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Oregon State Beavers vs California Golden Bears Football Recap

Oregon State 35, California 7

Oh, my. Not again. The Groundhog Day season for the California Golden Bears continues.

The Pac-10 team that can’t lose at home can’t be competitive on the road, either. On yet another strange Saturday, the Golden Bears and coach Jeff Tedford produced a total stink-bomb in an enemy lair. This time, it was the Oregon State Beavers who profited from Cal’s perplexing yet persistent pattern of pigskin puzzlement.

Football is football no matter where the sport is played. You still have to block, tackle, catch, throw, run, hit, kick, pressure the quarterback, cover receivers, fill gaps, and do all the other things that the sport requires. Engaging in mortal combat at the line of scrimmage is still the same grim, no-glory duty that’s talked about by coaches and lauded in productions by NFL Films. Enemy crowds can and will affect the ways in which signals are relayed to a quarterback and then heard by offensive linemen, but when the ball is eventually snapped, football remains a physical throwdown, a muscular matchup between two units of 11 people. There’s a lot of complexity involved in football, but only so much mystery. The team that’s physically imposing usually wins the day.

Why, then, is Cal such a different team on the road compared to its home ballpark in Berkeley?

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With this 28-point loss at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon, the Bears’ road woes were cast in an even more remarkable light. Cal has now lost its four road games by an average of 21 points per game, and that’s factoring in a 10-9 loss at Arizona (in a game the Bears should have won). If you take away that one-point loss in the Desert, Cal’s lost three of its four road games by an average of just under 28 points. Moreover, these blowout losses have accurately reflected the not-very-competitive nature of the proceedings. Cal was a beaten team late in the third quarter of its 21-point loss at Nevada on a mid-September Friday night. Cal fell behind 42-0 at halftime in a 48-14 loss to USC, which is no longer the USC that owns the Pac-10 Conference with an imperious air. In this game against Oregon State, Cal stumbled out of the gate and never regained its footing.

It’s true that Cal lost starting quarterback Kevin Riley to a knee injury in the first quarter. However, Riley – who threw for just 45 yards – was never a quarterback who performed his job with distinction. Riley constantly fought with former teammate Nate Longshore for the No. 1 position from 2007 through 2009. Neither man was actually able to take command of the Bears’ offense, which is in some ways an indictment of Longshore, but also very much a commentary on Riley’s inconsistency. Tedford, the Cal coach, is a quarterback guru and a cultivator of field generals, so when backup Brock Mansion entered the game for the Golden Bears, the Berkeley bunch had a right to expect production.

That production never emerged. Cal got steamrolled by a 35-0 count before tacking on a late window-dressing touchdown in the fourth quarter to avoid a shutout. Oregon State flourished on defense, holding Cal to 1-of-12 on third downs, 23 rushing yards, and only 10 first downs. The Beavers got an efficient performance on offense from quarterback Ryan Katz, who hit 20-of-29 passes without throwing a pick, and a solid showing from running back Jacquizz Rodgers, who bolted for 119 yards on 22 carries, an average of more than five yards a pop.

The big question with Cal is this: Will it ever win a Pac-10 road game against a team not named Washington State? Oh, wait: Wazzu is Cal’s foe this weekend in Pullman, Washington.

Keep your fingers crossed if you’re a Golden Bear. The road is never safe in the Pac-10.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer