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The Novel: USC

This is a column I am not sure how to write.

I always thought I’d be more prepared for this, considering how often I’ve steadfastly proclaimed that this would be the year we beat the Trojans, but when this – a 15-14, got it by the barest, slightest of margins, Streak-be-damned win that secures bowl eligibility - actually is the year, even the best laid prose goes out the window.

I have no words.

Of all the wins I’ve been fortunate enough to be your blogger for, some have been deeply emotional, some have been pure insanity, but none have come to this level of emotional gravity, and pending whatever it feels like to win the Big Game – another would-be first in my seven-year writing tenure -- none are likely to do so again for awhile.

If you hang out with any group of Cal fans for long enough, especially when the flow of alcohol is free and uninhibited, three memories are inevitably passed around by all in attendance: where they were when the Trojans last fell, where they were at the start of the Streak, and where they were for Oregon State; each, a wound the program had inflicted and had yet to heal.

Redeeming the third is a ways off, but Saturday night was salve for the long pains of the first two, and the kid who got home from Vietnamese school just in time to watch that fateful, penultimate Aaron Rodgers-led drive, whose tweenage heart sank on each of the four incompletions at the goal line.

That, as you know well, was the first of many, many untimely defeats to our Southern rivals, who always stood for everything we weren’t. Sometimes we were ranked and didn’t play like it. Sometimes we got crushed from the start. And sometimes, we when we actually looked like we were going to get it done, things got cruelly yanked out from under us – like in, 2015, which ended with Jared Goff on the sideline, ready to lead a game-winning drive that would never come.

When the Streak hit 12 years after that loss, it had officially lasted half of my life, long enough that I could definitively mark who I was before and after Cal last beat the Trojans.

We all could.

In a way, it’s all that accumulated suffering that made Saturday mean so, so much more than upsetting #11 Texas or #8 WSU ever will. Those wins were moments to be savored, celebrated.

This, though, was a small offering to the ghosts of Yesteryear and Never Was, the What Could Have Beens we’ve chased together each fall since, the ones that have stayed with us as we graduated into the working world, and parenthood, and old age.

They are not gone. Probably never will be.

But for the first time in a long time, they can rest.

Of course I cried.

I started crying after Laird’s fourth down run.

I cried so hard that I didn’t even participate the Bear Territory chants after the game, my head still in my hands, unable to believe what had transpired.

After the way it began, going down early to clinging to a one point lead, asking every god in existence for just a few more stops, for just one more set of downs, it got especially rough in the last last hour or so. In games that I attend live, when the score tightens up late, I often get too nervous to talk, or move, or really, function like a regular human being. This is when I begin to alternate between being on my phone – because Tweeting is easier than summoning an uncooperative body – and looking like this:

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In each of my past two experiences at the Coliseum we were accosted and generally harassed, so we snuck into the Cal section this time. I don’t really like going there much for that reason, but I’ve kept going to the Cal-USC game each year, no matter how miserable the previous one was, in the pursuit of this exact moment.

The same, of course, is true of the Big Game, which is eminently winnable, but to me, not entirely a necessity to make this a successful year. (I’m not saying it doesn’t matter.)

Two weeks ago, when they beat UW, it was clear that everything was back on the table for a team that was distinctly unCal like – when faced with a loss that was potentially season-crumbling, they have truly rallied, and came within a hair of toppling another ranked team too.

Though I doubt they lose out, it’s still quite possible that this slugfest style of play the Bears have had to adopt might not end in their favor each of the next two weeks, because one possession games are highly variable from year to year. It’s already failed against WSU, for example.

Still, with both of those games at home, the odds are looking good for at least 7-5, and they’ve already beat the over in Vegas.

I’m torn between rooting for the Vegas bowl, which is the most fun destination, or the San Francisco Bowl, which is the most convenient, or Holiday, which is the “best” one.

II. Offense

While there are some long term, unsustainable trends on offense – namely, the general lack of explosiveness and struggle for consistency; our longest plays on offense were 29, 23, and 14 yards on the night – we can say, at least, that the team will show up and fight like hell regardless, when 14 points seemed like too deep a deficit to crawl out of.

They…only scored 13 points though, so those of us who said 14 was too many to be down by at the half, or that the YPP would need to be a GPA that qualified for Cal weren’t exactly wrong. (Big ups to the safety that jumpstarted everything.)

Against good teams, with this defense, though, that’s going to give them a chance. And a chance is all you need. Gotta love that they still went for it despite the struggles all game long.

Only Curhan and Garbers graded on PFF decently among Cal plays who got significant snaps. Everyone else recorded below 60.

Chase made few mistakes, he pushed the ball down the field and got it once when Cal picked up the blitz and Vic Wharton freed himself on a double move to really re-energize the game. Nothing more than that was necessary, and, surprise, they didn’t play McIlwain likely because the staff realized how much they’d need the ball to actually, you know, win.

Vic Wharton continues to be tremendous at annoying opposing defensive backs, and then we were gifted the penalty at the end to continue the final drive.

For all the pre-game talk of “everything is on the table”, all I could see from my seat that was different came in the form of: Ricky Walker III getting a touch, Biaggio Ali-Walsh getting a touch, and slightly more variations of Laird in space, in the slot, and a tight shotgun 2x2 bunch set I don’t recall seeing earlier in the year.

There were some playcalling things that went differently too, including the bootleg and getting Chase to run more, plus the one speed option in the red zone.

But overall, we know what we are, and I don’t think we’re going to have a much easier time with anything in that regard. Certainly not this season. We still really need playmakers in the worst way.

III. Defense

We should come to grips with the reality that three of Cal’s best defensive players will likely not return next year – Evan Weaver and Camryn Bynum (who gave an interview to Rusty Simmons essentially confirming so this week) aren’t under the radar after a night like this, on this stage, and Jordan Kunaszyk has given us far greater returns than ever expected as it is. We’re dealing with a special, special unit of guys that won’t all be back. Enjoy it.

Yes, even on a night like Saturday, my thinking turns to the future.

Luc Bequette played the game of his life.

Traveon Beck played the game of his life. Those guys will be back next year, while Drayden, who might play outside in the place of Bynum, or Chigozie, should end up being the non Hicks cornerback.

Here, the priority is to improve the play of the front seven, particularly at pass rusher and defensive line.

A rough count of departures includes those three guys we mentioned, plus only Chris Palmer. A few other DBs are redshirt juniors, but less likely to become early entrants than either of Weaver or Bynum.

Pregame, I thought that we’d have every reason to feel good against the USC receivers, and we basically kept them bottled up. Tyler Vaughns’ first touchdown came off of a late substitution situation that never really allowed Bynum onto the field to line up properly, then he got caught on motion, so that was just some great scheme work by the Trojans. The other Vaughns touchdown was just a pure win by him against Hicks in one on one.

And…that’s it. Despite the poor PFF grades for both main corners, Amon-Ra was a very human 6 for 56, and Josh Falo had one long catch out of the tight end position, but our defense plays extremely well against 11 or 12 personnel teams like USC, because getting less speed on the field is better for the soft point of the Cal pass defense.

Kudos to Deruyter who fooled Helton with the same A gap blitz, and sent an extra man about half the time (PFF said 20 of 40 dropbacks) that were often picked up, but designed a lot of coverage games that really had the young freshman confused regardless. Here were Daniels’ numbers when Pressured versus Not Pressured:

Pressure – 4 of 5 (80%), 47 yards

Not Pressured – 17 of 28 (58.6%), 133 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT

Interestingly, the Bears were credited with 11 missed tackles, but never really felt like they were that sloppy in that department, which is a credit to making sure everyone was in the right position to be successful. Many of them occurred in the front 7, which is probably where you’d prefer them to be. (A missed tackle in the secondary usually means six points.)

IV. Special Teams

When the first kick of the game was downed at the 2 yard line, there weren’t a ton of worse ways to begin – and I admit at that moment it would have been easy to think, here we go again.

But there were some brilliant moments after that, with Davis’ returns, the punting that was solid and of course, the safety that started everything.

For that reason, they pass.

V. Calar Morghulis

I’ve been tweeting this phrase out a lot the last few days, as it’s a spinoff of something said in Game of Thrones – which translates to All Men Must Die.

Well, all Streaks do too.

One down with a great chance to end another this week.

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