By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The teams playing in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, are from the two states where recreational marijuana use has been legalized.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll on Monday said he agrees with the possibility of the NFL investigating medicinal use of the drug for the best possible care of players.
COPYRIGHT © 2014 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SEATTLE — It was going so well for the San Francisco 49ers, for quarterback Colin Kaepernick. They were in control. He was flying around, eluding tacklers, finding receivers, arguably playing the best game of his brief career.
Then it was as if both team and individual remembered where they were -- in their football purgatory, CenturyLink Field.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SEATTLE — A man helps his team win the Super Bowl and then, because of salary-cap restrictions, is told to take a $2-million pay cut.
Not surprisingly, Anquan Boldin refuses.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SEATTLE — He threw passes for Bo Schembechler, a coach who emphasized the run. He delights in throwing everybody out of their usual routine. What Jim Harbaugh will never do, however, is throw anyone under the bus.
Ask him a seemingly innocuous question about the team he coaches, the San Francisco 49ers, and on occasion he'll respond tersely with the briefest of answers. Moments later, almost a different person, Harbaugh will be asking the question: "Who was better, Babe Ruth or Willie Mays?"
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A day after his wife, Sarah, complained about the $8 pleated khakis from Wal-Mart that Jim Harbaugh wears daily at practice, along with his obligatory black sweatshirt, the San Francisco 49ers coach let us know who wears the pants in the family.
"They were making quite a bit of sport of me," said Harbaugh Wednesday, departing for a moment from rhetoric about Sunday's NFC Championship Game against the Seattle Seahawks.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It's a noisy place, the San Francisco 49ers' training field, under a takeoff pattern from San Jose International, alongside tracks where trains rumble by frequently.
But it's nothing compared to the decibel level at Seattle's CenturyLink Field, where the Niners meet the Seahawks on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — His coaching career began with the Oakland Raiders, for Al Davis, 11 seasons ago. Only now, said Jim Harbaugh, in charge of the San Francisco 49ers, does he comprehend the mantra with which Davis approached football.
"I was a young assistant," Harbaugh said Monday, "and I didn't understand how profound the statement 'Just win, baby' was, even when I was there.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — While so many look ahead to Sunday afternoon's NFC divisional-round game at Carolina, the San Francisco 49ers, particularly quarterback Colin Kaepernick, will not forget the immediate past — a loss to the Panthers in Week 10 in which the Niners couldn't score a TD.
Carolina won that one, 10-9, on Nov. 10 at Candlestick Park as the 49ers had their fewest net passing yards (46) in eight years. They didn't score a point in the second half and finished with only 151 total yards.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
PASADENA, Calif. — Isn’t this the way the scripts usually run down here Hollywood way? Drama every few minutes. Then when we’re all washed out, the hero comes riding — or passing and running — out of the distance to save the day?
When they’re bringing the curtain down, make certain you leave them something to remember.
Which in this final of the often criticized, soon-to-be-disposed-of Bowl Championship Series, is exactly what this ultimate title game did.
If it wasn’t one for the ages, it was one that left us pleading for more.
And left Auburn, watching and grasping as its magic of last-second success was filched by Florida State, wishing for more time on the clock, impossible as it would be.
On his 20th birthday Monday, Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston did what Heisman-winning quarterbacks are supposed to do, throw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds to play, giving the Seminoles a 34-31 win over Auburn and the perfect finish to a perfect 14-0 season.
“It’s the best football game he played all year,” Florida State coach Jimbo Elliott said of Winston. “Because for three quarters he was up and down, and he fought . . . It’s not ‘my’ night, and you have two or three touches left, and you can lead your team to victory, that’s what a great player is to me.”
Winston, the red-shirt freshman, trailing, wanted to make the difference.
“That’s a storybook moment,” said Winston. “I was ready. I wanted to be in that situation because that’s what great quarterbacks do, That’s what the Tom Bradys, Peyton Mannings, Drew Breeses do.
“Any quarterback can go out there and perform when they’re up 50-0. That’s what you’re judged by. I’m pretty sure that drive, I got more respect from my teammates and people around me on that last drive than I got all year.”
Well, he got a great deal of respect from the people who voted him the Heisman.
The plot for the 16th BCS championship was part Alfred Hitchcock, part Woody Allen and all engrossing, with gasps and grasps, fumbled punts and — a Florida State player taking off his helmet and drawing a 15-yard penalty after a touchdown — dumb moves.
But it was compelling. Five days earlier, Michigan State had held off Stanford in the 100th Rose Bowl Game. Then almost before we could blink, we get another thriller in the same Rose Bowl stadium before 94,208 in weather that was like the song "June in January," 69 degrees at the start.
Kermit Whitfield, untouched, ran a kickoff 100 yards for a Florida State touchdown to give Florida State a 27-24 lead, and a few minutes later Treason ran a handoff 37 yards to give Auburn a 31-27 lead.
Florida State, which hadn’t been behind by more than 11 points in any previous game this crazy year, trailed, 21-3 in the second quarter of his one, and the only thing you could think was that the Seminoles of the Atlantic Coast Conference might be overrated. And under-tested.
What if they played in the SEC? Or Pac-12? Or Big Ten?
No more questions. They’re legitimate. They’re also the first non-SEC member in eight years to win the MacArthur Bowl as the nation’s top college team.
Winston, confident, brilliant, was 20 of 35 passing for 237 yards and two touchdowns, including the game winner. He was sacked four times by an Auburn defensive that was impressive when it wasn’t offensive. That 100-yarder was a game changer.
Winston also ran 11 times but his net distance, ruined by the sacks, was a mere 52 yards.
“He’s a freshman,” Auburn defensive end Dee Ford said of Winston, “and he started second-guessing his decisions, holding the ball. I think tonight we kind of exposed him.”
But who made the big play? Who won the game? Who left Auburn, which once had a 21-3 lead, in the end with a 12-2 record? Jameis Winston and Florida State, that’s who.
The greatest finish in a BCS championship game was when Vince Young scored with 19 seconds to go and gave Texas a 41-28 win over USC on Jan. 4, 2006, also at the Rose Bowl. This one, the last one, the ultimate one, ranks right with it.
Farewell, BCS. You had a great run. And pass.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PASADENA, Calif. — It was one of 100 for the Rose Bowl, the "granddaddy of them all," as it is billed, but for Michigan State, the winner yesterday on the first day of 2014, it was one of a kind.
"Thirteen-and-one," bellowed Spartans coach Mark Dantonio, as he accepted the trophy, "can't get much better than that."
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PASADENA, Calif. — The oldest of the bowl games, the one known as the "Granddaddy of Them All," promises smash-mouth power football, a throwback to the old days, good or not.
For its 100th game, the Rose Bowl on Wednesday matches Michigan State, ranked No. 4 in the BCS standings, against No. 5 Stanford, two teams more concerned with substance than style, particularly in stopping an opponent.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
OAKLAND, Calif. — That’s exactly what the NBA needed at the end of a very long day, in a game out here in the wild west that presumably, despite Steph Curry and Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, nobody east of Tonopah, Nev., would stay up past midnight to watch.
Except for the possibility of a brawl.
A few shoves, a couple of elbows and some ejections would keep the weary basketball mavens in New York and Boston tuned in while the Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers held up their end of what the teams’ coaches contend isn’t a rivalry.
And who are we to disagree with such knowledgeable sorts as Mark Jackson and Doc Rivers?
“I still believe it’s not a rivalry,” Jackson said for about the 15th time Christmas night after his W’s edged Rivers’ Clippers, 105-103, before the usual sellout of 19,596 at the Oracle Arena.
Maybe not, but it is a confrontation, which is good enough when you’re the end of a TV quintuple-header that has become as much a part of the holiday as eggnog and mistletoe.
The day after Christmas in Britain and Canada is called Boxing Day, because bosses give employees presents in boxes. What the W’s and Clips tried to give each other on Boxing Night was a lesson in intimidation, not that either team would ever admit to being intimidated.
Griffin was bounced from the game on a second technical with 10:43 remaining after a — does the word “scuffle” fit the situation? — with the Warriors’ 7-footer, Andrew “Sugar Ray” Bogut.
Not long before, the W’s Draymond Green was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul, something that sounds like a NASA code term but means that Green was very intent on clubbing Griffin.
“The Warriors tried to get Griffin ejected,” said Rivers, “and it worked.”
What Griffin, who had 20 points and 14 rebounds before taking his leave, said was, “I didn’t do anything, and I got thrown out of the game. It all boils down to (the officials) fell for it. To me it’s cowardly basketball. I don’t know their intentions, but it worked.”
The teams had met the second day of the season, Oct. 31, in LA, and that’s where the dislike began, the Clips winning that one, 126-115.
“We play four times a year,” said Steph Curry. “It’s going to be competitive. We were up for the challenge.”
Curry wasn’t up for hitting his shot — he missed his first six attempts and finished 5 of 17 — but he had 11 assists, as did Paul, who led the Clips with 26 points.
The Warriors, as now is standard, fell behind early and then with Klay Thompson scoring — and also playing great defense on Paul in the closing seconds — came back in the second half. The margin was on two free throws by Harrison Barnes with 1:09 remaining. After that came a lot of almosts, including two missed foul shots by Andre Iguodala with 9.3 seconds to play.
As the Warriors’ David Lee explained correctly, the Warriors, who shot a sad 42 percent, won the game on the boards, out-rebounding the Clippers 49-38, and on defense.
“Keeping them from their transition game,” said Lee, who had 23 points and 13 rebounds.
That translates as not allowing all those fastbreak dunks for which Griffin gets considerable airtime, along with his numerous commercials. Hey, he’s a star in a city of stars, on a team desperate to fill the void being left by the Lakers.
The Warriors, however, decline to be deferential.
“They’re a physical team in the middle,” said Bogut, whose best move was hoisting up Griffin — and as Griffin reminded, without getting caught.
“Neither of us backed down,” said Bogut, who had 14 rebounds and 10 points. “That’s the way it should be.”
Rivers, who coached the Celtics to championships, was understanding, if a bit frustrated.
“The basketball part was OK,” he said. “We were showing pretty well. The other stuff worked in their favor.”
The other stuff had the crowd in frenzy and the game, because of the ejections and delays, dragging on for 2 hours and 44 minutes.
“It’s not a rivalry,” reiterated Jackson, “because neither team has done anything.” He means in the postseason. They’ve done plenty against each other.
“Just physical basketball,” he said, maybe anticipating the next meeting on Jan. 30 in Oakland.
When someone asked Jackson why the Warriors and Clippers don’t like each other, the coach, an ordained reverend answered, “We like them. Merry Christmas.”
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe it wasn't the last goodbye.
Maybe the San Francisco 49ers, if circumstances are ideal, will hold a playoff game at Candlestick Park, a second farewell.
Regardless, the 49ers made a bit of history in their regular-season finale at the old stadium, beating the Atlanta Falcons 34-24 to clinch a spot in the playoffs.
Copyright © 2013 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
OAKLAND, Calif. — The reference was to education. The Raiders, the head coach, the quarterback, kept using the word “learning,” as if this season, going from bad to worse to “Please don’t use the word dreadful,” is something for which they’ll get a grade from the friendly prof down the hall.
While the Raiders are being schooled, so are the rest of us, learning first that the team probably needs a quarterback, that Matt McGloin doesn’t appear to be the man of future or the present and Terrelle Pryor doesn’t seem to be much of anything — at least in the eyes of those in charge.
Johnny Manziel, you say? Only if the Raiders can do more in the 2014 draft then they were able to do against the Kansas City Chiefs.
It was a brutal Sunday at O.co Coliseum, chilly, mortifying, at least for the majority of the 49,571 fans. Kansas City, as effective as the Raiders were inept, beat Oakland, 56-31, the Raiders allowing the most points in the history of a franchise that came into existence in 1960.
McGloin threw four interceptions and lost a fumble. Pryor, who was inserted now and then for no good reason or maybe for a very good reason, threw one interception. And there was another lost fumble on a kickoff by Taiwan Jones, making it seven turnovers for the Raiders.
Maybe they were lucky they only gave up 56 points.
“You can’t play a good team like that and turn the ball over seven times,” said Raiders coach Dennis Allen, now 4-10 in this second season of his regime. Yes you can. The implication was if you do that you’ll get buried. And the Raiders were buried.
The defense wasn’t much either. Kansas City, on a long kickoff return and a 49-yard screen pass, scored the first of its eight touchdowns just 22 seconds into the game. Running back Jamaal Charles tied a Chiefs record with five touchdowns. And he didn’t play a considerable part of the fourth quarter.
McGloin, the undrafted free agent, played most of the game. He completed half of his 36 pass attempts for 297 yards and two touchdowns. But those four picks, one returned for a touchdown, made one wonder if he has the right stuff to be a starter in the NFL.
“There are always difficult situations,” said Allen, a defensive specialist defending his two rookie quarterbacks. “But hopefully those guys can learn from those mistakes. It’s tough when you’re going through the learning process, because as the losses mount up it gets frustrating.”
The real question is whether Oakland dares depend on either McGloin, who began the season a fourth-string QB, or Pryor, the surprise starter in Game 1 but later injured, beyond this year. Do the Raiders rely either on a quarterback ignored in the draft or another who is more of a runner than a passer for the coming seasons?
Or do they start over, perhaps with one of the top college players who seemingly will be available?
Nobody in the organization will comment until the end of this season, but Allen, explaining the Pryor-for-McGloin-for-Pryor shift and juggle said, “Obviously we’ve got two guys that we want to be able to utilize, and we’ve got to find ways to get explosive plays.
“And we were able to get explosive plays today. We got a lot of balls down the field. We had a lot of explosive passes, as well as explosive penalties. We just weren’t consistent enough, and we can’t turn the ball over like we did. We have to do a better job on our red zone defense of making them have to kick field goals.”
But they were unable. They are unable. This team, glued together from bits and scraps, tormented by the salary cap, has shredded and shriveled in recent weeks.
The defense is worn and battered. The supposedly best offensive player, running back Darren McFadden, always is injured. McGloin is a notch down from the elite level. Pryor is unpolished.
“We had some good drives,” was McGloin’s analysis. “We had some poor drives. I’ll learn from it. We’ll learn from it. I’ll get better from it, and I know the rest of the guys will get better from it.”
Will he? Will they? This was the fifth game McGloin has started. It was anything but encouraging. He’s learning, but so are the opponents about McGloin. They step in front of his receivers. They chase him out of the pocket.
“I’m at a loss for words,” McGloin said of the turnovers. “It’s disappointing. But at the same time we were still in the game. It was 35-31 at one point with all the turnovers.
“There’s always passes you kind of wish you could pull back, but that’s part of the game. They did make some good plays, but some of those throws were poor decisions.”
McGloin, denying reality, insisted he isn’t auditioning for next year, when in effect, even while trying to win now, he and the other Raiders, young and older, are playing for their future.
“We’re going to learn from the poor decisions, the mistakes,” said McGloin. “As long as we know what they are, I can go away saying that the more experience I get, I’ll learn from it.”
If, indeed, it will make any difference to him or the Raiders.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The final California leg of the tournament known as Tiger Woods' invitational, the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, was taken from Woods' grasp by Zach Johnson.
Four strokes behind Woods with eight holes to play Sunday, Johnson caught Woods and beat him on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff before a record crowd of more than 24,000 at Sherwood Country Club, about 40 miles west of Los Angeles.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
ALAMEDA, Calif. — Whether Matt McGloin, undrafted but now hardly unwanted, is the Oakland Raiders' quarterback of the future isn't the issue at the moment. He's the quarterback of the present, the one who will face the Jets Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
The one whom coach Dennis Allen keeps giving vocal support, even as Allen occasionally refers to Terrelle Pryor, who was the Oakland starter for eight of the first nine games this season.
Read the full story here.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — There was morning rain and afternoon wind, and Tiger Woods, often unsettled in choosing clubs, Saturday took 10 shots more than he did with his record-tying score on Friday. But he but didn't lose the lead in the Northwestern Mutual Challenge.
Woods, a five-time winner of this $3.5 million limited field event which benefits his foundation, shot an even-par 72 for a three-round total of 11-under par 205. He remained two shots ahead of Zach Johnson at Sherwood Country Club.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
LOS ANGELES — They were in separate rooms — well, a room for one, a tent for another, the coach unsure of his future, particularly the way his USC team played against UCLA, the quarterback unsure of his future, particularly the way UCLA played against USC.
The game didn’t mean much, not compared to Auburn-Alabama, not compared to Ohio State-Michigan, but then again it meant everything, this Bruin victory over the Trojans, 35-14.
“This win,” said the quarterback, UCLA sophomore Brett Hundley, “really validates what we did last year. You can wear your UCLA stuff proudly now. UCLA now runs L.A.”
An overstatement, an exaggeration, an emotional outburst. And well understood.
There at the other end of the Coliseum, the oversized replica jerseys of the six USC Heisman winners, spread out on the stairs below the glowing fire of the Olympic torch.
There on the walls of the tunnel that leads from the locker rooms to the field, the huge painted tributes to Trojan national championships and All-Americans.
It’s been a USC town, Los Angeles. Even with eight straight Bruin wins in the 1990s. Hadn’t the Trojans won 12 of the last 13 from UCLA before Saturday night? Hadn’t the Trojans won seven straight from the Bruins at the Coliseum?
Now the streak is severed. Now UCLA, 9-3 overall, with a quarterback who is going to consider entering the draft — even though he’s not ready — has won at USC’s home after in 2012 winning at its own home, the Rose Bowl.
A non-sellout crowd of 86,037 was there, the majority USC partisans who glumly began to file out with five minutes to play, cheers from the small UCLA group painful to their ears.
Not since 1997 had UCLA won at the Coliseum, and nobody in blue, players or spectators, was going to leave quietly. Some didn’t want to leave in any manner.
“This is a big win for us,” said Hundley.
How big a loss it was for USC (9-4) is yet to be determined. Under interim coach Ed Orgeron the Trojans had won five straight and six of seven. His players are so intent in having him named permanent coach that moments before kickoff they formed a circle, an “O” for Orgeron, to show their support. Had USC won, he would have had the job. He still might have the job, but the defeat was a negative.
“It’s our worst performance since we’ve been back together,” said Orgeron, a roundabout way of saying since he had been elevated to the position at the end of September, replacing Lane Kiffin.
“We weren’t able to run,” he conceded. “We couldn’t stop Hundley on the quarterback draws. We tried everything. We started blitzing; they started sprinting past the blitzes. Nobody played well enough tonight to beat a rival team, and that was my responsibility.”
His counterpart, Jim Mora, can take responsibility for bringing UCLA out of the sporting wilderness. Mora took control before the 2012 season, and while the Bruins are far from what he wants — they haven’t beat Stanford, they couldn’t slow Arizona State — UCLA Mora is 2-0 against USC.
“The stuff he brought to the team,” said Hundley, who in his own way brought plenty of stuff, “and the way he flipped around against USC, 2-0, the aura of the program has changed. Everything’s changed, and we’re seeing it.”
What Mora saw was a vision of the past.
“That was a heck of a game and a lot of fun,” said Mora. “It reminded me when I was a kid coming here when my dad was coaching at UCLA (as an assistant in 1974) and watching both teams in their home uniforms.”
That, certainly, was a great part of the game, allowed, finally, by the Pac-12 and NCAA.
“I had flashbacks,” said Mora. “What a great night. Both teams were so competitive . . . to come in here on a Saturday night and get this win tells you where this program is headed.
“We’ve had some good wins. The Nebraska wins have been big. We beat Southern Cal last year. But this one, on the road and coming off the ASU game (a 38-33 loss eight days earlier), to come in here where they’ve won and where Coach O has done a great job, I’d agree this is our biggest win ever.”
Hundley ran for 80 yards net and two touchdowns, and passed for 123 yards net. UCLA had 396 yards to USC’s 314, but USC also had a 15-yard punt, and UCLA's Ishmael Adams had 130 yards in kickoff returns.
“It’s been a while,” said Orgeron, asked when the last time an opposing quarterback had played as well as Hundley did. “Especially a quarterback running the ball. It seemed like everything we tried, they countered.”
Orgeron said he had no idea about his future at USC.
“We set out to go eight weeks in a row, one week at a time, one game at a time,” he explained. “Obviously we are disappointed, especially when you don’t beat UCLA and Notre Dame. That is what a head coach at USC is supposed to do.”
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — The answers were not there, at least from the people who needed to give them, the field goal kicker, his holder and, even though it’s his job to protect the men who play for him — no matter their lack of performance — the head coach.
The Raiders, well, still are the Raiders, a team of almosts and could-have-beens, a team that when presented a chance to take a resounding step out from the depths of mediocrity remains notably incapable.
Tennessee got a touchdown pass, a 10-yarder from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Kendall Wright with only 10 seconds remaining Sunday, and came back to beat the Raiders, 23-19. And so Oakland is 4-7, and the good thoughts after last weekend’s win over Houston become worthless.
Especially with a game at Dallas on Thanksgiving.
The man once called the premier place kicker in the NFL, Sebastian Janikowski, attempted six field goals for the Raiders, tying his own team record, which tells you something about the Oakland offense, able to score only one touchdown.
“Seabass” missed two of those attempts, one from 32 yards, which tells you a great deal about Janikowski, who at age 35 and playing his 14th season as a pro no longer seems reliable.
As a kicker, that is. He’s never been reliable as a postgame interview.
When the media flooded into the Raider locker room at O.co Coliseum, both Janikowski and his holder, punter Marquette King, conveniently had fled the scene, thereby avoiding any queries about what happened on the misses, especially the figurative chip shot, the 32-yarder.
It was reported that after that one, tried with four seconds left in the half and Oakland ahead 9-6, Janikowski told sideline reporter Lincoln Kennedy — the former Raider lineman — he was not pleased with King’s hold.
This is the first year for King, who replaced Shane Lechler, but this was the 11th game of the season.
Dennis Allen, the Raiders' coach, probably wished he didn’t have to face the music or the media, but that is a requirement of the job. That doesn’t mean Allen has to disclose his true feelings or symbolically throw his athletes under the bus.
So Allen, looking and sounding particularly glum, conceded, “There’s several things that you can look back on — we missed two field goals, we let them come out and get the lead at halftime, third downs weren’t good enough . . . ”
Not at all. The Titans had 18 third-down plays, and made first downs on 10 of them, two times on third and 11. Fitzpatrick, Harvard educated, outsmarted or outplayed the Oakland defense. Tennessee hung on to the ball. The Titans’ time of possession was almost 36 minutes.
But if Janikowski hits those fielders, the Raiders win. Indeed, as the adage tells us, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Grudgingly we try to forget the “what-ifs.”
Still, Seabass is paid big money to make place kicks, especially little ones.
He hit on field goals of 52, 48 and 24 yards, but missing that 32-yarder — wide left — just before intermission was a blow psychologically as well as numerically. If he makes that field goal, the Raiders are six ahead as they prance off the turf, and they’re feeling particularly satisfied. This was unsatisfying.
“We’re not making them,” said Allen, “not consistently enough.” “We,” in effect, might mean “he,” as in Janikowski, but successful place kicking requires all sorts of individuals: the snapper, the blockers, the holder and not least the kicker, in the Raiders’ case the left-footed Janikowski.
“I feel like Sebastian is going to work through this,” Allen said. “I have all the confidence that when I send him out there it’s going to go through. So it’s just something that we have to go through and get better in that area.”
His explanation is known as “coach-speak,” words that when linked together tell us very little.
Matt McGloin, the undrafted rookie from Penn State, was the Raiders’ starter at quarterback for a second straight game. He had four passes knocked down, and because he’s listed at only 6-foot-1 and pro teams like their QBs at least 6-4, one might sense a reason McGloin was not picked in the draft.
McGloin did make a nice throw to fullback Marcel Reece, who ran down the sideline for a 27-yard touchdown with some six minutes left in the game to give Oakland a 19-16 lead.
“I thought Matt played well,” said Allen. “He led us back when we needed a touchdown, got us the touchdown to give us the lead. We just couldn’t hold it defensively.”
Not untrue. Either is the issue of whether on field goals the ball is being held properly and then kicked properly.
“I’d say it’s a field goal unit problem,” explained Allen. “There are 11 guys out there; it’s not all on one guy. We have to improve in that area — snap, kick, protection. The goal is to get the ball through the uprights . . . ”
Which the Raiders could do only four times out of six tries and thus lost by four points. That hurts.
By Art Spander
STANFORD, Calif. — The figurative laundry list for Cal was as as big as Stanford’s point total, the largest by either team in the history of the Big Game, which has been held 116 times.
The Cardinal won this one, destroyed Cal in this one, embarrassed Cal in this one, 63-13, on a sparkling Saturday afternoon in late November.
Attendance was announced as a sellout of 50,424 at Stanford Stadium, although there were plenty of empty seats, perhaps tickets held by Cal fans who couldn’t bring themselves to view a mismatch greater than anybody imagined.
Sure, Stanford, 9-2 and headed for a bowl, whether it be Rose or Fiesta or something else, was a 32½-point favorite. But the eventual spread was 50 — OMG, 50 — and the Golden Bears, after losing starting quarterback Jared Goff with a shoulder separation, couldn’t score a single point after halftime.
It was understood Cal had no defense. The Bears were last in the Pac-12 in that category and then Saturday allowed Ty Montgomery to catch five touchdown passes and Stanford to gain 603 yards.
But supposedly Cal had an offense.
That supposition was disproved, Cal gaining only 383 yards and after the opening four minutes getting only two field goals.
After Cal (1-11) finished with an 11-loss season for the first time in a football history that goes back to the 19th century — yes, teams didn’t play 11 or 12 games until the last few years — head coach Sonny Dykes took the blame and then took a stand.
“My job is to get the team ready,” said Dykes, who was hired last December from Louisiana Tech, “and I clearly didn’t do a very good job.”
Someone tried to get Dykes to allude to the many injuries to Cal players during the season. He made an acknowledgement, then took the high road.
“Yeah,” he conceded, “I can find a bunch of excuses. It is what it is. You guys can look at the depth chart. That’s up to you guys (the media) to draw your own conclusion.
“I think we got a bright future. There’s some things we got to fix. But yeah, we’re going to work tomorrow and get them fixed. Actually we’re going to go to work (Saturday) night.”
After having been worked over by a Stanford team that even with a mammoth lead in the closing two minutes was throwing, backup quarterback Evan Crower hitting Francis Owusu for 14 yards and a touchdown with 1:51 remaining.
Asked if he thought Stanford, which was running up the score, was indeed running up the score, Dykes answered, “Not at all. That’s part of football. Our job is to stop it.”
They couldn’t. They couldn’t stop anything or anyone. In any game, other than one against Portland State, which Cal won 37-30.
Cal gave up 63 points to Stanford, 62 to USC, 55 to Oregon, 52 to Ohio State. 580 points overall in 12 games. Ridiculous.
When somebody wondered what Dykes would say to Cal partisans, he responded, “I don’t have much to say. I wish it was better. It’s on me. That’s all I can say.”
Not all. Visibly dismayed, Dykes promised improvement. Everywhere.
“Blocking,” he began, then halted. “Well, no, we’re going to learn to pick up our locker room. We’re going to learn how to go to class. We’re going to fix our graduation rates.”
Cal, it was disclosed earlier this month, had the worst graduation rate for football players of any school in the Pac-12 — maybe, for the highest-ranked public university in America by several polls, a greater shame than a 1-11 season.
“We’re going to appreciate being a Cal student,” continued Dykes, “be supportive of other Cal students.
“We’re going to get faster, stronger in the weight room. We’re going to get bigger and improve our diet. We’re going to be more committed to getting sleep, rest and recovery.”
And then the two that actually might make a difference.
“We’re going to learn to play on offense and defense.”
Dykes pointed out he had been coaching for years, been “lucky to be successful,” at every level. Until this year, until a year that terminated with a rout by Cal’s cross-bay rival.
“Never seen anything like this,” said Dykes. He was referring generally to the season, but neither Cal nor Stanford fans had seen anything like Saturday. No team in the Big Game ever had scored more than 48 points. Now one has scored 63.
“I haven’t been a part of it,” sighed Dykes. “Obviously haven’t done a very good job dealing with it. It’s on me to figure out how to deal with it, and go from there.”
He knows the problem. The solution will not come quickly.