Pac 10 Fans Home
Pac 10 Football
Pac 10 Basketball
Pac 10 Baseball
College Fansites
Pac 10 Apparel
Pac 10 Tickets

Oregon Game Preview: California

Football is a team game. A band of brothers living, fighting and working together for 60 minutes in mortal combat. Eleven-player units enmeshed in a testosterone-rich chess match that plays out on a field 120 yards long and 53 yards wide. In football, winning and losing are shared realities.

This Saturday, however, one might want to make an exception to the rule.

When the kids from California enter Autzen Stadium for the first "Really Big Pac-10 Game of the Year," all eyes will be watching the two oft-maligned quarterbacks who undeniably hold the keys to their respective teams' fortunes. It's well nigh impossible to imagine the Bears winning if Kevin Riley doesn't flash some fine form on the field, and it's equally difficult to see Oregon overcoming the Bears from Berkeley if Jeremiah Masoli doesn't master the moment in Eugene. It's just that simple.

These two teams are led by offensive gurus: Cal boss Jeff Tedford was the trusted assistant of former UO head coach and current athletic director Mike Bellotti, once upon a time, and the biggest Bear on the visitors' sideline has tried to cultivate a five-star quarterback ever since Aaron Rodgers passed through Strawberry Canyon in the first half of this decade; Oregon coach Chip Kelly became Bellotti's latest and greatest offensive coordinator, good enough--at any rate--to be selected for the big chair when Bellotti moved to the administrative realm in the UO Athletic Department. Both of these educated X-and-O experts crave quality quarterbacking, and so it only makes sense that the superior signal caller will go a long way toward deciding this very consequential collision in the Willamette Valley.

> Browse the selection of Pac 10 apparel & merchandise online as well as Pac 10 tickets through Pac 10 Fans and partner sites.

Riley won't be playing USC in this game--that will have to wait a week--but the Cal quarterback has been known to come up very small against the Trojans in the fourth quarter. Such a reality magnifies the larger truth about Riley's career: namely, that he shrinks in pressure moments. Riley came up short at Oregon State last season, too, and has generally lacked the clutch consistency Cal needs in order to reach the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1958 season. Riley struggled mightily in last week's game at Minnesota, but in the final 10 minutes of regulation, he picked himself off the mat and delivered darts to receiver Jeremy Ross to turn the tide in Cal's favor. If Riley can rise above the fray in the crucible of fourth-quarter competition, Cal will claim the first scalp in its season-defining two-week stretch against Oregon and USC.

For Oregon, the quarterbacking calculus is little different. Masoli began the 2009 season as a darkhorse Heisman Trophy candidate. Now, Duck fans merely want Jeremiah to show the resilience of the Biblical prophet. Masoli made terrible reads and displayed a subpar level of ball security in the Opening Night disaster against Boise State. He showed some flashes of brilliance against Purdue, but then regressed in week three against Utah, completing just 4-of-16 passes for 95 yards, while committing two turnovers that turned an 18-point Oregon lead into a tenuous four-point advantage. The Ducks, with their gritty defense--the backbone of the club so far--held on to yank the Utes out of the ranks of the unbeaten, but not because of anything Masoli mustered. Kelly's main man under center has to bring at least a B-plus performance to the ballpark, and quite likely an A-minus effort, if Oregon is to enter October with a realistic shot at the Pac-10 title.

Cal versus Oregon? Sure. Football is indeed a team game. With that said, this Saturday's showdown, in the heat of the midday sun (it's a 12:30 p.m. local time kickoff in Eugene), will come down to two gunslingers. May the sharper shooter win in the wild, wild West.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer