- Longshore is still listed as day to day and at this point no one really knows who will start against UCLA. Everyone thought he was going to start on Saturday against OSU so who knows what the true extent of his injury is.
- UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell is optimistic that backup QB Patrick Cowen will be ready by Saturday. Cowen tore a hamstring before the start of the season and then tore a ligment in his left knee against Washington. Even if he makes the start, you have to wonder about his mobility.
- For a team who's last performance on the field was a loss to Notre Dame, possibly the worst team in college football, the Bruins and their fans are feeling pretty confident.
Coach Dorrell on Cal's WR's
"They have experience at wide receiver. We have a great deal of experience in our back end, too," he said. "We had a little bit of a rough start coverage-wise, but those things have been shored up the last couple of games and our team is playing very confident on the defensive side right now. They're excited about this challenge that's in front of them – this offense that we have to defend, that has tremendous balance. They know about those three guys in particular, so it's something that we're looking forward to."
BruinsNation Blog
The funny thing is though, I believe we are going to win this weekend’s game. I have seen four Cal games this year. And frankly I am not really all that impressed with the talent they have on their defense. Don’t get me wrong. I think Coach Tedford is a superb head coach, who is getting most out of his offense. They have better skill set players at WR, but I am not sure whether they have superior talents at RB positions or at OL. However, unlike Dorrell Tedford knows how to coach up his QBs, who in turn get the most they can out of their available offensive talent.
But UCLA because of its access to the Southern California recruiting base has enough talent on its roster to win this game despite lack of credible leadership from its head coach, which is known around here as "the Dorrell Factor".
13-9 showed last year that we do not need a head coach to win an emotional game at home. I believe our guys are going to be fired up enough that they will be able to pull out an ugly victory with a superb defensive effort and less than average offensive output (which pretty much takes place during most Dorrell “coached” games).
Again Cal is banged up. Even if Longshore is back he is not exactly the most mobile QB. He is kind of hurt. The games I have seen him play he looks like a QB who doesn’t have a good feeling on defensive pressure. Reminds you of someone? Yet, he get the best out of his abilities by taking advantage of the great play calling courtesy of the offensive mind of Jeff Tedford.
As for rest of the Cal team I don’t think the talent in their OL (which is athletic) is greater than our OL. I certainly believe our defense is more talented, experience and deeper unit than their defense. I like our special teams better. So all in all, I believe we are going to win this game
Check out the message boards for UCLA fans if you want to see delusional behavior. Apparently a team that lost to Utah and Notre Dame, is going to stomp all over Cal. Even BruinsNation, which I think is a pretty good blog, dismisses the Cal game as a foregone conclusion.
My favorite logic from UCLA fans is that Dorrell owns Tedford at the Rose Bowl. When will people learn that past performance in a team sport has little to no bearing the current year's game? Surely UCLA learned that last year in their win against USC after how many embarrassing losses.
Lastly in regards to BruinsNation reasoning,
1) Superior Talents at RB
UCLA's Kahlil Bell is a solid back and putting up some good numbers. But compared to Cal's trio of Forsett, Best, and Montgomery, I don't really see how UCLA compares.
2) Superior Talents at OL
Cal OL has given up 7 sacks all season while UCLA's OL has given up 17.
3) Defense vs Defense - "I certainly believe our defense is more talented, experience and deeper unit than their defense."
I don't agree with that statement, but even if true, what does it matter? The defenses don't line up against each other. Cal's offense is vastly superior to UCLA's offense. Does that make it a wash? Like I mentioned at the beginning of the year, UCLA's defense is a vastly overrated unit living off that USC victory last year.
Are all UCLA fans this delusional? Check out BruinsNation post about UCLA possibly landing Steve Spurrier as the new Head Coach.
I don't mind confidence or even arrogance, but this takes it to another level. I guess it is just easier.
On that note, Cal will destroy UCLA on Saturday 56 - 13
7 comments:
Those guys are funny. Our defense gets exposed for one game and now they think they can beat us. Silly Bruins...
What do you expect from a UCLA blog other than unreasoned hyperbole. I mean, they went to UCLA!!! You almost can't blame them for being idiots.
I can't wait 'til Saturday to see the Bears finally win one in LA!
haahahhahhhaaa... those guys are frickn funny. I too have been watching every one of their games and they're comparing Bell/Markey to Forsett/Best/Mont? give me a break. They benched the highly recruited Markey because he has no vision to find holes.. so they gave the lightly recruited Bell a chance b/c he can at least run over people.. but they know that Bell, is at best, a compromise.
And I'd take Longshore/Riley any day over Olsen/Cowan... and so would they... Not to mention they drool over our coach.
Great post, but you need to re-word the following statement:
"UCLA's defense is a vastly overrated unit living off that USC victory last year"
This is factually correct, but let's give 'em a little credit and respect their parlance!? How about:
"UCLA's defense is a vastly overrated unit living off that 13-9 last year."
I love how that final score has become a revered, proper noun for the baby bruins. How Dorrellian.
Wow, 28-31 really sucked, but 31-24 two weeks ago will be the game that wins us the Pac-10!
I started at UCLA this year for grad school... I don't know about the undergrads, but the foregone conclusion amongst the graduates is that this UCLA team SUCKS. FLAT OUT SUCKS. The last two games at home - Washington and Notre Dame - were both ugly. Against Washington, UCLA just kept getting lucky, it felt like. UCLA scored, Washington scored, it felt like the game was falling out of UCLA's grip and then UCLA got a lucky 70-yard run or kickoff return. The ND game doesn't even need to be talked about.
Cal just needs to jump to an early lead, score a couple quick TDs, and the crowd will be quieter than crickets. Well, except for the guys yelling to fire Dorrell.
Bold prediction.
Is that with Riley starting or with Longshore? Or does it matter?
Prediction is regardless of starting QB. Can you imagine how much Riley wants to redeem himself? That is great motivation for a player. For Longshore, he probably wants to show how great the offense is with him under center.
Perhaps the Cal output is a little high, but I expect it to be over 40 pts, with the running back trio combining for 4 TD's.
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