That was U-G-L-Y

I can't decide whether to laugh or cry. This was the week to win and get back into contention. Instead, we fell totally out. Our season eight short days ago was in the pink of health.

I still believe that we have a great team. I think we have great players and great coaches on that team. I simply do not understand what happened today, except that the team lacked the courage to win.

What I mean by that is Jeff Tedford played scared. He was afraid to play Kevin Riley, even though Nate Longshore was clearly injured. And he was afraid to let Nate pass. He took very few shots down field. We get 67 yards from 30 rushes. Guess what - stop running the ball and score some points. We never win unless we score 30 or more. For the second week in a row, we forgot how to score.

This looked like Alabama against Georgia 1965. Where did the innovative offense go? The team was afraid to win. In the 4th quarter, Nate's interception was the first downfield pass. Why is that? Starting in the third quarter, JT was bringing in two backs to help with the pass blocking. We are sending two guys downfield. Well, it is pretty hard to win doing that when they have four guys on our two. Of course you are going to be picked off. Essentially, JT was afraid that his offensive line couldn't cut it. He was over-protecing Nate, worried about the future. He was in it to get through this game, not to win it.

This was not a situation where we lost because of execution. Yes, we did lose because we did not execute, but we mostly lost because the coach choose not to win. This is by far the most disappointing coaching game of Jeff Tedford's tenure. He seemed to be so shell shocked by last weeks game that he decided to play it as safe as possible. He turned into the Mike Nolan of College football. If you do not trust your team to make the plays, you can not coach.

But don't take my word for it. Here is how it worked out:

30 rushing plays - 67 yards (2.4 YPC). 13 total drives. That is rush twice (5 yards, third and five), pass once, punt. We rushed on first down every time but once. I think they figured it out. Second and 15 - draw play up the middle. Why? Is DeSean Jackson so lame he can not catch a ball? No - he has a monster game (the only Cal player who seemed like he wanted to win). So what was the problem? Jeff wanted to protect his QB. We had 8 of the 13 drives with 4 or fewer plays. Not going to win a bunch of games like that.

The defense gave up 23 points. Not too bad. They stopped them 4 times for three and outs in the second half, or recovered the fumble. Patrick Cowan had a good game, and they had more big plays than Cal has given up all season. But essentially, the defense held. If we score more than 21, we can win this game.

Nate actually had a pretty good game as well. The problem is, he had to throw into coverage because we onloy had two receivers on the field most of the game. Tedford was really nervous about the offensive line. And not having Robert Jordan really hurt us, because apparently we do not have anyone else who can play receiver.

And now, who cares. What they were playing for is now essentially lost. There is no Rose Bowl, no National Title hunt. UCLA is two games ahead of us in the Pac 10 race with five left to play. I guess the Bears really were pretenders, as Steward Mandel said. If we win 10 games again, that would be great, but I really though we were better than that. Oh well.

Maybe I am over-reacting. But JT really has to look at himself after these last two games. You need to play to win. And they are not doing that.