(Note: While this Blog is limited to published news reports discussing the Bears, I also include posts from the games. Cal Super Fan Justin has agreed to write a weekly column detailing his experiences/thoughts at the games he attends)
Since my wife and I go to most of the games, the blog editor asked me to write a weekly column about what we experienced. I'm not a football reporter, I'm just trying to comment upon some of the sights, sounds and experiences that we came across during the course of each game that we attend. We live in Los Angeles, and therefore there's only one truly "home" game as far as we're concerned, but our sacrifices for Cal football (i.e., dragging our lazy butts out of bed at 5:00 a.m. every Saturday to get on a crowded plane) are certainly worth it, and even more so in the JT days. We see everything from our seats in QQ where I've been annoying people for more than a decade now. So, this is what I saw at the Sac. State game:
The game was somewhat of a special one for us, because my Sister-In-Law and her husband both attended Sac. State, and they brought their two kids so that we could inspire them to study hard and get in by introducing them to this "magical place called Cal" in the words of my Sister in Law. We are now expert at preparing a tailgate "to go" so we prepared for the game with our in-laws at our parking lot tailgate with Beer and Lemon Stoli's in the Bancroft/Ellsworth lot, and then with Beer at the Bear's Lair, and we were ready for the game!
We got there just as the color was starting, and we were impressed with the turn out. Kudos to the guy who came up with the free ticket idea; the stadium looked practically full and the fans seemed to be pretty loud. The Sac. State contingent was not small by any means, and they brought a medium sized but loud brass band and drums, a dance team dressed in black pants and green half shirts, and a bunch of pretty cheerleaders. Their fans were primarily dressed in white shirts. The Sac. State band knew two "rock songs": Carry on My Wayward Son, (which was popular in the 40's, I think), and that Sheryl Crow song about having fun in the sun. They also continually played that Gary Glitter "National Anthem of Sports" song (Rock & Roll, Part II, right?), along with their own fight song, which was unrecognizeable.
So the game gets going and the Sac. State team looks like they're on the average about 4/5 the size of the opposing Cal players both on offense and defense, but the Sac. State team played with a lot of heart. From the stands, the OL looked to be all that it's cracked up to be, and Longshore seemed to be comfortable and have a fair amount of time to pass, but he was not very accurate. Marshawn was obviously difficult for them to stop, but the Sac. State players obviously played hard and as you know, kept it close for quite some time. The play on which Nate was injured was a long gainer down the field, so we didn't see what happened. It was only after the play was over that we knew something was wrong, and it didn't look good from the beginning. My wife and I obviously send our best wishes to him and his family.
When Joe came in, he unfortunately looked really, really bad. I don't know how it looked on TV or elsewhere, but unless Joe was throwing to 20 foot tall receivers, his release was "off". When he wasn't throwing over people's heads, he threw to spots unoccupied by receivers or defenders, indicating a lack of familiarity with the play book. Joe seemed to have unnecessarily happy feet and, was rushing his throws in response to imaginary foot steps that apparently existed only in his head.
The half time show was fun, even though from our section we can't really appreciate the card stunts because they don't look good on our poor excuse for a television screen. The card stunts included an alumni Campanile symbol, "we 'heart' Ted-Ford", a golden bear, the cannon, and a "beat the . . . .", but when it changed to hornets, you couldn't tell what it said. While the card stunts were taking place, the Sac. State band marched into one position and played some songs that we didn't recognize while their flag twirl-ers waived flags in seemingly random patterns. The Cal Band came out and marched into a Chevrolet trademark pattern and then played some Greenday songs, finishing with American Idiot. They sounded great, but not too loud. In addition to the live bands, our stadium pipes in music now and plays some commercials, including a three card Monte game with red helicopters. Lame.
When the third quarter started, we were sobering up enough to be worried. By the time that we brought Levy in and he threw an interception, our section clapped because at least a Cal quarterback had completed a pass to someone. Anyway, Levy showed guts and poise, and as you all know, completed a 40+ yard TD pass, and we were all elated, as we were to see DeSean score on a return. I was unhappy with the showboating, but at least he didn't get a flag thrown at him. If a flag is ever thrown at him for that kind of stuff, I am fairly confident that JT would make sure it doesn't happen again. So when we pulled away at the end, we as a crowd felt slightly better, but still nervous about our D1A opponent next week.
The crowd that was announced as 60,000 left early, with a large amount of Sac. State people leaving early. It was nice to hear that the school collected over $25,000.00 for Katrina disaster relief. When the game was over, we were deputized by our in-laws to bring our little niece and nephew on a tour of the campus, so we basically walked from Haas to the west entrance at the foot of University. One thing that I thought was funny was that I told my nephew that I met his aunt when we were both students at Cal, whereupon he asked his mother: "Did you meet daddy when you two were students at Sac. State?" and my Sister in Law responded: "Yes, don't say that so loud!" It's nice to be proud of your school!
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