Every Yard?  Yes!  They count!  Every Hit?  OH HECK YUP!  They totes count.

I didn't think at the start of the year that every game would count.  I figured they might take a few and throw em out.  Like the way Rishi is with Jahvid Best's stats when comparing them to Quizz's stats.  "Hey, Best ran really well against UW, let's hold that against him!"

But, stunningly, every game did count.  Just as this prophetic video foretold.

So, now that the regular season is over, let's take a look at some of the games this year.  The dizzying highs.  The crushing lows.  The creamy middles.

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Welcome to the first of 4 open threads for today's game at Washington State.  I hope you've all found some place to watch the game, but if you haven't, we'll be liveblogging the game in the comments section, so relax and hang out.

****** Programming Note ********

If you can't see the game, you might be able to see it webcast.  Try this: http://www.channelsurfing.net/

Scroll down to find: NCAA Football – Washington State vs Cal 7:30PM EST 9/6

Currently it’s showing some ads and a soccer game. Hopefully by 3:30 we’ll see some Cal ownage.

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Before we get to the game, though, I want to empty the notebook from the Michigan State game.  If you've been around this site awhile, you know that I'm a stats guy almost to a fault.  So when I got home from the game and saw that Michigan State had amassed 321 passing yards, I was definitely both disappointed and intrigued.  Sure, we gave up some big plays, but I didn't remember our secondary being that porous.  With the mindset of 'what gives?', I went to review the play-by-play to see what I could find.

Unlike HydroTech or CBKWit, I'm not looking at any game film when I'm writing these things.  They're better at that sort of analysis anyway.  I'm looking for effectiveness; namely, when Brian Hoyer dropped back to pass, how effective was Michigan State's offense?  This means that I will be counting plays like pass interference, sacks, interceptions, and QB scrambles.  I won't differentiate between Darian Hagan almost intercepting the ball and a wide-open MSU receiver simply dropping a pass; I'm concerned with results here -- did our pass defense get the job done, or do those 321 passing yards suggest we have reason to worry up in the Palouse today?

So, here's a drive-by-drive analysis of Michigan State's passing attack vs. our defense:

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Watching a game live, drunk, and having only a sun-soaked video monitor with fewer pixels than an iphone to watch replays, you tend to miss a few things.  I decided to re-watch the game in hopes of answering a few lingering questions (Did Sundberg blow that snap?  No, it went right through Anger's hands.  Were Nasty Nate's interceptions as bad as they seemed?  No, they were worse.).   Beer helped my write some truly insightful insights in my notebook, like "SYD'BONER" after this play:

Syd's hit wasn't the only thing hard.

Thanks to zoonews, I also discovered the beauty of Tivo's 8 second rewind button and slow motion replay, but a word of caution to you slowmoers out there: before watching the same screen shots 7 times in an effort to grab a player's number, see if another replay from a better angle immediately follows.  It will save you several minutes and some dignity.

Here's what I saw upon closer inspection:

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Part I

Part II

Well, Cal headed into the locker room at halftime with a 17-7 lead.  The Cal offense had not done a lot, but the Cal D was doing great.  MSU's only points were off of a turnover.  Things were looking up.  Which was good.

Because people were coming down.

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Part I

At the tail end of last year, I purchased a new camera with a 6x optical zoom.  I am hesitant to use the digital zoom, because it decreases the kwality of the photo.  So, my photos are not at the same level as TheNick's, but we have what we have.  If you have photos of the game, feel free to post them up in the comments here.

These are the photos from the first half.  Unfortunately, Cal was never really driving towards the South endzone.  We mostly got to see the Spartans on offense near our area.

via Dotpicture.net

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This hopefully part is one of quick photo reveling analysis hopefully not so.  Thirteen.

Woo-ee!  What a game.  All those people who left with about 4 minutes left in the game, missed quite the intense ending.  And all those people who chanted either "Pac10 Football" or that nah nah nah nah goodbye at various moments in the 4th quarter WELL before the game was, yknow, over, let's try not to tempt the fates too much in the future.  No point in angering the woofing gods!

I took 240 photos on the day and will post excerpts of them.  Further, I have supplemented that with photos from other Cal fans, such as TheNick.  Don't forget to read post-game thoughts by CBKWit and HydroTech.

Of course, where else would we start our Cal photo essay of the MSU football game, but the Berkeley Rose Garden?

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This is second (hopefully) in a 13 part series, this is my not so quicky summary of a few keys to the game.

via imgs.sfgate.com

So my day started off great.  Before the game even started, as I was walking up the metal stairs in the student section, my shoes (with no traction) slipped on the metal seats and my right shin smashed against the metal seat of the higher row as I slipped forward.  Within minutes, the whole shin was a bloody mess from a puncture and three inch laceration but the game was about to start so I figured I'd wait until I got home 6 hours later to clean myself up.  Like any good Cal fan, my health is secondary to being at Memorial and supporting the team. 

Anyways, here are my thoughts from the game.  But be sure to check out the wonderful thoughts of CBKWit and Danzig.  (Note, these are my thoughts post-game without rewatching the game on my tivo).

(1)  First play of the game.  Remember the last time Tedford tried a play like the first play of the game?  That last time was against Baylor in 2002 for Tedford's first play as a head coach.  By calling a halfback pass today, I think Tedford wanted to start the 2008 season with a similar bang and let Cal fans know that this was a new team compared to last year's team.  Unfortunately, the pass was wobbly and underthrown and led to an incompletion when it possibly could have been a touchdown or at least a big gain. 

(2) Javon Ringer is dead Ringer.  I think CBKWit said that he doubted Ringer broke 100 yards.  Well, he didn't.  Ringer ran for only 81 yards.  Of course, the yards per attempt is a much better indicator of a runningback's performance than total yardage.  So what was Ringer's average?  3.0 yards per carry which is pretty sad by college football standards.  I mean, that's talking like triple bogey in golf terminology.  It's pretty ugly for a player of his caliber let alone any player in college football. 

(3) No sacks on Hoyer.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we didn't sack Hoyer once.  I guess some credit is due to MSU's OL but it also makes me wonder if we're ever going to see some sacks from anyone on defense.

Continue reading this post »

The first in (hopefully) a 13 part series, this is a quick summary of a few keys to the game.

That was intense.  I thought we had it sewed up with Hagan's second interception, but apparently he didn't actually catch it.  It looked great in person and on the video screen, so there must have been some camera angle I was missing.  In any case, it did add a lot of drama to the last 3 minutes of the game (I had visions of UW '06 at the very end), but with Nate Longshore's help we were able to pull it out.  At least that's how I remember it.

1) Run Defense. 

I was quite worried that MSU was going to be able to overpower us at the line of scrimmage and allow Ringer to run wild.  The lack of depth at nose tackle as the game approached (Kane and Hill were both banged up) compounded my fears.  But starting on the very first drive, the Cal defense showed how stout it would be against Ringer throughout the game.  I haven't seen any stats, but I doubt Ringer got 100 yards and I'd bet his yards per carry average is between 3 and 4.  For a defense that just moved to a base 3-4 (with banged up nose tackles) to play this well against a Doak Walker candidate in Ringer is phenomenal.  Not surprisingly, with Ringer unable to get on track for much of the game, MSU struggled to move the ball.  Our defense essentially held them scoreless for the first 3 quarters of the game, with the only points coming on the (horrible, horrible) pick 6 and the bad snap recovered deep in our territory.

2)Sean Young and Cameron Morrah. 

We didn't get much out of our receivers, with the giant exceptions of Sean Young and Cameron Morrah.  Calvin played only a limited amount and I don't recall a pass thrown his way.  I do recall a couple of passes thrown to Nyan Boateng and those didn't work out too well.  Young and Morrah caught everything, including a bomb down the sideline (Young) and a critical adjustment on 3rd and long in the 4th quarter (Morrah).  Seeing Sean Young perform so well is especially sweet, considering he's been in the program for 6 years and this is his first real action.  I hope he stays healthy, because it looks like he'll play a much larger role than many of us were anticipating.

3)Running Backs

Cal was able to control the ball for much of the game, thanks to Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen.  And I think Jeff Tedford knew something this spring when he said we'd like Vereen.  Uh, yes.

3)Kevin Riley.

He made a huge throw to Sean Young in the 3rd quarter, when MSU had pulled to within 3.  He made an even bigger throw to Cameron Morrah on 3rd and 13 in the 4th with an MSU defender dragging him down.  Frankly, after that throw and the pass to Stevens in the OSU game last year, I'm getting a little greedy and am starting to  expect at least one of these per game.  But most importantly, no turnovers.  No delay of games.  No procedure penalties.  He played within himself for the entire game and out of body in a few crucial moments - what more can you ask for from a quarterback?

But these are just my views.  What are your views on the game?  Use this as an open thread for immediate post-game reaction.  Don't forget, we have a lot of content coming up, such as HydroTech's views and TwistNHook's photos.  So, keep it locked here for all your Cal v. MSU analysis!

GO BEARS!

This is the third in a series of Open Threads designed to allow fans to discuss not only the big game between Cal and MSU today, but also all the college football action.  It's opening day, like XMas and Purim rolled all up into 1!  Check out Avinash's post for information on viewing options.

And check out Open Thread I and Open Thread II first.  If those are packed (about 200 comments) and have started to slow down, come here.  This is our first time doing this, so we have NO idea how it is going to go.  But we figured better safe than sorry.  This one might not even be used.  But if this one gets filled up and is slowing down, I guess the next step will be for somebody to create a FanPost and go there.  After we see how today goes, we'll be able to better plan for future gamedays.  Please work with us to create the best possible Open Thread experience for all involved.  And, remember, no matter what, GO BEARS!

Look to Open Thread I first for comments on today's college football action.  But if that is bulbous with awesomeness, come here.  After about 200 or so comments on this one, it might be time to move to Open Thread III.  GO BEARS!