We made them look that way. Our first half defense was pathetic. And the comment that college players play one game a week. Uhhh…so do every other level of football players. Not sure how that rationalizes the level of play yesterday.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a hater. Just another Bruin who is becoming more and more desparate by the week for a game at the level we saw in the late 90’s. I agree that Arizona will be tough. Agree it is winnable but no one should expect victory there. On the road against any team in the Pac 10 (except maybe WSU), we will be the underdog. I do expect victory in every home game here on out though.

I was very disappointed in the defense, but was pleasantly surprised that we scored a lot more points than I thought we would.

We are 3-3, which is about where I thought we would be. I am surprised by the doom and gloom of so many fans on this board. DId they really think CRN would take over a talent depleted team in a very tough conference and become a success overnight?

We are rebuilding. It takes time.

Conservatism on defense allowed Riley to get very comfortable in the pocket. I don’t understand how the coaches could watch film of Oregon and USC and not conclude that if we blitz and get to Riley, he will crawl into a shell and hand us the game. Instead, we come out with our vanilla defense and let him get comfortable enough to throw a 40+ yard TD pass early in the game. Riley had been harassed for three weeks and had not thrown a single TD pass since the 2nd game of the season. But we ignore the obvious evidence that you can make Riley awful and sit back and let him beat us. That is frustrating.

Conservatism on offense is killing us. Punting on 4th and inches when down a TD and kicking a FG on 4th and 2 when down by 14 is like bringing a butter knife to a gun fight. I don’t mind occasional conservatism, but data shows that going for it on 4th and short in any situation gives better odds of success than punting or kicking field goals. So coaches who are loathe to go for it ironically choosing the course that gives the team a lower chance of winning the game.

Also on offense, do we ever call a pass play on first down in the red zone? Let’s consider doing it. A major reason we are the 3rd worst red zone offense in the country is that we go into “don’t screw up” mode upon entering the scoring zone. We have seen what results that yields: field goals while our defense is giving up TDs. That is a recipe for losing.

Prior to the last INT return, Cal and UCLA had each put together 6 scoring drives. They led by 12 because they punched it in 5 times to our 2. Against Stanford, each team scored 4 times. They won by 8 because they punched it in 3 times to our 1. When you have as many scoring drives as your opponent, you should be in a close game. 70 percent of your scores should be TDs. Let’s open it up and see what happens.