In a scene that resembled the crowning of a new champion, the California Golden Bears locker room after their 55-38 upset win over ASU had all the feeling of a championship win, except for the champagne showers. Even Cal head coach Jeff Tedford's blue vest was soaked in lemon-flavored Gatorade, and Bear trainers and executives were hugging and celebrating, all at the expense of the Sun Devils.
It seemed that ASU simply didn't have an answer to the Golden Bears' offensive arsenal. Adding to that, Cal was able to storm out of the gates in the first quarter, something that Tedford had hoped to do.
"Our defense did an excellent job of getting after them early," Tedford said, "we caused a few turnovers and that's the difference in the game, the turnovers."
Although the game began slowly for both teams as each offense punted the ball on two-or-more possessions in the first quarter, the Golden Bears took advantage of an almost lethargic ASU team. Cal's defense held the Sun Devils to -10 yards of total offense, zero first downs and -24 rushing yards.
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"Our offensive line did an excellent job and Joe really did a nice job of protecting the ball and finding the seams," Tedford said. "It was key for us in the first half to stop the run, our front guys did a really nice job of stopping the run, no question."
On the offensive side, it took senior quarterback Kyle Boller five possessions to find senior tight end Tom Swoboda for the game's first touchdown on an 11-yard pass.
While Boller finished the game with 213 passing yards and five touchdown passes, the dagger in the Sun Devil's side was senior running back Joe Igber's prosperous day running the ball around, over and through the ASU defense.
"He did an awesome job," Boller said, "I'm really going to miss playing with him next year when we're gone." Boller was not only a spectator to Igber's 144-yard rushing performance, but also contributed a key block on a play in the third quarter that cleared up the lane for Igber to pick up the first down.
"I finally got my block, I usually feel like I need to be doing something so I finally got my crack back," Boller said.
"The play was designed to go off center, but nothing was there," Igber said. "There was a time earlier in the season when Kyle (Boller) could have made that block too, but I cut the wrong way. So today right when I bounced out I thought that, and I was like, 'okay we'll just go with it and see.' Sure enough as soon as I bounced I saw number 7 and was like, 'oh my goodness he's going to help me out here!' He got me some good extra yards."
The difference maker in the game was Igber's 30 carries on the day. Although he did not get in the end zone on the ground, he was more than happy running the ball so that Boller could find receivers such as junior Jonathan Makonnen twice for touchdowns, and Swoboda once. But with 7:08 remaining in regulation, Igber was rewarded for his efforts as Boller found him open for a 17 yard touchdown reception.
"It was just a total team effort today," Igber said, "they gave us a few big plays; it seemed that every time we made a big play they came back and made a bigger one so it had to be a total team effort."
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