#1 Cal just defeated #6 Army 70-18 at West Point.
The game began at 11am back east and maybe that had something to do with Cal's really sloppy start. I think I counted 4 Cal penalties in the first two minutes! The Bears possession wasn't crisp at all and compounding the problem were nervous hands as Cal committed knockons and distribution errors that aren't characteristic of the team at all. At one point as Cal was attacking, an errant pass went over the head of Koi into touch, thus ending what could have been a Cal score. Army took a quick 6-0 lead as a result of two Cal penalties and I have to admit, in the opening minutes I thought Cal was going to be in some serious trouble.
But as the game progressed, the Bears started to get traction, and by the beginning moments of the 2nd half you could see that Cal was starting to get their mojo.
Credit to the Cadets for matching Cal's physicality especiallly in the scrums. There was no Cal domination there. Army did a good job in lineouts as well. Despite the score, this match was a grinder. Army is good. Matt Sherman, their coach, played at Cal and learned under Jack Clark. His team is very capable and gave the Bears all they could handle despite what the score implies.
With Cal getting their cohesion back in the second half, and Army getting carded for TWO players later in the half, the Bears took advantage of the shorthanded Cadets and exploded with opportunity after opportunity on the outside to build an insurmountable lead with time running out.
Again, the Bears offense was varied, and effective. The Cal kicking game was very effective with some nice chip 'n chase activity. The Bear offense is wide open this year, and it's really beautiful to watch especially when players can get into space.
Last week I accused the referee of missing some "obvious" not straight calls in the lineouts, and I may have been in error in doing so. Apparently the law has been changed and it is acceptable for a throw in to be not straight if the opposition isn't going to contest. I was unaware of the change, so apologies if my accusation was unwarranted.
In any case, now Cal looks ahead two weeks to the Bay Area brawl with St. Marys. As I pointed out earlier some of the Gael team toured New Zealand earlier this year, and that may make what will already be a difficult match even more challenging. The game is in Moraga and there will be a big and vocal crowd for both teams.
So for two weeks, Cal can celebrate being the best in the nation. They have earned the recognition. But they're not going to want to start the match with St. Marys as they did today. The Gaels will be plenty motivated to knock Cal off if they can and go into the national playoffs with that momentum.
Bears will be playing with hopes of hosting some playoff games at Witter.
Ruck on you Bears1