Cal football vs. Texas Report Card: ALL THE EMOTIONS

Berkelium97: That was a win composed of equal parts consternation and jubilation, which is a fine recipe for our report cards.  I'm especially thankful for this week's batch of report cards, as I would not begrudge you for foregoing the report cards in favor of 1) consuming of copious amounts of alcohol, 2) seeking the nearest defibrillator, or 3) pondering if being a Cal fan is really something you're capable of doing for the rest of your life.  Now let's see what the numbers tell us.

Jared Goff and the passing game earn stellar scores again, as pass offense earns the highest score of the week.  Remember back in 2009-2012 when the passing grades were usually around .4-.6, and it was a triumph to break .8? I'm glad those days are over.  Despite an injured Daniel Lasco, the rush offense grades were excellent thanks to breakout performances from Muhammad and Enwere.  Overall, it was a fine performance on a grand stage for our offense.  The defense, however...

Except for the third quarter, it was generally an ugly day for the defense.  There were some highlights, but this was not the defense's finest hour.  We don't play Texas again for almost a year and I'm already dreading seeing Heard on the field.

Special teams earned surprisingly good scores for a pretty good performance (aside from an asinine offsides penalty that nullified a kick recovery).  Coaching and overall grades are solid, although one wonders how much higher they would have been had we won 45-24.

Finally, we see an 8% increase in our chances of earning our first victory in Seattle since Nate Longshore's ankle miraculously healed itself for a day in November 2007.  Oh right, we lost that game because we kicked off in both halves, suspended half the team, and decided to give the defense a day off.  And that wasn't even the most painful loss in our current losing streak at UW...

On that uplifting note, let's go to the awards.

Awards

WE FINALLY HAVE AN EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD!

Editor's Choice

This week's award is the Mrs. Shaw Award, which goes to the following person (presumably David Shaw's mother) who put this in the "name" field of the report card.

"F minus for the Cal Defensive Scheme and coaching.

One Texas weapon of note HEARD, and we could not contain him.

F minus on the choke plays, catch the ball and game is over.

Fumble the ball on the goal line?

Thank God for Geoff and our 10ft leaping receiver against a redshirt

freshman. Otherwise we lose by 14pts. Should have won by 28 pts.

Oh by the way. StandFurd won big over #6 USC. THat is a well coached

and efficient team"

"A well coached and efficient team."  Oh, that's rich. I haven't had a laugh like that in a while.

Next we recognize the most optimistic among us.

Sonny Delight

A perfect score from Goldenlikethebear!  After that it's a closely contested finish for the top-5.

Now let's hear from the doomsayers.

Sonny Yikes!

Those are some pretty lousy scores, considering that this was the program's biggest win since the 2009 Big Game.

Finally, we recognize those whose report cards were closest to the community average.

The Voice of Reason

BancroftBear is our most reasonable voter, followed by @Young_bear (if that's your Twitter account, you may want to update it once in a while).  hardtobecalbear finishes third for the second week in a row.  1988golenbear finishes fourth while mendogriz rounds out the top five.  All five names mention bears--interesting...

Now let's hear you all felt about the game in words.  Oh, so many words.

Sam Fielder: As I suspected, almost double the number of our usual number of submissions this week. Well done folks.

GameDay Experience

LeonPowe: OH MY GOD. THE EMOTIONAL SWINGS. WHY DOES CAL FOOTBALL WANT MY CARDIOLOGIST TO HAVE A NEW BOAT?

slaphancock: Have more grey hairs now. Thank you Bears.

ABVidale: We won, right?

Los alamos bears: Watched the game on an outdoor projector under the new mexico stars. The fresh air probably prevented some cardiac arrest.

coolingfan: It was a rollercoaster ride, and then some. When we opened up the game by 3 TDs, I thought I could finally sit back and relax, but I forgot it was a Cal game.

I am excited and worried at the same time, but I will rejoice tonight. Feel sorry for the kicker, but he made my day.

Rocksanddirt: well...I was sitting at home watching the game and my wife was watching re-runs of Chuck on the nook. Whenever she looked over to check out the game Texas had a positive play, so she stopped watching unless it was a replay of something good we did.

Uthaithani: They don't get much more exciting than that! Thanks Cal D for once again discovering a great new QB for the opposing team. But WE BEAT TEXAS!! Go Bears!!

Willis Chong: Maybe it's me, but that FOX broadcast seemed pretty pro-Texas to me. [Editor's note: THANK YOU! It was not you at all. I even asked my unbiased cousin and he said so.]

prd74: OMG! I'm picking up popcorn which flew all over my living room and re packing my intestines into my torso. This game was an unreal roller coaster and to tear the hearts out of those Rose Bowl robbers was fun. Amazing unbelievable win. Yay! We beat a team that does not have the word "Stinkin'" in its name!!! And Suc lost, too. Beautiful day.

SwaggyJesus: I was waiting for this game all day and boy did it deliver!

HeyAlumniGo: Awesome. Drove out to Snow's BBQ in Lexington, Tx to go eat BBQ at 8 am. Great ribs and brisket. Mix of aTm fans and some Texas and Cal fans. Was invited to a Texas Law School BBQ so we went to check that out (family of neighbor of Cal friend). They do lots of tailgating here.

gumibears: I was in Denver and thought....maybe I should fly to Texas instead of back home to the Bay Area. In the end, I flew back home to watch the game on TV. First game this season to watch. I kinda wish I didn't. I think i'm almost bad luck for watching a game. The Bears did so well the first 2 games that I didn't get to watch.

FrmrG8er: Hey, a win is a win, even one with pancake makeup, Spanx and a push-up bra.

CoBears: Wow. Texas at Austin. Win. Cal. Do we bring one Coug card to play each season? Can we get more?

calbears04: Austin is fantastic place-beers are cheap! Sooo many Cal alums were here, which is a change of pace from philly

BTown85: My Texas fan friend asked if I wanted to watch the game with her; I'm glad I declined. She would not have appreciated all of my hand gestures and expletives I was yelling at the burnt orange. I have no sympathy for them. None.

Old Bear 71: Whew! By the Quarter

1st: Beat.....beat.....beat..beat....

2nd: Beat.beat.beat.Beat

3rd: Beat.thump.Thump.THUMPITY THUMP THUMP!!

4th: Beat. . . b e a t.........

5th: beat.beat...beat.....zzzzzz

Joe Bandsmen: There was no humidity, which meant it was wonderful weather. I was surprised by all the ads Texas was running as well. Seeing an alumni Band with over 500 members show up to a game was absolutely nuts. Also it was nice to see that people who aren't students can actually be invested in a game, it would be nice if Memorial could be like that (ever). I was surprised at how many Cal fans turned out- we really traveled well for this one. I got to see a lot of friends and was proud to see how we represented last night.

JahvidBestLivesOn: Pass def at times looked like old selves, but made some big plays. Offense also looked like old selves with the careless turnovers, but came up big. I think the fourth quarter run Texas had was overrated because Goff was clearly hurt and limping. Cal had to play conservatively on offense. This was a well-deserved win, earned win, and this program deserves a little bit of luck.

MidAtlantic - aka MyVoiceIsHoarseFromAllTheYellingButAlsoCalFansNeedToUnderstandTheGameIsNotOverUntilTheClockReadsZeroZeroBecauseCalFootball: Great turn out in Austin with the Cal fans. However, people do need to understand that the game is in play until the clock reads 0:00. It is like these people never watched Cal football before.

Mephistopheles: Last week's announcers were some of the most incompetent I've ever seen due to the sheer number of stupid errors they made. This week's might have been some of the most homerish for what was supposed to be a neutral broadcast. Maybe they were interviewing for a spot on the Longhorn Network?

GoldenBoiler: sitting on the ground about 1 yard from the TV. Got a text from my OU in-laws, living in Texas, celebrating the win.

ironiCALly: There is no need to send patients for a nuclear medicine stress test when I could just have them watch a Cal football game instead.

Califorleanian: Way to represent! I brought 2 friends, a Wisconsin alum and a Georgia alum. They were very impressed at how loud the Cal section was, how nice the Cal section was, and just how well we represented our school at this big road game. It was my first Cal game in 5 years and I was ecstatic to be among my people again. Thanks to every single random Cal fan that said/returned a "Go Bears!" to me in Austin this weekend. You truly warmed this icy heart of mine.

1988goldenbear: Beautiful day - very happy the game started as the sun was sinking, because it would have been really hot in there. The campus has a very Berkeley feel to it - really enjoyed walking through. Fans were very friendly pretty much across the board. Maybe the only time they got chippy during the game was when they thought we were cheering an injured Longhorn when instead we were responding to the Cal players trying to get some noise going.

mallrat92204: I live in Austin now and I had a blast tailgating with my new Austin friends (both UT alums and fellow Austin Cal alums) and my old Cal alum friends who traveled here for the game. Definitely one my favorite away games experiences of all time.

OaklandishBear: Great weekend in the Hill Country. Got to see friends and family, tasted some surprisingly good Texas wine, and lots of BBQ and TexMex.

The weather wasn't horrible, and Joe Starkey said "Go Bears" to me at the airport on Sunday (he sat right in front of me!)

Pass Offense

puresilence: Goff better be okay ffs

lithiumsorbet: Lawler & Goff are who you think they are

ABVidale: A good, not great, performance. To think that if Anderson catches that 3rd down pass we would have had a very boring last 90 seconds.

mrjpark: It's everything we expect, game in and game out. They need to get their sh*t together to start out games, though. It's becoming tradition to come out slow and then ramp up our game. We need to come out firing every game.

sacman701: Mostly effective, Goff threw it well and Lawler made several nice catches. But I have to dock half a point for the fumble that set Texas up for an easy score and 2 full points for Anderson's horrible, horrible, horrible drop that could have very easily lost the game for us.

Dantheman007: The pass offense looked great out there Jared Goff dissected the Texas D and the passing game will get even better when Daniel Lasco returns as a threat out of the backfield. You could tell the HB passing routes were a little off in the first quarter.

KMac: Goff is good at throwing the football to receivers

BearType94: Goff was efficient and clearly the team leader. Good decisions. Key drops by WRs almost cost the game and definitely killed momentum.

PortlandBear: Good as usual. We are so spoiled that even a routine drop from Anderson feels like a stomach punch. Granted it came at a terrible time.

Just call me Cal: Goff shows again why he's a dark horse Heisman candidate. His yard total for the day wasn't insane, but he was consistent, and only 10 incompletions, added to his 3 TD's. The only downside was the Stephen Anderson dropped pass late in the 4th that would've sealed the game and not have to rely on a missed PAT. Otherwise, the pass offense was the usual Bear Raid--solid, on point, and can slice up any defense.

ChairmanMeow: Generally respectable (45 points) but with too many mind numbing gaffes (fumble in the endzone, S. Anderson dropping a wide open game winning pass) to be considered a good performance. This offense is too good to shoot itself in the foot so many times.

ballboy: Need to work on keeping momentum going in the 4th quarter on the road.

mendogriz: They were doing fine. Shouldn't have called off the dogs so early.

Mr. Unit 2: Mature team that can execute. We look dangerous with a potentially excellent pass offense - need to do it the whole game.

Lucky1717: Goff continues to look great. Hope he's okay as he looks like he took a pretty good ding along the way. Kudos to the coaching staff and wide receiver corps for a job well done...again.

FireKenMacha!: More please. Why was Goff wearing a brace before he got hurt? Is his anticipation that good?

Run Offense

Bandalum: Best run offense all year, still miss lasco, but it was much better

stillfeelinglikeawinnerwithpoopinmyshorts: Wow! Aside from the hit that created a fumble and turnover, there were some excellent plays...until the 4th quarter.

lacenaire: For the most part outstanding. However, I do not understand that slow developing outside runs being called when you are on a 3rd and short. This is when you must run power. Franklin's stated goal that the offense needs to close games out with power running does not exist yet.

coysy: Continually impressed by the running game, given the reputation of our offensive scheme. Without Lasco, Muhammad and Enwere (and a bit of Watson) filled in really well. Curious as to why Coprich got the first carry of the game and then...nothing else(?)

KJ Yes, Kevin Johnson: Let's be consistent with all that talent.

Bowlesman: Good, but it was obvious that we would pass more than run. More depth on the running game? One star running back being out should not hamper offense.

AmericanFool: Seemd to break free in the 3rd Qtr, only to go nowhere in the 4th.

PatientBear: O-Line performance improved, not dominant, but good enough to enable Khalfani's breakout performance. Loved Khalfani's 2-play, 92-yard scoring drive.

Hard to argue with 250+ yards and 3 TDS, but needed a couple of "gettable" 1st downs at end of Q4 giving Texas comeback opportunity.

Bear4life: Very good -- hit the right holes and made some big plays. Ball protection is still a little lax.

1988goldenbear: Loved seeing Khalfani finally break one loose. Aside from the fumble, the run game definitely asserted itself in the second half, and this seems to be a pattern - break down the D with short passes, then run when the middle softens up. We missed Lasco, but not as much as I thought we would. I think running in the 4th quarter to burn clock was a good plan. Having Goff gimpy made that more of a priority, and maybe Texas was smart enough to pick up on that?

FiatLucks13: Not sure if they saw something i didn't, but seemed like we were relying heavily on our run game, even without Lasco. Seemed like for large portions of the game, we forgot about our potent pass game. Nonetheless, big games from Enwere and Muhammed gave Lasco peace of mind to rest for the game.

daveman: When the Texas defense was shivering in their boots at the thought of Goff dropping back to pass, we were able to run the ball. When we needed to run out the clock and Texas sold out to stop the run we were less effective. I thought that the Muhammad run near the end of the half was way more important than the long TD because it changed the momentum and led to 10 points to tie the game at the half.

FiatLux: Like butter... cutting through warm butter that is.

AKBear24: Very good, but need Lasco back.

My face when I realize that the Bears are 3-0. #GoBears pic.twitter.com/a8jkmXwiuI

— Cal Bears (@CalAthletics) September 21, 2015

Pass Defense

lithiumsorbet: Out of position much of the first half. Fourth quarter, playing prevent... just doesn't work. Bend & break is back.

LeonPowe: COVER THE DAMN WHEEL ROUTE. Nice adjustment after halftime. but not enough pressure on a redshirt freshman QB.

Jacobs.: Terrible. Any time the defensive coordinator went conservative, our secondary looked really inept.

ABVidale: For a lot of the game this looked like last year. But for a little more than a quarter rhey played well. They'll need to improve to beat the high flying offenses they'll soon be seeing. I'm definitely concerned about the pass rush.

mrjpark: I mean...I feel like Texas is still running wheel routes on us. I mean...the weaknesses of zone coverage is that there are gaps in the zones that can be exposed every time. That said, the first layer of pass coverage fucked up too many times, we can't let these guys just run their routes free. You make up for those coverage gaps by bumping them off their routes and forcing them to run around you. Kaufman is going to have a field day with these guys tomorrow.

sacman701: Awful. The secondary looked like they hadn't practiced all year. There were more horrendous coverage breakdowns than even in any game in 2013 when all we had were confused, inexperienced guys. Pass rush was mostly pretty weak but at least made a few plays, such as on Texas' one 4th quarter possession that wasn't a long TD drive. The defense also generally did a poor job of containing Heard.

KMac: Oh dear, here we go again.

coolingfan: I am not as pessimistic about our defense. It obviously failed in the first half but adjusted in the second quarter and covered the receivers quite nicely, making Heard scramble a lot of times (whom we failed to contain), until in the 4th quarter when we decided to play soft and conservative, which almost cost us the game. The adjustment it made and little success it had are the proof that it's a step into the right direction.

That said, there's so much room for improvement, certainly more than we thought before this game. Most of our PAC-12 opponents will be better than Texas.

Willis Chong: Looked good for 3 quarters, despite subpar pressure for most of the game. Dumpster fire in the 4th. I blame the coaches for this one, but they didn't put our team in a position to defend anything in that 4th quarter.

SwaggyJesus: It's tough to defend against everything. The option, the flat, the long ball. If we had a devastating pass rush, then it would be better as we can really focus on the primary options, but when the QB can run and has all day, you're really just hoping he can't find the open guy. We had a couple sacks and hurries though so looks serviceable to me.

HeyAlumniGo: 2 totally missed coverages. 1 was bad luck (the long pass down the right sideline that was such a bad underthrown pass that only the WR has a chance at adjusting). The weird OOB and coming back in. I couldn't hear the ref but I assume he was pushed out. Didn't see the replay though

Mitchgobears: We can't play zone.

BearType94: CB's were biting on every Texas WR routes in 1st half, opening up large passing lanes. Obvious miscommunication between CB and Safeties. Did not improve until 3rd quarter, but lanes opened up again in 4th.

sf-gigantes: If this doesn't get better, these Pac-12 games will be brutal. Looked like it picked up in the second half after being horrific early.

Moosehead: It is much improved. I think that some of the DB's need some more experience in their reads and coverages.

cruidzoid: lulz what?

F*CK MACK BROWN: Horrible! Horrible! Horrible! We made their QB look like an All- American QB in the kid's 2nd college game.

DBer321: WE NEED TO DEFEND AGAINST THE LONG BALL!!!!!

sacalum66: Some individual highlights, but we sure have trouble against quick dual-threat QBs.

I married a Longhorn: In some ways they were playing prevent defense the whole game, which exposed the back end.

Bartleby the Cat: How do their receivers get SO wide open all the time?

Run Defense

80Bear: Good except for the QB runs.

Goldenlikethebear: that'll do, bear. That'll do.

ballboy: Did a good job of stopping set run plays, but got wrecked by Heard scrambling after broken plays.

Rose Bowl Oski: Can't fault them for their inability to contain Heard. Hopefully the additional game film will give Cal the opportunity to draw up a good defensive scheme against Heard next year in Berkeley.

GoldenBoiler: Very mixed. Thought they played fine against the RBs, but had no answer for Heard. Luckily, outside Oregon, we shouldn't have that problem with a QB the rest of the season. Reminded me of Pete Carrol's old USC defenses, a poor man's version. They would stop running plays no problem, but could not handle an athletic QB breaking contain. The last three touchdowns were problematic and absolutely should not have happened as they did, it may have been fatigue setting in.

lacenaire: Fair though we had no answer to Heard. When we had someone assigned to him it worked but often it appeared that we didn't account for him with a man. With a lost cornerback in zone you'd think that player would have done more good being assigned to QB.

PatientBear: Read option was poorly defensed with secondary way out of position coupled with poor open field tackling (Q4 was a defensive nightmare!).

daveman: For the most part, I thought the run defense was solid against traditional running plays. Where we got destroyed was when a pass play would break down and Heard would take off running, leaving huge, gaping holes in the defense. This also led to more tentativeness in pass rushing which exacerbated the problem. Heard is just a very difficult player to contain. I would've liked to have seen Mike Barton (one of the fastest defenders on the field) spy Heard and have primary responsibility to contain the scrambling aspect of his game. On the two TD runs by Texas by RBs, our safeties just whiffed on providing support up the middle. I think I saw Hardy just yelling at Rubenzer because he didn't step up to provide run support on one of the TDs.

ironiCALly: We can stop the traditional run, but we've never been able to stop a mobile QB who executes the option well.

CalBearoutEast: Thankfully not many QBs like Heard.

hardtobecalbear: we were dominated by jerrod heard. so frustrating to watch.

Special Teams

slaphancock: Goff punting is the best thing ever. Kickoffs were managed well. They had no big special teams plays and one really bad one.

puresilence: Ahahaha

Willis Chong: Can we give Beito a chance at FGs? I guess not, as if Anderson beat him in camp, then he's even worse.

gumibears: Not bad. I think the kickoff where they short fielded it but the line was called for false start was a good trick play of sorts.

Goff pooch kicks are okay.

When Rose (Texas kicker) missed the ball, I think he anticipated the pressure from the right side when Cal players rushed toward him.

BearType94: Aside from lack of faith in FG kicking, ST reacted well to 2 onside kick attempts from Texas, as well as overall kickoff coverage.

Moosehead: Very good. I thought that we were going to get burned by some of the Texas return specialists.

FrmrG8er: Great to see us resigned to 4 downs from here on out. A few touch backs was a welcome change.

Just call me Cal: Do we not want to use our punter? Why is Goff making some punts? Is it just to have the defense out of position to field a punt?

COBears: Pooch kicks were a smart plan. Nearly blew the game open early with the squib that we recovered; being offside was unacceptable. Made all our PATs, so that's good.

Btown85: Dumpster fire. Missed PAT, squib kicks?, pooch punts......IDK, I wish we could put the ball out of the end zone on every KO. But hey, our special teams were better than THEIRS !!!!!!!

Old Bear 71: Oh, that first half KO offsides! More laps on Monday

Mr Unit 2: Pleased with how on-side kicks were handled. Oh, and nice to get extra points, too.

Lucky1717: Can we PLEASE find a kicker? He reached the goal line on a kickoff once the entire game. I still lack confidence in our Special Teams coach (Tommerdahl).

stillfeelinglikeawinnerwithpoopinmyshorts: It didn't look good with the missed field goal...until the end of the 4th quarter.

coysy: Did they play? Squib kicks and pooch punts. I'll take it. +1 for recovering both onside kicks. Made 1/2 field goals, so that's alright. Pretty lowkey game for them.

ironiCALly: If the idea of the pooch punt is to try and get catch the other team offsides or if Goff sees a match-up he can exploit, I'm all for it. If it is because we don't trust our return coverage, then we need a new special teams coach.

mallrat92204: The coverage was a weakness previously, but a bright spot in this game.

The squib kicks are baffling considering we are showing coverage improvement and Anderson seems capable of driving the ball deep enough. We almost recovered one, but it was a super lucky bounce and could have easily been a kick out of bounds and them starting at the 35 instead (and was voided by penalty anyway).

Return game is non-existent, but that wasn't a big negative because the ball was never returnable.

I hope we go for it on 4th down more, considering the inconsistency with our kicker.

I guess the Goff punts are to setup for the future when we could potentially go for it in those situations, but still not great. Especially after he hurt is leg/foot, they should have let the punter do the punting.

Oaklandishbear: Almost a perfect day except for Anderson's miss. I like the pooch punting and the kickoff strategy worked well.

The offside call to erase the kickoff recovery really hurt. Would have loved to have that one.

We've officially marked Texas #BearTerritory. pic.twitter.com/MQvSbpjiPP

— Cal Bears (@CalAthletics) September 20, 2015

Coaching

Jacobs.: Don't give the opposing teams quarterback the whole evening to look for targets, or run through wide open space left by a shaky secondary. Also, with Goff going down hard enough that he could barely stand, take a time out and put our dual threat QB on. We are trying to run the ball, so why leave a banged up passer on the field? What were the coaching staff thinking? A horrible fourth quarter!!!

mrjpark: There's a lot of disagreement on how they handled this game. I think they did fine minus the challenge. I think the challenge was a stretch and cost us an unnecessary time out. The other two time outs, I'm fine with. Towards the end, we went conservative until that pass to Stephen Andersen. I think this was great, actually. We lulled the Texas D to sleep, with them expecting us to just stay conservative and burn clock, and then we pass on 4th down for like 15 yards, catching them completely off guard. Apparently we caught our TE off guard too.

sacman701: The offensive gameplan mostly worked well until they got too conservative in the 4th quarter. The pass that Anderson dropped was the right call, though. The defensive adjustments in the 3rd quarter seemed to work, but then everything fell apart again.

FiatLux: I thought the game plan was terrific. And if we don't have that incompletion on our last drive no one is talking about the coaching.

AKBear24: coaches need to become more imaginative on D.

FiatLucks13: Not like Dykes had much choice, but loved how much we trusted our RBs. We could have easily said our starting RB is out and Goff is a stud so we're gonna kill them with our passing. But instead we relied heavily on our run game and Enwere and Khalfani really showed up. The confidence they showed in the game really goes to show the amount of preparation that goes in to things before the game starts. That is a sign of good coaching in my eyes. Just wish we were able to make needed adjustments in the 4th.

Mephistopheles: Earned some kudos for handling the early adversity when previous Cal teams would have crumbled and building the lead through the third quarter. Gave them all away and possibly then some with the performance in the fourth.

Joe Bandsmen: The playcalling during the 4th quarter was atrocious. We needed to throw more or do more misdirection with the running game instead of running it right into a loaded box. Instead, we almost blew the game.

We needed pressure on Heard or a spy (or both), neither of which we saw the entire game. Consequently, he had all the time in the world and no check to him running wild all over the field. We blew it.

mendogriz: Called off the dogs too early. Good adjustments in the middle of the game, though.

80Bear: Would like to keep the pedal down on the offense in the 4th quarter.

dbroman: why did we get so conservative on the last 3 drives? We let them back into the game, by slowing up our offense.

Could not be more proud of this team #GoBears pic.twitter.com/5NAZNscV0q

— Sonny Dykes (@CALCoachDykes) September 20, 2015

Overall Performance

LeonPowe: It was not pretty at all, but we're 3-0 which is better than being 2-1

slaphancock: Best win since UCLA in, what, 2009?

Not the best way to win, though. I will take it though.

ABVidale: In the end it *is* a win against an opponent with some quality players.

mrjpark: Goff said it perfectly, we didn't really deserve to win this game. A lot of mistakes were made. I think Dykes and co. put us in a good position to win, but so many players failed to execute on so many levels, we almost lost a game that should have been in the bag.

Los alamos bears: Fought hard in a hostile environment. I hate to win that way, but I love to win. Go bears go!

Uthaithani: Hey, we beat a very inspired and talented UT team on the road. We hung 45 and should have been more on a very good defense. We have issues, but this team WON. We're a good football team. We need to take care of business better, but this team can hang with anyone in the conference and will win a lot of games. Go Bears!!

gumibears: We won a hard game so thats a plus. Defense is showing signs of improvement. Goff looks like he had a leg injury like Kevin Hogan at Stanfurd. The Big Game, might be called the Big Gimp cause both quarterbacks will be limping....

I think the targeting by Haines (texas safety) was unintentional on Anderson. Just like facemask by Looney on Heard. Also accidental. Kinda sucks. Also sucks for the Texas kicker, but life goes on and it "sucks to suck."

sf-gigantes: This is a game Cal loses in 2014. Spectacular offensive performance, but the defense was bad enough to almost make up for it. I expect Texas won't be putting up 40 on any more teams this season. They probably won't hit 30 except maybe once or twice. Good progress from last year, but the defense still has to improve for Cal to contend in the Pac-12 North.

BTown85: Hey. We WON in AUSTIN on National TV. I'm very pleased.

F*CK MACK BROWN: We shot ourselves in the foot many times and are lucky to survive. I hope we figure out our defensive issues by next week or we will have a very tough season and will need to scratch, claw, and bite for 3 more wins to get to the Poinsettia Bowl from here on out. We may be the worst 3-0 team in the country.

Old Bear 71: Don't forget your nitroglycerin tabs if you watch the BEARS.

BearHeart: Gutsy. Fun to watch. Thanks for reviving hope.

sacalum66: We can nitpick all day, but you gotta love our first-ever win over Texas...on the road...in the heat...on national TV.

minesweeper: I've seen enough Cal games to never feel sorry about a win. I do feel sorry for the Texas kicker, but not their fans. We were the better team and caught a huge break at the end. Texas reminds me of Cal from last year: young and mistake-prone, but clearly a team on the rise that's still learning how to win.

Califorleanian: I texted my sister after the game: "I'm dying I'm dead omg"

Sister: ":("

Me: "NO I'M HAPPY DEAD"

PortlandBear: It was a win, and I'm thrilled we are 3-0. But I hope the UT QB is the second coming of Vince Young and it isn't just Cal makes everyone look that good - because otherwise 3-9 is still in play for this year.

FiatLux: We beat Texas in Texas. 2004 is officially dead.