Football:
ARMED FORCES BOWL:
Bears are a Force Behind Riley's Arm in 42-36 Bowl Win Over Falcons

FORT WORTH, Texas – Backup quarterback Kevin Riley knew he was going to get at least a few snaps in the Armed Forces Bowl against Air Force for the Cal football team.

What he didn’t know was that he was going to be playing for the majority of the game.

Riley was inserted into the game with the Bears trailing 21-0. After he was done for the day, Riley had rallied Cal, leading the team to a 42-36 victory over the Falcons in front of 40,905 fans at the Amon G. Carter Stadium.

“I knew I was going to get a series,” said Riley, who was named the Most Valuable Player after completing 16-of-19 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns. “After the first two touchdowns, I thought they’d leave me in because we were on a roll.”

It seemed like Riley was the spark plug for a Bears squad that failed to score on its first two possessions of the game.

After Riley came on in relief of starter Nate Longshore at the beginning of the second quarter, Cal (7-6) scored on every offensive possession except for three – a failed Hail Mary attempt at the end of the first half, a Justin Forsett fumble and the final drive of the game.

“When Riley got in there, it was a whole different tempo,” senior wideout Robert Jordan said. “The statistics don’t lie. Riley came in there and he was six drives for six touchdowns.”

Jordan himself had a big day, catching six balls for 148 yards and a touchdown. It was Jordan’s first 100-yard receiving game since 2005.

What may have been the motivating factor for Jordan was that he was benched for the first couple of series for violating team rules.

Fellow wide receiver DeSean Jackson was also benched to start the game, and both entered with Riley. Jackson made an immediate impact, catching all three of Riley’s pass attempts – including a 40-yard touchdown grab - on Cal’s first scoring drive. He finished with 81 yards receiving on five receptions.

The Bears’ top three receivers – Jordan, Jackson and senior Lavelle Hawkins – all had receiving touchdowns, marking the first time in their careers that the trio have accomplished that feat.

“It was unfortunate that we had to sit out the first quarter. We made a mistake,” Jackson said. “When we got in there, we just felt like we had to do whatever we had to do to get in there. That was definitely tough.”

Air Force (9-4) raced out to a 21-0 lead behind its option attack. The Falcons rushed for 161 yards to jump out to their three-score lead midway through the second quarter.

Air Force finished the game with 312 yards rushing.

Senior quarterback Shaun Carney dashed through the Cal defense for 108 yards and a touchdown before injuring his knee in the third quarter.

The Bears shut down the option play after switching to a 3-4 defensive front, allowing them to better utilize their team speed.

“It helped us out with speed on the edges,” linebacker Justin Moye said. “It gave us more speed to match up with them. Then going back and forth from our base defense to three linemen and mixing it up caught them off balance in not knowing what to call.”

The Falcons weren’t the only ones who were able to find success on the ground.

While Riley’s arm led the charge, Forsett was able to find gaping holes in the Air Force defense, nabbing the ninth 100-yard rushing game of his career.

Forsett finished with 144 yards and two touchdowns and tied the Bears’ single-season record for rushing touchdowns with 15—a mark that he now shares with current NFL back J. J. Arrington.

“I think it definitely makes a difference (when the receivers are in the game),” Forsett said. “Any time they’re in the game, they’re such a threat outside and so potent that they can make a play anywhere on the field, so the defense can’t just focus on the run.”

For Cal as a team, the win came as a relief and as a good building block for next season.

In the first week of October, the Bears found themselves ranked No. 2 in the country, but then lost six of their last seven games to finish sixth in the Pac-10 conference.

“I’m proud of our team because we’ve been through a tough season,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. “We had a lot of high expectations and we lost a lot of close games. I told them in the locker room, I’ve never been more proud of a group as I am of these guys in this game.”

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