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Stanford, Luck too much for Cal in the Big Game
By Morris Phillips November 20, 2010 |
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Simply, in the 113-year history of the Big Game, Stanford had never played this well… or been this dominant, or arrogant. Consequently, Cal could do little… but lick their wounds, and in this new era of the Bay Area War, get ready for next week. Afterward, Cal coach Jeff Tedford was left to state the obvious, as well as state the disappointment of his players in the wake of a 48-14 rout that was especially hard to take given the dominance Cal has enjoyed in the series in recent years. “The rivalry means a lot to a lot of people,” Tedford said. “You’ve got a group of seniors that aren’t going to get another shot at this. So it’s very tough to swallow.” “They made plays, and we didn’t make plays. It had nothing to do with effort.” Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, widely regarded as the best quarterback in country, did nothing to diminish his excellent employment prospects in a tough job market, by throwing for 235 yards and two touchdowns. Luck led Stanford on scoring drives on each of their first eight possessions, stretching into the third quarter, when they went up 45-0. He finished 16 of 20 passing, made accurate throws that eluded Cal defenders who were in position to make plays, and also added 72 yards rushing, including a 58-yard sprint that stood as the game’s most memorable play because of a high-speed collision with safety Sean Cattouse that was all Luck with 20 more yards on top of that. “He’s got such good speed, it’s deceptive,” Coach Jim Harbaugh said of his quarterback. “He’s got to be a 4.5 guy. Got him in the middle and he wasn’t going down easy. I just like to see him play, use his instincts.” “I kind of caught him on the side,” Cattouse said of the collision with Luck. “At the last second, I got caught in between trying to make a big hit and kind of just wrapping him up. He’s a big, strong guy; from then on I knew that I have to come with some force.” For Luck, redemption was sweet. Last year, the 6’4” draft eligible star entered the Big Game riding a wave of momentum, and he came up surprisingly short. Luck was just 10 of 30 passing including an interception late in the fourth quarter that allowed Cal to seal a big upset. The Bears succeeded in pressuring Luck in that one, forcing hurried throws, and negating the success of Stanford’s run game and Toby Gerhart. This time, neither Luck’s struggles or Cal’s pass rush materialized. And mistake-prone Brock Mansion and Cal’s limited offense kick started the whole process. “We shot ourselves in the foot offensively multiple times, and against a good team like Stanford, those (mistakes) are costly, Shane Vereen said. Mansion, maybe anxious or nervous, fumbled on the first snap of the day as he pulled back from center too quickly. Cal recovered, but the sophomore thrust into the starting role with Kevin Riley injured, fumbled again two plays later, and Stanford’s Matthew Masifilo recovered. Four plays later, the Cardinal’s scoring avalanche commenced. In the first half alone, Stanford racked up in 312 yards and 17 first downs. Luck applied his magic on a when-needed basis as the Cardinal run game with 22 attempts and a seven-yard per attempt average hurt the Bears more frequently. While the Bears’ defense played exceptionally in last week’s narrow loss to Oregon, they were overmatched against Stanford, failing to force the Cardinal to punt the ball away until just four minutes remained in the game. Stanford’s offense line won the battle of the line of scrimmage decisively and Cal’s linebackers were limited to making tackles downfield. When the Cardinal scored touchdowns on their first two second-half possessions, the sellout crowd’s mentality turned to beating the impending rainstorm, and the play on the field got chippy. Before the opening kickoff, both teams squared off in an impromptu midfield war of words, and Stanford reserve receiver Jamal-Rashad Patterson was ejected, with each team drawing a personal foul penalty. Patterson figured to see scant playing time, and his attempted punch at a blue-clad target outside arm’s reach did little to impress his coaches or boxing enthusiasts. Harbaugh’s biased account of the incident played well in Palo Alto, but burned in Berkeley. “I thought the Cal team was talking a lot of trash before the game. Our guys kept their cool and I think that was a big difference today. They kept their poise. I don’t like that kind of football where you try and talk and intimidate. It’s not real,” Harbaugh said. Harbaugh employed his take-no-prisoners theme on the field with a coach-mandated review of a Mansion incomplete pass in the last two minutes of the game with Cal trailing 48-7 in an attempt to force the referee’s to flag Mansion for throwing beyond the line of scrimmage. The review both upheld the original call, and the remaining Bear Backers cheered derisively as Stanford’s final timeout was taken away. Still, it was Stanford’s day on the scoreboard as they rolled up their biggest point total ever in a Big Game, surpassing the 42 points they scored in 1981 and 1996. The Cardinal are on pace to shatter their all-time season scoring record with 446 points amassed with one game against Oregon State remaining. For Cal, a win over Washington next week will give the Bears bowl eligibility, while a loss will end Tedford’s streak of seven consecutive bowl appearances. With the onset of the Pac-12 next year, the era of the Big Game as the final regular season game has ended, and both teams will need to learn how to switch gears emotionally, and prepare for the next game, which in this case is critical for Cal as well as Stanford and their BCS aspirations. The Bears fell to Stanford for only the second time in Tedford’s tenure. |
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