Nail, meet coffin.
The 2012 football season began with scattered whispers for the end of the Jeff Tedford era. Those whispers rapidly shifted to obnoxious screams as the Bears dropped their opener to Nevada at a newly renovated Memorial Stadium.
The yelling halted after Cal’s blowout of UCLA and a convincing win over Washington State. But after the utter beatdown at Memorial against Stanford on Saturday, the screams returned louder than ever.
Now 3-5 on the season, Cal’s hopes for a postseason berth have effectively evaporated. To even reach bowl eligibility, the Bears need to take down Utah and Washington and win one against either Oregon State or Oregon. It’s a possibility that Cal will be the underdog in all four games.
Lose two of those, however, and it would be a surprise if Tedford isn’t fired.
The Big Game epitomized Tedford’s failures all wrapped up into one little package. The offense came out unmotivated and flat. The play calling consisted of unimaginative and disjointed packages. And there were enough third and long halfback draws to make any Cal fan yank out clumps of hair.
Most worrisome of all, Tedford hasn’t adjusted the offensive gameplan to account for the offensive line’s deficiencies. The line gave up four sacks in what has rapidly become a pattern of porous play this year.
Stanford completely dismantled the Bears’ running game. Running backs Isi Sofele, C.J. Anderson and Brendan Bigelow could easily be considered among the most talented grouping of backs in the conference.
All of that talent earned Cal a grand total of three rushing yards on 28 carries.
Whether the blame lies on the offensive line taking six steps back after taking a baby step forward or Tedford’s inopportune play calling is impossible to discern.
But three rushing yards is pretty inexcusable, especially in a marquee matchup. Cal’s inability to pick up yards on first and second downs killed any chances of the team putting together a scoring drive. The Bears went one for 14 on third downs, facing third and 8 or longer half of the time.
It seems like in every single game, the offensive line finds a way to screw up the offensive momentum. Sometimes, Maynard gets sacked nine times and throws balls over everyone’s heads — as in the tilt with USC. Against Stanford, the death blow was letting the Cardinal front seven do whatever they liked on the line of scrimmage.
The offensive line will need to start putting together consistent, cohesive performances over these next four games.
Otherwise, Tedford could be on the street faster than Stanford linebacker Chase Thomas shoots through the A-gap.
Michael Rosen covers football. Contact him at [email protected]
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The new chancellor should keep Tedford in until the end of his contract in 2015 strictly as an object lesson to the current administration and alumni. And that object lesson would be: “You want to sign mediocre performers to expensive long-term contracts? Good, you get to live with them.”
Not one dime, even from private contributions, should be spent buying out this guy’s contract, because all it would do is deflect accountability from the idiots who made the deal to begin with. They need to own it, and be paraded out on the field and named over the loudspeakers and booed and made to watch every loss in the 2013, 2014, and 2015 seasons with a sign around their neck and a dunce cap. Their kids should have to be homeschooled out of fear of getting the shat beat out of them at regular school and there should be signs in their yards saying “A financial crime against the people of California was enabled by this moron.”
…. and never again hire a coach whose name ryhmes with Stanford.
“And there were enough third and long halfback draws to make any Cal fan yank out clumps of hair.” It was the third and shorts with Maynard dropping back into the shotgun for a halfback draw that bothered me the most. The way Tedford keeps Maynard from running or sneaking would suggest that Maynard is the slowest player on the field. There will be a benefit to Allen getting drafted, and that will be that we don’t have to play his half brother ever again.
Let’s hope Tedfraud gets fired this year.
Then Cal kiddies can have their little team make winseys! Awwww, ithsn’t it shweeeeet!!?
God, who* cares?
*Person without a psychopathic desire for external self-validation.