Cal Bears vs. Oregon Ducks
UPI Story
Oregon 24 6 8 3 | 41
California 0 7 20 14 | 42
Team Statistics
Cal Oregon
First downs 22 28
Total offense 465 614
Offensive plays 66 84
Net yards rushing 97 281
Rushing plays 35 50
Net yards passing 368 333
Sacks/lost 1/1 6/44
Passing 21-31-1 18-34-1
Punts/average 6/38.5 6/29.2
Punt returns 1/33 3/15
Kickoff returns 7/142 3/56
Penalties/yards 5/41 9/63
Fumbles/lost 2/2 0/0
Individual Statistics:
Rushing
Oregon: Whittle 11-113, Burwell 15-101, Shedrick 16-54, O'Neil 8-13.
Cal: Chapman 13-97, Rutherford 8-35, Holly 1-8, Barr 13-(-43).
Passing
Oregon: O'Neil 17-33-313-1, McLemore 1-1-20-0.
Cal: Barr 21-31-368-1.
Receiving
Oregon: Deadwiler 11-234, McLemore 3-54, Rickets 1-22, Tate 2-22,
Burwell 1-1.
Cal: Semien 7-182, Caldwell 6-89, Uwaezuoke 2-44, Benjamin 3-29,
Bullard 1-13, Chapman 1-11, Holly 1-0.
Attendence: 34,000
How they scored:
First Quarter
Rickets 22 pass from O'Neil, Thompson kicks. 94 yard drive after a
Cal punt was downed at UO 11 and moved to the 6 yard line by a penalty
on the return. Key play: Burwell 21 yard run to midfield, personal
foul on that play, and a false start on 3rd-and-8 from 33. Early foul
troubles showing up for the Bears.
Tate 2 pass from O'Neil, Thompson kicks. 16 yards in four plays.
Benjamin droppes the kickoff, picks it up and fumbles it again as he
hits the wall. Boy that Tate duck was wide open.
Deadwiler 49 pass from O'Neil, Thompson kicks. This was the first
play after Barr threw an interception to Cota over the middle when he
was looking for Caldwell and the defender behind him on the right and
not Cota who came from the opposite side of the field. Deadwiller got
between two Cal defenders (FS Miles and another, who I can't recall)
and simply outran them. All three TD passes so far were sort of blown
coverages by the backfield Bears.
Thompson 39 FG, which bounced off the right upright but fell through.
This drive started as Barr tried to pitch the ball to Chapman when he
was being sacked on 3rd down, and the refs blew the whistle while the
ball was still rolling (and eventually went out of bounds) and decided
to give the ball to the Ducks because they blew the whistle at the
wrong time. (If you make a mistake, you pay for it, don't let us pay,
please?) But this was the first time the Cal defense showed some
life, stopping Oregon from scoring a TD.
Second Quarter
Tate 20 pass from McLemore, kick bounced off the left upright but fell
short this time. This one was a WR pass, a lateral from O'Neil to
McLemore along the left sideline, who found Tate wide open in the
endzone. Key play: pass interference call on Graham from the official
in the middle of the field (not the guy who was right in front of
Graham and the Duck receiver) on 3rd-and-7 on an overthrown pass.
(Man, those refs suck dead Duck meat.)
However, on replay, it seems like Graham pushed the receiver a little,
so it might have been a right call (why that ref didn't throw the flag
is still mystery, though---there was another play later in the game in
which a clear push by a Duck in front of a sideline official didn't
draw a flag, and the announcers were joking that probably it's not his
job to watch for interferences).
Chapman 1 run, Brien kicks. Key plays: Houston returns kickoff to Cal
45, Barr 25 pass to Caldwell on 3rd-and-3. There was a pass
interference call in the endzone, which looked as bogus as the
previous one at game time, but seeing the replay today, I found that
the defender actually hit the reciever before the ball arrived, and
ended up knocking the ball away by his back. :) This was really costly
for Oregon because Cal was facing a 3rd-and-long after a 1st down
sack.
After both teams traded punts, Oregon threatens to score at the end of
the half, but runs out of time. They had about 20 seconds and one
time out left when they broke up the huddle for another play, but one
receiver didn't know where to line up and after O'Neil moved him to
the opposite side of the field and got the snap, there were only 4
seconds on the clock. O'Neil threw an incomplete pass to the left
sideline as the clock expired.
Third Quarter
Chapman 61 run with lateral from Barr, Brien kicks. First play from
scrimmage after Oregon goes three and out in their first drive of the
second half. (Houston almost got to the punter, and even after
watching the replay, I don't understand how the punter managed to get
this one off.)
In the play, Barr just dumped the ball to Chapman on the left as the
pocket collapses, and Lindsey runs up, breaks a tackle and goes to the
middle around midfield, and then breaks another tackle and turns to
the left sideline. Semien was running ahead of him, giving the last
Oregon defender some trouble getting around Damien and Chapman just
enough room to get into the endzone. Chapman's dive into the endzone
with the ball held up (reminded me of the UW game two years ago) was a
classic.
Burwell 13 run, Burwell runs for 2-point. Cal defense was unable to
stop Oregon this time as O'Neil threw a beautiful spiral for 42 yards
to McLemore to get into Bear Territory. The TD run had a blitz coming
from the right, with Burwell going to the left and Joiner barely
missing him.
Semien 46 pass from Barr, pass to Benjamin failed (right through his
hands ;). Damien ran down the right sideline with the defender inside
him, Barr's pass was a little short but was to the right of Semien so
he was able to use his body to isolate the defender and catch the ball
at the 10 yard line as the Duck fell as he walked into the endzone.
This drive started at the Cal 5 as Benjamin tried to return the
kickoff from the endzone, and stopped as Houston told him to do so,
but realized that he had already stepped out of the endzone and got
swarmed by Ducks at the 5 yard line. There was a beautiful 28-yard
pass to Caldwell, who got just behind the defender and managed to come
down with the ball. How does he do that?
Then the huge play: Zomalt 15 return TD of blocked punt by DePaola.
Three Cal defenders, Houston from the right, DePaola from the middle,
Zomalt from the left were all over the punter. I could hear the
Oregon rooters shaking in their boots after this one. The smell of
victory (or defeat, depending on whether you were a mammal or a bird)
was all over Memorial.
Fourth Quarter
After both team traded punts (and Houston was oh so close on another
one), O'Neil, facing a 3rd-and-6 deep inside Duckland, threw a short
slant pass which was caught between Houston and Cherry as the two
players missed the tackle, and nobody was in front of the Duck.
However, Cherry managed to turn himself around in a hurry and chase
the defender down at the Cal 20 yard line. Boy that guy is fast.
This gutsy play by Cherry really saved the game for us.
Oregon had a 1st-and-goal from the 7 yard line, but failed to go in
after 4 tries. Facing 3rd-and-a-foot, a quarterback sneak was stopped
short by Willard, and a 4th down pass, which seemed like destined to a
wide-open Duck in the right side of the endzone, was batted down by
the speedy Booth who just got a hand on the ball right before it got
to the receiver. O'Neil is probably regretting that he put a little
too much air under that ball.
Cal managed to sneak out from the dangerous zone when Barr completed a
3rd down pass to Bullard after two Rutherford rushes up the middle
gave the Bears a little breathing room, but this drive stalls as Barr
gets sacked on a 3rd-down play in which a Duck seemed to jump offside.
(There were lots of times when the officials just seemed to swallow
their whistles when a defensive player went over the line---we got
away with one but Oregon got away with at least two.)
By the way, we saw something that doesn't happen very often on this
drive: a wide-open Caldwell dropping the ball. Cal went to him again
on the very next play, which Mike made a nice catch. I liked that
play calling.
Thompson 21-yard FG. The tired Cal defense gave up another big play,
as Whittle ran 44 yards to the Cal 20 after breaking a tackle at the
line of scrimmage. However, the Bear defense came through and this
time, Joiner was the one who came up big, crushing a Duck and knocking
the ball loose from him as he catched the pass at the goal line on
3rd-and-goal. 5 minutes to play.
Semien 72 yard pass from Barr, Brien kicks. I realized after watching
the tape yesterday that Benjamin, contrary to my remarks yesterday,
was not having a bad game as a kickoff returner (he also had some nice
catches, too) at all. He broke a couple tackles to get out to the 28
yard line on this one, leading to the big pass on the next play. Barr
was waiting for Caldwell to get free on the left but this play didn't
develop as the pocket started collapsing, so he stepped up and threw a
bomb to Semien, who had beaten his man and caught the ball around the
10 yard line. What arm strength Dave has, amazing.
Oregon managed to move the ball to midfield, as a Duck broke the
tackle of (of all people) Willard to rush for 30 yards or so, but
Willard came through by stopping the 3rd-and-3 play in which the
running back turned the right corner and seemed to have a clear shot
at a first down. Willard emerged from behind the line and slammed
that guy flat. There was a long timeout before this key play, as a
Duck got hurt and was carried off the field on one of those vehicles
(what is it called?). I thought it is cool if we can put a big Cal
helmet on that thing (like in NFL), BTW.
The final drive started with a little over 2 minutes left. Barr
overthrew Benjamin on the left sideline, and then Uwaezuoke on the
left again. On third down, Barr was forced outside to the right but
threw a nice pass on his run to Uwaezuoke to pick up a crucial 1st
down.
After getting out of the 20 yard line, the plays were very smooth.
First it was a pass to Semien on the right sideline for a 1st down,
Barr rushed out of the right sideline after a gain of 9 yards, Holly
went up the middle to pick up 8 yards and a 1st down, Semien caught a
pass on the left sideline right beyond the 1st down marker and then
another on the right flat for 3 yards. Cal calls a timeout at the
Oregon 26 yard line with 1:22 remaining in the game.
The Bears lined up after coming off the bench, but Barr calls for an
audible, in which a wide receiver who was originally in the left slot
was called in to guard him on a shotgun. As he expected, the blitz
came from the left, but Barr threw a perfect spiral to Uwaezuoke on
the left corner of the endzone, who was just a step ahead of the
defender. It was a one point ballgame.
I was actually surprised to read in today's newspaper that Gilbertson
was thinking whether to go for a win or not when we were catching up,
as it was no question about it inside myself. Reportedly, he asked
Denny Schuler, the offensive coordinator, about it, and Schuler said
"Coach, this is what you get paid for." :)
Barr changed the play again at the 2-point play, and threw a lob to
Caldwell on the same left corner. I like Mike's quote in the paper:
"It seemed like the ball was in the air forever. I could see the
ball. I could see the sun. I had time to think about things: Where
did I put my keys? Should I jump for the ball?"
Well, he did, just enough to catch the ball and get one foot down
while getting pushed by a defending Duck (thus drawing a flag, which
was declined, of course). That guy has hands of glue.
The student section was going nuts for the umpteenth time in the
afternoon, but the game wasn't over yet. Oregon, taking the kickoff,
faced a 3rd-and-6 but O'Neil threw a nice pass to bring the ball out
(how many time did I say that?). After getting a 1st down around
midfield, O'Neil overthrew a pass to the left sideline badly (in fact
it went above the heads of two Cal defenders), the Oregon left tackle
made a false start, and at 2nd-and-15, O'Neil made his first mistake
of the game---and a costly one. He overthrew a streaking Duck on the
left sideline, and was picked off by Houston, who was running ahead of
him. The Comeback was etched in history.