Random Thoughts on Yesterday's Game

Bumped. Actually this diary fits perfectly front and center of Bruins Nation. GO BRUINS. -N

These Don't Seem to Fit Anywhere Else.

I stayed out of the fray last night. Hard to take seriously a bunch of people who only come over when we win, to gloat and talk trash. When they can explain and justify Utah and ND, I'll read their posts.

I watched the game on TV yesterday, and had to pay attention -- I was the "play-by-play" poster for our brothers and sisters who didn't have TV in their areas.

Here are some thoughts:

1. The D: The best part of the D was the adjustments Walker made at half. For once, we made significant changes. Longshore was 16-19 for 173 yards passing at the half. Not good. We played a much better second half against the pass.

   In the first half, a gimpy Longshore had all the time he needed to throw. We didn't get to him until the second half. I assme that our adjustments brought that about. Good Job, DW.

   But, I am not ready to call DW a defensive genious, yet. This is exactly the type of O he has handled. It is a "pro" style O, drop back passer -- not the spread that has been so successful against us in other games. This is the type of O we should handle, easily.

   When will be stop being vulnerable to the pass?

   My hope is that DW can get us off to a better start in the remaining games and continue to make good adjustments.

   All that said, we were saved, once more, by an interception. AV is a great player and I am pleased for him. But, CTS can take no more credit for this interception than the one that sealed 13-9. Great players make great plays in spite of the coaching.

2. SPTR -- really in evidence yesterday. And, unlike in most games when the calls are evenly bad and split down the middle, these calls were truly bad against us. The obvious leg whip, and Austin's non existent PI (I saw the replay, it wasn't there) could have been game determining calls. Every since I joined BN, Nestor has been calling for better Pac 10 officials, in all sports. We really need that. They should not decide games.

3. The 4th and 1 call? Need anyone say anything? He should be fired for that, alone. Or, did he know that AV was going to intercept a pass and run it in? Was that a planned play?
4. Just as the Cal O was tailor made for our D, so too was the Cal D made for our O. RRR works against Cal. It doesn't work against other D's and our coaches have to figure out how to take advantage of what other D's give us.

We weren't brilliant. The real minds in college football saw this coming, too. The Vegas odds makers -- the real minds -- didn't put up a line for most of the week. They finally posted Cal by 1.5.

This supports our mainstay posters who have been making clear, to last night's "visitors", that this can't be seen as a big upset over a superior team. In fact, pre-season we all expected to be undefeated at this point in the season. We counted this game as a win. it only seems to be an "upset" because we have been playing so far below our potential that we now can't predict any easy wins.

And, when I say playing below our potential, I am calling out the coaches not the players.

For those of you visitors calling us out as "haters" -- and challenging us to "support our players" -- what the fuck are you talking about?

If you can read, you've seen a consistent pattern: the coaches throw the players under the bus when we lose, and claim they are driving it when we win.

Here at BN, we support our players. And, we point out when the coaches don't.

You really don't want to go there.

5. We do not have one solid win this season. Not one. In that way, this is very much like the 10-2 year. Then and now, we are winning on freak plays -- plays not called by a coach -- made by great athletes who refuse to lose. (Unless the coaches want to take credit for teams punting to MJD instead of away from him and his athletic runbacks, OSU's complete failure in the kicking game, and Longshore's throwing a pass directly to AV.)
6. The misuse of "parity" to excuse our play: We have yet to play one team that has talent on a par, or in parity with ours. When the commentators talk about teams losing to other teams because of parity, they are talking about good teams losing to good teams. The concept is that with even talent, either team can win.

Cal's talent was probably closest to ours. But, remember, we were projected, before the season, to win that game.

There is another type of parity involved in some games -- parity of coaching. We have been outcoached in every game but Cal.

This was a good win and I am pleased. Like most here, I can't cheer against us, I want to win out and I think that's a distinct possibility.

But, unlike most, I do not think winning out, and winning the Pac 10 SHOULD solidify CTS's job. I think that job was lost last year, especially at the nut bowl,  during the Utah and ND games. Gone and lost. Lost on yesterday's 4th and 1. Gone and lost. So, let's win out. Let's cheer and enjoy. No AD in his right mind will keep this poser on the field. If CTS is here next year, DG won't be here long.