Posted on Monday, 11/10/2008 - 8:56 a.m. PST — by mbbear
Cal went into the season with what many people were saying was the best OL in the nation. Very quickly the injuries started mounting to the point where 4 of the original 5 are out for the season. As a result, the good defenses have been handling our offense. If you look at our running game, most of the yardage has come on a few big runs. We have not been able to sustain a "grind it out" attack. And our QBs are getting medium to bad pass protection. The replacement guys are doing OK, and a couple will be stars with some experience, but they are not a top level unit. This was exposed by a great USC defense. It would have been interesting to see how our original OL would have performed against USC. I also believe that we would not have lost to Maryland and Arizona with our first OL. We can only hope that they can improve as the season winds down and that they can perform against a very good Oregon St defense.
Joined: Dec 2007
Current Posts: 296
I don't know what USC game you were watching but it couldn't have been the same one televised. I saw Receivers drop catches that should have been made. I saw Receivers line up incorrectly and caused a touchdown to be called back. I saw several USC penalties CAL did not capitalize off of. You try lining up on a field with 90,000 fans screaming against you and executing perfect plays. I saw a USC touchdown that should have been challenged from the booth because the ball hit the ground first before being caught. I saw a WR from USC step out of bounds and that wasn't challenged either. The OL is doing a good job. During the Oregon State game I saw two return punts for touchdowns from Oregon. That was a special teams problem; not the offensive line. Our offensive linemen are holding their own and if the second string RG had played, things may have turned out different on the line; that's for sure.
Joined: Oct 2008
Current Posts: 7
What you say is mostly true and only adds to my wish that we had our best OL in there. Best was held to under 40 yards rushing and Riley was running for his life, resulting in his worse day, statistically, of the year. Even with this, we almost pulled it out due to our very strong Defense and Special Teams. The OL was really exposed the next week against OSU and Riley again was under extreme pressure. The rushing stats were better due to a couple of long runs.
Joined: Sep 2009
Current Posts: 10
its really fantastic article and comments are nice. thanks for this.
Joined: Dec 2007
Current Posts: 296
This is now. If I were you I wouldn't start counting those chicks just yet.