By Andrew Kim
Riding tailback Shane Vereen's 144 yards of total offense, the Cal football team jumped out to an early lead and clamped down defensively en route to Saturday's 24-14 win over Arizona State at Memorial Stadium. The Bears (4-1, 2-0 in the Pac-10) piled on 17 unanswered points to start the game, while their defense held the Sun Devils (2-3, 1-1) to just 236 yards for the day in keeping the conference's top-ranked air attack in check. Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter threw for a season-low 165 yards on a 20-for-35 day, and Sun Devils running backs Dimitri Nance and Keegan Herring couldn't get going either, posting a combined 76 yards. "It was a great effort by the defense," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "It was textbook. I thought we did an excellent job of stopping the run ... We swarmed to the ball." In a duel between the Pac-10's two most experienced quarterbacks, the Bears' Nate Longshore submitted a convincing performance for the most part in his first start in 2008, totaling 198 yards on 17-of-28 passing with touchdown throws to Nyan Boateng, LaReylle Cunningham and Cameron Morrah. Carpenter, meanwhile, never really found his rhythm and was picked off twice -- by cornerback Chris Conte and Sean Cattouse -- in the second half. Both interceptions were career firsts for Cal's young defensive backs and may have created a plus-14 scoring margin for the Bears. Conte's pick with 9:04 left in the third quarter created a 30-yard field for the Bears offense, and three plays later, Boateng grabbed his second touchdown of the season.
Cattouse, meanwhile, prevented a potential Arizona State touchdown at the start of the final stanza with a leaping grab at Cal's six-yard line to leave wideout Kyle Williams emptyhanded in the end zone. Williams had scored on a 30-yard catch in the second quarter. "That was a real athletic play," Williams said of Cattouse's interception. "If he hadn't been there, that would've been a touchdown." Cal cornerback Darian Hagan, who led the team with eight tackles (seven solo) largely attributed the Bears' success against Carpenter to their Cover-2 look. "Rudy, he's a playermaker, but we were able to not allow him to make those big plays that he usually makes," Hagan said. "Our coaches had a perfect defensive scheme for us, and we executed it well. "We played a lot of zone. They struggled versus the zone in the prior two losses they had, so our coaches studied the film and put the zone coverage in, and we executed it well." While the secondary had a strong showing as a group, Cal defensive end Cameron Jordan -- starting in place of injured senior Rulon Davis -- had the marquee performance amongst a front-three unit that frequented the backfield in both pass and rush situations.
Jordan, a sophomore, posted a team-high three tackles for loss and had an early hand in forcing Carpenter to an erratic showing with two first-quarter sacks. Each of Jordan's sacks came on critical third downs. "I thought Cam played an excellent game," Tedford said. "He really did a great job, but I thought as a unit, Tyson (Alualu) and all those guys did a nice job of pushing the pocket." While Jordan and the rest of the defensive line found consistency in flushing Carpenter out of the pocket, it may have been linebacker Zack Follett who delivered the knockout punch. In a critical third-and-six on the Bears' 44, the senior rushed in from the strong side and whacked Carpenter with a blind-side hit, jarring the ball loose and producing a 15-yard loss with 6:40 remaining in the fourth quarter. "Once I saw the ball fly, there was a little deja vu (from the hit he delivered to Tennessee's Erik Ainge in 2007)," Follett said. "It felt good. That was a long hit coming since last year. Last year, (Carpenter) got in my ear a little bit, talking a little trash. So it was a long hit coming. A year of frustration was let out on that play." Still, following the blow to Carpenter, the Cal offense failed to produce a first down. The Bears were not guaranteed a win until Arizona State's Thomas Weber missed a 44-yard field goal with 1:05 left in the game. For all of Cal's stellar play on defense, punter Bryan Anger played a big part in ultimately denying the Sun Devils' comeback with a 72-yard punt. Following the first of the Bears' two three-and-outs in the final 6:04, the redshirt freshman took a snap from the Cal 23-yard line and booted it the length of the field to the Arizona State five.
"Talk about creating field advantage," Tedford said. "He really did that. That one (72-yarder), he has the ability to do that all the time. He's a real weapon."
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