By Chris Nguon Daily Californian
Berkeley, CA (U-WIRE) -- STANFORD-Cal football coach Jeff Tedford waited until three days before Saturday's Big Game to announce that former fullback Steve Levy would start at quarterback for the Bears. After Levy's performance against Stanford, Tedford wasn't going to keep people waiting for another game-time decision. "Yes, Steve will start the bowl game," Tedford said. Indeed, Levy's first career start went pretty well, thanks in large part to his teammates on the other side of the ball. Riding the performance of what Cal rover Donnie McCleskey described as "the best total effort by the defense all season," the Bears captured their fourth consecutive Axe on Saturday, demolishing the Cardinal, 27-3, in front of a boisterous Stanford Stadium crowd of 71,743, most of whom were cheering for Cal. The Bears (7-4, 4-4, in the Pac-10) now will sit back and wait to see what bowl game they will be chosen to play in this year. Last season, Cal played in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. After having the offense sputter the last two weeks under previous starter Joe Ayoob, Levy was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Bears. "I expected Steve to come in and do well, I expected him to do pretty much what he did," Tedford said. "He is a very strong competitor." The redshirt junior wasn't spectacular against the Cardinal defense, but made the plays when he needed to-completing 10-of-18 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown.
"I've been waiting and waiting for my opportunity and I finally got it," Levy said. "Hopefully by now I've proven some people wrong." While Levy's performance was definitely admirable, especially considering the fact that the New Jersey native had only taken a limited number of snaps this season, the Bears defense was what took control of the game from the opening kickoff. Cal recorded nine sacks on the day, racked up 17 tackles for losses and knocked out Stanford starting quarterback Trent Edwards early in the third quarter. "It was a total defensive effort today," McCleskey said. "We came from every angle you could think of. The quarterback was probably thinking we were coming from behind him at times." Proving the Bears defense's dominance was the fact that the Cardinal offense entered the red zone only twice all game. One of those scoring chances resulted in a Michael Sgori 37-yard field goal early in the second quarter to bring Stanford to within 6-3. Sgori missed his other field goal attempt in the second half. The Cardinal (5-5, 4-4) tallied 244 yards of total offense, but only managed 26 yards on the ground on 36 attempts. Although members of the Cal defense down-played their effort after the contest, defensive coordinator Bob Gregory and his unit undoubtedly came into the Big Game with tremendous pressure on their shoulders. With the Bears having lost four out of their last five contests while turning the ball over at an alarming rate, the Cal defense had to answer the bell. "Three sacks or four sacks is a huge day," Gregory said. "Nine sacks? We'll take that." Leading the way for the Bears' aggressive attacking defense Saturday was linebacker Mickey Pimentel, who recorded 2.5 sacks and consistently parked himself in the Stanford backfield. In total, nine Cal players notched at least a half sack on the day.
"They couldn't determine which way we were attacking them," Pimentel said. "We disguised our schemes more this game than we have all year. I don't know if it was because of a rivalry game, but it felt like our team was moving so much faster than they were." The offense did its part as well. During the Bears' losses against No. 1 USC and No. 10 Oregon the last two weeks, the Cal offense turned the ball over 10 times. Things were much different Saturday. Relying heavily on its running game, Cal controlled the ball to keep the defense fresh. After Levy aired the ball out early in the first half, hitting freshman wide receiver DeSean Jackson on a 56-yard touchdown strike down the right sideline to give the Bears an early 6-0 lead, Tedford turned to the ground game.
Cal tailback Marshawn Lynch- who had been bothered with a broken left little finger early in the season-reached a milestone Saturday, rushing for 123 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. With his effort, Lynch became the fourth consecutive back under Tedford to reach 1,000 yards rushing for the season, following Joe Igber, Adimchinobe Echemandu and J.J Arrington. For the year, the sophomore has 1,052 yards. Lynch wasn't the only Bears ball carrier to make an impact. Fellow sophomore Justin Forsett- who himself just fell short of the 1,000-yard mark Saturday-had arguably the biggest run of the contest when he burst through the right side of the line for an impressive 21-yard touchdown scamper, giving the Bears a 13-3 lead midway through the third quarter. "To have two running backs like Marshawn and Justin, it really is thunder and lightening," Cal center Marvin Philip said. "It's nice to have two guys do what they have done this season. As an offensive line, we don't get too much shine, too much glory, but to have a back get 1,000 yards and another one gets close, it makes us feel good." Cal: 27 Stanford: 3
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