My Beaver Blog

Stop the run - check. Make Booya pass - Check. Booya makes mistakes - Check, Beavs win - Check.

Well it wasn't quite that simple, but wow, it was much more impressive than the final score indicated. Beavs 23-20 in a game that they never lead by more than six. A game in which they had four turnovers and converted 4 first half red zone trips into a measly 9 points. A game in which all world receiver Mike Hass had 4 grabs for 17 yards. Don’t think that Hass didn’t have a lot to do with the success we had elsewhere though. Their plan was clear, stop Hass, stop the Beavs. 3 guys rush and 8 guys follow Hass wherever he goes. OK not that extreme, but you get the point. Except YB busted loose for 194 on 42 totes and 2 scores. Now to be honest things did seem to get a lot easier when Cal lost their started D tackle, but still. This was a Steven Jackson like performance. The Beavs simply manhandled the Bears on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. And as a spectator I agreed with YB's halftime quote when asked when they knew they were going to win the game. His response "Halftime". If was clear that we were better and this was a game we needed to win. It wasn't sealed until Booya's final lame duck hit the turf, but it was certainly deserved.

Thanks to Jeff Tedford for offering Booya a scholarship so he could turn the OSU one down, thus leading us to MM. We definitely got he better end of that deal.

BTW, Cal's all world running game was held to 75 yards rushing on 34 attempts. Ending Cal's strak of 18 straight games with a 100 yard rusher. The 75 yards is about 170 yards below their season average. OUCH! How's that for a stout run D.

If the running games looks anything like this going forward and MM can avoid doing his best DA impersonation (which made an appearance today) then this team could turn in a major, major season. I'll still target 7-3 headed to the CW, but 8-2 would not surprise me at all. Setting up a battle for 2nd place in the Pac-10. I've already got my tickets. Do you?

Bruin preview to come later.

PS - That shot to the YB's package by the Cal defender was bogus. What the heck is the dude thinking?

# posted by BeaverJoe : 4:14 PM