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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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.

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Well, here we are folks.  The last YTT before the start of the season.  We thought we'd take a look at our upcoming opponent, the Michigan State Spartans.  They are very similar to Cal in many ways, sort of the secondary team in the rivalry.  As Stanford gets much attention for historic success, so does Michigan.  And as we find ourselves consistently fearing failure, perhaps also so do MSUites.  I don't know, I've never met one. I'm sure they exist, somewhere.  Maybe.

But don't worry, Spartans, lest you think we are going to be mocking you and insulting your poor dental hygiene, let's make a peace offering in this form:

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This is the first in a series of 12 roundtable-style previews for the upcoming season.

  vs. 

Game #1 : August 30 vs. Michigan State, 5:00 PM (televised on ABC).

ragnarok:  For the second straight year, Cal will host the season-opening edition of ABC's Saturday Night Football.  Last year's two-touchdown victory over Tennessee brought the Bears tons of media acclaim and vaulted them squarely into national title contention.  Though expectations for Cal (and their opponent) are decidedly less ambitious this year, it's still a prime-time opportunity to demonstrate to the nation that last year's collapse was just a hiccup in Cal's rise to national prominence -- if the Bears can win.

So, what are the Bear's chances of starting 2008 the same way they started 2007?  Well, here's a couple of encouraging trends:  Tedford's Bears are a perfect 6-0 in home openers, and they're a perfect 4-0 vs. Big 10 teams.  Sure, OK, one could quibble with the meaningfulness of such statistics, so here's a trend that might bear a little more weight (via Black Shoe Diaries):  since 1980, the Big 10's road winning percentage when playing a regular season game vs. the Pac-10 is a mere 22% -- 11 wins vs. 39 losses.  Even more startling is when you look at just matchups involving teams that finished the season with a winning record (as we all expect Cal to do), the Big 10's winning percentage drops to just 15% -- that's just 3 wins (against 17 losses) in the last 28 years.  There's lies, damn lies, and statistics, but that right there is a trend, and there's gotta be something substantial behind it.

Please, before I get to cocky, someone build up Michigan State.  Why might the Spartans buck these trends?

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