‘UCLA now runs L.A.’

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.”

Answers missing on Janikowski’s misses

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.

Janikowski, “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 post-game interview.
    When the media flooded into the Raider locker room at O.co Coliseum, both Janikowski and his holder – and the 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 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 little place kicks, especially little ones.
    He hit on field goals of 52, 48 and 24, but missing that 32-yarder – wide left – just before intermission was a blow psychologically as well as numerically. You’re six ahead as you prance off the turf, and you’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 which 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.

Answers missing on Janikowski’s misses

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.

Stanford makes points, Cal makes promises

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.

The day the music died

By Art Spander

The radio in my TR4, a British sports car, couldn’t always be heard clearly over the noisy four-cylinder engine, but I sensed from the gravity of the announcer’s voice that something was wrong. I pulled over to the curb and turned up the volume.

“ . . . The president has been taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas,” was the somber message. “We are awaiting word on his condition . . . ”

Fifty years ago, Nov. 22, 1963. America’s age of innocence was at an end. Camelot had fallen.

It was the weekend of the college traditionals, and the next day I would be covering the USC-UCLA game for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, a publication no longer in existence. I was driving to the office, three blocks from the Pacific.

I stopped. So did America.

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, had been assassinated. And nothing would ever be the same.

In the half century that followed, other leaders would fall, the World Trade Center would be brought down with a massive loss of life, one horror after another. This was the beginning.

They still argue about the killing of JFK, still posit conspiracy theories, still insist it was more than a single shooter, still point out that everything we’ve been told and seen has either been fabricated or whitewashed. The New York Times the other day had a story and photo of the blood-spattered pink suit worn by Jackie Kennedy as she sat with her dying husband.

Fifty years ago the scenes were of the Texas School Book Depository, of Dealey Plaza, of a country in mourning and sport in a muddle.

The nation didn’t want to play. It needed to weep.

The Outlook was a p.m., a pure afternoon paper. The advance story for a Saturday afternoon game was Friday. The first edition was on the streets. I changed a few words, and the revision made it for the late editions. Then we waited.

The Big Six, as the conference of Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA, Washington and Washington State was known, announced postponements. As did the Big Ten. As did the American Football League, which was three years from a merger with the NFL.

But not Oklahoma or Nebraska. Or any games of the NFL.

At first, it seemed as if USC-UCLA would be held, if without card stunts — remember card stunts? — or bands or any type of normal celebration. Just football.

But John McKay, then the Trojans' coach, was opposed. “I can’t believe you’d play a football game," he said, “where there was only half the enthusiasm.”

We didn’t. For a week.

I composed a story that only a few hours earlier never could have been imagined, about a game that was so important now so unimportant. Then I went on the streets, a reporter, and interviewed people whose disbelief was no greater than mine.

Color television was only for the wealthy in the early 1960s. Most of us sat, numbed, watching the repetitive images in black and white, the widow helped on to Air Force One, the caisson rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue, the world leaders from Charles de Gaulle to Haile Selassie in the procession, 3-year-old John Kennedy Jr. saluting as the coffin moved past.

Pete Rozelle was the NFL commissioner and was unsure of staying the course, allowing the usual Sunday grouping of games to be played 48 hours later, or deferring to reality.

Rozelle, who died in 1996, and Pierre Salinger, Kennedy’s press secretary, had been classmates at the University of San Francisco. They talked. Although it was more complex than that, Salinger persuaded Rozelle that to play games as scheduled would provide a sense of normalcy and perhaps relief to a country desperate for both.

The teams played. Rozelle rued his decision. “It’s the one thing I would change,” he later said of his 30 years as commissioner. “If I could do it again, we wouldn’t play.”

The games were not televised. They were reported. And criticized. Pete Rozelle, more for his suspensions of Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, would be selected Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

The following Friday, Nov. 29, in a repeat of sorts, I created another advance story for the game, rescheduled for the next day, Saturday, Nov. 30, suggesting a 40-6 USC victory — hey, those were the Trojans of “Student Body Right” — but the final score was 26-6.

What do I remember about the game? Virtually nothing. It was anticlimactic. We had been through a torturous few days that for our generation would stay forever. As Don McLean’s song of the early 1970s would remind us, it was the day the music died.

Cal coach: ‘I knew it wasn’t going to be all rainbows’

By Art Spander

BERKELEY — It was an interesting comment from Sonny Dykes, on the day of his 44th birthday, on the Saturday afternoon his Cal football team was beaten — no, embarrassed — by USC, 62-28, at home.

“I expected to walk out after halftime,” said Dykes, “and see nobody in the stands. The fans stayed. It was really inspiring.”

The first season at Cal for Dykes. An awful season at Cal for Dykes, a team with too many freshmen and not enough self-belief, a team lacking a defense and even now, after losing eight of its nine games, lacking experience.

The Trojans, always the curse of the Coast no matter how competent Stanford or Oregon or even UCLA become, had their own troubles early in the schedule. So athletic director Pat Haden changed coaches, ousted Lane Kiffin and replaced him for the rest of the season, at least, with Ed Orgeron.

USC again looked like USC, maybe not right but full of speed — the Trojans returned three punts for touchdowns Saturday, tying an NCAA record — and agility.

Cal looked like a lost cause, even after cutting an immediate 21-0 deficit to 21-14. At least to our vision. But Dykes saw something else, a future, and reasons for that future. He’s a realist, certainly. A 1-8 record is unacceptable, even if it is understandable.

He’s also an optimist.

“I knew when I took this job,” said the man who replaced Jeff Tedford, “it wasn’t going to be all rainbows and puppy tails. Did you watch Stanford beat Oregon (Thursday night)? Stanford had 15 seniors on defense. Of our top 44 players on offense and defense, we only had three seniors.”

Maybe the numbers are not specifically accurate. Maybe there are a couple more Cal players or fewer Stanford players, but the idea stands. Championships are won by veterans, athletes who know the whys and wherefores. Mistakes are made by freshmen.

“Experienced grown men win football games,” Dykes said for emphasis.

Fewer than two minutes into this football game, USC’s Nelson Agholor, a letterman last year, took a punt return 75 yards into the end zone. In the second quarter Josh Shaw would pick up a partially blocked punt and run a short 14 yards for a score; then, still in the second quarter, Agholor would return yet another punt for a touchdown, this run 93 yards.

“I’ve been dong this a long time,” said Dykes, “and that (punt coverage) has always been a strength of ours. Our team last year at Louisiana Tech led the entire nation in net punting. We start three practices every week with our punt returns. We’re using freshmen. At Louisiana Tech we had one freshman who played half a game, that’s all.”

There are no excuses in sports, even when excuses are allowable. If someone goes down, it’s next man up. Or next kid up. Dykes doesn’t want sympathy. Only perception, which from the reaction of the Cal fans who stayed to endure, he already has.

“We were forced to play a lot of young players before they were ready,” he said. “We were decimated by injuries. A young team, and we lost games early. We lost confidence. It’s OK. It’s been a tough year, but it’s going to pay off.

“They are going to get tougher and have been game tested. In a weird sort of way, the experience they have gotten this year and the hard luck will help our team respond faster.”

Cal has a freshman quarterback, of course, Jared Goff, although it could be argued that after nine games he’s almost a sophomore. The trouble is Goff hasn’t had the reassurance of success.

He’ll play well a few downs — he did throw three touchdown passes Saturday, two to Kenny Lawler, also a freshman — then sputter.

“We try not to look at the scoreboard too much,” said Goff. But looking at the scoreboard is what everyone else does, on television, at Memorial Stadium, from the flanks of Tightwad Hill.

The coaches and players rate progress. The rest of us judge results.

Goff threw for 288 yards, Cal gained 483 yards running and passing, not too far behind USC’s 499 yards. Then there were the three Trojan punt returns for touchdowns not included in that total.

It is defense where Cal has faltered most. The Bears were last in the Pac-12 in scoring defense before USC. Then they gave up 62 points more. 

“Hardy Nickerson went down early,” Dykes said about the starting middle linebacker — who is a freshman but also a star. “He makes all the (defensive) calls for us. We were down to one middle linebacker, Chad Whitener. We were trying to make contingency plans. We missed a lot of checks and rolled coverage the wrong way.

“But we are going to get this thing right. I feel more strongly about that right now then I did December 5 when I was hired.”

Newsday (N.Y.): Raiders: We're not as bad as it looks

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — Their defensive coordinator, Jason Tarver, has a master's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology — and a penchant for making obscene gestures toward officials. Typical Raiders.

Their quarterback (for this season, at least) was the last man drafted by the late Al Davis, who obviously knew more than those who contended that Terrelle Pryor never would be more than a part-time player.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

Stanford methodically, demonstratively stops the Quack Attack

By Art Spander

STANFORD, Calif. — Wait ‘til next year. That’s what Mark Helfrich implied, if he didn’t say directly. Mark Helfrich, the coach of previously unbeaten Oregon, was talking like this year was in the past, which after Thursday night, after the Ducks were beaten by Stanford in textbook style, rarely getting the ball and never getting the lead, very well may be the situation.

Everyone was so in awe of the Oregon offense, the Quack Attack. Blink and the Ducks have scored. And scored again. Forty points, 50 points against a school called Nichols — Nichols? — and against Washington State, more than 60 points.

The story was out that Stanford players were soft. What would Oregon do against the softies?

Get crushed, that’s what. Get held scoreless for three quarters, a presumed impossibility until a late burst that had the sellout crowd of 51,545 standing and nervous, and still get dominated the way a team must dominate Oregon, with ball control.

Stanford methodically, demonstratively built up a 26-0 lead and then had enough left when Oregon didn’t have enough time left to grab a 26-20 victory that surely knocked the Ducks from the No. 2 place in the rankings and just as surely knocked them out of the BCS Championship game.

“We don’t hold the cards anymore,” said Helfrich of his first loss in his first season as Oregon head coach. The Ducks, as Stanford, which came into the game No. 5 in the rankings, now both are 8-1, but Oregon is 5-1 in the Pac-12, Stanford 6-1.

What Stanford did, insisted Helfrich, is what other opponents tried. The difference was in the talent. “They’ve got a lot of veteran guys on defense,” Helfrich pointed out. “Guys that have graduated.”

Fifth-year seniors. And then, strangely, he added, “That will change a little bit.”

It will change because superb Stanford defenders such as Trent Murphy and Shane Skov, Ed Reynolds and David Parry are seniors. They’ll be gone in another season, as if that matters this season.

What Helfrich was saying in effect was, “Stanford stuffed us because its players are experienced, strong and wise, and it won’t the case in 2014.”

A year ago, up there, at Eugene, Stanford held Oregon to two touchdowns and won, 17-14, in overtime. An aberration, we were told, which would be corrected.

“I feel like this team,” Oregon running back De’Anthony Thomas boasted a couple of days ago, “we should put up 40.” Should, but didn’t. Didn’t even put up 30. Barely put up 20.

One hesitates to put much value in possession time, but that caveat could be ignored Thursday night. Of the 60 minutes of football, Oregon was on offense only 17 minutes 26 seconds.

Stanford had the ball virtually three-quarters of the game, even though Oregon had it most (10:35) of the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t get off to a very good start offensively,” said Helfrich. Because Stanford wouldn’t let them. At the half, Oregon had four first downs – and Stanford 11.

In the first quarter Oregon had a fourth down on the Stanford four but threw an incompletion.  In the second quarter Oregon was at the Stanford 11 and lost a fumble.

“They did a great job keeping us inside,” said Helfrich, “but if we get those touchdowns we’d be in the game.” They didn’t get those touchdowns. Stanford kept them from getting those touchdowns.

Oregon, however, couldn’t keep Stanford from getting touchdowns or field goals. Or yards.

Tyler Gaffney rushed 45 times – a Stanford record – and gained 158 yards. He scored the first TD. Quarterback Kevin Hogan rushed eight times for 57 yards. He scored the second TD – and also completed seven passes of 13 attempted.

“Tyler Gaffney ran the ball tonight the way running backs are supposed to run the ball in this game of football,” said David Shaw, the Stanford coach.

“This is what football is about. You control the line of scrimmage, and you have a chance to win. We talked about it the last week and a half, keeping them balled up, keeping them inside, not letting (quarterback) Marcus Mariota get out. He still got us a couple of times, but they weren’t touchdowns.”

The reference to Stanford football being soft was an offshoot of the incidents with the Miami Dolphins, Richie Incognito saying teammate Jonathan Martin, a former Stanford lineman, wasn’t tough.

“And does Stanford have a problem?’’ Shaw asked rhetorically. “Funny thing is that question usually comes after, boy, your team is tough and physical and plays great on the offensive and defensive line. Tonight you see who we are, a big, physical team that plays extremely hard and plays very well together.”

And had the Oregon coach waiting for next year.

Raiders' defense reverts to terrible past

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — This was the regression game, the reminder that the Raiders haven’t moved that far from their recent, terrible past.

This was the game where the defense couldn’t have covered a hole in a ground, much less a Philadelphia receiver.

This was the game that made Eagles quarterback Nick Foles part of history.

“It’s time for us,” Dennis Allen, the Raiders' coach said on Friday. “If we’re going to do something, we need to start making some sort of move.” 

He didn’t mean backwards, which is where Oakland went.

All those glowing words about the Raiders’ improved defense? All those thoughts the Raiders might reach .500 as the calendar reached November? Worthless.

Which in the 49-20 rout Sunday by the Eagles at O.co Coliseum is what the Oakland defense proved to be.

This was why the Eagles brought in Chip Kelly from the University of Oregon, to leave the opposition breathless as well as bewildered.

Philly didn’t dominate the clock or the statistics. Oakland had the ball 37 minutes 54 seconds, compared with 22:06 for the Eagles. Oakland had 560 yards, compared with 542 for the Eagles.

But Philly averaged 9.5 yards each play. Philly scored and scored. And scored.

Foles is the backup to the injured Michael Vick. He tied an NFL single-game record with seven touchdown passes. And of his 28 passes, only six were incomplete.

Seven touchdowns, six incompletions. What a replacement. What a nightmare for the Raiders, who are 3-5.

“We were out of place,” said Raider cornerback Tracy Porter. “We missed tackles. What NFL quarterbacks do is look for holes.”

In the Raiders, Foles found as many as in a hunk of Swiss cheese.

“They played their style, up-tempo,” said Porter. “And we weren’t able to match that. They came ready to play.”

What were the Raiders ready for? Or more accurately, were they ready for anything?

Rookie cornerback D.J. Hayden, Oakland’s first-round pick in the 2013 draft, wasn’t, including requests for a postgame interview, which he sloughed off with, “No, I’m good.”

In reality he was bad. Riley Cooper beat him for 17 yards 43 seconds into the second quarter to make it 14-3, then for 63 yards exactly three minutes later to make it 21-3.

“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for D.J.,” said Charles Woodson, the longtime all-pro defensive back who rejoined the Raiders again this season at age 37.

“He was the 12th pick in the draft. He was right there on those pass plays. I don’t think he located the receiver one time. Another time he slipped.”

That word, slipped, seemed appropriate for the entire Raider defense.

“I don’t know what to say,” added Woodson. “They executed their game plan from the word go. We never had an answer. You can read the press clippings. There were a lot of great things said about the defense. We took a beating, and we’ve got to stand up to it.”

Allen, in his second season as head coach, is not quick with the one-liners. No responses in the style of John McKay, who when being queried about his team’s execution said that he’d be in favor of it.

Allen remains wary of management, careful in his assessments, protective of his athletes.

“Obviously we didn’t hold up our end of the bargain,” he said. “We also realize we’re a better football team than what we displayed out there today, and we have to be better than that. Listen, I still have a lot of confidence in this defense. I think this defense is a good defense. We had a bad day. That happens.”

That happens to a team that either doesn’t completely extend the relentless demands of the NFL season or is not equipped physically or mentally to cope with those demands. Teams that tease, then buckle under pressure.

Everyone understood Nick Foles has a strong arm, yet he wasn’t even the starter. And now he’s in the books with people such as Sid Luckman, George Blanda and Peyton Manning.

“Their quarterback had seven touchdowns,” said Porter, “and we have to take that personally. We can’t give a guy seven touchdowns in a game, let alone let them put up 49 points. We couldn’t match their tempo.”

Philly, in the season’s and Kelly’s first game, beat Washington, 33-27, and the thinking was they were going to do to the NFL what Oregon has been doing to college football.

But the Eagles didn’t score an offensive touchdown in either of the two games preceding this one against Oakland, and the cynics said the Kelly system wouldn’t work in the pros. It worked against the Raiders.

“It’s an embarrassing loss,” said Oakland quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who came out of the game in the fourth quarter with a knee bruise.

“We just have to get better.”

Much, much better.

Klay Thompson beats team he cheered as a kid, the Lakers

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — He grew up a Lakers fan, but of course. His father was playing for them when Klay Thompson was born, then became one of their radio commentators.

Still is, but now the son plays for the Warriors and Mychal Thompson had the pain and pleasure Wednesday night of watching Klay at his best — and the Lakers at their worst.

Mixed emotions, like the old joke about your mother-in-law driving your Ferrari over a cliff? Hardly. “He was proud,” said Klay, after Mychal came and went from the Warriors' locker room.

So was Klay. He was 15 of 19 from the floor, in the first game of his third NBA season and the first game of the Warriors’ 2013-14 season, and scored a career-high 38 points in a 125-94 rout.

“It’s always a pleasure playing against the Lakers,” said Klay. “I was going to their games since I was a kid.”

For the Lakers, with Kobe Bryant still recovering from that Achilles injury and unable to suit up, with people named Nick Young and Shawne Williams in the lineup, there was no pleasure facing Klay Thompson or the Warriors.

The Lakers were so bad, the sellout crowd of 19,596 at the Oracle didn’t even once chant “Beat L.A.,” until L.A. was beaten, down 88-58 early in the third period.

Just one game. Remember that. The Warriors won’t always be holding the other team under 30 percent shooting, which was where the Lakers were just before the half, although by game’s end L.A. had climbed to 39.3 percent.

Won’t always shoot 59 percent, as they did in the third quarter. “We were clicking,” said Mark Jackson, the Warriors' coach, and he meant it not as a boast but as a simple fact.

NBA basketball can be irritatingly erratic. Tuesday night, in their home opener against the Clippers, the team that is supposed to move ahead of the Lakers in the southern California pecking order as well as the standings, the Lakers scored 41 points in the fourth quarter. Wednesday night, the Lakers scored 40 points in the first half.

“We have a lot of learning to do,” said Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni. “We probably let our emotions get too high (after Tuesday). And give Golden State credit. Klay Thompson just lit us up, and David Lee (8 of 13 for 24 points) did the damage. He hit some shots that were unbelievable.”

The Warriors may get a better sense of their skill level and future when Thursday night, in what amounts to a round-robin among the three teams, they play the Clippers in Los Angeles. Maybe the Clips win, and then Golden State and both L.A. franchises are all 1-1.

“We have to get better,” said D’Antoni. “That’s all it is.”

But no matter how much better, in this era when the Lakers are tumbling from the heights, they won’t be as good as the Warriors. Or, despite Tuesday night’s result, the Clippers.

Thompson was a starter and not the sixth man because 6-8 Harrison Barnes has a foot injury. Although he’s only an inch shorter than Barnes, Thompson, the Warriors' first-round pick from Washington State two seasons ago, is a different sort, a bomber who can go inside when needed.

“There’s no secret that Klay Thompson is a phenomenal shooter,” emphasized Jackson. “I don’t think enough credit is given that he’s a heck of a basketball player. Not only did he shoot the lights out, but he defended — first line of defense on (guard) Steve Blake.

“Our overall defense was awfully impressive. Obviously that is a team that is coming off a big win (Tuesday) night, but we did the job we are supposed to do.”

This was the first game, certainly, for the Warriors' huge off-season acquisition, Andre Iguodala. Although Iguodala had only seven points and four rebounds, Jackson, the coach, said those numbers are to be ignored.

“When you look at (Iguodala) as a basketball player," he said, "you appreciate everything he does on the floor from rebounding to playmaking. He’s a guy with a high (basketball) IQ, and he impacts the game without scoring . . .  You look at Andrew Bogut’s game the same way.”

The 7-foot Bogut, his ankle finally healed after surgeries and therapy, played 18 minutes and scored only two points. But he jammed up the middle and had eight rebounds.

D’Antoni was enthralled with Thompson’s performance.

“There’s not much more you can tell (the Lakers) than to get on him," he said. "That’s one of the best shooters I’ve seen in a long time. The guy’s good.”

And the guy knows he’s good.

“That’s what we live for,” said Thompson of his big night. “It’s crazy. I never imagined I’d have 38 points in three quarters, but you surprise yourself sometimes.  After my third three, I was locked in. I knew. Actually I knew in pregame. I was hitting everything.”

Raiders have a QB, a defense and a win

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — They can’t finish. Not the way the coach would like. But oh, the Oakland Raiders can start. And survive. If they are not yet a complete football team, one that belongs among the NFL elite, they are at least a competent football team, as well as a team in progress.

A team finally with a defense and a quarterback, the two elements absolutely necessary for success at any level.        

The Raiders defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-18, Sunday at O.co Coliseum, and if this was a Steelers team far from greatness it still had Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu, players and leaders, and certainly the residue of history.

Pittsburgh-Oakland wakes up echoes, Franco Harris and Jack Tatum, Terry Bradshaw and Ken Stabler, Chuck Noll and John Madden. Days gone by, two teams wearing black, two franchises dressed in pride. The best against the best.

If that’s no longer true, the Steelers remain an attraction, if at 2-4 perhaps for the wrong reason, an example of unmet expectations. As there is a Raider Nation, fans far from the home base, so there is a Steeler Nation, clinging to memories. In sports, nobody forgets.

Raiders coach Dennis Allen won’t forget what he saw Sunday: the way Terrelle Pryor, on the game’s first offensive play, ran 93 yards for a touchdown, apparently the farthest ever by an NFL quarterback; the way Oakland limited the Steelers to 90 yards total — and eight yards rushing — in the first half; the way the Raiders kept hanging in after mistakes when maybe a year ago they would have folded.

“I thought our defense was outstanding,” said Allen. As we know, in football, baseball, basketball and hockey, defense wins. It certainly did for the Raiders, who won for the first time in 11 games coming off their bye week.

Oakland now is 3-4 in seven games this season. The Raiders on Sunday face the Philadelphia Eagles, a team where two quarterbacks, Michael Vick and Nick Foles, are injured and a third, rookie Matt Barkley, is unprepared. It’s all there for Oakland.

Pryor isn’t fully prepared yet either, but he’s adept and learning. He’s also quick and agile. “That big run by Terrelle,” said Allen, “obviously was a huge play to be able to start off and get the type of momentum against a defense where they haven’t given up a lot of explosive plays.”

The Steelers, leaning on defense, deferred after winning the coin toss and let the Raiders make the choice. The idea was Pittsburgh would go to its strength. The plan was a bust.

“We can’t choose to defer,” said Mike Tomlin, the Steelers' coach, “and allow them to explode, and we’re spotting seven on the first play of the game . . . It was a nice play for them, and obviously a poor play for us. Over-aggressive, I guess, could be a way to describe it.”

A way to describe this game was long and wearisome. There seemed to be an officials’ review on almost every play, ref John Parry and his clique unable to make the proper calls at the proper time, dragging this baby out 3 hours and 26 minutes.

Not that a crowd announced at 52,950 seemed to mind. Nobody left early, not with the Steelers trimming a 21-3 deficit to 21-18 in the closing minutes.

“We want to make sure the fans get their money’s worth,” was the opening remark by Allen. Step aside Jay Leno and David Letterman, here come the laughs. Or the smiles. Allen, with a pencil behind his ear and a visor on his head, is more accountant than comedian.

“You still have to learn how to finish better,” insisted Allen. “You get a team 21-3 . . . now listen, we knew this is the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re not going to throw in the towel. They’re not going to give up. But when you have that type of lead, you have to have the killer instinct, and we’ve got to be able to come out and be more effective in the second half of the football game.”

On offense that is. The Raiders had 182 yards rushing at halftime. They had 183 at the end of the third quarter. That neither team scored in that third period enabled Oakland to bumble along.

“I think we had a phenomenal first half,” Pryor observed, “and then our defense had a phenomenal second half, so at the end of the day it’s a team win.”

At the end of the day Pryor, the 2011 supplemental draft pick from Ohio State, had 106 yards and that long touchdown on nine runs and 88 yards on 10 carefully thrown completions. He also had two less carefully thrown interceptions.

“I’m very proud of the offense, the offensive line, Darren (McFadden), Marcel (Reece), the outside guys blocking,” said Pryor. “We had the run game going very good.”

In the first half, they did. In the second half they ran for only 15 yards.

“It’s just another game,” said Pryor with a figurative shrug. “Another team (to overcome) in the roadblock. I’m very proud we got the W.”

Ah yes. Just win, baby. Against the rival Steelers, the Raiders did just that.

Pac-12 still belongs to Stanford

By Art Spander

STANFORD, Calif. — Nothing has changed. The Pac-12 still belongs to Stanford. They lost a week ago, certainly, but nobody wins them all in college football, other than Alabama.

And if Alabama played the schedule of Stanford or USC or most notably UCLA, which was outmuscled Saturday by the Cardinal, the Tide would lose one or two every year.

Stanford was defeated on the road, at Utah, and the dream of the unbeaten season, which these days is almost impossible in the Pac-12, collapsed.

So Stanford did what teams from successful programs virtually always do after a loss. It won.

More than that, in whipping previously undefeated UCLA, 24-10, on a glorious autumn afternoon at Stanford Stadium, the Cardinal dominated. It offered the mental and physical supremacy of a program that embellishes the school’s academic standing.

Stanford used its bevy of 300-pound offensive linemen to wear down UCLA. Stanford utilized its aggressive defenders to befuddle UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley, who when he wasn’t being sacked (four times) was being intercepted (twice). Yes, an exaggeration, but not by much.

“This is really a difficult loss for this football team,” said Bruins coach Jim Mora. As if any loss is easy. UCLA now is 5-1, 2-1 in conference, while Stanford is 5-1, 2-1.

“Stanford,” conceded Mora, “showed us the toughest defense we have seen all year.”

A defense that held UCLA to 266 yards total (Stanford had 419). A defense that Stanford coach David Shaw said was determined to make the mobile Hundley stay in the pocket. A defense that limited UCLA to 74 net yards rushing.

The Stanford offense was effective, efficient. It couldn’t get the ball across the goal line in the first half, which ended in a 3-3 tie, but it got a message across to UCLA: We’re going to pound away, and in the second and third quarters you’ll be unable to respond.

Often too much is made of possession time, but not this game. Stanford had the ball 37 minutes 11 seconds, UCLA 22:49. That’s almost an entire quarter differential.

“We were in the game until the last turnover,” said Mora, alluding to Hundley’s interception with around 2:45 to play, after which Stanford drove its way 32 yards for the ultimate touchdown. Psychologically, perhaps, but not in actuality.

A school once known for finesse football, Stanford obviously changed the pattern, athletes and culture. And the results.

“We recruit tough-minded people, people that bounce back,” insisted Shaw, the third-year head coach who played at Stanford.

Somebody then referred to “body blows,” the running game inflicted on a less-sizable UCLA.

“That’s been our staple for a long time,” Shaw reminded.

Along with having an excellent quarterback.

A huge mural on the stadium tunnel wall artistically calls attention to “Quarterback U.” You think of Frankie Albert, John Brodie, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, of course. But Kevin Hogan, the man who took over last year and is handling the situation, along with the ball, deserves mention.

“I thought it was really solid,” Shaw said of Hogan’s performance, 18 of 25 passing for 227 yards and no sacks, plus 5 runs for 33 yards.

“We did a nice little no-huddle, which he orchestrated outstanding. Kevin knows if the middle opens up, he’s got the ball and takes off and runs . . .  We wanted to run the ball on third down. It was our game plan.”

Not in the plan, but gratefully accepted, was a leaping one-handed catch in the end zone of a Hogan pass by Kodi Whitfield, whose father Bob was both an outstanding offensive lineman at Stanford and a first-round pick in the 1982 NFL draft.

When asked about the catch, Shaw joked, “I would say genetics, but Bob is 6-foot-7, 335 pounds, so I don’t think it came from dad. It was just a phenomenal play. God bless Kodi.”

UCLA fans had been saying the same about Hundley, the sophomore quarterback, but Stanford had him flummoxed.

“Just trying gap integrity,” said Shaw, meaning defenders did not slough off assigned areas. “He still broke containment twice. He stepped out of two sacks, but he’s big, physically strong.”

Said Hundley, “Stanford did a really good job of bringing pressure. Not even blitzing but just using their front four defensive, Stanford’s a great defense. I give them credit . . .  Games like this you want to win so bad. That’s really all I can say.”

UCLA next plays Oregon, which, ranked second in the nation, has been able to beat every team in the conference of late — except Stanford.

“I’m not into statement games,” Mora insisted. “I don’t think any one game defines you.”

Maybe not, but this one proved Stanford still is the class of the Pac-12.

Harbaugh: Somewhere, Bo’s up there smiling

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — Time had gone backwards, unlike the persistent runs of Frank Gore. There we were, back in the 20th century, the fans at Candlestick Park doing the wave — in this final year of the old stadium, anything is acceptable — the 49ers employing a pound-it-out, eat-up-the-clock offense.

A fourth-quarter drive that covered 89 yards and nine and a half minutes, old-fashioned but wonderfully effective, as 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh agreed.

The sort of drive, with eight straight runs in one sequence, that Harbaugh’s coach at Michigan, the late Bo Schembechler, would have loved.

“Yes,” said Harbaugh, “he would have. He would have loved it very much. Somewhere, he’s up there smiling.”

And then Harbaugh, already feeling good after the Niners on Sunday won their third in a row, defeating the Arizona Cardinals, 32-20, began to smile himself.

“It was a huge win,” he said gleefully. “Grinded some meat, playing tough, hard-nosed football, grinding out the running game.

“That was a line coming off the ball, and Frank was determined, and the whole unit, they were determined to move the football and keep the defense off the field that had played so well in that ballgame.”

The Niners ran for 149 yards against the sixth-best rushing defense in the NFL.

They were playing smack-you-in-the-chops football that made Schembechler and Woody Hayes winners in the old Big Ten, a style defined as three yards and a cloud of dust.

Harbaugh, sure, was a quarterback, at Palo Alto High, at Michigan, with the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts. But he despises finesse football. It is his nature. It is his training.

"When I got my first coaching job at the University of San Diego, I called Bo Schembechler and told him,” Harbaugh has explained. “Before he said congratulations, he said, 'Jimmy, tell me you are going to have a tight end that puts his hand in that ground on every snap. Tell me that you are going to have a fullback that lines directly behind the quarterback, and a halfback in the I-formation.'

"'Yes, coach, we will have that.' 'Good, congratulations on getting your job.'"

Now, with the Niners, Harbaugh also has a quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, who can run (18 yards on four carries) as well as throw (16 completions for 252 yards and two touchdowns).

He has a tight end, Vernon Davis, who doesn’t necessarily put his hand in the dirt on every snap but certainly puts his hands around the ball (eight catches for a career-high 180 yards and two TDs).

And most of all, in crunch time, Harbaugh has Gore, who carried 25 times in all, for 101 yards, and seven of the 18 plays on the drive, five of those in succession. That Kendall Hunter powered the final six yards was fine with all concerned, especially Gore, who doesn’t worry about personal statistics.

“Three years with Frank,” said fullback Bruce Miller, “and I just feel he’s getting better and better. He has a passion for the game. He loves the game. He loves the team.”

He definitely enjoys dashing through the gaps or going around the edges, whatever is needed to pick up yardage.

“It felt good,” said Gore of the drive and his contribution. “Especially when their defense knew that we were coming to run the ball at that moment, and we did it. Our O-line made good blocks, our fullback made a good block, the receivers outside made good blocks, and I ran hard.

“When I get in rhythm, I just feel like I can do whatever I want.”

Early on, the Niners couldn’t do what they liked or wanted with the Cardinals, who came into the game with a 3-2 record, as did San Francisco. The Niners, without a first down until there was only a minute left in the first quarter, and then only on a penalty, led only 22-20 into the fourth quarter.

Then 9 minutes 32 seconds and 18 players later, they had the touchdown that meant the game.

“The score was 22-20,” said Darryl Washington, the Arizona linebacker. “We had a chance to get that momentum. We were stopping the run, getting pressure on Kaepernick, but those guys made more plays than we did at the end of the day.”

Kaepernick threw an interception, a tipped ball. Kaepernick lost a fumble when he was sacked. But when required — dare we call it crunch time in the sixth game of the season? — everything worked, especially on that long drive.

“It was huge,” said Kaepernick, a bit more talkative than he's been recently. “We drained the clock on that drive. We had a lot of third-down conversions, had the big fourth-down conversion (a yard by Miller). We said in the huddle, we have to go down and score right now.”

They did. Only in this situation, "right now" means 9 minutes 32 seconds.

Newsday (N.Y.): Dominant Justin Verlander propels Tigers to ALCS

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — By the time Justin Verlander was tired, it didn't matter. Not to the Detroit Tigers, who had enough of his near-perfection to win another playoff series. Not to the Oakland A's, who saw too much of him again.

Verlander didn't allow a baserunner until a one-out walk in the sixth and didn't allow a hit until a two-out single in the seventh Thursday night, pitching Detroit to a 3-0 win over the A's in Game 5 of their best-of-five American League Division Series.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): A's will start rookie Sonny Gray instead of Bartolo Colon in Game 5 of ALDS

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND — Haunted by the past, the A's contend they are thinking only of the present, Thursday night's deciding Game 5 of the American League Division Series against Detroit at O.co Coliseum.

The A's, as many predicted, will start rookie Sonny Gray, 23, who pitched eight shutout innings in the second game of the series. Oakland skipped 40-year-old veteran Bartolo Colon.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Demons hover for the A’s

By Art Spander

They’re so close. Again. But the demons hover. Again. One game is all the Oakland Athletics need to advance to the American League Championship Series. 

As year after year, it seems all they needed was one game to advance.

A game they never could win.

Having taken two in the 2013 best-of-five division championship competition, the A’s appear to have the edge over the Detroit Tigers. 

History begs to differ. 

The statistics are notorious, the memories painful.

Last season they were a win away, against these same Tigers, well, virtually these same Tigers, tied at two victories apiece. Detroit went on to the World Series, the A’s back to the same question that has haunted them much of this brief 21^st century: What went wrong?

In 2000, they lost the fifth game to the Yankees.

In 2001, they won the first two from the Yanks – in New York – then came back to Oakland, to the Coliseum, with its raucous fans, and began a three-game losing streak. Adios.

Game 3 was when Derek Jeter grabbed a poor throw halfway up the first-base line and with a backhanded flip from foul territory cut down the plodding Jeremy Giambi at home. Final score, New York 1, bewildered A’s 0.

In 2002, the so-called “Moneyball” year, Oakland lost in five to the Twins. Not the Yankees or the Red Sox – to whom they would drop the series in 2003 by the inevitable total of three games to two. The Twins. 

It was in 2003 Mr. Moneyball, Billy Beane, the A’s general manager then and now, was heard to mutter to a few journalists after the 4-3 loss to Boston in Game 5, “If I had another $50,000, we would have won this.”

Of course, Beane’s image and reputation were burnished by the Michael Lewis book, subtitled, “The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” for succeeding despite not having that $50,000.

Beane’s then-revolutionary ideas of going after unwanted, slow-footed bargain-basement sluggers didn’t hurt. Yet, what is conveniently overlooked about 2002 is that on the roster were three of the era’s finest pitchers, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

Oakland’s shortstop that season, Miguel Tejada, wasn’t bad either, voted the American League MVP Award over Alex Rodriguez, then playing short for the Texas Rangers. Zito won the AL Cy Young Award.

That hardly sounds like a roster scraped together from the Sunday rec leagues.

Beane knows his ballplayers. He also knows his budgetary limitations, which basically have prevented Oakland from retaining the biggest stars, such as Jason Giambi, who departed after winning the MVP in 2001. Still, sometimes it seems Beane delights in being forced to dig for pennies and solutions.

The real problem -- and this is as much a cause of the poor regular season attendance as playing games at O.co Coliseum, the last stadium shared by baseball and the NFL – is that fans never have time to identify with the best players. Here today, gone to New York or Washington or Phoenix.

Years ago, a columnist – well, me – knowing names make news, complained to Beane, “Your team has no buzz.” Without hesitation, he responded, “You call it buzz, I call it noise.”

The stories are litany. Oakland, the city, is in a bad way, with too much crime. The Coliseum, 48 years old, is antiquated, subject to overflowing sewage in clubhouses and dugouts. (Did anyone notice, across the Bay during the 49er game Sunday, there was a sewage leak at Candlestick Park?)

The A’s owner, Lew Wolff, wants to move the team to San Jose, because of the wealth and cachet of Silicon Valley.

A’s fans, few from April through September, numerous in October, are a stubborn, boisterous group, more so than those who follow the San Francisco Giants, where at AT&T Park the surroundings are lush and the concession menu includes sushi and garlic fries.

Giants fans attend as a diversion. A’s fans attend because of an obsession.

Oakland in 2012 made a huge (and expensive) leap, signing the Cuban free agent Yoenis Cespedes, who has been worth every dollar of his four-year, $36 million deal. That he won the home run hitting contest, prior to the All-Star Game, only gave him added status.

The A’s, as is every winning team, are built on pitching, from 40-year-old Bartolo Colon to 23-year-old Sonny Gray, who shut out the Tigers in Game 2. In Cespedes, Coco Crisp, Josh Donaldson and others they have enough hitting.

They’ll need both in Game 4 against the Tigers. History being what it is, they do not want to confront another Game 5.

One day changes everything for 49ers

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — One day changed everything. One day, and the 49ers were winners, the Seahawks losers and a championship, while still as far off as December is from September, became not only imaginable but very possible.

Things had started so poorly for the Niners, that rout in Seattle, that surprise at home by Indy. Three games into the season, and already the Niners were two behind the Seahawks, who seemed unbeatable if not invincible.

But Sunday there was a change. Sunday the Niners looked like the Niners, and the Seahawks dropped their first game.

That was in the afternoon, at Indianapolis, to the Colts, and Niner fans know how good the Colts can be, having stunned San Francisco at the 'Stick.

Niner coach Jim Harbaugh said he didn’t pay attention to what happened to Seattle. He certainly paid attention to what happened a few hours later to San Francisco.

The 49ers, as if shot out of a cannon, mentally if not physically, grabbed a 7-0 lead just 1 minute, 30 seconds after kickoff, when Tramaine Brock intercepted a pass by Houston’s Matt Schaub and turned it into an 18-yard touchdown.

Four straight games Schaub has thrown a “pick six.” The romp was on. Final score, Niners 34, Texans 3.

“A huge play,” said Harbaugh, emphasizing the obvious. “A great play by such a great guy. He was in perfect position. Played the coverage perfect and then finished the play.”

A play that helped re-establish an identity that the Niners, a Super Bowl team last year, may have lost, if only briefly.

“I think for us,” said quarterback Colin Kaepernick, “we needed to get back to playing our style of football. Hard-nosed football.”

Football that succeeded even though, from the end of the first quarter to the start of the fourth, Kaep had 13 straight incompletions. Then, as happens for excellent players on excellent teams, he hit one — for 64 yards and a touchdown to Vernon Davis.

Schaub is Houston’s problem. Schaub is Houston’s story. Still, he’s an important part of the mix for the Niners. Brock intercepted him a second time.

“I just came in and did my job to step up in the place of the nickel back,” said Brock, referring to Nnamdi Asomugha. “I’m not a guy to talk on microphones. I love football and just want to play football.”     

Tony Jerrod-Eddie, another backup, at defensive tackle because Ray McDonald incurred a bicep injury earlier in the game, made it a third pick.

“We got points off all the turnovers,” said Harbaugh.

It’s a given that you'll win, or at least tie, when the other team doesn’t score a single touchdown. When’s the last time an NFL game ended 3-0?

The last time someone asked Schaub, who had a passer rating of 32.2 (Kaepernick’s, even with the misses and drops, was 89) about his confidence was immediately after the game.

“It’s tough right now,” said Schaub, not explaining exactly what he meant.

Three weeks ago we were questioning Kaepernick about his confidence, about the team’s confidence. No longer, and after consecutive victories (the Niners are 3-2) the familiar question arises: Does winning breed confidence or does confidence breed winning?

The Niners again are who they used to be, and in this case the past very well may be future.

“The season is forged by how you play in these early games,” said Harbaugh. “I don’t know if it just necessarily picks up from one year to the next. Every year is a new year in establishing what your identity is.”

Even if for a while the most identifiable players are missing.

Patrick Willis, the all-pro, was out. Asomugha, once an all-pro, was out. These Niners, spurred by the quiet man, Brock, storm on. It was defense that won for the Niners in Harbaugh’s previous two years, and — along with Frank Gore and Kaepernick moving the ball — it will be defense that will win again. If the Niners are to win again.

“When we get everybody back,” said Michael Wilhoite, who started in place of Willis, “we are going to be two, three deep at every position. That’s what you need.”

The Niners also need a sharper Kaepernick, yet in the NFL no one — Peyton Manning perhaps the exception — is great every week.

Tom Brady struggled Sunday, in a downpour at Cincinnati. Colin Kaepernick appeared to struggle Sunday, in rare high 70-degree weather at Candlestick.

Kaep completed only 6 passes in 15 attempts, four of them on the first drive.

“We have a great defense and a great running game,” was his response. Then, asked if he was aware that he didn’t have a completion in either the second or third quarter, he said, “No, I was aware that we’re up, and that we needed to run to keep our offense on the field.”

Did he notice the Seahawks lost?

“We,” he said sternly, “are worried about us winning.”

That is the essence of focus.

Newsday (N.Y.): Stephen Vogt, Sonny Gray help A's even series with Tigers

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — It was an hour after rookie catcher Stephen Vogt had taken a pie to the face and a bucket of Gatorade down his back. O.co Coliseum already was being converted to football for Sunday night's Chargers-Raiders game.

The Athletics were packing and scrambling, headed for a red-eye to Detroit, where Monday, almost too quickly, they will meet the Tigers again.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Oakland A's battle on despite numerous problems

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — The headline Monday was on crime. "Nation's robbery capital: Oakland."

The headline Saturday was on disenchantment. "A's, Oakland remain far apart on lease."

And, of course, there are the sewage problems at the stadium and the continued intent of the owner to shift the franchise 50 miles south to San Jose.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

A’s: Too many strikeouts, not enough runs

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — No tarps on the upper deck. Revelation. No runs for most of the game. Ruination. The O.Co Coliseum could barely hold the excitement. Detroit’s Max Scherzer had very little trouble holding the Oakland A’s.

The game was everything it was supposed to be, a matchup of two of baseball’s best teams, a matchup of two of baseball’s best pitchers. “You figure the runs were going to be stingy,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, “and they were.”

Scherzer, the major leagues’ only 20-game winner during the regular season (he was 21-3), wasn’t at all stingy with strikeouts. He recorded 11. His backups, Drew Smyly and Joaquin Benoit, added five more.

When a team strikes out 16 times in any game, especially one in the postseason, it’s not going to win.

And in Game 1 of the best-of-five American League Division Series on Friday night, the A’s did not, losing 3-2 to the Tigers, who scored all their runs in the first inning.

Oakland’s 40-year-old starter, Bartolo Colon, couldn’t retire any of the game’s first three batters, giving up a double to Austin Jackson, hitting Torii Hunter with a pitch and then allowing a single by Miguel Cabrera.

What an awful way to begin for 48,401 fans, the largest baseball crowd in Northern California since a Giants-A's game in 2004 in Oakland drew more than 52,000. That was before the A’s had the absurd idea of covering seats in the upper deck and so-called Mount Davis, to make people believe, ostrich fashion, that those seats didn’t exist.

In last year’s playoffs, the tarps stayed on. This time, wisely, management opened up the place, and the people filled it. Unfortunately, except for a Yoenis Cespedes monster two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, the crowd had no reason to do much than chant every now and then, “Let’s go Oakland.”

Pitching wins, especially in the postseason — yes, there are exceptions, such as the Red Sox and Pirates on Friday — and for the Tigers and Scherzer, pitching won. Now, Detroit follows tonight with Justin Verlander, last season’s Cy Young Award winner.

“We tend to strikeout some,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. Some? How about a lot? 

The trouble with a strikeout is it does nothing for the offense, doesn’t move a runner, doesn’t force a fielder to make a play that he may botch, doesn’t get a guy home from third with one out. Think of it. Of the 27 outs made by the A’s, half were on strikeouts.

“We’ve been a little bit on and off with that over the course of the season,” conceded Melvin. “But Scherzer is a strikeout guy. He’s a swing-and-miss guy ... He has a gap (a differential in velocity) between his fastball and his two off-speed (pitchers). He can pitch up and down, which he did.”

Scherzer insisted that every game was the same to him, that it was no big deal he was chosen for the first game of the playoffs. Leyland believed otherwise.

“He was thrilled to get Game 1,” said the manager, who tends to be wonderfully forthright. “He was locked in all night. He was awful determined. I think it meant a lot to him, even though he said it didn’t matter which game he pitched. And he responded like we expected him to respond.”

Mixing fastballs, change-ups and curves, keeping the A’s guessing when they weren’t lurching.

“You go on your instincts,” said Scherzer. “Today we noticed my fastball seemed pretty good, and my change-up seemed pretty good, so early in the game we featured those two pitches a lot.”

Then, contradicting his manager, Scherzer said, “I don’t get caught up in the hoopla, worry about where I’m pitching or if I’m pitching Game 1 or Game 5. When you’re pitching against the A’s, you have to bring your game. And tonight I was able to pitch effectively and pitch well against their left-handed hitters, and that’s the reason why I had success tonight.”

It was a righthanded batter, Cespedes, only a few days ago a doubtful starter because of shoulder soreness, who ended Scherzer’s shutout and the despair among the A’s partisans.

“It got to 2-2,” said Scherzer of Cespedes’ at-bat in the seventh. “And I didn’t know what pitch to go with, and I thought if I went with my fastball I could make him go away (hit the ball to right). The pitch caught too much of the plate, and he took it deep, and that’s just something that happens.

“It’s baseball. It’s pitching, and you move on. From there I was able to settle down and get three big outs in that situation. The crowd was roaring, and the crowd was on their feet, and to get those outs was big, because I was then able to pass it on to the rest of the (bull)pen.”

Which did what bullpens are supposed to do, shut down the batters and, in the process, shut down the crowd.