[Quack Attack]

Cal's East Coast Roast


Rusty Simmons, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, September 14, 2008


(09-14) 04:00 PDT College Park, Md. -- Cal had never seen the Maryland team it played Saturday.

Sure, the Bears had studied hours of the Terrapins' game videos and knew their personnel and go-to plays. None of that, however, could have prepared them for what happened in front of 49,527 fans and a national TV audience.

Maryland was good all of a sudden. Cal sleepwalked while the Terrapins stormed out of the Byrd Stadium gates. The Bears appeared shell-shocked in falling behind by 22 points, then limped toward a six-hour flight back to Berkeley with the icky taste of a 35-27 loss in its craw. Asked if Saturday's version of Maryland was the same one that escaped with a seven-point win over Football Championship Subdivision school Delaware and lost to the Sun Belt Conference's Middle Tennessee, Cal coach Jeff Tedford said, "No, I'd have to say not.

"You look at them on tape and you know that they have a lot of ability, but I don't think they played to their potential the first two weeks. I think they had a fire lit under them after last week, and they were very focused."

Cal inside linebacker Worrell Williams said: "They were 10 times better than what we had seen. ... After the first series, you can't underestimate anymore. You've got to get it in gear."

The Bears (2-1) waited until the fourth quarter to get it into gear, and by then, they trailed 28-6. Sophomore quarterback Kevin Riley threw three fourth-quarter touchdown passes to cut the lead to 35-27, but David Seawright's third onside kick attempt was batted out of bounds with 1:55 remaining to end any hopes of a comeback. "We kept on fighting, which is good to see, but that should have come in the first quarter," said Riley, who completed 33 of a school-record 58 pass attempts for 423 yards, three scores and an interception. "It was too little, too late."

Maryland (2-1) dominated the offensive and defensive lines, shut down Cal sophomore dynamo Jahvid Best (25 yards on 10 carries) and made seemingly every play that the Bears couldn't in third-down situations.
With six minutes remaining, the Maryland fans taunted the No. 23 Bears with chants of "overrated." With three minutes left, they booed Tedford for calling timeouts while trailing by 15 points. And with 1:55 on the clock, they started signing "Nah-nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah-nah, hey-hey-hey, goodbye."

"We didn't start fast enough, we didn't take advantage of opportunities, we had too many penalties, we didn't pay attention to detail in certain areas, and we gave them big plays," Tedford said. "They outplayed us, plain and simple."

Cal's offensive line allowed five sacks in a game for the first time since Arizona accomplished that feat in 2005. The unit, which was also responsible for four of the team's eight penalties, opened holes for only 38 rushing yards after coming into the game averaging 297.
Best, who raced for 80- and 86-yard touchdowns last week against Washington State, didn't have a run longer than 5 yards until the final play of the third quarter. At that point, he had 9 yards on eight carries.
Cal's defensive line was manhandled to the tune of two 80-plus-yard backs after allowing an average of 69 team rushing yards on 2.1 yards a carry in the first two weeks. Maryland sophomore Da'Rel Scott had 87 yards on 19 carries before leaving with a left shoulder injury in the third quarter. "Thank God Tony (Felder) put him out, because he was running wild," Williams said.

"That was my fault," defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said. "They gave us some formations that we didn't play well out of. That's on me."
Even when the Bears put together good defensive stands, they couldn't get off of the field, allowing Maryland to convert 6 of 12 third-down situations and not forcing a punt until three minutes remained in the first half. Cal's offense converted only 2 of 11 third-down situations and failed in both of its fourth-down attempts.

The most notable third-down failures came in the first half, when the Bears couldn't convert on three drives inside the Maryland 12-yard line and had to settle for six points.
"Third downs are key," Tedford said. "They were converting and we weren't. You just can't live like that. Today was a test, and we didn't pass the test."