Idiots Write About Sports

As I’ve said before: I don’t like night games at Memorial Stadium. It tends to be quite cold. It’s hell on babysitting schedules for those of us who have kids. The pre-game liquor flows freely, or to put it another way, you can’t spell inebriation without “bear.” And the game just keeps going and going until the wee hours, because not only is it late, but the reason it’s late is because of TV, which means the game runs even slowed due to commercials dictated by this guy:

Orange Sleeve, Destroyer of Sleep
(Since I toted my camera with me to the game, I took a zillion photos with the really long lens and made a Flickr photo set of the occasion.)
As games go, this was an odd, misshapen affair. Cal started out with all the momentum, surging to a 28-10 halftime lead thanks to two interceptions by the defense and some solid offense, especially the running game.

Marshawn Lynch celebrates his 39-yard first-quarter score.
I thought the first half lasted a zillion years, but the third quarter was simply endless. Not only did it go on forever, but WSU zoomed back and swallowed Cal’s 18-point lead whole. When WSU went ahead 38-28 in the fourth quarter, half of our section must’ve walked out.
We few, the crazy ones, stayed and shivered and were generally disgusted with this turn of events. After all, with Oregon and USC looming, Cal was suddenly looking at entering the Big Game with a five-game losing streak and a bowl berth on the line. Not good.
Should WSU have extended the lead past 10, we would’ve tossed in the towel and begun the long walk back to the Lower Hearst parking structure. But instead, something crazy happened — Cal got the ball back with less than six minutes to go (turned over on downs after a pathetic fake punt that everyone in the stadium saw coming) and immediately scored, on a medium-length pass that turned into a 57-yard touchdown to LaReylle Cunningham (?!) when two Cougar defenders bumped into one another and the rest of the WSU defense apparently was too tired to try and run after Cunningham.
Cal’s defense once again showed that it’s horribly vulnerable to big plays — especially deep passes, which were shall we say inexpertly defended on numerous occasions. But they’ve also proven that they’re remarkably good at stopping drives when it counts, and Saturday night it truly counted. After a quick three-and-out, the offense got the ball back and moved the ball down the field with ease. The running game was flowing — both Lynch and Forsett went over 100 yards — and we saw more of Confident Junior-College Ayoob than we did Freaked-Out Division I Ayoob.

It’s 11 p.m. and we’ve won!

After that TD, and with the possibility of overtime thankfully dispatched to oblivion, WSU had another chance to drive and win, but the defense did its job again — giving up a few first downs, but refusing to surrender the touchdown that would’ve won it.
So after an interminable three-and-a-half hours, the last 30 minutes were pretty damned exciting. The special teams basically didn’t choke. The running game was solid. The defense gave up some massive deep passes yet also had several key interceptions and managed to come through with the game on the line.
But what of Joe Ayoob, who I officially wrote off last week? (No, I didn’t call the poor kid any nasty names.) Ayoob was more accurate than he’s been in previous weeks, and it looked to me that the coaches gave him more chances to succeed with short- and medium-range routes. His touch on the deep ball is still nonexistent, and he’s not particularly consistent or accurate, but the fact is, he made a more good throws than bad ones this week, and that’s a step in the right direction.
The often-angry fan who sits behind me claimed that Ayoob’s going to be the starter next year. I still don’t believe it. I suppose if he shows more improvement in the next few games, it’s possible. But I’ve said all along that until he shows the capability to throw under pressure and dramatically improve his accuracy, he can’t be favored over the other two QBs who will be competing with him next year.
This week he went some of the way to proving that he can throw under pressure and lead the team to victory. That’s a great first step. And neither of his two interceptions were his fault — both were off of receivers who should’ve had the ball. But there’s a long road to go before I’m buying stock in Joe Ayoob. I appreciate what he did this weekend; I’m just not ready to jump on the Ayoob bandwagon quite yet.