By Morris Phillips

Talk about a strong start.  The Cal Bears put up 73 points in their opener against overmatched Grambling, but may have made their strongest impression on defense.

The Bears, sporting improved depth and talent along the defensive line and also in their secondary picked off four passes, forced a fumble and kept Grambling scoreless for the first 47 minutes of the ballgame.

Before you can say, “Yeah, but its Grambling,” remember this: the Bears allowed 56 or more points in two of their wins a year ago, and at least 31 points in each of their losses.  Clearly, the infusion of defensive talent will have an effect on a team that knows it can score but needs to find a way to get some stops.

“I thought we all played well,” coach Sonny Dykes said. “I’m very proud of them. We got a little sloppy at times, a lot of things to improve on, but I certainly thought it was a good start.”

Cal’s 73-14 win on another picture perfect afternoon at Strawberry Canyon in front of a surprisingly large crowd of 60, 606 creates anticipation for what comes next for the Bears.  Their marquee non-conference opponent, Texas, was outclassed at Notre Dame on Saturday, victimized by a fast-paced offense not unlike that of the Bears.  Cal’s first league opponent, Washington, didn’t fare particularly well either, losing Friday night at Boise in Coach Chris Petersen’s return visit to his former team.

Taking a closer look at the landscape of the Pac-12, Arizona State and Stanford, both ranked, lost Saturday, which at least for now, appears to create some empty seats behind league top dogs Oregon and USC.

Could Cal fill one of those seats?

If so, it won’t because of Saturday’s historical offensive explosion that saw the Tigers a step behind on most everything Cal attempted offensively.  It will because the Bears have shown dramatic improvement defensively.

“I though overall our defense played incredibly well,” Dykes said.  “I thought we ran to the ball and I though we tackled.  I thought we leveraged the ball really well.  I think we did all the good things a good football team does defensively and I was encouraged by that.”

It would be fair to term Grambling State’s turnovers as comical.  All four of Grambling quarterback Jonathon Williams passes that were picked came in Cal’s 52-point first half. Two of them went for touchdowns, and one bounced of a Grambling receiver’s shoulder and into the waiting hands of Cameron Walker, who raced in from 14 yards to put Cal up 14-0.

In the second quarter, Williams foolishly threw the ball up for grabs in the end zone in an attempt to avoid a safety.  Devante Downs was the beneficiary of that one, as he then raced in from eight yards for a 35-0 Cal lead.

Second–year defensive coordinator Art Kaufman is in charge of the Cal defensive resurgence, and especially liked the therapeutic effects of the turnovers, saying “I thought it did some good things, just for the morale of the kids.”