We will get to Wazzu probably tomorrow. There are still some residual Cal notes so lets just get right to it: read more

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It's time for this week's Guerrero Grades.  For those who are new to DD or are coming back after a hiatus, we have been using Dan Guerrero's own words to assess Dorrell's performance during the season.  Here is what Guerrero said he expects this season:

"The important thing this year," Guerrero said, "is that we don't beat ourselves, that we play with consistency, that we're an excellent second half team and that we improve as the year progresses."

As we have posted all season and will continue to do, here is our assessment of Karl Dorrell's performance yesterday against Cal with Guerrero's clear points of analysis in mind … let's remember that were it not for one single play, a mistake by Tedford, we would most likely have lost this game: read more

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If you are looking for a quote that sums it all up, here it is (Chris Foster, LAT):

“The sky’s the limit for us now,” defensive end Bruce Davis said. “The way college football works this season, if we win out, you might still see us in the national championship game.”

National championship game?! Bruce Davis, love the player, love the fight, love the smack. Not this smack though. This is the same player that talked smack after losing to the worst Notre Dame team in history. Why does this quote some everything up nicely? Because this is not a winning attitude, in fact, it’s the opposite. Winners don’t win championships with their mouths. Winners don’t shine with arrogance after they lose embarrassingly. Winners aren’t considered underdogs to overrated perennial losers like Cal. Winners don’t look at one game and determine that the rest of the season will go exactly the same way. Winners aren’t this manic and inconsistent. We could go on, but you get the picture.

And it’s not just Bruce Davis, obviously. Just one game after that epic Notre Dame humiliation - just one game - and the Dorrell cult is out there wiping everything from the history books and proclaiming that Dorrell is our savior. That Dorrell is a great coach and that his critics are not real Bruin fans. This manic behavior is simply the upside of inconsistency. There is always the downside. read more

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Karl Dorrell had another Steve Lavin day (winning a game we weren't favored in to save his hide), and Cal and Tedford had a another brain lapse at the end of a game for the second demoralizing week in a row. What a game! At the Rose Bowl you could sense that Cal was going to blow the game and blow it on that final 3rd down. Why Tedford called an out with a wide open field behind him on 3rd down in field goal territory is a mystery, especially given the fiasco the week before. Sure, the run game was stalled (nice job defense) but the run game could have gotten a couple of yards without turning the ball over either. Sure, your kicker missed one already from the exact same location earlier in the game, but it's less risky to have him kick for the win then to call a play that gave the defense a chance to win the game. After what happened to Cal last week, you'd think Tedford would have learned not to mess with the football gods.

In any case, our Bruins came to play today … which was finally good to see. And although we had another set of ridiculous calls by Dorrell, and although Dorrell owes Tedford a thank you card (and Verner!) for Tedford's own stupidity, Dorrell did not lose this game … something that was entirely possible. He didn't outcoach Tedford, but he did not lose (although he played not to lose). Verner saved the game, after Tedford's brain freeze. Without the interception Dorrell would be getting crucified in the press for that pathetic 4th and 1 and for losing a game he should have won. The defense played very well, even with some bad penalties, as they focused on and stopped the run just like we said they should. Dorrell escapes again just when he needed to … but still doesn't carry with him any confidence that he can have his team show up regularly. Dorrell gets lucky at OSU (with OSU turning over their lead and the game), he gets a little lucky against Cal today with Tedford's horrible call, and he gets lucky that Stanford beat SuC on the day he should have received national attention and scorn for a humiliating loss to winless Notre Dame … and lets not forget how lucky he was that Carroll blew it last year and saved Dorrell's job.

Dorrell pulled a Lavin … and the response will be predictable. 4-0 in the Pac-10, back in a 1st place tie with Arizona State, and a key opponent taken care of … the Dorrellistas are already coming out talking championship again. "Dorrell beat Tedford!" "Dorrell beat Tedford!" Next week, another patsy Dorrell has a hard time beating … this time away … at Washington State. Which team will Dorrell have show up??!! Anyone's guess. But one thing is certain, Dorrell did not magically become a great coach overnight … he will lose more games. More tomorrow …

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It’s Gameday and we are at the game. It’s packed. Though we thought we’d be changing our prediction and picking an upset today, it ends up that we can’t call it. We think it’s possible but we just don’t feel it. Could be close game, could be a blow out. As you know, Dorrell’s teams are so inconsistent this year above any other year that any team can show up. Lets kick some Kal butt!! Go Bruins!!

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First up, we have the 4-Finger Foam Fingers! If you want to buy one so that you can pick it up at the game do so by tonight because tomorrow morning we will have someone at the Rose Bowl with the fingers and white DumpDorrell tshirts. We will do it like last year, once make the purchase Paypal gives us your email and we will contact you with contact details to pick up the stuff. More details here.

Some great Bruin graphics artist started a hilarious Cal thread over at BruinReportOnline. Making light of Cal’s lack of championship banners, AndersonMBA2007 went to Cal’s campus and found that hyper-sensitive affirmation starved Bear fans had many things to hang banners for. Here are a few: read more

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Vegas oddsmakers finally came out with a line on the Cal game … today. The reason for the delay was most likely due to the uncertain QB situation for both teams. Now that Pat Cowan is expected to play and Nate Longshore might play the oddsmakers felt comfortable setting the line. The line however is a bit sketchy, from Cal being favored by 1 to being favored by 2.5. In a close game that is a big spread. Anyhow, we said on the Bruin Show earlier this week that Cal would win 34-17, but we think we can win this game. As long as Dorrell and Walker follow our game plan we can do this. We might actually predict a win tomorrow morning. We did predict the SuC upset! Anyhow, we are still not ready to make that leap so we are sticking with our prediction.

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The flow of idiocy from our football program is now a constant stream. It seems like every day now we get some new ridiculous or embarrassing comment by one of our coaches or we get hammered in the press. We at DD can’t even keep up anymore. If we put every one of these transgressions up on our site no one, not us not you, would have any time to do anything else. But we are going to summarize a few things that have occurred over the past few days here: read more

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We’ve done no analysis of the game this week. We are just not up to it … Dorrell has taken all the life out of UCLA football for us. Strangely, we feel that a win might be in the air, just like last year against SuC. But we will get to that in another post. Let’s get to the Stat of the Week. First, a review of last game’s Stat of the Week, which you may recall was time of possession … we are now 6 for 6 this year with our predictions.

In our Notre Dame Stat of the Week post, we said that the key to winning was holding onto the ball and keeping it more than Notre Dame. At the time, Notre Dame was near dead last in the country in time of possession, their offense AND defense were that bad. What happened?? We didn’t hold onto the ball number 1, turning over 7 times by going inexplicably with an air game using a 3rd string walk-on freshman QB with 0 passing experience, and number 2, Notre Dame did hold onto the ball. Charlie Weiss outcoached Dorrell in that Weiss planned an offensive game that wasn’t designed to gain many yards (140 total!) but also wouldn’t give up the ball. Weiss played a control game, which is exactly what we said was key to winning - time of possession - and Weiss won the game.

Incredibly, for the FIRST TIME this season Notre Dame held the ball MORE than their opponent!! Their time of possession surpassed ours by more than 4 minutes!! How can a team that gained only 140 yards on offense and that has one of the nations worst defenses hold the ball longer than us and win by 2 touchdowns??!!! Impossible … unless the opponent was one Karl Dorrell. All Karl had to do was run the ball, hold it, and get an easy win … that’s what we said. That was plainly evident in the game and easy to do. Instead, as we all know, Dorrell aired it out unnecessarily and unwisely and we turned it over. Charlie must have read our post and Karl … well … he must have been sleeping.

So this week our Stat of the Week, pay attention Karl, is read more

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It's going to get real y'all.  The Bruin Show live online radio program begins at 6 PM Wednesday PDT and this week will welcome Cal bloggers Ragnarok from the California Golden Blogs and Ken from Excuse Me For My Voice.  You can listen in live or call in from ANYWHERE on the planet that has an internet connection. There will be Cal homers tuning in and calling in from everywhere.   Don't be a fool and miss it.  Call in or chat live with Bruin Nation and Cal Bear nation and talk your best smack.  Bring it!

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