Contra Costa Times: Cal makes some noise, eventually runs past Illinois

By Jay Heater

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

BERKELEY - It took a little over three quarters, but Jeff Tedford's Cal machine chewed up and spit out Illinois on Saturday at Memorial Stadium with a punishing running game and a dominant defense. The amazing part, though, wasn't the Bears' 35-20 victory, or their 294 yards rushing, or that their defense allowed just a field goal and 127 yards of offense in the second half. Rather, the Bears (3-0) rolled on to victory with an assortment of front-line players watching from the sideline and others held together with rubber bands and athletic tape. Cal, a team that returned only eight starters from the 2004 season, had lost, because of injury, eight more players who had started against Sacramento State in this season's opener.

"If these guys didn't have faces, you wouldn't notice any changes at all," said Cal quarterback Joe Ayoob, who finished 8-for-17 passing for 121 yards and a touchdown. A parade of players was shuffled into the lineup with no significant dropoff in overall team performance, but there were many faces of victory for the Bears.

• Sophomore tailback Justin Forsett took over for injured Marshawn Lynch (fractured knuckle) and produced 187 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

• Third-string tailback Marcus O'Keith rushed for 68 yards and a touchdown and caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Ayoob.

• Backup offensive tackle Scott Smith and backup guard Bryan Deemer picked up the first starts of their careers and led the devastation of Illinois' faltering defense in the fourth quarter when the Bears scored 24 points.

• Freshman linebackers Zack Follett and Anthony Felder, given more time when linebacker Greg Van Hoesen was forced to sit with a sprained ankle, combined for 13 tackles.

• Junior linebacker Mickey Pimentel, a junior college transfer playing because of the injury situation, responded with three tackles for loss.

"We don't make a big deal about (injuries)," Tedford said. "Last night, we didn't talk about losing (quarterback) Nate Longshore, or (wide receiver) Noah Smith or Greg Van Hoesen. We talked about moving forward and being successful." The being successful part took some doing. Illinois led 17-7 at halftime by dominating time of possession 21:35 to 8:25. The Illini ran 49 plays in the first half to only 21 for Cal. Ayoob was 1-for-9 passing, meaning that he was 1-for-19 at Memorial Stadium going into the second half. Making the situation appear worse, Cal didn't seem able to stop Ron Zook's spread offense, which pecked away on scoring drives of 80, 77 and 61 yards in the first half. "We were positive and excited," Zook said. "We felt good about ourselves. But we stressed we had a long way to go against a good football team." Cal looked like a different football team in the second half. O'Keith caught a short pass from Ayoob in the third quarter and then burst down the field to complete a 26-yard touchdown play that cut Illinois' lead to 17-14. Then in the fourth quarter, the dam burst. Forsett bulled over from 2 yards out to give the Bears their first lead since the first quarter at 21-17.

Cal's defense stuffed the Illini on the ensuing drive, and Tim Mixon returned Steve Weatherford's punt 79 yards for a touchdown and a 28-17 lead. Illinois was finished. After giving up a field goal, the Bears added another touchdown on a 12-yard run by O'Keith. "We knew we were wearing them down," said Cal center Marvin Philip, who played despite a sprained ankle and knee. "It showed the way we pounded the ball in the fourth quarter. But that's a compliment to our backups (Deemer and Smith). Once it was game time, we all let it loose. Nobody was nervous."

The only nervous players in the fourth quarter were playing for Illinois. "In the second quarter, their defensive guys were talking a lot," Ayoob said. "They were running their mouths, as they should have. They had good reason. But in the fourth quarter, you could see by their body language they were worn down. They were real quiet." Illinois quarterback Tim Brasic, who finished 21-of-37 passing for 228 yards, completed only eight passes in the second half. Of Illinois' 127 yards of offense in the second half, 52 came on a short pass in the fourth quarter that running back Pierre Thomas turned into a long gain. Thomas' big play led to Jason Reda's 31-yard field goal, the only second-half points for Illinois.

So what was the difference for Cal defensively? "It was a combination of things," said Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory. "A lot of it was not having penalties. We did some things to keep their drives alive in the first half. Things were not going our way. "But we got into a rhythm. You know, trying to simulate that offense in practice is a tough deal. I think our players had to see it for a while. And I think the entire game was awesome for us. The whole adversity thing is a good deal." Ayoob weathered that first half adversity and connected on 7 of 8 passes in the second half. He said nobody mentioned 1-for-19 at halftime. "The first week I played, I dwelled on the stats," he said. "But that thought (1-for-19) didn't cross my mind."