Salinas Californian: USC vs Cal equals ugly

USC and Cal both came into their football game playing some of the country's best defense. If you only read the final score of 17-3, you may think that it was an exciting defensive struggle.   However if you actually watched the game, you saw a head-scratching, sloppy groaner where luck and nerves determined the winner more than tackles and catches.  This game wasn't just putting lipstick on a pig. This was lipstick on a crocodile; still ugly and a little scary.  Once, California (6-3, 4-2 Pac-10) had to call a timeout because a player had lost his shoe. The teams combined for 18 penalties. In one comedic drive in the second quarter, there were five penalties called on six plays. Two of them negated USC interceptions and kept Cal's drive going. The Bears however committed three penalties that forced them to settle for a field goal that would turn out to be their only points of the night.

Naturally, both coaches stuck on the positive: the defense.  Jeff Tedford praised how the Cal defense stiffened in the red zone and kept USC from scoring while his counterpart Pete Carroll said it was his defense's over-aggressiveness that caused penalties. USC (8-1, 6-1 Pac-10) has a right to claim about how fabulous their defense is. The three points allowed lowered their scoring defense average to 6.67, best in the nation. Unfortunately, the bigger enemy of Cal's offense was the Cal offense. After Nate Longshore was quarterback in the first half, Tedford brought in Kevin Riley - fresh from a concussion suffered last week against Oregon - for the second half, trailing 10-3. Hoping Riley's speed and superior scrambling could help against the Trojans defense, the switch for one drive looked like genius before things unraveled for Cal.

After Riley hit Shane Vereen for an apparent tying touchdown, the play was called back because of an ineligible man downfield. That was an omen as Riley completed only two passes the rest of the game and threw an end zone interception to end what would be their best chance to score for the game. The Bears amassed only 67 yards in the second half and 165 yards total.  Tedford now goes back to the drawing board and hopes to get better discipline from his players, so the sloppiness that did them in doesn't rear up again.

The issue was USC was a bit better, or more accurately less bad. USC piled up 411 yards but was unable to get anything going until their next to last drive, going 73 yards in thirteen plays for the final score. It was the third time this year USC scored only one touchdown in the second half, but it was enough to defeat the Bears' molasses offense.