Idiots Write About Sports

One of the things I love about early-season games at Memorial Stadium is the warm sunshine. Later in the year, things get dark and chilly, but early in the year it’s a fantastic place to hang out, hours before kickoff.
Um… maybe next week. This week, we got a little taste of winter. A heavy marine layer floated fog above the stadium for the entire game. It was cold and damp, and by the end of the game the good folks on Tightwad Hill were basically obscured by fog. The cannon was merely a loud rumor. It was chilly!
The game was a whole lot better. After the first few minutes, which eerily paralleled the opening of the Tennessee game, Cal — and Nate Longshore — settled down. Clearly last week Longshore was rattled by the crowd and the speed of the Tennessee players. This week he was calmer, stepping up in the pocket at the right times, finding his open receivers and delivering his passes accurately.
And as soon as Cal established the pass, the running game unfolded beautifully. In the second quarter, Marshawn Lynch had a run for the highlight reel. He was almost tackled right away, but lowered his head and bounced right off of the first tackler. Then he juked past a second, broke a tackle from a third, and ended up with a solid gain. The reason Lynch is special is that he simply refuses to go down. (Of course, he needs to be smart and protect the ball a bit better — he lost two fumbles today, too.)
Lynch also got a personal foul today, which was shocking — that’s really not like him at all. DeSean Jackson got one, too, for throwing a punch at a Minnesota defender. Stupid. Hopefully the coaches can get that stuff under control — it could make a difference in a closer game.
All told, Cal played as well as the score would indicate. Good play by the receivers (barring a few drops) and by the quarterback, and the running game was exactly what it should be. On defense, barring a couple of big plays, the defense did extremely well. Even the secondary, which was torched by Tennessee, held up pretty well.
So, to sum up: Cal settled down this week and played up to the team’s potential. There’s a lot of season left, but they certainly showed this week why they were so highly thought of coming into the season. Next week’s a tune-up game, but I’m feeling much better about how the more difficult portion of this season is going to play out.
Now let’s hope there’s more sun and less fog next weekend.