Again given our recent history, I am trying not to get excited.  We have a long way to go, and given our recent history, we can stumble in any on of our remaining games and see all of our built up dreams crumble yet again (Melsby didn't fumble).

I want to clarify some of our my thoughts on possibly going 10-0 and not beating USC.  I wrote yesterday that this season will not be a success if we lose to USC.  I think what my thoughts are on that topic in terms of expectations of w/l record including the SC game is this: I think if we go 10-0 and then lose to SC, it will be a huge disappointment to me, but objectively it'd be a successful season. However, let's say we lose to Washington State and to ASU and go into that game 8-2 and then lose, then it'd be an underachieving season in my book, considering how much talent we have on this team (specially on offense).

In terms of offense, we still need to figure out how we can get back the rhythm (specially in our short passing game), we had in our first three games.  Thankfully Cable is aware of this issue:

The Bruins didn't always move the ball Saturday. They had five three-plays-and-punt drives. Offensive coordinator Tom Cable put the blame on himself for his play-calling.

"Yeah, there were times when I threw the ball too darn much," Cable said of the Bruins, who had 395 yards in total offense and gave up only one sack against Cal. "That's always going to be an issue to keep in that mind-set of being consistent. It's not good for our defense to be in-and-out so much." Hopefully DO can get back on rhythm from the get go this coming Saturday.  If we can come out and put together 2 or 3 clock eating drives with short passes here and there and some draw running plays on short second and third downs, it will get our offense going.

In terms of defense, I know I have been very hard on my takes on the DL, but those guys did come through in some crucial stretches, holding the Bears to just FGs in the red zone.  Now if the offense can do its part in terms of playing keep away, and keeping our defense off the field, we can go some places.

Again ... I am trying not to get my hopes up.  I feel like a Red Sos fan from pre-2004 days.  I just don't see how we can go 10-0 eventhough the talent level of this team should be enough to pull of that feat.  Based on our history of last seven years, the conventional wisdom points towards an inevitable Bruin letdown.  Keeping my finger crossed that Dorrell will prove me (and conventional wisdom) wrong.