USC 48, California 14: Golden Bears Paint A Portrait Of FAIL

SR QB + 2nd year of OC and Oline coach + experienced Oline really should make for a more competitive team. I’m perhaps most disappointed w/ the O-line considering the accolades given to the recruiting class a couple of years ago. And, I have some serious questions for the offensive playcalling/coaching…pending a film review.

Considering that Tedford parted ways w/ Gregory after a subpar ’09, I would expect him to make major changes should we face-plant the rest of the year.

Sadly enough, this year should be our year for making noise. Next year, we’ll have a new starter at QB – that’s a rebuilding year in the PAC-10.

I remember Tedford talk a great deal about how the bus ride to LA last year helped the team’s mental preparation prior to the ucla game. Watching today’s fiasco unfold, the team appeared even more unprepared than they did last year when Oregon began to roll the team up in the 2nd quarter after Cal had hung close at the beginning of the game.

I know it’s not the bus ride, or the blue pants, but honestly, could they have misread U$c this badly?

The Oregon game is now terrifying me. How bad could that one get?

Common denominator since then = Kevin Riley.

Yes, it’s ridiculously unfair to blame everything on him, and yes, Cal lost today b/c the Bears were completely dominated on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. And yes, Riley has had many “ups” in his up-and-down career. But the fact remains that the turning point in the Tedford era came when Longshore got hurt in Eugene in 2007. The Bears have yet to get consistent play from the QB position ever since, and until they do, this team is going nowhere.

I don’t blame Tedford for the 4th-and-inches punt; that was a defendable decision. Nor do I even blame him for the Bears coming out “flat” today against a fired-up, hitting-on-all-cylinders SC team. But to not get his other quarterback(s) more game experience in the second half is an effing joke.

Look, I like Riley as a person—at least as much as I can like any total stranger. And I believe he’s giving his absolute all to this team. I also wish nothing but success for him in the weeks ahead, and I think he’s got talent. But for whatever reason, it’s just not working for him, and Tedford has to start looking for an alternative. As far as I’m concerned, next year starts next week.

“Since 2007” is arbitrary though. He should get credit for his first 6 years, even if he deserves criticism for treading water the last 4.

He was awesome. He used to get down in the mud and do tackle drills with the kids. He displayed actual emotions unlike our current robot of a coach.

Big donors are always unhappy unless their team isn’t in the top 10. Means nothing.

Who are big donors? This is like some faceless cabal that holds everybody hostage.

“Big donors are….unhappy. They ordered human flesh medium rare. And it was rare.”

I want to meet some of these Big Donors and verify their existence. I always hear of them like this sort of “If you listen really loudly to the wind late at night, you can hear Big Donors……..bench tedford…..fire riley……”

My prediction? Big Donors are, in fact, the Illuminati.

So it’s not really a discussion we can base anything on right now.

Until that last sentence, I was thinking “who the hell hacked TnH’s account and is talking about football?!”
Then, I read the last sentence. Carry on.

I was particularly frustrated with a few key drops made by Marvin Jones early in the game. When the final score is 1,000-0 as it was today, it is difficult to point out a few moments when things could have changed.

Howver, when the offense is going three and out all the time, it puts the D on the field often, which tires it out. Long, sustained drives a la the Big Game 2009 can help rectify that problem. Now, what I saw early in the game before things got out of hands was Riley making solid throws that were just plain dropped. Jones dropped some passes. Ladner, too.

Would making those catches have changed the game? Perhaps not. However, it would have extended drives, kept the USC D from bottling up the running game (they had like 8 guys in the box all the time, it seemed) and kept the D off the field and fresh.

AGree, agree, agree.

Marc Anthony was looking pretty stoked at Henry’s.

These are the same criticisms of Ludwig we heard from UO fans when he came here. Sadly, it looks like not much has changed.

I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. Especially since Ludwig was put in an early hole and had to probably cut out a lot of his playbook. We didn’t erally see a lot of his “complete” playbook before we got down big. How many offensive plays did we have before it was 21-0 or 28-0? We didn’t have a first down for the first 1.5 quarters, so there were only probably 9-12 plays that we saw. In those plays, I saw a good mixture of both run and pass, in my opinion.

It’s been a clear pattern I’ve seen for the past nineteen games. It’s tiresome.

Layla Kiffin!