Cal Bears 6-3 Overall (3-3 Conference)

This Week’s Score: Oregon State 31 – Cal 14

Next Week’s Opponent: Arizona

Saturday couldn’t have gone any worse for Bears fans. Sure, the team was vastly outplayed, and the ‘Furd had just celebrated a huge win over Oregon. But there was much more to it than that.

When RB Jahvid Best hit the ground on a 7-yard TD in the second quarter, I temporarily lost my taste for football. Injuries like that really take the air out of a game, and it was hard to think about the outcome on the field with Best’s status still unknown (thankfully it appears he will be fine).

From a football standpoint, Cal was beaten soundly in every phase of the game. Jeff Tedford had this to say in summing up a difficult evening in Berkeley: “First and foremost, without a doubt, the most important thing when something like this happens is the health of one of your players. It puts football in the right perspective. But we are also disappointed to lose a football game the way that we did. We got outcoached today. We got outplayed in every phase of the game. Give credit to Oregon State. They played great and we didn’t”.

The Bears ran for only 39 yards, and finished with a total of 239 yards of offense. QB Kevin Riley completed 19/34 passes for 200 yards (1 TD, 1 INT), but Cal never really threatened the Beavers after Best went down. Defensively, Bob Gregory’s unit did a great job containing ‘Quizz Rodgers (25 carries for 67 yards 1 TD) and the running game, but QB Sean Canfield tore the Bears up through the air (29/39 342 yards, 2 TDs 1 INT).

Next up for Cal is a home game with the scorching-hot Arizona Wildcats. The Bears will be without their star and emotional leader, but I expect Jeff Tedford’s squad to play inspired football on Saturday.