Those two bone-headed matchups Meach got to his advantage comprised much of our offense. Our rushing attack wasn't even that good, I very explicitly remember our RB's not doing much against Cal's front 7. Hardesty's 43-yard run was a "What the hell were you thinking?" kind of moment for Cal. One long run each for Coker (21 yards in junk time) and Foster (19 yards), other than that it's a constant flurry of 1-3 yard runs. I remember our guys getting stuffed almost all night, they weren't getting blocking and they weren't making plays. And I explicitly remeber coming on this board directly after and many of you expressing concern for our running game, as well which had looked less than stellar. Cal did run fairly well on us, however, as Lynch picked up 74 yards on 12 touches, the majority of which came against our first team defense.
Both of those same problems proved not to be one-time deals, coming again against Florida, as our D had a notably difficult time stopping the run, as Wynn passed the 100 yard mark on 22 carries, and Tebow picked up 29 rushing yards in limited action. Conversely, our two RB's who saw time were averaging about 0.8 yards per carry. All of this is obviously due in part to the offensive line which had not looked good.
Given the facts that Lynch did pretty well against our first-team defense, and Longshore looked at least serviceable, and they kept our rushing offense from doing much of anything, Cal coulda kept up. Alas, a scrub is mistakenly lined up against an all-American. Yes, we still beat the hell out of them. Yes, I know it's called smart coaching to take advantage of such mismatches. Shut up about it. That blowout came off of three plays. Once the other team is forced to stretch out the offense, any decent defense can take advantage of it. Kudos to our D for doing so. But I find myself ill-convinced that we out-played them in every phase of the game. I saw the game with my own eyes, and it simply did not happen.
Luckily for Cal, that game was a slap in the face for the coaches at Berkley on how to line up defensive backs. I guarantee you that Cal would also have been soundly defeated by at least USC, Oregon, UCLA, Washington and Washington State in the Pac if similar decisions were made. Which is why I repeatedly posted that similar decisions in the Pac would place them in the middle at best, if they don't turn it around, which I noted every single time I posted that (tidwell). They haven't made those similar decisions, instead lining up corners where they ought to be and are now clearly reaping the benefits of the talent they have. Longshore is also taking advantage of the diminished ability of Pac-10 DB's and has gone from looking mediocre at best against Tennessee, to pretty darn good against everybody else. Longshore's defense has also kept him from having to stretch out the offense...
