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Ask CGB: Why Aren't You Going to the Game?

<em>Ask CGB is number one!</em>
Ask CGB is number one!

Yeah, last week's question was pretty easy.

The all-time leading scorer in Green Bay Packers history, I also had a notable game in my second game with the Minnesota Vikings after moving by accounting for all 16 Vikings points in a win over the Panthers. Currently the fifth most accurate kicker in NFL history, FOA 2011 said that I made more headlines last year as a Favre Retrieval Unit. Please don't hold that against me. Who am I?

royrules22, Fire Starkey, and SeanCrosby87 all had that one down.

Trivia

Ryan Longwell?

In other words, Go Bears!

by royrules22 on Sep 7, 2011 1:47 PM EDT reply actions  

yeah, mega easy

Inspiring and completing since1997 since2010!

by Fire Starkey on Sep 7, 2011 2:37 PM EDT up reply actions  

totally easy.

Drew: 'Oh no.. That is certainly the meaty part alright, but it's not the thigh..." 
Randy: "No... that bone is NOT connected to the thigh bone..."

www.fearthefin.com - Where masochism is defined.

I rushed the Furd's farm in 2009

www.californiagoldenblogs.com - Where Cal grads prove they learned something.

 

by SeanCrosby87 on Sep 8, 2011 1:56 AM EDT up reply actions  

So really, you should be ashamed if you didn't get it.

This week's trivia should be marginally more difficult:

A tennis superstar, I was hailed as the first female American-born superstar athlete. I was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, I won 19 of the 24 Grand Slam tournaments that I entered, although I'm going to guess most of you (well, maybe CalBear81) weren't around to see any of them take place. Once given the nickname "Little Miss Poker Face", who am I?

I pulled all of that out of Wikipedia. Because if it's on the Internet, it must be true. TO THE QUESTIONS...

...where 72CalBear kicks us off.

Why aren't you going Saturday? - Yesterday, 02:08 PM
First "home" game this season against the Blue Hose @ AT&T..okay? More direct public transportation options than Candlestick/ parking-tailgating/ it's not a 3 day holiday / the weather will be sunny and clear and not "windy"/ booze/ good food/ newer, flashier stadium/ Cal banners/posters/flags / better student seating/ 2:30 pm -reasonable starting time for young and old / part of the home ticket package/ no boistrous, objectionable opponent fans/ get to see some back-ups grab some playing time, etc..So who's not going?
Well, I'm not going because I'm across the country. I do have time off for the next few weeks, but Presbyterian's not exactly the kind of opponent that's going to make me take that kind of trip. How about the rest of you?

LeonPowe: I live in Shanghai and will actually be in Singapore, but if I was in the Bay Area you'd bet I'd be there. There's only going to be 5 Cal home games - I'd want to see Maynard in person. Only a few games left to see Marv Jones in a Cal uniform live.

So I mean, we're kind of all of the place. But as far as more local people, I'm going to guess it's a combination of the high ticket price, the different location, and the rather atrocious opponent. But you already know that.

My name is not actually Alberto Del Rio, though.

CalBearinLA asks the next logical question to come out of that here.

the REAL question is.... - Today, 08:57 AM
How many fans is Presbyterian bringing to the game? Sorry if it's been reported before, but I'm really curious how many tix they've sold so far
From the board post it sounds like 300-500. Which honestly sounds like a pretty sizable crowd for a school that I'd literally never heard of at all before our sturdy Golden Bears scheduled them. Since, after all, no one ever paid money to watch Barry Horowitz get squashed.

What say you, LeonPowe?

LeonPowe: threeve. I actually bet there will several hundred friends and family of the team.

carp gets at the core of the matter.

What about the funny ask yf post? And when do I get to submit questions?

"We lose to Stanford in many sports, but if you want to make a Cal team quit, bring a weapon." 
--Coach Clark

by carp on Sep 7, 2011 10:12 PM EDT reply actions  

You submit questions in the comments. Allow me to demonstrate

Hi Yellow Fever! Should New Jersey use its first round or second round draft pick on Jorge Gutierrez next year, or do you think they need to package them both to trade up for the Chihuahuan legend?

The #1 greatest threat to America: BEARS

by norcalnick on Sep 8, 2011 1:02 AM EDT up reply actions  

First, carp, it would have helped had you read last week's column, where I said:

All questions culled from around the Internet. So post your question somewhere on the Internet (but preferably in the comments below) if you want it to be considered for next week's edition. Or you can email it to us and we'll get it to it. Maybe.

As for norcalnick's question, I'm no personnel guru, but between the ticket prices that I was just presented with today after going through a sales pitch at the Barclays Center (99/ticket/game, though with right of first refusal on all events at the Barclays Center - ticket reselling galore - and unlimited food and non-alcoholic drinks) and the team's absolute dearth of talent...

It's true: Yakety Sax can make anything funny.

And while I love wearing my Cal stuff everywhere (even got my Cal hat signed by Derrick Favors and Damion James last year...though I was hoping to get it signed by Jordan Farmar and Brook Lopez instead), I'm not sure that Jorge is the answer. In fact, I was kinda thinking about Jorge when Henry Abbott wrote the following about Earl Watson:

Earl Watson doesn't play much offense, so he's always described as a defensive specialist. But not playing offense is not the same as being great at defense. To my eyes, there are plenty of better defenders.

Now, that may not be entirely fair to Jorge given that he led the team in scoring last year and was the Pac-10 player of the year, but, well, Stephen Graham is a defensive specialist. So maybe I'm projecting GrahaMVP's faults onto Jorge. Which isn't fair. But I think it is fair to look at Jorge's 41.1% FG% and 33% 3PT% and wonder what the hell he's going to do to score against better competition.

Anyway, I'm undecided on those tickets. It's a lot of money. While I ponder that, I'm going to sit out this question from bearterritory.

Did Marshall help CU steal our defensive calls? - Yesterday, 10:09 PM
I have absolutely no evidence to suggest this other than the fact that CU seemed to have exactly the right play call for our D on many downs. When we blitzed, they screened very effectively. When we zoned, they ran short routes and found the seams. Their qb and receiver both set CU records for offense. Likely Marshall did help them scout our D, and I hope we were smart enough to change all our signals so there was no chance of CU stealing signs.

HydroTech: Highly unlikely.  Does Marshall even know our defensive signals?  I'm not sure but probably not. As the offensive line coach last year, he was probably busy learning Cal's offensive signals and terminology -- and teaching our OL to suck -- rather than concentrating on learning Cal's defensive signals.

Was Cal using the same defensive signals from last year?  I don't know, but probably.  Should Tedford have demanded that Pendergast change the signals from last year because he knew that Marshall might know them? Probably not.  Doing that would be a lot of work for one game.  It would be confusing for the players too, to learn a whole new set of signals just for one game.  KISS - keep it simple, stupid.

I doubt Marshall was stealing signals.  I doubt Tedford asked or demanded that Pendergast change the defensive signals for this one game.  Furthermore, it's really hard to notify players of the opposing team's upcoming play even if you did know the signals.  Plays happen so quickly and there is so much noise going on that it'd be pretty hard for Marshall to be yelling out to the Colorado defense: "They're going to run a toss sweep left!"  Or... "It's going to be playaction half-roll left with the split end running a go route, the slot wide receiver running a flag, and the flanker running a drag!!!"  Imagine trying to yell out that last line to your entire defense from the sidelines while your fan base is also creating crowd noise for the opposing offense. Yeah...not going to happen.

Marshall was NOT stealing signals.

Onto everyone's favorite local Bay Area columnist, Ray Ratto. Your question please, buster99?

Does Ray Ratto owe favors to UW? - Yesterday, 01:15 PM
Had the huskies 14th! in his poll, and had the Ducks 23rd. Those were the highest and lowest votes for those two schools.

http://www.pollspeak.com/index.php?o...3&r=V&Itemid=3

I'm going to assume Ratto's one of those resume ranker guys, which is all fine and dandy assuming he's consistent about it all the way through the end of the season. Maybe he has a reason, you know?

atomsareenough: Maybe he does. Or maybe he's just not that bright. What would be the Occam's Razor explanation, do you think?

carp's back, and he can't be stopped.

Hey feva: Truth or cougar, Lee Corso should retire. We all love the man, but that was tough for all involved.

"We lose to Stanford in many sports, but if you want to make a Cal team quit, bring a weapon." 
--Coach Clark

by carp on Sep 8, 2011 3:05 PM EDT reply actions  

I'm not sure what was so tough - I didn't catch all of GameDay this past Saturday morning, but I thought he went through the show fine and did the whole mascot head thing. Which I usually find pretty entertaining. I mean, hell, if anyone should retire, it would have to be Craig James after this epic bashing, right?

Which college football announcer/s are the least appealing for you and why?

Mandel: Craig James and Jesse Palmer.

Staples: Craig James, because he adds very little to the broadcast, and ESPN has sacrificed much of its journalistic integrity to protect him in the wake of his campaign to get Mike Leach fired at Texas Tech.

Schroeder: Other than Craig James? 

Deitsch: That Craig James gets such prominent assignments remains a mystery on the D.B. Cooper scale. He is unpopular by any fan metric you choose, including performance and likeability.

That was edited for space, but you get the idea. Though if there was anything more to that Lee Corso question that I missed, fill me in there.

 

And because no one's ever happy with the players that their favorite team already has, pappysghost just has to ask.

Should Sofele Start? - 09-11-2011, 01:04 PM
He just doesn't look as good as the other 2 options to me - Anderson and CDJ. The idea that it's our line and there are no holes only goes so far for me. A running back that can break some tackles can make the line look a lot better. He has no power at all, and it's not like he's that fast. He doesn't look anywhere near as explosive as Justin Forsett nor as powerful. He's not much of a target on pass plays either. I would use him for sure, but I think Anderson gives us more of an NFL type back who can break some tackles and complement our offense a little better. 

I would play more backs and stick with the guy who appears to be the most effective. I don't think anyone else has gotten much of a chance but Sofele.

Leaving aside the possibility that other players just have may have gotten a chance in, you know, training camp, I'm going to turn this over to my co-conspirators for the week.

LeonPowe: You can't start on a Tedford team - especially this Tedford team without knowing the pass protections. With as shaky as the line is, Sofeles needs to be in there until the front five gel or CJA learns to block better. I do the carries should start to be more evenly distributed between the two or three. 

 

atomsareenough: What? I don't think Sofele has done anything to lose his starting role. I'm fine with others like CJ or Bigelow or even CDJ getting some more snaps per game, because I think Sofele's small frame might favor limiting him to say, 12-15 carries per game, but Sofele is doing fine all-around as the starter. The O-line could stand to see more improvement than the RB play. 

 

HydroTech: Yes.  He hasn't really done anything egregious to warrant losing his starting spot. Nobody has really done anything to warrant unseating Sofele from his starting spot either.

 

One last question from carp:

YF…what to make of Notre Dame’s showing versus South Florida?

"We lose to Stanford in many sports, but if you want to make a Cal team quit, bring a weapon." 
--Coach Clark

by carp on Sep 8, 2011 3:06 PM EDT reply actions  

At this point I think you can also throw in their showing against Michigan - it certainly looks like they're something similar to last year's San Diego Chargers in that they're a dominant team statistically that seems to have the worst luck in high pressure situations. As a numbers guy who doesn't believe in clutchiness and the magic of grit, grime, and plucky white ballplayers, I think they're going to figure it out and stop losing games every week where they've outgained their opponents by a 2:1 ratio (USF) and led by 17 points going into the fourth quarter (Michigan).

Probably.