As Cal fans we all love what Tedford has done with the program in the last six years, but at some point he’s going to have to take a hard look Bob Gregory, the defensive coordinator. Tedford has proven that he’s capable of producing offense, especially in the first half of the season before everyone gets more film on his schemes (by this point in the season even I can tell what the Javid Best plays are). However, Cal’s defense has underachieved in five of his six seasons as coach and consistently leaves the team vulnerable to bad luck.

Maybe we can look to Tedford for not instilling a championship attitude in his players. Maybe we can say that at times he gets conservative.
Maybe other teams just have better players (although I don’t think so in recent years). All of this might have some degree of true. But in the end, those are not the principle causes of Bear choking year in and year out.

The reason the Bears find a way to break your heart is because they, for some reason, haven’t figured out how to play consistent defense even with good talent on that side of the ball. The casual fan or commentator may look at the last two games and blame turnovers. The turnovers are just a symptom of a greater problem. While pundits and coaches talk about turnovers, the reason turnovers occur is largely due to chance. At some point most teams are going to experience turnovers or have an off day on offense. However, teams with good defenses can overcome turnovers by limiting the other team from scoring touchdowns off of them.

Cal’s defense gives the team a small margin for error. That is why Cal has rarely won close games over the years (save for this year’s Oregon game and a few others in the past). A “bend but don’t break” style of defense is predicated on waiting for the other team to make a mistake.
Simply put, Cal’s defense leaves too many games to chance (hoping the other team screws up). As any gambler knows you might get hot for a period, but eventually you will lose.

Now all Cal fans can hope for is that lady luck can smile on us, and other top teams in Pac-10 will lose. Considering the competition in the Pac this year I think it is possible believe it or not. Oregon has a similar problem as Cal (excellent offense but suspect defense). As I recall last year’s Pac-10 champion had two conference losses as well. In fact, the two co-champions had two losses. It is still possible, but it will be only by luck.

Ok – I said it. Now I feel a little better. ;-