SF Chronicle: Eventually, this will come to pass

Ray Ratto

Sunday, October 2, 2005

The good folks at California get a little tetchy when the football team's schedule (doughy and pliant to the touch) is brought up, so the Pacific-10 Conference could not have come to town soon enough. The Golden Bears needed a better sense of who and what they are, and Arizona came to provide that gift.  That is, if a 28-0 win against a still-rebuilding team can provide much wisdom.  Therefore, with their sternest test yet awaiting them in Pasadena this coming Saturday, the unbeaten Ursines have come to realize that they are:

(a) A noticeably better defensive team than they thought they'd be.

(b) A run-heavy offensive team that does not yet seem prepared to pass the other team out of its base defense.

(c) Ready, willing, and badly in need of the UCLA game.

"I think this was a good test to show us what we are, and what we still need to do," coach Jeff Tedford said, trying to make up his mind whether to be happy or apprehensive after a clinical but almost highlight-film free effort. "I think it's pretty clear that defensively we're playing pretty well right now. They bent a little bit last week (against New Mexico State), but it's 10 quarters without an offensive touchdown for them now, and that's pretty good."  Of course, you, the typical Cal fan, loves a team that wins on defense, and don't much mind that the offense is dominated by its two running backs and its offensive line. Liar.

The Arizona defense did what the UCLA defense can be expected to do on Saturday, stacking the box between the defensive ends with eight men and basically daring quarterback Joe Ayoob to throw them out of it. Ayoob didn't. Then again, with Marshawn Lynch making his return and Justin Forsett providing more than adequate support, Ayoob didn't have to throw them out of it.  For Tedford, though, it would be nice if he showed he could, because at some point soon, he's going to have to. "He was efficient," Tedford said of his rookie after his fifth game in the saddle. "Fourteen of 20 (for 137 yards and two scores), not bad. But we missed some deep balls that I thought were there, and we just have to get better at that. In fact, now that I think of it, that could be a situation (that comes from) the way we practice."

The following is a not-entirely-subtle advertisement for Tedford's Web site, ineedanewpracticefacilitysoondammit.com.  "We practice every day on one field," Tedford said, "so really the longest ball we can throw is 45 yards. Maybe we need to look at the way we practice, and figure out a way to get the timing on our long throws down."  Well, that may be the solution, or it may be Ayoob simply getting older and taking a little air out of his long ones. He overthrew Robert Jordan, DeSean Jackson and Sam DeSa on deep routes in which the receivers were profoundly clear of their defenders, and if not for his semi-improvised scramble toward the sidelines that ended in a 39-yard score to Jordan early in the third, his longest strike was a 20-yarder to tight end Craig Stevens right before Cal's last score.  In other words, it is hard to see how the Bruins, or anyone else for that matter, will believe in Cal's passing game unless and until Ayoob makes them believe in it.  Part of this is the injury to Nate Longshore that rushed Ayoob into the job. Part of it is that schedule, which as of Friday was the 10th easiest Division 1-A schedule in the country. And part of it, of course, is that offensive line, and Lynch and Forsett running behind it.

"Hey," Tedford said, trying to convince both his inquisitors and himself, "however it gets done."

History, though, tells us that a running game can only benefit from a more credible passing attack, and a credible passing attack includes a plausible deep threat. Tedford knows this, because he has made great pots of money over the years proving that very thing. In fact, he not only knows it, but desperately wants it, and is fully prepared to have Telegraph Avenue cleared from Dwight Way to Bancroft on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to prove it: "OK, you run an out to the front door of Rasputin's, you curl in front of Cody's and don't trip over the flower stand, and Jordan, you do a hitch-and-go past the Thai joint."

In the meantime, the Bears are 5-0, a friendly vote from returning to the top 10 in the two major rankings (the Harris poll is still somewhat longer on laughs than credibility), and as well off as they have any right to expect.

They are not, however, as good as Tedford believes they can or better be. That two-week stretch in early November -- at Oregon, home for USC -- comes sooner than he thinks, and he'll need his offense to be every bit as good as his defense has been, even for all you Cal fans who love a low-scoring game with lots of running plays.  Liars.