Defense, Offense, Autzen . . . Where does Tedford start?

Best Bested




“Was the crowd a factor?,” Tedford mused. “Absolutely. It always is here. This is the toughest place to play in our conference for sure, one of the toughest in the nation.”

UO defense knows Best
By Adam Jude
The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Sunday, Sep 27, 2009
The beginning could not have been any worse for the Oregon defense.

A fumble by Walter Thurmond III on the game’s opening kickoff not only gave California great field position, but Thurmond, the Ducks’ defensive leader, was lost for the remainder of the game — and probably much longer — with a knee injury.

“That was a big ‘uh-oh’ moment,” UO defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said. [Or as the Oregonian quoted it,]

"Absolutely," Aliotti said. "Abso-friggin-lutely. It was a big uh-oh moment."

[And that's our Mad Duck Secret Word of the week. Write the word "Abso-friggin-lutely" onto a postcard and send it to Mad Duck. We'll enter it in our drawing for a chance to win a turkey buffet for two at Spirit Mountain Casino on Thanksgiving Day.]

Yet the response by Oregon in its 42-3 victory over the sixth-ranked Bears — so shocking to the rest of college football — apparently wasn’t so unexpected by the Ducks.

The UO defensive line, considered perhaps the team’s weakest link entering fall camp, “manhandled” the Cal offensive line and shut down Jahvid Best, holding the Heisman candidate to 55 yards rushing.

“Our defense knew we were going to do this,” defensive tackle Brandon Bair said. “Everybody kept asking, ‘What are you going to do about Best? What are you going to do about Best?’ I said, ‘If he can’t get past the line of scrimmage, we’ve got nothing to worry about.’ ["And once I said that, people would just stare at me for a minute and then say, 'What are you going to do about Best? What are you going to do about Best?' "]

“That’s just our mentality. We’re just going to come in and hit him with all we got, because we know we have the talent and the speed and the ability to stop anybody.”

[It was amazing to watch them do it play after play. While the big boys like Bair clogged the middle, Oregon's D-linemen on the edges would penetrate Cal's O-line and then collapse into the middle on Best or whoever else was struggling to punch through.]

It was the fewest points Oregon has allowed since shutting out Stanford, 35-0, at Autzen Stadium in 2003.
“The kids were fantastic,” Aliotti said. “My staff did a great job all week; we practiced hard, we run hard, we have great chemistry, we have great attitude. My momma said there’d be days like this, but this is a special one.” [Momma said, Momma said.]

Cal had just 207 yards of offense, well below its season average of 488.7. The Ducks had five sacks — two each by Kenny Rowe and Terrell Turner — and 11 tackles for a loss, putting steady pressure on Cal quarterback Kevin Riley. Aliotti said the Ducks “zone-blitzed a bunch” and held the Beaverton native to 12-of-31 passing for 123 yards.

“We had one series that was so much fun (when) each defensive lineman had a shot at the quarterback,” [6' 7"] Bair said. “It was so much fun. It was three plays and we’re out, and (Riley) was down every time. It was awesome.” [You know, I am not going to lose any sleep worrying about the possibility of Brandon Bair ever getting punched in the face. He's a giant of a boy who really enjoys making other people sad.
That was just half of the above story. Click the R-G's link to read the rest if you'd like. But I just thought you might want to read about this green tornado from the victims' point of view. Below, Jeff Tedford gives his accounting while standing on the bare spot where his #6-ranked trailer once stood.]

Bears’ offense doesn’t look so golden
Oregon dominates Cal’s line, leading to Jahvid Best’s worst day of the year
By Ron Bellamy
The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Sunday, Sep 27, 2009

The Bears couldn’t run the football, couldn’t pass it, and ultimately couldn’t stop Oregon from doing either thing Saturday afternoon at Autzen Stadium.

It all added up to a 42-3 victory for the Ducks, the worst loss for Cal under coach Jeff Tedford — the previous worst was a 35-10 loss to Southern California in 2005 — and worst overall since 2001.

“Everybody’s disappointed,” Tedford said. “When you don’t play well like that, and you invested so much time and energy in what’s going on, you don’t feel good.”

The Bears will plummet from their lofty ranking of No. 6 in the nation, and the loss was a blow to the Heisman Trophy candidacy of running back Jahvid Best, held to 55 yards on 16 carries after rushing for at least 100 yards in seven straight games.

“We didn’t execute in any phase of offense, running the football, protecting the passer, passing game, nothing,” Tedford said.

The Bears were held to 207 yards total offense, were just 3-of-15 on third-down conversions and netted just 2.4 yards per rush and 3.6 yards per pass attempt. Quarterback Kevin Riley was 12-of-31 for 123 yards and was sacked four times.
“We got a little frustrated not being able to do anything,” Riley said. “Missed throw, missed block, not hitting the hole. It was everybody on the offense taking turns messing up.”

Oregon’s defensive pressure was evident from Cal’s first play from scrimmage, when defensive end Kenny Rowe sacked Riley for a loss of eight yards.

“Kevin was really rushed all day long,” Tedford said. “We didn’t do a good job of protecting the passer, and you’ve got to do that to get the passing game going. …

“They were just beating us at the point of attack. We weren’t getting any movement up front. Really impressed with their defensive front. They did a great job in the run game, they did a great job in rushing the passer.”

Said offensive tackle Mike Tepper: “We knew they were going to line eight or nine in the box and bring guys from all over the place. As an elder on the team, I want to put a lot of it on myself and the offensive line. We couldn’t open the holes up for Jahvid or Shane (Vereen) or any of the backs, and we couldn’t protect Riley.”

Tepper said the crowd noise sometimes made it impossible to hear Riley’s signals and “affected me a little bit.” [Translation: "a lot"]

“Was the crowd a factor?,” Tedford mused. “Absolutely. It always is here. This is the toughest place to play in our conference for sure, one of the toughest in the nation.”
[In an earlier story, Jahvid Best had said that Autzen is the only place where the noise gets to him.
Advice to Tedford, Best, Cal and everyone else: Don't say that stuff publicly. It only encourages us.]

Meanwhile, Cal couldn’t slow the UO offense after the first quarter.

Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said Oregon showed “a few wrinkles” in the running game for which the Bears hadn’t prepared.

This says at all. Between Dickson and LaMichael James lies Cal player flat on his back.

“They can move the ball against anybody,” he said. “Certainly we didn’t think they’d move the ball that well against us. But that’s what that offense can do. … They did a great job, I didn’t do a great job and we’ve got to get back at it next week.”

Danny O'Neal? The throwback uniforms threw me back into old habits. Once when a run up the middle went for nothing, I caught myself wanting to yell "AHHH C'MON BROOKS!"


[Oregon jumped to #16 in the AP. That's a relief. The win was good enough to pass Washington in the polls. I'll leave you with a quote from Coach Chip Kelly before the game as quoted in the Oregonian:] --kb

Before the game, Kelly was asked how his team, a touchdown underdog, could knock off a Cal team that many predicted would win the conference after USC's loss last week.
"They've got to knock us off," he said with a bravado that seemed out of place -- but only for a few minutes.