You will know the kind of football you like by deciding which of these two plays was more influential in Cal's 38-24 excision of UCLA on Saturday evening. Neither will tell you any more about whether the Golden Bears are fully prepped for the all-in game against USC in 13 days (or whether they're going to wear their cornea-searing yellow uniforms for it), but epochal revelations like Rose Bowl invitations do tend to come in increments. The first was Marshawn Lynch's extraordinary 24-yard catch-and-amaze touchdown midway through the second quarter. A simple little screen pass from Nate Longshore that Lynch turned into a two-leg-locker/three-broken-tackle dance into the end zone to give Cal a 14-7 lead, it helped elevate him in the eyes of some Old Blues past Russell White and into Chuck Muncie territory as the most electrifying offensive player in school history.
The second was the far more elemental and less elegant hit by junior safety Thomas DeCoud on UCLA freshman linebacker/punt teamer Korey Bosworth that sprung DeSean Jackson's 72-yard touchdown, the one that put the game beyond UCLA's capability to change. Jackson broke to his left, reversed field and Bosworth, one of the reasons Jackson had to change his mind, was taken out at top speed by DeCoud. Both players were helped off the field, but the game itself ran its course then and there. So it's simply a matter of what you like -- ridiculous feats of artistry like Lynch's, or priority rearrangers like DeCoud's block. "For me? Both," head coach Jeff (The Great Equivocator) Tedford said when asked if he could prioritize the two moments. "In fact, there were a lot of things. Robert Jordan's (44-yard third quarter) touchdown, (cornerback) Daymeion Hughes' interception, (quarterback) Nate Longshore, the offensive line ... there were a lot of things that stood out." Nicely ducked there, Sugar Ray.
Then again, Tedford does have a point, which is that Cal's marquee players might have played their most comprehensively noticeable games against an opponent that usually gives the Golden Bears more than they should. Still, the vote here goes to DeCoud, who actually had his choice of targets but chose Option A, Bosworth, and hit him so hard that he was dazed for moments afterward (Bosworth was diagnosed with a concussion and a stinger but flew home with the team after the game). And other than Bosworth, DeCoud was officially the last interested party on the planet to know that Jackson had scored. "I really didn't know until I got back to the bench and DeSean came up to me all excited," DeCoud said. "I sort of put two and two together and figured it out." Then again, he might have guessed it on his own, given the nature and finality of the block. "It would have surprised me a little bit if he hadn't scored," he said. "He can take any punt to the house, so after any good block like that, I'd probably expect him to score."
It was that kind of day at Old Memorial, where Cal's best played that way, and in doing so allowed the Bears to escape a potential trap game with deceptive ease, and now must deal with a newly worrisome Arizona team in Tucson this Saturday night before the Bigger Than The Last 20 Big Games Put Together Game Nov. 18. You know, the one Tedford would rather coat his face in hot tar than discuss. "I think the players did a great job of focusing on this game," he said when asked about That Game. "But that's what we stress all the time. That they prepare each and every day for each and every game." In other words, USC is currently filed on Tedford's desk as Not Our Problem. Yet. In keeping their faces against the grindstone at hand, the Bears controlled, if not dominated, the Bruins after a mildly fitful start. Resplendent as ever in their home phlegms, the Golden Bears scored first, a smart little slant pass from Nate Longshore to Robert Jordan to cap a 6-minute, 12-play drive. They then rope-a-doped their way through the rest of the half against a Bruins team that seemed persistently poised to take attitudinal control of the game before routing UCLA with a steady second-half beat of jaundice-colored dominance. And SC? Doing fine again after a quick trip to the conference's Doctor Feelgood, your Stanford Cardinal. Despite having the ball for only 24 minutes, the Trojans still scored 42 points to Stanford's ... er, uhh, well, you know. How this translates for Saturday night's game against No. 24 Oregon remains to be seen, but the Trojans seem to have re-found at least some of their groove.
As for the Ursines, they are now one of only 11 one-loss teams left in the country, and while that one loss almost surely keeps them from a national championship game, it gets them a week closer to the game that will explain it all. Why, it makes them tubercular yellow with anticipation just denying that they are looking forward to it.
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