Cal flops...yet again

Once again, the Bears of The University of California, Berkeley have shit the proverbial bed. And this time, they shat themselves silly on national television. 42-3. That was almost a shutout. And for three quarters of it, it was. Cal lost to an Oregon team that lost a high profile game to Boise St. and barely etched out at win against Purdue, but have recently shown shades of their former offensive glory by ending Utah's winning streak and now knocking off the team who many in the West Coast believed would be raising a Pac 10 championship banner and giving the collective middle finger to The School over There on behalf of the rest of us. But no. Cal flopped. Again. Let's look at some numbers.

77: Cal's total rushing yards. This, more than any other reason, explains the loss. Cal simply could not move the ball on the ground. Oregon on the other hand had no problem whatsoever running all over Cal's defensive line. How bad was the disparity? Oregon had 236 rushing yards. You do the math. Oh and by the way, Oregon ranks EIGHTH in the Pac 10 for stopping the rush.
3.6: Cal's average yards per pass. Pretty abysmal. Coupled with the fact that they had no rushing game, Cal could not score. I don't have to remind you that Cal did not post any sort of touchdown this game. Oh and Riley by the way threw 12 of 31 completions. Uh NICE.
55: So of those 77 rushing yards Cal put up, 55 of those came from ESPN's darling Jahvid Best. These aren't exactly Heisman numbers Jahvid. All credit goes to the Oregon defense for stopping California's one trick pony offense. Am I too harsh? Let's look at Best's 2009 career. Against Minnesota Best posted 131 yards and 5 TDs (!). In the game against Eastern Washington Best goes 141 yards for 1 TD. In Maryland he went 137 yards for 2 TDs. So what's the key to beating Cal? Contain Jahvid Best. Once he's contained pressure the QB into making bad throws and California has no offense whatsoever. Secret's out.

Honestly, I expected Cal to put away Oregon pretty handily. In fact, no one on RJS or anyone else that I've talked to anticipated Oregon to pull the upset. While I believed that it would be a good game, California and Jahvid Best I thought would put away Oregon, home field advantage notwithstanding. This does, however, continue a longstanding tradition they have over there in Berkeley which is: get as highly ranked as possible and then lose on national television. A trip down memory lane proves my point

2009: #6 California loses to unranked Oregon
2008: #21 California loses to unranked Arizona
2007: #2 California loses to unranked Oregon St.

Every year its supposed to be all about Cal. Remember when DeSean Jackson was the talk of the town? Well in 2007 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, UCLA put him down with 2 carries and -3 yards. I remember sitting near a bunch of Cal fans that year and all they could say was Justin Forsett DeSean Jackson ad nauseum all game. They didn't have much to say when Alterran Verner picked one off in UCLA's endzone to run it back to the house for 6. Oh and then Cal was ranked #12. Dream on California, dream on. Maybe part of your problem is this fellow.

For your enjoyment I give you the lyrics to the Cal anti-fight song to sing along to as you enjoy another California flop

1. The Dirty Golden Bear (to the tune of "The Sturdy Golden Bear")

(verse 1)
The Dirty Golden Bear
Is losing all his hair
His teeth are out
He's got the gout
He knows not what it's all about
His eyes are made of glass
He's losing all his class
So TAKE the Dirty Golden Bear and shove him up your ***!

(verse 2)
The Dirty Golden Bear
Has dirty pubic hair
His dick is dead
It's got no head
He cannot get it up in bed
He tries to use his hand
But cannot find his gland
So YOU can find him jerking off the UC Berkeley Band!