Cal vs. Stanford 2004 Football

I can't help but steal this line from a friend's blog:
"Stanfurd is so bad, even when we beat the crap out of them, we still lose votes to a team (Texas) that didn't even play!!"

Crushed



By Mark Thoma
Senior Staff Writer
Monday, November 22, 2004


Lindsay Coleman
T.J. Rushing and the Cardinal couldn't keep up with the Golden Bears' offense Saturday, suffering the worst Big Game loss since 1930. The Cardinal close out the season at 4-7.
The Cardinal rolled into Berkeley Saturday seeking a tremendous upset. But they never found the end zone and lost their composure in the second half.
By the time the dust settled on their overcast, windy afternoon matchup, No. 4 California stood on the strong side of a 41-6 score.

Stanford ended the season with its fifth consecutive loss, while the Bears earned their fifth straight victory. It was by far the Cardinal's worst loss of the season as well as their worst Big Game loss since they were defeated 41-0 all the way back in 1930.

"This one certainly was embarrassing," head coach Buddy Teevens said.

There were few positive words spoken by Stanford after the game, and understandably so. After playing 30 minutes of inspired defense against the Pacific-10 Conference's top-ranked offense, the Cardinal self-destructed in the second half, allowing four touchdowns and committing several blatantly intentional personal fouls. Meanwhile, the Stanford offense managed just 180 yards of offense in 58 plays against the Pac-10's second-ranked defense.

Despite Saturday's loss which, it should be remembered, did come at the hands of one of the nation's best teams it's clear that Stanford is a better team this year than last. But it will nonetheless finish with the same record (4-7, 2-6 Pac-10).

"I guess to everyone else, we are the same team [as last year]," receiver Evan Moore said. "The way things were going at the end is just disgusting. Four-and-seven is not gonna cut it, especially at a university like this that can get the very best athletes."

Cal (9-1, 7-1), of course, is most certainly not the same team it was last year. Barring a catastrophic upset at the hands of Southern Miss, the Golden Bears are a lock for the Rose Bowl which sent three officials to watch Big Game and could still move up to the national championship game if two of Oklahoma, Auburn and Southern California should falter.

Aaron Rodgers was a very quiet 11-of-14 passing for 120 yards and a touchdown, but Pac-10 rushing leader J.J. Arrington ran 27 times for 169 yards and a touchdown, Marshawn Lynch had 122 yards on just nine carries plus a trick-play touchdown pass, and Geoff MacArthur had a game-high five catches for 47 yards.

"Arrington and Lynch are very, very talented players and Rodgers plays well within the system," Teevens said. "They're smart with the football, they're balanced, they're consistent, they play well as a group."

Arrington broke Chuck Muncie's single-season rushing record of 1,460 yards, Geoff MacArthur broke Dameane Douglas' career record of 195 receptions and Cal set a school record for average attendance while going unbeaten at Memorial Stadium for the first time since 1950. Arrington also extended his school-record streak of 10 consecutive 100-yard games.

While Cal was shattering age-old records, Stanford was struggling against familiar problems.

The Cardinal gained just 24 yards on 30 carries, including minus-10 yards on 12 second-half rushes. The predictable passing game (another deep out, anyone?) failed to fool Cal's defenders, who deflected 10 of the 26 passes T.C Ostrander threw.

Ostrander, starting again for the injured Trent Edwards, connected on 8-of-26 throws for 148 yards, while taking six sacks. No receiver had more than two catches.

"They brought a variety of blitzes, it was plenty loud out there, it was hard to communicate and they were mixing up their coverages," Ostrander said. "[But] we did not execute as well as we should have."

It was a sloppy game all around, and the Pac-10 officiating crew didn't help matters. In total, Stanford was penalized 14 times for 126 yards, while Cal was flagged 12 times for 102 yards.

"The refs were being overly sensitive," said linebacker David Bergeron, one of 11 seniors who played his final game for Stanford. "They started calling stuff that happens in every Pac-10 game every weekend for 15-yard flags."

Penalties hurt the Cardinal on Cal's first drive of the second half. Holding just a 10-3 lead, Cal drove 71 yards for a field goal, 30 yards of which came thanks to Stanford personal fouls.

"We're far more disciplined than those [penalties] showed," Teevens said. "Emotions certainly took over on both sides of the game with the personal fouls."

Stanford's next drive stalled on its own 42-yard line, and Cal responded quickly, as Lynch slipped a tackle in the backfield, cut up the left sideline, slipped another tackle and won a footrace to the right corner of the end zone to put Cal up 20-3 late in the third quarter.

The Cardinal came back with a 10-play, 52-yard drive ending in a 44-yard Michael Sgroi field goal, his second in two tries. But Cal would need only seven rushes (and nary a pass play) to go 87 yards and take a 27-6 lead with 12:53 remaining in the final period.

"They started running the zone play and cutting it back to a gap we didn't have covered," Bergeron said. "Schematically, they did a great job."

Later in the fourth, Reggie Robertson had a five-yard touchdown run and Burt Toler caught Lynch's 20-yard pass for the final Cal score.

Cal scored first in the game, as Tim Mixon returned a punt 51 yards and Rodgers connected with Robert Jordan on a 29-yard touchdown 6:45 into the game. Tom Schneider and Sgroi traded field goals to complete the first-half scoring.

With the season over, Teevens now must turn his efforts toward recruiting, while Athletic Director Ted Leland will review the performance of the team and its coaches, as he does after each sport's season concludes.

Alston endorsed Teevens, saying that "Coach Teevens has been nothing but great to me. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'd like to see him back, but I know that's not my place to comment."

Said Teevens, signed through 2006: "I'm under contract. I expect to [and] I want to [be retained]."

For everyone involved, though, it was a painful end to what seemed such a promising season when the Cardinal was 4-2 overall and 2-1 in Conference following a win at Washington State. But, after a series of narrow, frustrating losses, the year came to an end in Berkeley with a blowout.

"People wanna act like, oh, it's okay, you guys were a little bit closer this year, but that's not a winning attitude," Moore said. "I hope that's not a consolation to everyone that we were close, because that's not good enough."