The way I see it Cal is 3 for 3 in playing better than folks thought.
OK they gave up 36 4th quarter points.
But they were playing hard the whole time.
The trouble was that the offense couldn't control the clock and the ball and the defense then got tired.
Arizona rose up and won the game but Cal didn't lose it.
Arizona is the better team right now and that is not surprising, especially playing at home.

Cal still has a bright future and the coaches are still improving this team.
Remember this team is still young and still learning. They will continue to get better.

What I really hate is this fatalistic talk about how this will always be Cal.

To me it's pretty obvious that the quality of football has changed for the better here at Cal. And I now think we could go to a bowl this year.

If anything, this loss will make the players and coaches even hungrier.

We need to be better in the 3rd quarter and the second half in general. That is what we have learned.

But we are still very healthy with few injuries and we are going to move well beyond this one loss.

yep. loved the effort.

next week will tell the story.

heartofthebear;842363410 said:

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The way I see it Cal is 3 for 3 in playing better than folks thought.
OK they gave up 36 4th quarter points.
But they were playing hard the whole time.
The trouble was that the offense couldn't control the clock and the ball and the defense then got tired.
Arizona rose up and won the game but Cal didn't lose it.
Arizona is the better team right now and that is not surprising, especially playing at home.

Cal still has a bright future and the coaches are still improving this team.
Remember this team is still young and still learning. They will continue to get better.

What I really hate is this fatalistic talk about how this will always be Cal.

To me it's pretty obvious that the quality of football has changed for the better here at Cal. And I now think we could go to a bowl this year.

If anything, this loss will make the players and coaches even hungrier.

We need to be better in the 3rd quarter and the second half in general. That is what we have learned.

But we are still very healthy with few injuries and we are going to move well beyond this one loss.

---

+1

Of course the team deserves credit, and lots of it. I saw many wonderful things go right tonight. Honestly, I put this one entirely on the coaching staff...

The effort was great. I thought the effort was great most of last year, too. But effort has to translate to wins or what's the point?

Yes. they are playing hard. A bowl game though? Hard for me to imagine where the 4 more wins will be. Until we get better talent on D and some quality DBs, we are going to get lit up by QBs that are decent.

Effort doesnt mean **** if you dont get a w

Everybody cheers the troops. It's the people who put them in harm's way who need to be taken to task.

+1. The coaches had this team very well prepared, and the team played very well for much of the game. It's a young squad that will get better.

heartofthebear;842363410 said:

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And I now think we could go to a bowl this year.

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It's nice to dream, but what are you smoking/drinking?

heartofthebear;842363410 said:

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We need to be better in the 3rd quarter and the second half in general. That is what we have learned.

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We obviously didn't learn that from the Northwestern game, so why do you think this one will be different?

CalConor;842363433 said:

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The effort was great. I thought the effort was great most of last year, too. But effort has to translate to wins or what's the point?

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We were clearly soft in the 2nd half, so I am not sure about the attitude of this team at the moment.

agree. the team played their heart out, and I know it was hot in AZ. I was just there and could barely walk from the parking lot into the building without heat stroke

great performances by a lot of players

I do question the play calling in the last possession, and do not understand using Rubenzer in key situations when we have a star QB, but that's another story

The team fought hard, and feel worse then we do right now

Your second sentence seriously had me laughing for a whole minute. But yeah, I agree. Great effort. Lousy coaching though.

Golden One;842363442 said:

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It's nice to dream, but what are you smoking/drinking?


We obviously didn't learn that from the Northwestern game, so why do you think this one will be different?

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So if had won, would you be saying this? If different, then your view on the team depended on a Hail Mary, which is just a freakish play that no matter how it is defensed, is rarely a successful play.

KoreAmBear;842363458 said:

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So if had won, would you be saying this? If different, then your view on the team depended on a Hail Mary, which is just a freakish play that no matter how it is defensed, is rarely a successful play.

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News flash: We didn't win, so I won't respond to a hypothetical. Seems like we fall victim to more than our share of "freakish plays". It wasn't just the "freakish play" that cost us this game; it was the other 30 points we gave up in the fourth quarter.

KoreAmBear;842363458 said:

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So if had won, would you be saying this? If different, then your view on the team depended on a Hail Mary, which is just a freakish play that no matter how it is defensed, is rarely a successful play.

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I think it would be fair to say this even if the Hail Mary had failed. Without that pass completion, Arizona still had scored 30 points in the fourth quarter. It should never have come to that, really.

Watch the replay of the Hail Mary - it was not fundamentally well defensed....

Golden One;842363466 said:

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News flash: We didn't win, so I won't respond to a hypothetical. Seems like we fall victim to more than our share of "freakish plays". It wasn't just the "freakish play" that cost us this game; it was the other 30 points we gave up in the fourth quarter.

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This. One could argue that the chipset they clanked was also a fluke, which would have gave them the win outright even without the Hailmary.

After thinking about it this reminds of the 49ers vs Bears game last week. Get out to big lead and maybe get a little conservative. Make some mistakes late in the 2nd half to give the opponent short fields. Have no pass rush while also playing small DBs vs big WRs. Ultimately, at the end of the game I'm thinking to myself WTF just happened. I don't see anybody calling for Harbaugh's head when the 49ers collapsed.

The team played very hard tonight but made some critical mistakes. My biggest takeaway from this game is our pass rush is going to be a big issue. The people calling for the coaches' heads are ridiculous. How could a team that doesn't respect their coaches get off to a 31-13 lead? This game is going to test our team's character and mental toughness. If the team comes out ready to play against Colorado I will take it as a sign that this team is all in

Golden One;842363466 said:

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News flash: We didn't win, so I won't respond to a hypothetical. Seems like we fall victim to more than our share of "freakish plays". It wasn't just the "freakish play" that cost us this game; it was the other 30 points we gave up in the fourth quarter.

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Yah whatever. This was an implosion, but you are acting like we didn't do anything right. We had a big lead, and we were dominating (including our defense). We should have continued to dominate, but we seem not to know how to hold a lead. But you like to leave out the part where we got the big lead. So have at it this week since you love to post when we're hurting and down.

The emotion of the moment will take some time to wear off, but:

Given where these teams were supposed to be at this point, and given where they were at the end of last year, Cal really had no business even being in a position to win this game on the road. Arizona was supposed to be much better than this Bears team, and instead they barely scraped by with a win. Rough as it was to lose a game this way, it definitely shows how much this team has improved.

btsktr;842363476 said:

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I don't see anybody calling for Harbaugh's head when the 49ers collapsed.

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Harbaugh has led his team to the Super Bowl and the NFC Championship the last two years. Our coach has led us to a 3-12 record. That's probably the difference.

I am super proud of our Bears! They are young and will learn how to finish off opponents. I am very excited that they can pounce on any team with such precise effort, being that young. Now, if they can keep it going for 4 qtrs, then we will be truly formidable.

In a way, while I don't like the fact that we lost or in the manner of losing, I am not as bitter as I was last year. This is probably for a few reasons:

1) We played tougher and were competitive throughout
2) The D is much more sound, save for being out of gas in the 4th.
3) Goff and team can turn it on and score quick. The trick is keeping it going and finishing off an opponent, while doing it slow enough for the D to get rest between series.

If we ended up beating AZ fairly easy, say 65-14...while we would be super happy, it wouldn't help toughen up our team to know how to deal with real adversity. Beating up teams so bad may be awesome for respect and fun, but I doubt the team would really be ready to know how to deal with tight games or elite teams like USC, Oregon, or Stanford. And maybe it was just me, but I felt like the D in the 4th was pretty lackadaisical (probably from tiredness), and was waiting for the potent O to bail them out. Going up 31-16 with 15 min to go, and losing it at the end will hopefully be a good growing pain on how they need to keep focused and floor it as anything can happen in the end. This applies to both coaches and players.

That said, I am still very proud of our Golden Bears, and since the team is still so young and inexperienced, I am excited to see how they will grow into a really veteran and mature team this season and next.

Go Bears!

heartofthebear;842363410 said:

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The way I see it Cal is 3 for 3 in playing better than folks thought.
OK they gave up 36 4th quarter points.
But they were playing hard the whole time.
The trouble was that the offense couldn't control the clock and the ball and the defense then got tired.
Arizona rose up and won the game but Cal didn't lose it.
Arizona is the better team right now and that is not surprising, especially playing at home.

Cal still has a bright future and the coaches are still improving this team.
Remember this team is still young and still learning. They will continue to get better.

What I really hate is this fatalistic talk about how this will always be Cal.

To me it's pretty obvious that the quality of football has changed for the better here at Cal. And I now think we could go to a bowl this year.

If anything, this loss will make the players and coaches even hungrier.

We need to be better in the 3rd quarter and the second half in general. That is what we have learned.

But we are still very healthy with few injuries and we are going to move well beyond this one loss.

---

Eh, I appreciate that you can see the glass half-full. We've been playing the "moral victories" game for decades.

The players didn't have the mental toughness to win tonight. Same as it ever was.

Cal Bears Great;842363486 said:

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Harbaugh has led his team to the Super Bowl and the NFC Championship the last two years. Our coach has led us to a 3-12 record. That's probably the difference.

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Okay how about the game when he was at Stanfurd when they were up by 14 at the half against wake forest only to blow in the second half. Or when they went up 21-0 in Autzen only to get steamrolled.

You're right about the lack of mental toughness, but it's a young team who hasn't learned how to win yet.

btsktr;842363500 said:

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Okay how about the game when he was at Stanfurd when they were up by 14 at the half against wake forest only to blow in the second half. Or when they went up 21-0 in Autzen only to get steamrolled.

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That was his only loss that season. If we go 12-1, then we can ignore this game too.

Strykur;842363523 said:

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That was his only loss that season. If we go 12-1, then we can ignore this game too.

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How about the Wake Forest loss?

Coaching is about adjustments.

Cal comes in prepared and ready to play.

However, they cannot adjust. That's on the coaches.

goldenokiebear;842363437 said:

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Yes. they are playing hard. A bowl game though? Hard for me to imagine where the 4 more wins will be. Until we get better talent on D and some quality DBs, we are going to get lit up by QBs that are decent.

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The fact that a bowl game is even possible after what happened last year is a giant step in the right direction.

dimitrig;842363530 said:

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Coaching is about adjustments.

Cal comes in prepared and ready to play.

However, they cannot adjust. That's on the coaches.

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This I'll agree with. We got out-coached in the second half.

pingpong2;842363470 said:

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This. One could argue that the chipset they clanked was also a fluke, which would have gave them the win outright even without the Hailmary.

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+1 Good on you. A game is 60 minutes, not four seconds.

dimitrig;842363530 said:

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Coaching is about adjustments.

Cal comes in prepared and ready to play.

However, they cannot adjust. That's on the coaches.

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Your right. No pressure on the QB when we needed most cost us the win.

I'm sorry that some folks here are seeing this team through the lens of Cal's dismall history and hence can't see how this team is different than most others, including some of our better more talented teams.

For one thing, these players truly care about each other and that makes for unusual teamwork that can surpass teams with talent.

I'm also sorry that folks are blaming this coaching staff for Cal's history. This is one loss for Cal's DC along with 2 wins. And our offense coaches put up 45 points in the heat on the road showing that they have clearly improved greatly from last year.

Folks here are so fickle. If Cal wins the next 4 games, nobody, absolutely nobody will be saying the things they are now.

I wouldn't trade the coaches for anyone at this point. They coach an exciting brand of football. In some ways I'd rather see Cal lose a game like this than root for team that just runs the ball all the time and wins 17-10 each week (yeah I'm talking about you 49ers).

I'll take 17-10 wins every week. Winning isn't boring and defense isn't boring.