Comments on: Football: Sunday night update

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:36:58 +0000

Don’t forget those 2-3 passes Nate threw that bounced off the Oregon players chest & hands. If it was dry out, he may have had 2-3 more picks. I prefer Riley against USC, but if it’s Nate, then we’ll have to go with that.

By: Calduke

Calduke — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:45:50 +0000

Dball;

Everyone was running in 4 inches of water.

Water or no water – if this had been the first game of the season Best would have had a long TD run.

My point is – whether it’s the brace, sore foot(or ankle??)or ??, Best is not as fast as earlier in the
year. He’s still fast, but not as fast as…

Davidson is right-on about the brace. For u$c it’s a bullseye!!

By: Ursa In Oregon

Ursa In Oregon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:04:23 +0000

Well, I dont’ want to rehash the whole NL versus KR thing, but in the USC case, I agree with Davidson above. USC really knows how to go after the pocket passer.
Their DB’s are good enough to bump and play tough for long enough for their blitzes to get to the immobile QB – seems tailor-made for a bad NL game.

Look who USC has lost to – teams that can run the ball straight at them (not us, this year) and Vince Young.

By: liam

liam — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:43:36 +0000

i think if riley play we have a chance because USC’s defense does not know him and his game yet, while Longshore is so predictable. also im not scared about USC’s offense, so if Riley starts and looks like he did when he played in that game and are defense holds up Cal can win this game. be hard but its possible.
GO BEARS!!

By: Davidson

Davidson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:17:45 +0000

Mike, true, Nate threw some nice passes, (4th and 14, post out to Sean Young, post out to Verran Tucker, TD pass to Boateng are a few that come to mind), however, our offense did stall several times and were only able to score when we created turnovers inside the 10 yard line.

Let’s compare. Riley threw one pass in his first drive and it was intercepted. Nick Reed basically flew by our left guard and hit Riley as he was dumping it off to Best. If completed, it would have been the right read, a 5 yard check off to Best for a first down.

2nd Drive, false start, followed by 2 bad throws under pressure. 3rd and 15, Riley rolls out and throws a laser to Tucker for a first down. His next throw finds tucker for 26 yards and then a 22 yarder to Ross right in stride and right in his numbers.

3rd Drive, Riley scrambles for 12 yards is suffers a concussion with a helmet to helmet hit. (If it was the NFL, Ward would have been fined when they reviewed the play). Nate had a good game given the situation, however I truly believe Riley would had a better game if given the chance…

Having said that, I will support Nate 1000% if he gets the nod. We don’t really know the severity of Riley’s concussion and I will trust Tedford to make the right decision.

By: Mike W.

Mike W. — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:14:56 +0000

Davidson,

You can wish for Riley to start all you want against USC . . . but the fact of the matter is that Nate threw some incredible passes in the worst weather seen at Memorial in quite some time! Sure, Riley has a ton more mobility than Nate but Nate has been throwing the ball extremely well. If you don’t believe me, feel free to replay the game from COMCAST and you’ll see some very nice throws by Nate. – - – If anything, I’m more concerned about Cheadle, Edwards, and especially Boskovich defending our QB against USC’s D-Line.

Go Bears!

By: Davidson

Davidson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:44:03 +0000

As for the Best fumbles, on the 1st one…the ball was literally popping out even before the defender hit it. He was holding it in his left arm, with the brace. He should shed the brace for USC. From my understanding, the elbow is fine and the brace is for preventive measures.

For his second fumble, it was at the swampy endzone, and you really couldn’t see what happened. I assume it just squirted out. That one was mostly his fault. But the balls were exceptionally wet and slick.

By: SAMOBear

SAMOBear — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:35:48 +0000

Agree Toparchitect–we need to creatively utilize the entire Cignetti/Tedford playbook (and have the guts to call and execute the plays) if we are going to pull this one off. If we take a page from OSU, they ran up the middle, since the lateral movement of SC D is unbelieveable. Hopefully, we wont see the same slow-developing screen passes on third and long.

However, I believe that this game will be decided by the SC offense vs the Cal Defense. SC’s major weakness is themselves and penalities, much like us. They average about 10 for 90+ yards. This is an opportunity–to get them frustrated. Also, SC is good for a 1-2 turnovers a game–we will need to capitalize on them.

Bears need near perfection to win on Saturday night–unfortunately, we have not had close to a near perfect game yet and we are more than half way done with the season.

Go Bears!

By: Jan K Oski

Jan K Oski — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:20:17 +0000

Bizaar! I guess you can’t talk about webpage tabs on this site as the content in between the greater and lesser signs didn’t appear in my above post. the first tab is the all sports changed to football. the second tab, a waste fo time, is all leagues changed to pac-10.

Go Bears!

By: Jan K Oski

Jan K Oski — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:14:47 +0000

Calduke Says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:36 am “Also, Best has lost some speed – 3 Oregon players ran him down on the 50 yard run.”

Not true, Calduke. Best was weaving through people, so it is logical that a defender, who is running straight at him, will catch him. The play by play caller even declared that “Best lost the ball after a hesitation.”
It would be nice if Best could always run north and south, but that’s track and field, not football.

If anyone wants to watch the game minus the first 6 minutes (it starts with the replay of Riley’s TD pass to Ross), and you have AT&T and Comcast Internet, go to ESPN360 and set the tab to and scroll down to the very bottom. Prior to this, you’ll need to download the player to view. Finally, the other tabs like changed to don’t work for searching, so don’t waste your time. This is a great service, but it obviously needs some fine tuning.

Go Bears!