One of the things I find most amazing about Jahvid Best’s performance last night is that Miami knew he was Cal’s only offense, and it still couldn’t stop him. Perhaps even attempting passes here and there helped keep the Hurricanes’ defense honest.

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Here’s the slideshow from the Big Game, put together by staff photographer Ray Chavez.

–One of the things I found interesting after yesterday’s game was Cal’s players expressing satisfaction that they not only got The Axe back, but they prevented Stanford from playing in a bowl game. That seemed to be an added bonus for the Bears, that they weren’t the team the Cardinal reached the six-win plateau against.

“I want those guys to go to a bowl game. Those guys are good, smart kids. But not at our expense,” linebacker Worrell Williams said. “It just can’t happen like htat. I’m sorry they had to play us.”

Quarterback Kevin Riley said: “I know they were looking forward to that and they were waiting for a long time. It feels good to get The Axe back and have them keep on waiting.”

–Good bounce-back game for the offensive line in pass protection, although Riley threw only 11 passes. Still, they allowed Riley to connect with Shane Vereen on his 59-yard TD catch, and allowed Riley the time to roll right, pivot and throw across the field for Cameron Morrah’s scoring grab.

“I thought the offensive line played well today,” coach Jeff Tedford said. “Our offensive line has been catching a lot of flak.”

–A good job by the coaching staff to install that hook-and-ladder play for this game. Riley said the play was installed after thet eam noticed on film that Stanford’s cornerbacks rush to the inside on those inside screeens, and that was apparent after Jahvid Best took Verran Tucker’s lateral and raced untouched up the sideline.

–Tucker’s catch on that play was the only reception by a wide receiver.

–Tedford talked about the Bears’ focus of getting plays in the open field because of Stanford’s physicality up front. “I felt like if we could get our speed in the open field, if we could get our athleticism and speed in the open field, we had a chance to make some plays,” he said. “A couple of those plays worked just like you draw them on the board.”

That game plan had Best licking his chops. He had 19 carries for a career-high 201 yards and added three catches for 35 yards. He scored three touchdowns.

“I feel like when I’m on the perimeter, I can do whatever I want,” Best said. “Anybody on our team — Shane, J-Ross (Jeremy Ross) — we all have the ability, when we get out on the edge, to take it the distance.”

This may sound like an oversimplification, but it’s hard not to think that Cal’s season may be going in a different direction if it weren’t for the injuries along the offensive line.

Obviously, the defense has done its part. They’re having an excellent season, a championship-level season, really. And yes, although special teams let the Bears down yesterday, let’s not forget about all the positive plays they’ve created with the blocked kicks and returns.

The past two weeks the Bears simply have not been able to protect the quarterback. Teams are gearing up to stop the run against Cal, forcing the Bears into passing situations. The quarterbacks haven’t been able to feel comfortable in the pocket in those situations, and it’s resulted in an anemic passing attack.

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First of all, let me apologize again for the lack of posts during the game last night. Again, there were some technical problems with the internet access in the L.A. Coliseum press box, and I wasn’t able to get into our blog system after the first quarter.

A few of you have asked about USC’s first touchdown, and why it wasn’t reviewed. Honestly, I didn’t see a good enough replay in the press box to determine if it warranted a review or not. Jeff Tedford said after the game that by the time the team had determined that a review might be in order, the Trojans were already kicking the extra point and it was too late. What I’ve heard is the replay may not have been conclusive enough to reverse the call anyway, but you never know.

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Not surprisingly, Cal linebacker Zack Follett has been named Pac-10 Player of the Week for defense. You knew somebody from the Bears’ defense had a good chance to take home this honor this week after the performance against Oregon, and Follett led the charge. He is the second straight Cal defender to win conference Player of the Week honors. Mike Mohamed won it last week after his performance against UCLA.

Here is staff photographer Jose Carlos Fajardo’s slideshow from yesterday’s game. Definitely worth checking out.

Jeff Tedford and the Bears usually are pretty predictable in dismissing the importance of any given game. They are not alone. That is usually the norm in college football, getting comments that “it’s just another game” or “there’s a long way to go”, etc.

But after Saturday’s win over Oregon, Tedford admitted there’s no way he will be able to convince his players that this Saturday’s game at USC is just another game.

“They’re not going to buy that,” he said. “They will know that we have to prepare the same no matter who we play every week, but when you down to play SC, you have a tendency to get really hyped up. So we’re going to have to keep our poise and focus on what we need to do and just prepare really well to play a great football team.”

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Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed has been named the Pac-10 Player of the Week for defense. Mohamed had nine tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and a 19-yard interception return for a touchdown.

All three conference players of the week will be represented in Saturday’s game against Oregon, as the other two winners this week come from the Ducks. Here’s the news release from the Pac-10.

Cal’s win over UCLA sets up a huge game this Saturday against Oregon. There are now just four teams left with only one loss in Pac-10 play, and the Bears and the Ducks are two of them. The loser obviously will have an uphill climb to win the conference championship, although that team can be comforted a little bit by the fact that each of the past two Pac-10 champs finished with two losses.

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