Saturday, September 13, 2008

Cal-Maryland - Post Mortem

Well, Friday night started out great.  We went down to UCDC (an awesome building) for a gathering of Cal Alumni.  We were treated to inspired talks by Sandy Barbour and Joe Kapp and got into the spirit for the game.  Anybody go on the pub crawl later that night?

Saturday morning we attended the official pregame tailgate and heard more from Sandy and Joe as well as the Straw Hat Band.  They went through the entire Sproul Plaza pre-game show.  It was almost like being there!  Over 500 in attendance.  Now I have to say I usually don't eat hamburgers and hot dogs for breakfast but, you do what you have to do.

We hiked over to the stadium, found our seats and settled in for what we hoped would be a great game.  Now, I will elaborate on my observations later but, suffice to say, before we knew it, it was 14-0 and 21-6 at halftime.  The Bears were still hibernating but were starting to show some sign of life.  The missed field goal before the half was a killer.  In fact, each of those field goals in the first half should have been touchdowns (shouldda, woudda).

By the time the Bears woke up in the 4th quarter, it was too late.  We had a shot at an onside kick with under 2:00 remaining but we didn't get it and Maryland ran out the clock.  I noticed that we started to dominate the game right around 3:00.  That's 12:00 West Coast time - the normal starting time for a Cal football game.  Yes, I AM searching for excuses. Cross country flight, jet lag, let down from previous week, overconfidence?  I don't know...  but Maryland came out ready to play hard in the first quarter and we did not.  I give them props for that.  They were embarrassed last week and had something to prove against a top 25 opponent.  They played hard, we had some unfortunate penalties, some missed opportunities on their turnovers and that's that.  

OK, now your turn.  Thoughts?  Observations about the game?

I just hope this is a home and home series because it will be fun to welcome them to Bear Territory!

Go Bears!


Monday, September 8, 2008

Cal Game Week Begins!

A great weekend for Cal fans everywhere! Although I couldn't watch the game live, I was able to keep track on my cell phone and thereby annoy everyone I was eating dinner with. As the score ran up, my excitement grew and by the end, I was in an incredulous frenzy. Being the lone Cal fan in attendance, I had no one with whom to share my joy. Luckily, since I had DVR'ed the game, I was able to fast forward to all (9!) of the touchdown plays when I got home at midnight. The next day, I savored the game at a more leisurely pace.

I hope the group down at Fox & Hound made some noise Saturday night! Thanks to Shaun for organizing.

Then yesterday, Desean makes his debut for the Eagles and shows Philadelphia what we all knew already - that he is THE MAN!!! It will be great to have him (and Gibson) in town this year and hopeful for many seasons to come.

Well, now we begin what is arguable the biggest week in East Coast Cal sports fandom in a long time! I had the great fortune of attending the Cal-Boston College game in 1986. Since then, the football team played Temple in Philly in 1993 (I was living in the Bay Area) and Rutgers in 2001 (was there to see our only win of the year - and Tom Holmoe's last game).

The Maryland Game is going to be an awesome event. Cal has SOLD OUT its allotment of tickets and the tailgate has several hundred registrations. Check out www.calphilly.org for more details. So this week, I will attempt to report on the building crescendo of activity and excitement as game time approaches. As Flounder said so many years ago, " This is going to be great!"

Go Bears!