That being said, I put on my Cal sweatshirt and wore it with pride when I walked my son to school today, because they still are my team. I’m just getting tired of the fast starts every year followed by the Fall fades.

But for all he has done, it seems like CAL has not been able to elevate to the next level. To be the great offensive play caller that he is dubbed to be and such a wonderful quarterbacks coach, I have a hard time not criticizing Tedford for the offenses foibles the last 3 weeks. After all, he gets paid millions of dollars to do just that!!!!

1) How do we get 1st and goal against OSU and NOT PUNCH IT IN? Sure, you can credit OSU for their stand, but how do you not call something else other than Forsett up the gut? We get it in and the whole Riley situation never occurs.

2) So the Riley situation is here. Before #13 goes on the field to lead CAL on that drive, how does the coach not grab him by the collar and tell him something like, “Great job getting us to this point. On your game winning drive, remember we need to take shots at the end zone if you get close enough. Remind the guys not to get caught in the middle of the field since we don’t have timeoouts.” (And maybe he actually did say something like this and Riley forgot).

3) At UCLA, how do you call those 2 running plays when we haven’t been able to run all game? You can argue execution, but why not keep going with the pass. It worked all game, and maybe you get another PI call from these DB’s who seemed to be afraid of our receivers all 1st half. Instead, you leave your self in a 3rd down passing situation, that the D was able to read perfectly.

4) So we need a pass at UCLA, but why in the heck do you force Nate to throw an out? Does Arizona 2006-Antoine Cason ring a bell? Have him throw a wheel to Desean and try to get the PI. We only need five so why not try to hit Stevens? Why not line up four or five receivers instead of what seems to be our obligatory 2-3 receiver sets?

5) ASU- 4 downs again and we can’t get it in the endzone from 1st and goal. Couple more times in the red and we settle for field goals because again we can’t punch it in. If we score those few times we are the redzone, it could have been something like 31-14 at the half. Our D “high-risk/reward” could have then taken more chances in the second half.

Once again, Tedford has done a great job revitalizing a once dead CAL program. I am much happier that we are here now instead of where we were with Holmoe and Gilbertson. But if heexpects to fill the seats, which have risen in price now, then I expect to see my team win. And when they don’t, he will have to expect to take some heat.

1. Defense

Scoring Defense has been progressively getting worst since 2004. We came into this game as #61 behind Ball State and Miami Ohio, where in the last few years, we were top quartile. I saw some solid adjustments in the first quarter vs. Arizona in stopping the run (something we’ve been horrible at this year). But with the pac-10 full of seasoned, healthy tailbacks that move the chains on the ground, the “bend but don’t break” philosophy of defense, which ignores the small gains, will not work nearly as well. The UCLA game had several scoring drives with over 10+ plays. This type of play wears our defense out, and it shows that we need more athletic conditioning and endurance training.

2. Offense

The defense is not completely to blame for our three loss meltdown. Compare our first five wins to our lsat three: our defense an average of 24.4 points in the first 5 wins, and 30.33 in the last three losses. When we look at our scoring offense, though, we scored 39.4 points in the first 5 wins versus 23.0 in the last 3 losses. the offense is clearly suffering more than defense, as our run game has been getting shut out, and we are getting too many missed opportunities on our offensive drives.

Turnovers are key to Cal’s demise–the turnover margin has taken a beating in the last three games. We are not handling the ball correctly, with key interceptions in pressure situation where have allowed our opponets to build on their leads and put away the game.

Tedford needs to let Longshore rest at QB. We easily have one of the best receiving corps in the nation with Hawkins, Jackson, and Jordan. Morrah and Stevens have been excellent in clutch 3rd and outs getting us to first downs. If the running game isn’t working (Which it hasn’t for a few games now), we need the passing game to open things up adn leave the defense guessing. We looked way to patternistic against UCLA–I think the play calling did get better in the ASU game (particularly in the first half). But the bottom line is that we can’t finish drives, even when we are deep into the red zone. Longshore is clearly injured–he cannot properly step into his throws because of his injury. Not known for his mobility, the situation is worse, and could create a situation where he could get much more seroulsy injured–not a good scenario for a QB that is good, and wants to make good plays, but cannot physically carry the team with his injury.

With that, Riley should start right away, as it will add depth to our QB spot, and gives the team more options as we approach USC. WSU is a good game to have Riley get good experience against a competitive team. He’s got all the right talent, and despite the obvious, he had a pretty damn good debut against a top 10 Oregon State defense.

Forsett is looking a little briused and battered, buit I think if our passing can get things going, combined with the added mobility of Riley, we can call some new plays that open up some lanes for Forsett to continue pounding yards on the ground.

3. Kicking

Our kicking game is hurting. A friend pointed out our dismal record on kicking: 7/13 on the year (~54%), and 2/5 (40%) in our last three losses. When we miss a field goal, it wastes an entire offensive drive. It’s demoralizing mentally, and it is proving to be a big factor in the games. The real issue might be that we can’t finish our offensive drives to put 7 on the board. But, imagine the potential of an extra 3 points in Oregon State (where we missed one)–it’s very likely that we could have been in position for the game winning field goal instead of the tying field goal–and probably, no messed up time management situations. 3 more points in the UCLA game could diffuse pressure off our QB in the drive, and probably would prevent a pressure throw leading to an interception. 3 more points in ASU kleeps it an 8-point, one possession game. With better kicking, not all the losses would necessarily have become wins, but they would at the very least put Cal in better positions to close out games. This situation needs to be fixed ASAP.

4. Penalties

This, I blame on the coaching. Way to many penalties occuring. It was really hard to watch the Cal game without a flag being called every two plays. Too many pass interference calls, too much whining to refs, too many mental mistakes (offsides, late hits, false starts), and too many damn facemasks and illegal holds. What is going on here? This I put on the coaches–because our guys have given up way too many yards on critical plays because of dumb mistakes.

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Cal needs to get out of the dark and put up a win against Washington State. Winning will reinstill confidence on a team that’s been beat up mentally in the press, local and national media, and most aggregiously, by its own supposed fans. This team CAN turnaround and win 9 games–which last time I checked, is pretty damn good. Teams hit stumbling blocks–not everyone wins all the time–look at Carroll at USC, Meyer at Florida, Spurrier at South Carolina–all their teams are struggling with consistent play. Tedford is a great coach, posting two 10-win teams in 5 completed years. Under today’s rules with 5 bowls, we would have gotten the Rose Bowl in 2004 (even though we should have gotten in anyway). Maybe he is too loyal to his starting QB–I agree, it is frustrating at times like it was with Ayoob. But he can right the ship (and I think he will) and incorporate Riley into the QB spot to some degree.

Yes, the last three games have been crushing disappointments, and yes, the Rose Bowl is now out of reach. However, Cal was close to winning all three games and is still a fine team–a much finer team than 90% of the teams Cal has fielded since the ’50s. If Cal wins its remaining games–which it should do–I’ll be more than satisfied. I’ll also go back to hoping for better things next year and be grateful that Jeff Tedford is running the program. He may not be the perfect coach (who really is? take a closer look at the careers of some of the coaches who have won national championships!), but he’s restored excitement, pride, and class to Cal football, and he doesn’t have to win national championships to make me feel pride in the pride in the program. I’ll take class over championships any day.