BERKELEY — Cal has been ranked as a Top 25 team all year, but Saturday may have marked the first time it actually played like one. The Golden Bears pummeled Arizona 28-0 at Memorial Stadium, and the defeat was as thorough as they've rendered in their 5-0 start, even though the Wildcats were probably the best opponent Jeff Tedford's still-maturing club has faced so far. Cal may not be ready for USC just yet — after what happened to Oregon and Arizona State the past two weeks, maybe nobody is — but the Bears finally appear properly primed for UCLA next Saturday. That was in question before this performance. Not so anymore. Bring on the Bruins. "Yeah, definitely, I'm sure our team will rise to the occasion, playing in a hostile environment against a Top 25 team," quarterback Joe Ayoob said of the No. 20 Bruins, who edged Washington 21-17 Saturday. "We'll be ready to play, and we'll give them everything we've got."
To be sure, this latest effort against Arizona revealed a Bears team that appears to be coming into its own. Cal's defense was just short of spectacular for much of this game and was particularly impressive after a pair of questionable pass-interference penalties — one in each half — appeared to have set up Arizona for scores. The Bears just locked down tighter and preserved a most impressive shutout. "We probably tackled much better than we have in any game, and we had a lot of guys around the ball," linebacker Ryan Foltz said. "It was five, six, seven guys on every tackle. It was really great to see." And the offense? Well, not bad, but not good enough to ignite that certain sparkle in Tedford's eyes just yet. Marshawn Lynch, fractured finger and all, returned after a two-game absence to spur a 194-yard team rushing effort with 107 of his own on 20 carries. Ayoob, meanwhile, completed 14 of 20 attempts, tossed a couple of TD passes and seems to be developing a better grasp of the offense and Division I football with each outing. At other times, though, he showed there is still room for improvement.
"It's still a work in progress," said Tedford. "Each week I think he learns something different, and I think he gets more comfortable with something. So, we're going to keep working at it." Next up: the deep ball. Ayoob missed some throws down the field that might have broken open the game sooner than it was. To his credit, he did make a great scramble and hit Robert Jordan for a 39-yard touchdown in the third quarter. But a couple of other potential TDs were overthrown.
Tedford and Ayoob know that has to change as the competition gets stiffer in coming weeks. "To beat great teams and to compete for a conference championship, we have to make a lot more plays in the passing game," the coach said.
"You can't expect to win every game just throwing 5- to 10-yard passes," the quarterback said. "You've got to throw some long ones, and you've got to hit them. I haven't hit the balls down the field that I would like to, but I'm not worried about it. I know I can do it and it'll come." It dawned on Tedford in the wake of Saturday's game that maybe the problem was occurring as a result of how Cal works out during the week. Because the offense and defense split the field at Memorial Stadium, the Bears aren't getting the proper kind of space required for practicing more accurate longer throws down the field. "Because we practice on just one field, we don't get to throw the ball much longer than 45 yards," said Tedford.
That will change this week, as will some inner workings of the Bears' other nagging problem area — kick coverage. Tedford still believes his team is giving up too many yards on kickoffs, and the Bears also got a big break in the first half when an 85-yard punt return by Arizona's Syndric Steptoe was called back by a penalty. "We're going to have to evaluate personnel (on the kick-coverage unit) and find out if we have the right guys in the right positions," he said. But by and large, Cal passed a significant test against a solid if not yet front-rank Pac-10 team. Those first four opponents? The Bears don't like talk that they played a parade of patsies, but the fact is that heading into Saturday, those first four victims — Sac State, Washington, Illinois and New Mexico State — were a combined 3-13 and had been outscored 562-278. In the next five weeks, the Bears not only play the Bruins, but also the two Oregon schools, Washington State, and of course, those top-ranked Trojans. Stomping Arizona sets a proper precedent for a significantly tougher road ahead.
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