Idiots Write About Sports

Interesting game, from what I could tell by listening to Joe Starkey on the radio. (I spent the entire second half at a friend’s house, listening to the game in one ear will mingling with a large group of people and eating barbecued meats.)

Once again the offense stalled in the second half, if they weren’t stalled for the entire game. Weird, weird game, with the Bears’ offense very sluggish and Longshore a bit rattled and somewhat inaccurate. Fortunately Lynch was there to put on a show and Wazzou turned the ball over in some key situations.

The defense, meanwhile, appeared to dominate. One again, the story with Cal’s defense seems to be be: bend, don’t break. They tend to give up a lot of yardage, and afterward you remember the other team marching up and down the field, but then you look on the scoreboard and it turns out they’ve got very few points to show for it.

That was really true today. Cal’s defense stopped Wazzou on several fourth downs, including both a third- and fourth-and-goal right up against the goal line. I think Washington State was a bit intimidated by Cal’s previously prolific offense, because they could’ve kicked field goals twice, but instead opted to go for it on fourth and goal — and failed. That said, Wazzou was never in danger of scoring 21 points.

This was basically the first game all year where the game was sort of in doubt into the second half, and although the offense didn’t do much, the defense did. It’s an interesting win — the first in the Polouse since 1979 — that impresses me in part and worries me in part, because the dominating, efficient offense we’ve seen most of the year just wasn’t there. And yet Cal won going away, which speaks well for the defense and for the team’s overall strength.

Given their record and how hard they played Cal, it’s clear that Washington State is actually one of the better teams in the Pac-10. Good for them. (It was also nice to see Oregon smack UCLA… I like it when teams Cal has decimated beat other teams.)

Anyone out there go to Memorial Stadium to watch the Wazzou scoreboard feed on the World’s Largest Slingbox? (Memo to the Pac-10: If you’re going to have terrible TV contracts, it’s time to build an out that lets teams do Internet video streams of games. I would have paid $10 or $20 for a crappy video stream of this game. So give me the opportunity!)

I went to the staduim today...it was nice to be able to see the game, but it was still a bit tough to follow the game, especially without a clock letting us know how much time was left. I would say a couple thousand people came and a decent number left at halftime.

i don't know about a couple thousand...couple thousand at best.

the slingbox feed was what you expected. the replay thing at memorial isn't really meant for veiwing a whole game, but with that said, it was nice to see lynch run for a td and our defense and everyone play.

still the pac-10's fault for making something stupid like this happen.

Longshore was sick....

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