Overraction Sunday: Post-CAL

Hello Followers. Hope you’re having a great weekend.

As for me, I spent yesterday afternoon hauling 3 yards of black mulch around the yard. No fun.
(By the way, how’s that for a Grippi Style Intro???)

What was fun, however, was being able to listen to the Cougs-Bears game in the process.

And if you’re wondering about the general sentiment that others around the conference have for our boys, well, I give you three words: THE MAGINOT LINE.

Don’t know or remember what that is? Well, read on.

Followers, the Maginot Line was the massive line of concrete bunkers and artillery that the French set up along their eastern border in WWII to stop the invasion of Hitler and the Germans.

Unfortunately, for the fearless French, that WW-I style line didn’t work too well 20 odd years later. With the advent of planes, tanks, and more advanced tactics (like going around the wall), the French folded in about a week.

And the reason why I am telling you all this, is because the CAL radio broadcasters likened our offensive line to “The Maginot Line”—e.g. completely stationary and easy to go around. Funny, I thought.

But, in contrast to the stationary Maginot Line, our line was anything but stationary yesterday. In fact, if I got a dollar for every time I heard “False Start, Number 72 offense,” I might have enough money to start another Pu Ram. (Oh, to dream). Clearly, our lack of stability in the line over the past couple of weeks was a factor.

Here are some others:
1) Tedford’s Game Plan. Don’t know about you, but Tedford’s idea to run the wildcat yesterday was pure genius. Knowing that the only way we could stay in the game was for Kevin Riley to keep us in it, JT took Riley out of the game and let their O-Line and speed take over. Brilliant.

2) CAL’s DBs are “offensive” as well as “defensive.” All game long CAL’s radio announcers were berating the play of their DBs—who apparently like to cover guys a lot, but often times forget that it is also a good idea to look for the football. Oh yeah, not a lot of talk about wishing they had B. Jones back. Anyone else find themselves wanting to see Washington and Carpenter out there?????

3) EVERYONE LOVES JEFF TUEL. Cal’s announcers had nothing but good things to say about the kid. In fact, with better line play, they think that he rates as an upper division QB RIGHT NOW!!! And that says something, Nation, about the play of “The Kid.”

4) OUR OFFENSIVE PACE. After our second drive, the CAL announcers criticized Wulff and Sturdy for not having an offensive scheme that matched our talent. Quote: “Part of what it means to be a good coach is to change your style based on the talent you have on your roster. Clearly, Wulff and Sturdy are not doing that.” Moments later, both announcers were commenting about how gassed CAL’s defense was once our O got a little bit of rhythm. Hmmm…

All in all, it sounded like a pretty good effort from our boys. In addition to the 17 points, we also had one 48 yard field goal that hit the upright, as well as two drives that stalled inside the CAL 20 as a result of going for it on 4th down. And so, the result that we got, was more like a 49-23 type game. Not good—but it was an actual result: CAL had its starters in the game for nearly the full 60 minutes!

In addition, when CAL did not have its first teamers in, we lit them up. Granted, this may not mean much, but we ARE beating other teams’ second teamers. To the extent that those guys represent the future of their programs—we’re in good shape.

So, onward to the Alamo and a date with the Fighting “Play down to their Level” Irish.

Right now, ND is DYING to have a game that doesn’t come down to the last second. Meanwhile, we are DYING to have a game that means something in the 4th quarter.

But we sure need DBs for this one. Could be interesting…..