CAL OVERMATCHED IN ALL PHASES IN DEFEAT, VOWS TO IMPROVE AS `WE STILL CAN GO 12-1'
By Jay Heater
Navigating an orange fog Saturday inside a throbbing Neyland Stadium, Cal fell behind by five touchdowns before receiving the memo that the 2006 season had begun. By that time, most in the crowd of 106,009 were serenading the ninth-ranked Bears, who went on to lose 35-18 to Tennessee. `It's not a good thing to hear the crowd singing `O-ver-rated,' '' Cal wide receiver DeSean Jackson said. ``It was just unbelievable. You just couldn't sit there and say we wouldn't score a touchdown in three quarters . . . all the power we have in this offense.'' Cal played its opener like it was the ninth-ranked team in the Pacific-10, not in the nation. The Bears were beaten in just about every aspect of the game, even if two touchdowns in the fourth quarter made the outcome seem less painful.
``We just weren't very sharp,'' Coach Jeff Tedford said. ``We didn't execute in a lot of phases. We didn't catch the ball and we didn't tackle well, and that is unusual for us.''
Tedford saw his new offense, which used the spread on more than half its snaps, flounder. He eventually replaced starting quarterback Nate Longshore (11 for 20, 85 yards, one interception) with Joe Ayoob (9 for 22, 187 yards, one touchdown, one interception) in the third quarter.
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