Think Cal will beat Stanford? Not so fast

STANFORD

Jim Harbaugh has problems with short-term memory. His plucky Cardinal had just had their lunch handed to them by the USC Trojans, 45-23, a butt-kicking score if there ever was one, and someone asked when he would start thinking about Cal — as in Big Game next Saturday in Berkeley.

“Now,” said Harbaugh, “This minute.”

It’s as if the USC game never happened, as if the sold-out stadium never witnessed a game that was pretty good until it wasn’t pretty good anymore. None of that ever happened — that’s how eager Harbaugh was to forget and look forward. You would expect, hey, maybe he’d linger over the USC game in the car ride home, or over a glass of wine in his living room. Or maybe he’d lie awake in bed for, say, a half hour and think about the good things like the first half when Stanford played straight up with USC, the half ending 17-17.

But, no, Harbaugh was off and thinking about Cal, smoke pouring out of his ears. He was thinking about Cal because if Stanford wins, the Cardinal can go to a bowl game, a clear sign of progress for a program dead in the water in the not-so-distant past.

“We’re in a position to do just that against Cal,” Harbaugh said. “There’s a lot on the line. Big game. Chance to go to a bowl game.”

OK, it’s Harbaugh’s business if he wants to forget what happened Saturday. But we’re not obliged to forget. Let’s just say the Cardinal played hard in the first half. The Cardinal offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and Stanford ran the ball on the Trojans and the Trojans didn’t look so hot. The Cardinal were tougher than the Trojans for 30 minutes.

And you had to think USC is not so great offensively and if a team like Stanford can push around its defense, what do the Trojans really have? Really, what do they have? What happened in the first half will hurt USC in the BCS standings, where style points count for a lot.

The Cardinal showed in the first half, once again, they play with Harbaugh’s personality. You’d define that personality as one part really physical and one part slightly nutso. If you don’t think Harbaugh is one part slightly nutso, look into his eyes and see the stare — feel the stare — when he’s in one of his us-against-them moods, a frequent motif for him.

Then, alas, the teams played the second half and the Trojans wore down the Cardinal and ran all over them — stomped them as if the Cardinal were a throw rug in the entryway on rainy day. The reason was simple. USC has depth and Stanford doesn’t, although when the game was over, Mr. Strange Eyes said, “Our team is closing the gap.” Asked what gap that was, he said: “Against the elite teams in the Pac-10.”

There may have been a certain amount of truth to that statement, although last season the Cardinal defeated the Trojans and this season they didn’t. So, the gap closing is, shall we say, subtle or counter-intuitive or maybe not true. Harbaugh said this year’s team is better than last year’s team and his players agreed with him. Sometimes it’s really cool to lose a game.

And that brings us to the Cal Bears, losers of their two most recent contests. Can Stanford beat Cal? Take a superficial look and you’d say, no way. Cal was ranked nationally some time or other this season and Stanford never was ranked and never dreamed of being ranked and currently has a losing record overall (5-6) although the Cardinal are 4-4 in the conference. If you think, sure, Cal will beat Stanford — well, not so fast.

Examine the two teams — both distinctly middle-of-the-road — and you see similarities. Each team plays with two quarterbacks and that means neither team has anyone remotely good enough to be a starting QB. The question is: Are Stanford’s two crummy quarterbacks as good as Cal’s two crummy quarterbacks?

I’d say yes, definitely yes. Neither team has an advantage in the crummy-quarterback department.

Cal has good running backs and Stanford has good running backs, but which team has better good running backs?

I’d say Stanford. Nothing against Cal, honest. It’s just that Toby Gerhart runs hard and evasively and he will be the best back on the field next Saturday. The Cardinal offensive line is a little stronger than the Cal offensive line. Although, face it, Cal has a better defense.

So, who wins?

Stanford wins, that’s who.

Why does Stanford win?

Because the Cardinal are tougher and more physical than the Bears. The Cardinal are coached by Harbaugh and although he may not be an Xs and Os guy like Jeff Tedford, he is a wild man with crazy eyes. Never count out the wild man with the crazy eyes.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.