"We'll be ready"

The day after California's 20-17 win over Washington State, the team went through a brief walkthrough at Memorial Stadium. Usually it involves a small amount of running, some light stretching, and a short talk to team from the coaching staff, before the players head off the field and back into the locker room.

The quarterbacks, as is the case after almost every practice, are the last ones off the field, working on everything from drops, to practices, to sending signals to each other from the sideline.  But on this Sunday, quarterback Nate Longshore spent a long time talking with quarterbacks coach Kevin Daft. 

Judging Longshore's body language from a distance, they spent considerable amount of time working on release and the mechanics of setting the plant foot.

Although the Bears win ended an unprecedented Tedford-era three-game losing streak, allowing the team and the Bear faithful to breathe a sigh of relief, this was no time to take it easy, especially with the USC game coming up at the end of the week.

"It's good to be able to get back to winning," said Longshore, "But I don't think we're playing the way we expect to."

Cal's win last Saturday was unusual in that they won by going on several long, slow scoring drives.  Unlike past seasons where the Bears could bludgeon the opponents with the run and then beat them the long pass, this year, they've had to work harder to create scoring opportunities.  Against the Cougars, the Bears' strategy had a two-fold strategy of taking advantage of what Washington State was giving them, but also keeping the potentially explosive Cougar offense off of the field for long stretches of the game. 

"We wanted to get back to a methodical offense, and take advantage of what their defense was giving us," said Longshore who was 26-of-39 for 213 yards "Washington State's offense is all about the deep pass, so maybe their defense was used to going up against that.  We noticed that they were back and wanted to take advantage of that."

In addition to having their defensive backs play off the receivers, Washington State's strategy with its pass rush meant that a quick passing attack would give them almost no chance to get to the quarterback.

"They're scheme involved lots of slanting and lots of stunts," said Longshore. "Sometimes you can stunt yourself into big plays, but other times you can stunt yourself out of position. The focus of our offense was to take advantage with lots of six and seven yard passes to keep drives alive."

While Longshore's average yards per completion of 8.2 might be perceived as a weakness, one has to remember that all short completions are not the same. A six-yard pass on 3rd-and-15 is ineffective. A six-yard pass on 3rd-and-5 means a first down, allowing a team to extend their possession and keep the other team's defense off the field.

In Cal's opening scoring drive, Longshore was 8-of-9 for 58 yards, including 3-of-3 on 3rd down plays.  On their third drive of the game, he was 5-of-7 for 46 yards, with three completions going for first down.  In other words, during the Bears' sustained drives, he was completing a high percentage of passes and keeping Cal moving downfield.   While the strategy helped the Bears win, it's unlikely to result in fancy statistics, since long drives mean fewer possessions per game.

The Bears' success with the short passing can be attributed not just to the playcalling, but also the level of familiarity that Longshore has from working the same trio of receivers for nearly two full seasons.

"The receivers run option routes and they'll know when to find a hole and sit down," said Longshore who threw 18 of his 26 completions to receivers Lavelle Hawkins, DeSean Jackson, and Robert Jordan. "Our receivers are really smart, they've got a lot of football savvy and that helps us to be successful."

A perilous aspect of using an offensive strategy that nibbles away at a defense means that there are going to be a lot of third-down situations, which could be a recipe for disaster unless you have players who are up for the situation.

"On offense, our focus increases when it's third down," said Longshore, who was a solid 9-of-14 for 102 yards on 3rd downs against Washington State, with all nine completions going for first down. "It's not quite do or die, but you want to keep the drive alive and keep making progress. We view it as more of an opportunity for us than anything."

For the past few games, Longshore's mobility has been limited due to an ankle injury that he suffered late in Cal's 31-24 win over Oregon.  The injury caused him to miss the Oregon State game, and for the following two weeks, his repetitions were reduced in practice as a precautionary measure.  The decision to play him against UCLA and Arizona State wasn't made until just before game time.

Although he was effective in the first half of both games, his overall play was overshadowed by a pair of fourth quarter interceptions in each game. In each game, he was starting to feel the effect of the pass rush, and late in the Arizona State game, he was limping quite badly, causing some to wonder if maybe Longshore was more hurt than he was letting on. 

However, during the past two weeks, his practice routine has gradually been getting back to normal.  While the weekly routine of practice and games makes it difficult for anyone ever to get all the way back to 100 percent, Longshore won't use his injury as a reason for why certain recent moments might not have gone as well as they could.

"With football being a physical game at this point in the season everyone's hurt a little bit and is fighting through different injuries," said Longshore. "You've just got to push through it."

While a well-coached team will continue to work hard and will continue to apply itself even through difficult times, sometimes the odd injury here and there can throw a team's balance, ever so slightly out of whack.

"Sometimes you get more limited it what you can do as the year goes on," said Longshore. "some of the things that might have been easy at the time, maybe it's not so much as the season goes on."

In his first year as a starter in 2006, Longshore was outstanding, throwing for 3,021 yards and 24 touchdowns while being named Pac-10 Player of the Week three times.   Nine games into 2007, he's thrown for 1,857 yards and 11 touchdowns, but while his stats are down this year, he did come up big at Oregon throwing for 285 yards and two touchdowns as well as throwing for 241 yards and two touchdowns in the season opener against Tennessee.

Although the season's had its ups and downs, he can point to areas where he's evolved as a quarterback.

"I feel like my understanding of the game has gotten better," said Longshore. "I've improved my ability to control a game and learning how to manage it. There's always a big emphasis on completing passes and giving the receivers a chance to make plays, and that's gotten better too."

While the Washington State victory wasn't an aesthetic masterpiece, Longshore believes, as does many of his teammates, that last Saturday's win is a big step towards helping the team turn things around.  And with Saturday's game against USC in front of a sold-out Memorial Stadium looming, in what will be the last home game for Cal's seniors, the Golden Bears' reversal of fortune has come just in time. 

"USC's always big. They're one of our rivals," said Longshore. "Every opponent in the Pac-10 is tough, but they've had our number for awhile. We're excited for the game and we'll be ready."

---

©Copyright 2007, TheBearInsider.com and Scout.com. All rights reserved.

If you haven't done so already, subscribe to The Bear Insider so you can participate in this online community and get access to the members-only content from the nationwide Insiders network.

Bear Insider staff writers visit the Insider discussion board regularly, and are available to discuss questions you may have about this article and Cal Athletics.