves, I doubt they could safely get him down without risking a big screen pass or something over the pursuers.

2) Maybe it was just Follett being out? It seems like every time there was a sweep, Follett would be at the LOS to stop it for no gain. Hope he heals up this week.

3) From what I saw, that “late hit” was total crap. I didn’t have any sound (in a loud bar), but unless there was a whistle several seconds before the hit, there’s no way that was Ezeff’s fault.

Problem is, against teams like Oregon and Cal, guys are told to swarm to the ball and gang tackle aggressively. If they don’t, the ball carrier has a good chance of twisting/shedding/juking 1-2 tacklers and taking it to the house.

How many times have we seen THA1, or Forsett, or Lynch on a play like that? A tackler looks like they have them down, the play seems like its over, then bam!, they’re loose and 20 yards downfield.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/collegefootball_front/votes/BLOOMQUIST.html?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME

This is the link to the AP poll entry by Bret Bloomquist of the El Paso (TX) Times. It has Cal at a ridiculous #13 for week #6.

That was one of the most exciting 2nd halves I’ve ever witnessed, Cal bias aside. We made good halftime adjustments and pulled off a close win in a hostile environment and that’s what elite teams do.

While I’m excited as hell, I think we need to improve on a few things if we want to get to the SC game undefeated:

1. Pass Rush - We had 0 sacks against Oregon and put little pressure on Dixon, which in turn put the pressure on our secondary (it was a similar story against Arizona).

2. Exterior Rush Defense - We’re great at clogging the middle, but we’re pretty sorry outside. A lot of this simply has to do with tackling, and finishing the job when we get our hands on opposing RBs (granted we faced some very strong, athletic RBs in Tennessee and Oregon). We get off of blocks well but need to close the deal more often.

3. Limit the dumb penalties, for God’s sake! This has been our biggest out-of-character flaw this year. It’s not the M.O. of a Tedford squad.

4. Longshore’s touch. He’s got it, as we saw last year, but there have been several occasions this year when he’s been off the mark when we could have delivered a knockout blow. The overthrow of Desean in the end zone after the special teams take away in the 4th quarter yesterday was big.

In essence, grades for the passing game this year:
Offensive Line = A
Receivers = A
Quarterback = B

Nate has the tools to step it up and I hope he does. He wont have as much time in the pocket against USC and UCLA and will need a quicker release.

2 insane validations from Week 5:
1. WE ARE A LEGITIMATE NATIONAL TITLE CONTENDER
2. DESEAN IS A LEGITIMATE HEISMAN CONTENDER

GO AP/USA TODAY #3 BEARS!!!!!!!