Tedford Tournament of Champions: Cal 2002 vs. Cal 2005

Posted by: Avinash on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

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As we discovered last week, Cal 2003 was no match for the offensive potency of Cal 2007 in the Whatifsports.com simulator. This team didn’t need much impetus in flatout overpowering its way to a sweep. This led us to our next match in the series, a showdown between the 2002 and 2005 teams. How would Tedford’s inaugural team perform against the impressive Cal 2005 defense and the blossoming Marshawn Lynch?

Results are after the jump, but vote in the sidebar and see how your predictions match up with the actual results!

Game 1: Cal ’05 24, Cal ’02 3
Summary: A dominating defensive performance by the ’05 Bears and strong running by Marshawn Lynch helped give the ’05 Bears a 1-0 series lead. The ’05 defense intercepted Kyle Boller four times and sacked him three times, and held the ’02 Bears to 11 yards of rushing offense and forced an additional fumble that led to the Lynch score. Joe Ayoob would get sacked six times (twice by Lorenzo Alexander and Abu Ma’afala each), but he held onto the ball and turned the ball over only once. Justin Forsett and Lynch each had a TD in the second quarter to put ’05 up 17-0.

Boller’s only good drive of the day ended in a field goal when he overthrew Geoff MacArthur in the end zone. His next drive led to a Justin Moye INT. Ayoob would march the ’05 team 83 yards for the decisive score, capped off by two throws to the young DeSean Jackson, one in which he shed a defender and marched down to the one yard line.

Temp: 55 degrees, medium wind

Game 2: Cal ’05 41, Cal ’02 34

After committing five turnovers in Game 1, Cal ’02 managed to take care of the ball and not lose it once, but they were in constant catchup mode the entire way as they fell behind early and could never overtake their ’05 counterparts, falling behind 2-0 in the series. Joe Ayoob played effectively throughout, throwing two TDs and driving his team to another. Down 20-0 in the second quarter, Boller would again have to lead his team back, taking them down the field to make it 20-7 on a Joe Igber TD with 9 seconds left in the half, and then finding Vincent Strang for another to make it 20-14.

LayRelle Cunningham would come up with two big twenty yard scampers for ’05 in the 3rd quarter to set up two running TDs, but the ’02 team kept on coming back, as Boller would connect with David Gray and Igber would run in another score to cut the lead down to 3. Marshawn Lynch again left his imprint with two early TDs and another one in the 4th to provide the margin of victory. Boller had one last chance to tie the game late, but a crucial sack by Fahim Abd Allah on the opponent’s 35 stalled the drive and he couldn’t get a throw off on his final two pass attempts.

Temp: 70 degrees, no wind

Game 3: Cal ’05 38, Cal ’02 33
It looked as if the 2002 squad was going to make it a series. Then it all went to dust thanks to BeastMode.

Cal ’05 responded to 27 unanswered points with 21 of their own (including a devastating Marshawn Lynch run and key catches by LayRelle Cunningham) and took a commanding 3-0 lead in the series. Despite the drama, it was a sloppy offensive game marked by eight turnovers, five by an ’02 team who had already committed five in Game 1. Tim Mixon would pick off two of Boller’s passes in the second quarter, one of which led to an Ayoob-to-LayRelle Cunningham TD.

Mark Christian Jensen would put the Bears ahead with four field goals, one of which gave the ’02 squad a 19-17 lead during a dominating third quarter. Ayoob’s two interceptions would lead to 10 points for ’02, and another two sacks would lead to two three-and-outs, which set up the other 10 points for ’02. Boller would then drive the ’02 Bears early in the 4th quarter to a Vincent Strang TD, giving them a 33-17 lead.

Ayoob would come right back on the next drive, aided by two Cunningham catches that led to the Forsett TD and Craig Stevens 2 point conversion to cut the lead to 8. Boller would then get intercepted by Daymeion Hughes on the next possession, and aided by a 41 yard Cunningham scamper, would cut the lead to 33-31 on a Lynch run in the red zone. Nevertheless, Cal ’02 seemed to have run out of time with 1:32 left with Cal pinned at their own 21. But then Lynch went on a run for the ages, going 78 yards down the field to set up his goahead TD run. Hughes would intercept Boller on their final drive to seal the win.

Game 4: Cal ’02 22, Cal ’05 20
In a game the ’02 Bears had to have, they took control in the second quarter with 16 unanswered points. Although Tim Mixon would intercept Kyle Boller early to set up a Lynch TD run to make it 10-0, it was Joe Ayoob who struggled more this time around, throwing two picks in the second quarter that set up Boller scores to Geoff MacArthur and Jonathan Makonnen to give ’02 a 16-10 lead.

After trading field goals for most of the 2nd half to make it 22-13, Ayoob tried driving his team to two scores, but he was intercepted once, Schneider couldn’t convert a long field goal, and the touchdown the Bears needed came with only 35 seconds left. The ’05 team managed to recover the onside kick, but Ayoob’s pass soared incomplete as time expired.

Boller finished the game 17 for 43, 241 yards with 2 TDs and 2 INTs; Ayoob 17 for 30, 207 yards, 1 TD and 3 INTs.

Temp: 50 degrees, no wind

Game 5: Cal ’05 20, Cal ’02 16 (Cal ’05 wins 4-1)
Despite a terrible game from Joe Ayoob (18 for 29, 3 interceptions), Marshawn Lynch and Cal ’05 is moving on.

Lynch and Justin Forsett combined for 187 yards and 2 TDs and Cal’s defense sacked Kyle Boller 5 times and brought the ’02 running game to a halt (1.6 yards a carry) in heavy rain and wind at Memorial. Lynch would rush for 47 yards on his TD drive and catch for 29 yards on Forsett’s. Boller would drive the ’02 team into ’05 territory five times in the first half (and would get an Ayoob interception that put them in their red zone as well as a Lavelle Hawkins fumble), but would only get in the end zone once and settle for field goal attempts the other four times, making two of them for a small 13-7 lead.

Mark Christian Jensen would miss a whopping five field goals in all, two in the third quarter that could’ve given Cal ’02 the lead. He would make one that cut the lead to 1 after Boller overthrew Joe Igber in the end zone in the 4th quarter, but Ayoob would respond with a four minute, fifteen play drive that brought a Schneider field goal to make it a 4 point lead with 1:31 left. Boller would get sacked on the final possession and his long attempts on 3rd and 4th down were incomplete.

Temp: 60 degrees, light wind, heavy rain

And the tournament’s Final Four now looks like the following…

So now the Cal 2005 team faces a very talented 2006 team, and now the monstrous Cal 2004 team will be heading to face the talented 2007 team. How will each of them fare?

Next week you’ll find out. Wednesday will be 2004 vs. 2007, Friday will be 2005 vs 2006. Enjoy your long summer weekend.

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Topics: Awesome, Cal Football, Irrelevant, Statistics, What If?

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