Longshore Efficient as Cal Wins Eight Straight
BY Steven Dunst
After drawing comparisons to Cal legend Aaron Rodgers through the first six games, Nate Longshore sputtered, failing to toss a touchdown in the Bears’ recent wins over Washington and Washington State. Saturday against UCLA—arguably the No. 10 Cal football team’s biggest roadblock before its much-anticipated Nov. 18 bout with USC—Longshore was back in top form. In fact, he was nearly perfect. In front of a sellout crowd of 72,516 at Memorial Stadium, Longshore produced his most efficient game of the season, completing 20-of-24 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bears to a 38-24 win. The victory keeps Cal (8-1, 6-0 in the Pac-10) one game ahead of the Trojans in the Pac-10 standings. “Tucson, Tucson. That’s all we’re thinking about,” said Longshore, indicating that the Bears are not overlooking their matchup against Arizona next week.
Cal coach Jeff Tedford said Longshore’s performance Saturday was his best of the season. “Looking at the numbers you’d have to say so,” Tedford said. “He was very sharp, very efficient, didn’t force many balls.” He threw two touchdown strikes in the first half and one in the third quarter in a game where the Bears never trailed. Even with Longshore’s three scores, it took a vicious block by safety Thomas DeCoud to vault Cal to its first 6-0 conference start since 1950 and put away the Bruins, who racked up a season-high 516 yards of total offense. With the Bears holding onto a 20-10 lead, sophomore DeSean Jackson fielded a punt at Cal’s 28-yard line. After Jackson changed directions and tried to get around the corner on the right side, DeCoud leveled freshman Korey Bosworth with what Tedford called one of the best blocks he had ever seen. Jackson then only had punter Aaron Perez to beat and he did so easily, racing into the end zone for a 72-yard touchdown which put the Bears up by 17 with 2:36 left in the third quarter. “If you give him enough room and time, something magical very well may happen,” special teams coach Pete Alamar said. DeCoud and Bosworth both lay motionless after the collision. Bosworth suffered a concussion, and DeCoud said he was too dazed to see Jackson scamper into the end zone. It was Jackson’s third return for a touchdown this season, tying a Pac-10 record.
“It put the nail in the coffin,” said cornerback Daymeion Hughes, who built on the momentum and intercepted a Patrick Cowan pass on UCLA’s next possession. “Obviously, it jacked our guys up.” Cal did not need much motivation against a Bruins’ team that dealt it a crushing 47-40 defeat at the Rose Bowl last season. Longshore was flawless on the first drive, going 5-for-5 for 47 yards, capped by a 10-yard touchdown to wideout Robert Jordan. “He’s a player,” Jordan said of his quarterback. “I knew he was capable of that.” Jordan led the team in receiving, catching five balls for 86 yards and two scores. “We got everything going on the first drive,” Jordan said. “That just builds our confidence for the entire ballgame.”
That confidence mounted midway through the second quarter. Tailback Marshawn Lynch caught a screen pass at UCLA’s 24-yard line and cut to the outside, stuttering before breaking back across the middle for a 24-yard touchdown. The score, the first of Lynch’s two touchdowns on the day, gave the Bears a 14-7 lead. “He’s crazy,” Longshore said of Lynch. “I don’t know what he’s going to do out there. He always finds a way to find a crease.”
Longshore continued his stellar play, finding Jordan again in the end zone for a 44-yard score with 7:38 remaining in the third quarter. The safety cheated up to stop Lynch and was frozen on the play-action, freeing Jordan across the middle. “It was a double-move,” Jordan said. “The safety was cheating for the run. Better us kill him than Marshawn.” The Bears picked apart the Bruins’ defense, which came into the game ranked second in the Pac-10 against the run and tops in the conference in third-down efficiency on defense. Cal totaled 167 yards on the ground—81 of those by Lynch—and went 6-for-9 on third-down conversions. UCLA (4-5, 2-4) made enough plays early on offense to keep the outcome in doubt until Jackson’s punt return. Cowan had a career game, throwing for 329 yards, and tailback Chris Markey rushed for 136, including a 70-yard dash once the game was effectively over in the fourth quarter. “He came out and played with a lot of confidence,” Tedford said of Cowan. “I was most impressed with his pocket presence.” The Bruins totaled more yards than the Bears overall, but three holding penalties stalled their first drive, and two interceptions deep in Cal territory killed two others. “Sometimes you lose on the stats, but if you look at the scoreboard, you can see we dominated,” Hughes said.
No comments:
Post a Comment