Riley leads Bears to 42-36 win

FORT WORTH - On a weekday afternoon on an otherwise empty college campus, the California Golden Bears extinguished the embers of its 2007 season with a scintillating 42-36 win against Air Force in the Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl in front of a record 40,905 crowd at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

Bowl MVP Kevin Riley came on in relief of Nate Longshore in the early second quarter and was outstanding, pulling the Bears out of a 21-0 second-quarter abyss, going 16-of-19 for 269 yards and three touchdowns. Justin Forsett ran for 140 yards and two touchdowns in front of his personal home crowd as the Bears finished the season with a 7-6 record. For Cal, which took the field wearing jerseys without their names, it marked their sixth consecutive winning season under head coach Jeff Tedford, and their fourth bowl trophy in five years.

"We were fortunate to come away with a win after going down 21-0," said Tedford. "To come back the way they did, meant that the team's belief in itself was great. At halftime, they were really excited to get back out there."

While many wondered before the game if the Armed Forces' Bowl would be simply the last gasp of a disappointing season, the Bears took advantage of their strength and speed to wear down the Falcons.

"Give Cal credit," said Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun. "One thing was evident, they were healthy, quick, and executed extremely well."

AP/Donna McWilliam Riley Celebrates 4th Quarter TD

The linchpin in Cal's execution was Riley. Tedford's plan had been to get Riley some reps at the end of the first quarter and the third quarter, but once Riley led the team on a quick scoring drive it became clear that barring some sort of catastrophe it was going to be Riley's game to finish.

Air Force jumped out to a 21-0 lead by using their option offense to free quarterback Shaun Carney and running backs Jim Ollis and Chad Hall to the outside. Cal's defensive backs seemed almost overmatched - and certainly frequently out of position - as Air Force cut through the Golden Bear defense with ease, scoring on their first three possessions.

Following the second touchdown, in a play that symbolized the second half of Cal's season, the Bears fumbled a kickoff. Air Force had kicked the ball short (into strong winds) and nobody on the Cal squad stepped up to catch the ball. It bounced a few times before an Air Force player landed on it, and five plays later the Bears were in the hole by three touchdowns.

Cal head coach Jeff Tedford then made two crucial moves, putting Riley in at quarterback and switching to a 3-4 defense. Putting Riley in was a move that many fans had been waiting for for weeks. Although being put in when your team is trailing by 21 isn't optimal, the redshirt freshman from Beaverton, OR showed that he was ready for his moment in the sun - and lead the Bears on a four-play, 70-yard touchdown drive, climaxed by a 40-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson.

On the scoring play, the Bears lined up in a three receiver set to the left, with Jackson on the far left. Jackson ran up the left side, and Riley had to avoid pressure in the pocket while he waited for Jackson to break downfield. While Jackson had a defender on him, Riley threw the ball to the far left corner of the end zone. Jackson had to extend himself to make the catch, but he held on and the Bears were on the board.

On Cal's next sequence, Riley capped off a 10-play, 70-yard drive by throwing a 5-yard touchdown pass - just over the fingertips of a defender - to Hawkins who made a leaping, twisting catch.

All the gifts that Riley had hinted at earlier this season: an ability to create space for himself in the pocket, the ability to keep looking downfield and stay with a play, and the sense to create plays with his feet, were all there for a national viewing audience to see. If there was a trace of nervousness in him it didn't show as the Bear offense came to life under his guidance.

"Riley? Boy can he put some zip on the ball," said Robert Jordan, who had six catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns. "We needed to change things up and he provided a spark when we needed it. I'm happy for him. Everybody jumped all over his back after the Oregon State game, but he showed everybody a sign of things to come in 2008."

Longshore started off going 5-of-8 for 36 yards, and while the Bears were having some success moving the ball downfield, Tedford stuck with his plan to use Riley.

"We were going to do it at the end of the first quarter," said Tedford, who had to wait a series after the Bears fumbled the kickoff to help Air Force to their 21-0 lead. "We played Kevin Riley a little bit - and (then) he made plays and had a hot hand and had a good feel."

"What he did was very impressive and it says a lot about his work ethic," said Tedford, who adds this win to victories in the Insight, Las Vegas, and Holiday Bowls. "My hat's off to a guy who was in a back-up role, worked to understand the game plan, was flawless in how he ran the offense, and in the few weeks we had to get ready for the game took a lot of reps. He stayed prepared and he was ready."

AP/Donna MacWilliam Tedford Hoists Bowl Trophy

After the defense had been shredded giving up seven runs of 10-yards or more in the Air Force's first three possessions, the Bears decided to counter the Falcons' option offense by going to a 3-4, with Cameron Jordan, Derrick Hill and Rulon Davis as the down linemen, and using linebackers out of a mix of Greg Van Hoesen, Zack Follett, Justin Moye, Worrell Williams, Mike Mohamed, Eddie Young, and Anthony Felder. The Bears also increased pressure on both sides of the field by bringing up defensive backs to help defend the multiple-option offense the Air Force team uses for the bulk of their offensive production.

Suddenly, Air Force's big holes to the outside weren't there and quarterback Shaun Carney and receiver/running back Chad Hall had to work a lot harder for their yards.

"We felt like we'd have an opportunity to do well," said Hill, who finished with five tackles and played his finest game as a Bear. "It gave me a chance to take advantage of their center, and it gave our defense a chance to apply some vertical pressure. Air Force is a lateral team, and if you can put vertical pressure on a lateral team you can stop them."

Linebacker Justin Moye agreed. "It helped to spread us out on the edges," said Moye. "With four defensive linemen, we were shutting them down inside, but we were getting hit on the outside edges."

"I told their offensive line before the game, 'y'all are not getting anything up front against us,'" added Hill.

Safety Thomas DeCoud, who sat out the first quarter (along with DeSean Jackson and Robert Jordan) for violating team rules back in Berkeley, added some spark to the defense as the Bears forced a three-and-out on the next possession, and forced a punt on the following set of downs.

"When they got into their triple I, we wanted to bring the corners off the edge and challenge their pitch option," said DeCoud who finished with a team-high 10 tackles in three quarters of action.

"Thomas gave us an energy and got everybody fired up. We knew he'd be able to do his job to the best of his ability, and he showed that when he made those plays in the alley," said Moye, referring to a three-play sequence where DeCoud tackled the option back for a short gain and a loss. "I'm glad I had the chance to play with him."

When the second half began, it was like September all over again. Following an Air Force field goal that pushed their lead to 10 at 24-14, Cal's offensive creativity that had been socked away for two months in a pickle jar somewhere finally resurfaced. A reverse to Lavelle Hawkins, a throwback screen to Will Taufoou, a pass to tight end Cameron Morrah, and the Bears' score seemed almost inevitable. Riley threw an 18-yard slant pass to Robert Jordan to make it 24-21. Even though Air Force free safety Bobby Giannini read the play, the route was run sharply and the ball was thrown so accurately that no defender could have made a difference.

Air Force added a field goal to extend their lead to six, but suffered a big loss when late in the third quarter, Falcon quarterback Shaun Carney suffered a torn ACL and MCL after being hit high by Moye and Thomas DeCoud while going one direction and low by Syd'Quan Thompson going the other.

"He's a tough player," said Moye about Carney who ran for 108 yards, passed for 68 yards, and was the triggerman for the Air Force option which finished the game with 312 rushing yards.

On the ensuing possession, Riley completed a 52-yard pass to Jordan to get the ball down to Air Force 6. Jordan had two defenders chasing him, and while Riley might have thrown the ball with more loft than he wanted, he threw it to a part of the field where only the senior receiver from Hayward High could have made the catch. Two plays later, Forsett scored a touchdown to give the Bears the lead, 28-27.

Without Carney, Air Force's option sputtered and the Bear defenders started coming in waves. By the time the Falcon's offensive players could get outside, there were two and three Bears waiting for them, and Air Force traditionally isn't a team that beats anyone with its passing game, especially not with a substitute quaterback who had almost no game time experience.

Riley then engineered an 8-play, 76-yard drive that was capped off by a 21-yard touchdown run by Justin Forsett that put the Bears' up 35-27. Air Force managed a field goal, but the Bears came back with a four-play 73-yard drive, highlighted by a 25-yard run by Forsett and a 20-yard run by James Montgomery. Riley ran the ball in from two yards to give Cal its final touchdown. When the Bears lined up on the two for the scoring play, many Cal fans remembered the Bears' futility in recent games from that point on the field - but with a quick side step Riley made it look easy.

Air Force managed a late touchdown to pull within 42-36, but the Bears recovered the onside kickoff and ran out the clock to salt-away the victory.

"I'm really excited for the seniors," said Tedford. "I'm thankful for what they did here, these guys provided so many exciting moments for this program."

Forsett was stellar as always. His 140 yards gave him 1,546 yards for the season, the second highest single-season rushing mark by a Bear, passing Chuck Muncie's total of 1,460 in 1975; his two touchdowns gave him 15 for the year.

AP/Donna MacWilliam Forsett Directing the Band

"It was great to play like that in front of my family and the crowd," said Forsett, who took the opportunity to lead the Cal band after the game. "It was very special to hang out with them."

Although he had just 16 yards after the first quarter and 53 after the third, all of Forsett's heart and talent was on display in the fourth quarter as he racked up 10 carries for 87 yards.

"We just kept pounding them," said Forsett. "The thing with us is to be like lumberjacks. Just keep chopping and chopping and every time we went to the sideline we want to get back out there on the field and play some more."

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