Cal Postgame... | Page 8 | Syracusefan.com

Cal Postgame...

Well, I had no expectations yesterday based on three things. First, it is always difficult to play a West Coast game, seldom do you win. Second, SU seems to always fall behind by two touch downs in the first quarter and thirdly, we are a little banged up.

They played a good game and won and didn't have to" Hose Off" Fran at the airport.
I liked that we won the toss and took the ball. They wanted to get things rolling early.
 
I watched the first half on DVR later and listened to some

What a difference the OL changes made

Very happy with the win but also frustrated those changes took longer than they should've

Cal really stunk it up. Only loss of the year that wasn't really close
They didn’t look bad by luck. Cuse won in all the areas Cal had been elite in. They were 9th in the nation on rush defense. Cuse ran for 150 and 2 TD’s. Cal was 2nd best at forcing TOs and 1st in INTs. Syracuse had 0 TOs. Cal was top 10 in sacking the QB. Syracuse allowed just 1

That’s good preparation and game planning
 
Other than those two long runs that the D allowed, to me the D looked different to the eye. The rush, tackling and coverage (even field goals) looked like it was another team on the field.
The offense was early season efficiency and how about Trebor Peña?
The dude is reliable, fast, tough and smart.
If this game mentality continues for the next two games, this will end up being an amazing season with a bright future.
Side note:
If you have never been to Northern Cali, I would highly recommend that you get out there to witness unbelievable natural beauty. The place looks like it was made out of picture postcards.
 
Take away those 2 big runs, they ran for 38 yards on 21 carries. The tackling was much better. Safeties took bad angles on those 2 runs.

The RBs had 12 other carries for 30 yards. Still that is a great job for those 12 carries.
 
I think if someone gave me a bottle of Old Spice, I'd be mildly offended. I doubt anyone under the age of 30 uses it, so giving me that would be like a subtle way of saying "you're old". About the only thing worse would be Grey Flannel since I don't think many people under 65 use that anymore.
Isn't Old Spice cool again? The commercials are entertaining.
 
Other than those two long runs that the D allowed, to me the D looked different to the eye. The rush, tackling and coverage (even field goals) looked like it was another team on the field.
The offense was early season efficiency and how about Trebor Peña?
The dude is reliable, fast, tough and smart.
If this game mentality continues for the next two games, this will end up being an amazing season with a bright future.
Side note:
If you have never been to Northern Cali, I would highly recommend that you get out there to witness unbelievable natural beauty. The place looks like it was made out of picture postcards.
I loved the Cal campus when we were doing college visits for my daughter. The neighborhood around it is cool if you are an old punk rock guy like me, but I was a bit worried with a daughter if she had gone there. Northern Cal in general is beautiful. I need to win Powerball to move there, however!
 
I loved the Cal campus when we were doing college visits for my daughter. The neighborhood around it is cool if you are an old punk rock guy like me, but I was a bit worried with a daughter if she had gone there. Northern Cal in general is beautiful. I need to win Powerball to move there, however!
My local museum is currently running a punk rock exhibition. It mentioned the east & west coast meccas for the genre. My wife & I couldn't recognize many of the names of the west coast bands.
 

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My local museum is currently running a punk rock exhibition. It mentioned the east & west coast meccas for the genre. My wife & I couldn't recognize many of the names of the west coast bands.
That is cool! I definitely know a bunch of the bands on there, but most are British that I know, with a few exceptions
 
Great win yesterday. I mentioned in the other thread but I made the trip from Sacramento in between going to the Friday night overtime Kings game and yesterday night's game against the Jazz. Needless to say, I'm useless today.
It only took 80 minutes to make it to the parking garage in Berkeley yesterday. It's still so weird to me that this is the easiest conference road trip I've ever made, even though I live almost 3000 miles from Syracuse now. This was a much more relaxed environment and game than the UNLV roadtrip earlier this year from a pre-game perspective and the game itself. I've been to Cal for two different USC games and definitely felt less animosity from their fans. That said, if we become a winner, that will change I will be perfectly fine with that.
We hiked up the hill for the Syracuse hosted pre-game next to the Stadium. My wife is 7 months pregnant but was a good sport and luckily knew what we were getting into based on previous trips. Not as fun as Mark's tailgate for the UNLV game but still had a good time. We were seated with Niners announcer Greg Papa. He said he hasn't been to Syracuse since the Spurs - Knicks game in 1997. He also asked if the Syracuse chant is "let's go cuse" or "let's go S-U" so that paints a picture of how invested in Cuse athletics he was. Ha. Still a nice guy and was happy to be there cheering on the Orange. They had a nice little pep rally with Otto and the cheerleaders and the location next door to the Stadium made it a worthwhile experience.
We made it the game in advance of kickoff. Last year's Cal game against USC was delayed by about 30 minutes by protesters on the field. Was happy to have this game start on time with absolutely perfect weather. I wasn't super optimistic heading into the game but was pleasantly surprised by the play of both the offensive and defensive lines. After the 6-0 lead, we really felt in control the rest of the game. It definitely contributed to the "relaxed" feel and really an unfamiliar feeling for a conference road game. At least for me.
Post game we made it back in time for tip-off of the Kings Jazz and got to see another victory. In my opinion, combined with the UNLV game, these made for the best road trips since the 2017 trips to LSU and Miami. Of course we won both of these games so gonna be tough to top in the coming years.
 
Still reppin’ cuse this morning at the Berkeley 10k & half marathon.
Great game yesterday!
 

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I listened to the game on WAER and followed it on ESPN. From where I listened, it was a superb win by an inspired team. Fran & the coaches had the team ready to play, in all three areas.

The Kennedy young man is making our kicking game good again. The freshman DB Kerr that made the amazing interception certainly made the most of his opportunity. Barron is intense and made a lot of plays. I just wish he’d quit fouling. If you make a great play, then get called for a 15 yard penalty, you didn’t make a great play.

The line gave McCord time to throw and he & Nixon were using the same playbook. Our receivers catch the ball, for the most part. It was a gratifying win. The early interceptions allowed us to take a lead and stop Cal from scoring early. Cal showed why they’re a decent team, especially in the second half. Jaivian Thomas for Cal is fast.

The coaches played their best all around game of the year. Sure is nice having Wax back, eh? Kudos to all!!
 

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