Author: lleonardbw

49ers commentary: Niners should have control of struggling Giants in Sunday’s contest

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–The match up with the New York Giants (3-6) for this Sunday is a good one for the San Francisco 49ers (5-4). The Giants have not been particularly good this year. Their certainly not a push over by any stretch and given the history between these two teams you would think the Giants would have a little pride and you would think they have a little extra energy going into this one.

The fact of the matter is the Giants are not a very good team we saw them get rolled up the other week giving up a ton of rushing yards and the 49ers more than likely will be giving the ball more than often to running backs Frank Gore and Carlos Hyde and quarterback Colin Kaepernick could get a few runs in there.

This is kind of a game where the 49ers get back to basics and run the ball a lot, the Giants are very venerable on the ground and their also very venerable on the pass. They have a very poor secondary one of their starting cornerbacks was lost for the season just a couple of weeks ago and they weren’t very good to begin with.

Their just generally thin in the secondary just overall the Giants defense is not that particularly good. The Niners have had some issues on offense the last few weeks and you saw them in that game against New Orleans they came out and they scored 21 points early on in the first half and they were just spinning wheels in the second.

That was partly a function of playing in the Superdome and part of the function of playing a pretty good New Orleans team. The Giants are not at that level and they don’t have that kind of home field advantage. The Niners offense could get back on track, their a little bit embarrassed by the way things have been going on offense the last few weeks.

The 49ers would be involved in a game where they can take full control and the Giants would be a perfect team for them. Their a team that the Niners aren’t going to take lightly. They played them so many times in key situations in the last few years and the Giants aren’t simply that good. With a motivated 49ers team that’s ready to go your going to see them have a really good game.

The 49ers feel like every game is like a playoff game and 49ers wide receiver Anquan Boldin actually said that. He said every week is a one game season and that’s how their approaching things right now. They need to play hard every Sunday in order to make the playoffs at this stage. The Giants are really the first step on that road.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Former A’s Alvin Dark 92 and Kelvin Moore 57 pass away

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Former A’s manager Alvin Dark passed away on Thursday at the age of 92 the Oakland A’s announced in a press release. Dark whose many successful accomplishments as a player and a manager in baseball was overshadowed by telling former Giant first baseman Orlando Cepeda to stop talking in Spanish in the Giants clubhouse during his time with the San Francisco Giant as manager in the 1960s.

Dark at the time wanted the Latino players on those 60s Giants teams like Juan Marichal, Felipe Alou and Cepeda to talk in English only in the Giants clubhouse. Years later Cepeda would say everytime Dark saw him he would apologize for that and Cepeda would say, “he didn’t know our background or where we came from.”

Cepeda would tell Dark when he would apologize, “that’s in the past now, that’s in the past, I don’t hold grudges against nobody.” Dark died at his home in Easly South Carolina from a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease. Dark came from a very strong born again Christian background and would often give talks in churches which he did in the East Bay quite often when he was managing the 1974 Oakland A’s.

Dark’s career started out with the Boston Braves in 1946, in 1948 he finished third in voting for the American League rookie of the year with the Braves. In the 48 season Dark played a key role in helping the Braves get to the World Series it would be the Braves first pennant since 1914. Dark however it hit only .167 in the 1948 World Series and was traded to the New York Giants after the season.

In the 1951 National League playoff game three against the Brooklyn Dodgers the Giants were trailing 4-1 the Giants managed to get within one run making it 4-3 and in the bottom of the ninth at the Polo Fields in New York. Dark hit a single and later Bobby Thompson hit a homer off Dodger pitcher Dan Newcombe for a walk off victory 5-4 to get the Giants into the 1951 World Series. The homer which was later named “the shot heard round the world.”

Dark later managed the 1962 San Francisco Giants to a World Series, the Giants played the contentious New York Yankees to seven games. The Giants lost game seven when Willie McCovey with two runners on hit a line shot to Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson who leaped and caught it for the final out of the game. With that Yankees win that would erase their previous bitter loss in the 1960 World Series to Bill Mazeroski and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Dark later managed the 1974 Oakland A’s to a World Series pennant, the A’s had won two straight pennants in 1972-73 and Dark’s 1974 A’s made it three straight. That A’s team had been talent loaded with Reggie Jackson, Gene Tenace, Sal Bando, Ray Fosse, Mike Epstein, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, Bill North, and a pitching staff of Jim Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Paul Lindblad, John Blue Moon Odom and owned by Charlie O Finley.

Kelvin Moore passes at age 57: Former A’s infielder Kelvin Moore passed away at the age of 57 in Covington Georgia of a heart attack on Wednesday it had been reported that Moore was suffering from diabetes and other ailments in the past few years.

Moore played with former A’s second baseman and current Comcast baseball analyst Shooty Babbitt on the 1981 A’s team who won the American League West that season. Moore was a native of Leroy Alabama. Moore was selected sixth out of the draft in 1978, Moore played at Jackson State and it was on former A’s manager Billy Martin’s team that season in 81 where Moore hit .255 in 14 games.

Moore would wind up playing for Oakland for all of his three years in the big leagues between 1981-1983. Moore would hit .223 with eight home runs and 25 RBIs in 76 games. Moore is survived by his family wife Patricia and daughters Chasity and Kim and son Justin.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: With cops involved in 49ers security McDonald’s case lacked evidence

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN JOSE–The NFL has a big problem and a lot of other leagues in sports have problems but for some reason the NFL has problems with the issue of domestic violence and the reason is because it’s a very physical league. There’s a lot of violence and a lot of guys are brought up in a violent sport. Unfortunately some of them were growing up in homes where there was abuse too.

Unfortunately this happens and it’s a problem, it’s a problem that we have in our culture and society and I believe in justice and there was not enough evidence to prosecute 49ers linebacker Ray McDonald for domestic violence. Witnesses a party that McDonald threw at his home on Brantley Ridge in San Jose on August 31st did not testify against McDonald and what took place between him and his girlfriend.

McDonald received a text from another female and his girlfriend was notified about it from a another friend while she slept in the home while the party was going on being notified she became upset and invited the girl who was talking with McDonald at the party to go outside and McDonald intervened and the girlfriend who was also pregnant ended up punching McDonald and he tried to restrain her and she ended up getting bruised during the exchange according to sources.

Witnesses at the party did not want to get involved in the situation and refused to cooperate with San Jose Police. Also San Jose Police Sgt Sean Pritchard was at the home who does security for the 49ers had been at the home of McDonald twice on the day in question. The girlfriend had called 911 and McDonald was taken in and photographed and questioned and released.

This week it was determined due to a lack of evidence or testimony on behalf of witnesses at the party and his girlfriend (fiancée) the charges were dropped on Monday night. There are some women in the NFL who get abused who are afraid to report these abuses to the police because their either afraid for their lives or they are afraid later on that their husband will end up in jail or lose their career in the NFL.

Pritchard and a dozen officers have been suspended from doing any further security duty for the 49ers because what is seen as a conflict of interest. They get paid by the 49ers so they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them and that should not be and there should be by neutral law enforcement in a case like that. The NFL has a huge problem on its hands, case in point with the most recent case of defensive end of the Carolina Panthers Greg Hardy whose domestic violence case is being delayed until the end of the NFL season.

San Jose Police Chief Larry Esquivel had to get involved once this case took a life of it’s own in the media with widespread coverage of McDonald and his mug shot floating on all the media sites after his August arrest. The issue that Esquivel was afraid of was what role did the San Jose Police play in the investigation of McDonald and were the police going to help McDonald find an out since they did in fact work for the team.

With no witnesses willing to testify there is no evidence against McDonald but you still in fact have a suspicious public wondering what those witnesses saw and if the police really covered up evidence for McDonald since they also did freelance security for the team.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Athletics celebrate 25th anniversay of 1989 World Championship

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–A reunion of owners, executives and employees of one of the most successful baseball teams in the history of the Bay Area took place at a well known seafood restaurant at Jack London Square in Oakland. Close to 200 people were invited. I was proud to be among them, as their Spanish play by play announcer during that great run of American League titles, as winning three Western Divisions and three American League Pennants consecutively, as well as three consecutive World Series. Many executives of the A’s of 1989 have moved onto other organizations like Walt Jocketty, the General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

At the entrance of this famous Jack London Square restaurant there was a big banner listing the Oakland A’s four World Series titles, 1972,73,74 and 1989. The days of Tony LaRussa in the late 80’s and early ’90’s were great for the Athletics, with such stars as Rickey Henderson, Dave Henderson, José Canseco, Mark McGwire, Dave Stewart, Bob Welch and others.

The A’s at that time, had the record for attendance in the Bay Area and were the model of marketing and involvement with the community, and as of today are even admired by Larry Baer of the San Francisco Giants. Just a few years after winning that 1989 historic World Series (the only time in history television had Live coverage of an earthquake) the Athletics gave the South Bay/San José territorial rights to the San Francisco Giants, who were dying at the gate at maligned Candlestick Park, and were planning to move out of the Bay Area.

To this day, the Bay Area is the only two-team Major League Baseball market in the country where “territorial rights” are an issue. Whenever the A’s would are able to move to San José, remains to be seen, at it is running now longer than some famous Telemundo Novelas.

1989 was a great season where for the first, and only time in history the two Bay Area teams collided in the Fall Classic. One that was interrupted by the Loma Prieta earthquake, and eventually won by the A’s via a sweep, two wins prior to the earthquake, and two more after the eleven day delay by then Commissioner Fay Vincent Jr.

Like many of these reunions, just like in High School or College, you see people you do not recognize that well, but then you realize who they are and all-of-a-sudden you are sharing memories. Many Oaklander’s were in attendance, including some millionaires who would love to see the Athletics stay in Oakland.

Somebody said that although the Giants have now won three World Series, they still have not won one against the A’s and the Giants have not won three in a row. History usually is more appreciated a quarter-of-a-century later. Andy Dolich who as the brain in the A’s business side of things winning multiple Celo’s for television commercials was the Master of Ceremonies, trying some comedy he showed a plastic “finger” as the finger that José Canseco recently lost as he was cleaning his gun. Dolich introduced Wally Haas Jr. who spoke, and later a video with 1989 highlights ran as people mingled, drank and had dinner.

As I spoke to Wally Haas Jr, whose father was the owner of the team during those years, and thanked him for the invite, he is still one of the most unpretentious movers and shakers in the Bay Area. His company paid millions to have their name Levi at the brand new San Francisco 49ers facility in Santa Clara. Wally has always been a quiet but effective boss, and when they bought the team from Charlie O.Finley they turned a dying franchise into the pride of the Bay Area. Wally Haas Jr. was very gracious (as always) with the people at this reunion, he thanked them and said this was a great event and was extremely happy to get together with all of us.

After the A’s-Finley dynasty winning three consecutive World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974, this feat of winning three consecutive World Series has only been matched and surpassed by the New York Yankees, who own several dynasties and a record of 27 World Series titles. During three years from 1988 to 1990 the Oakland A’s were the standard for excellence, although they lost the 1988 World Series to the Dodgers, in one of the biggest upsets in history and after winning the American League with a 104-58 record, and sweeping the Red Sox in the ALCS, then in 1989 they finished 99-63 took the Blue Jays in five games in the ALCS and swept the Giants in the World Series. In 1990 Bob Welch won 27 games and the Cy Young, the A’s won 103 and lost 59, swept Boston again in the ALCS, but got swept by Cincinnati in the World Series.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: Amaury Pi Gonzalez and Gail Gonzalez

Golden State Warriors commentary: Kerr can go to anyone now on the bench and the W’s are still phenomenal

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by Matt Harrington

PHOENIX–The Golden State Warriors start has been good but their going to get better, they won a big game in Houston on Saturday night 98-87 despite that they turned over the ball 26 times in that game. That’s something that head coach Steve Kerr has echoed on fixing after each game. These Warriors looked good but their going to be better.

The Warriors on average have turned the ball over 21.6 times on average per game that’s the loweest number in the NBA that’s a great improvement over last season. The Warriors are not fully healthy with David Lee out with that hamsstring strain, Klay Thompson was out in Phoenix against the Suns with a hand injury. The Warriors have not been playing at full strengh.

You talk about a 5-0 record going into Phoenix the team is not entirely healthy, their not getting the normal starting guys that they would, that’s quite an accomplishment this early and it’s hard to go 5-0 in any professional league especially at the start of the season when your not healthy. Winning on the road and keeping a perfect record through five games is hard especially when you have a couple back to back away games like they had this weekend.

The Warriors are a team that uses their legs their an uptempo team but that takes a little bit of toll. To come out with these wins and they played Phoenix in Sunday night it’s tough to play on the road in the NBA. The Suns have a bunch of greyhounds on that team they like to run the court and they like to get points in transition. It’s a huge accomplishment to win back to back games for Golden State.

To win at home as well is a tough accomplishment which they won that opening night game against the Kings that was electric. The Warriors are winning anywhere they could play a game on the moon right now. The road right now is tempting the Warriors by the time they return home they’ll have a good idea what they’re team identity would be.

The Warriors will be at home next against the Brooklyn Nets, you talk about Brooklyn and a team that’s coming from back east and from New York that’s always a tough test but the Warriors are really starting to jell right now and the Warriors are hopeful that Lee will be back from his injury if not the Warriors will definitely be tested. As of right now their getting help from forward Draymond Green whose been phenomenal he had 24 points Saturday night in Houston.

Green scored a career high with that 26 and he’s been pretty hot, everybody has been playing pretty hot. Kerr could plug in anybody and it seems like they’re having a good night. There’s still so much more basketball to come and it will be a wait and see if they can keep this up.

Matt Harrington is a talk show host covering Golden State Warriors basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo image: google images

NCAA Commentary: Bird working hard, Kravish will protect the paint and Wallace working on that shot

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by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–Cal head coach Cunozo Martin was coached in college by Gene Keady and Martin was an assistant under Keady who was one of the great college coaches over the years and won over 900 games. Keady coached briefly at the University of San Francisco at the end of his career. Martin left Tennessee last season after his most successful season in winning two games in the NCAA Tournament.

Martin had issues at Tennessee with the administraton but he landed on his feet at Cal and he’s not a guy who’s a retread, he’s someone who’s career is on the uptick for Cal this could be quite a coup. Martin loves the Bay Area and said that he would like to make this home and the facilities at Cal have been improved so much that anybody in athletics regardless of where they’ve been and at the University of Tennessee in this particular case would not be impressed it’s a beautiful area.

Obviously you can afford to buy a home when your a major college coach and that’s not an issue and the academics and the whole set up is really nice. Obvisously Cal has had it’s issues in previous years and the last couple of years but there is no reason why that won’t necessarily continue they’ve got great people in place.

Former head coach Mike Montgomery according to talk show host Michael Duca left the cupboard well stocked. I wouldn’t say the cubboard is well stocked because Montgomery was unable to attract the highest level recruits. This team does have talent and it will win games there is returning talent with guard Jabari Bird, Tyrone Wallace, and David Kravish in the middle.

Bird, Wallace and Kravish have plenty of experience and they should be great Pac 12 players this coming season. Bird is a hard working guy I’ve seen him shoot after games and after games that didn’t go well for him last season. He would be on the floor shooting, he’s not the type of guy who would be satisfied by substandard performances.

Bird’s father played for Cal, he’s connected to the University, he’s not going anywhere, he’s not looking at the front door. He’s not the type of young man who would be deterred if he’s having some current issues on the court. He’s a hard worker and Cal expects him to have a big jump in his freshman and sophmore year.

Kravish is not going to play a lot at this particular juncture he’s probably one of the most important guys on the team in terms of what he gives to the team that he can’t anywhere else. The defense is well known and the shotblocking, Kravish is a shotblocker and and a surprising shotblocker at that. Kravish has to stay healthy if he does he’s going to have a great senior year.

Morris Phillips is filling in for Michelle Richardson this week for the NCAA Commentary and is the Cal Bears mens basketball beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

Cal Bears Mens basketball commentary: Martin enjoying Montgomery’s well kept cubboard of talent this season

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–One thing that former Cal head coach Mike Montgomery did before he left Cal was he kept the cupboard well stocked and when new head coach Cunozo Martin took over he had a great class of players to use for this season. He had a lot of high basketball I.Q.guys and he got those well trained players and he always needed high I.Q. guys becuase to work out those complicated plays that take place in Division one games in the NCAA you need the players will the quick learn and knowledge.

When Martin came in the team was certainly not in rebuilding mode and there was none of that firing of the last coach because he couldn’t figure out which end was the front door of the bus. That’s really the ideal situation to come in, Montgomery isn’t quite a quote end quote “legend” like a former UCLA head coach John Wooden or former head coach at University of North Caroliina Dean Smith.

Montgomery was the winningest head coach of the Pac 12 and during his retirement he was approaching Wooden’s total victory. He’s got a pretty solid background and when Martin comes in and follows someone like that you don’t have to do better you just have to do well enough.

One of the frustrating things about watching college basketball is that the players are only there for a few years and even though their there to graduate their there for only four years and maybe they play for three. You never see their full development but you see so much development going from a kid playing high school basketball and always the star of your team, or the leader of your school district or your area.

You get to a high level college program like the Pac 12 and suddenly you are a small fish in a big pond full of big frogs. Watching the kids adjust going from “I’m the man to I’m not even sure I know the man” and going through the whole development process with a new coach and the style of the game being so much faster. Now you have to become a complementary piece stand up component that the offense goes through.

It’s always fun watching these kids develop and Bears guard Tyrone Wallace did a whole lot of maturing and developing last season he is going to be a very steady piece for Cal this year and coach Martin. What makes this year exciting is that the players get to learn a new coach in Martin. They will be learning his style and figuring out how this team is going to play.

Montgomery’s teams played completely under his control, they played defense first and if everything went right they would have the outlet pass in front to run the wings and run the floor a little bit. It’s not clear what style Martin is going to have. You really can’t tell anything from two exhibition games what you do there is just get a look at all your players.

Cal plays the 2K Classic against Alcorn State at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley on Friday November 14th at 7:00PM. Morris Phillips will have complete game coverage.

Michael Duca does Golden Bears commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

Raiders commentary: Lack of experienced guys will have to step up when Broncos come calling Sunday

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–We’ve been saying it for weeks now that the Oakland Raiders (0-8) despite their last four straight loses look a little more confident in themselves and that has a lot to do with the change in the coaching staff. Whatever former head coach Dennis Allen was doing it wasn’t sticking and whatever Allen was doing on game day wasn’t meshing with what they were doing during the week.

A lot of what we heard that was going on amongst the Raiders coaching staff during the Allen reign is that they would plan to do one thing during the week and then when things went south on game day they would completely switch up and move onto something that they haven’t prepared for. This is one of the reasons why they looked so bad.

What the Raiders are doing now is their putting together their game plans and their sticking to their game plans this is not a particularily difficult concept but you’d be surprised at how many coaches don’t do that. There’s a time and place for going off script but to do it consistantly when things go awry and that’s kind of a recipe for failure which the Raiders were doing.

The big problems that the Raiders have beyond the coaching staff is the talent level on the team. You really got to squeeze hard to get talent out of these guys because their just not that talented of a group. The free agents that the Raiders signed in the off season really haven’t been major contributors LaMarr Woodly and Justin Tuck two guys who have had a lot of past success under their belt.

Woodly and Tuck were expected to come in and provide leadership and contribute quite a bit on the field they just haven’t done that. That’s left a lot of playing time for younger guys who are inexperienced and that are not just as particularily talented. The Raiders are trying to find guys they could go forward with it’s not just next week or next season but for the future.

We keep saying Khalil Mack right linebacker he’s the most obvious pick and you might look at Sio Moore at linebacker but there’s not a ton of talent from this team that would start on other teams in the NFL. It’s just that simple. The Raiders have to face Denver this week, the Broncos are coming off a big loss to the New England Patriots in a nationally televised game.

That was one of the worst games that Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning has played as a Bronco during the regular season. The Raiders and the Broncos they don’t like each other and the Broncos are a very talented team and their not going to come into Oakland caring whether the Raiders have done anything last week and their coming into the Coliseum looking to put their stamp on this team and reassert themselves after the drubbing they took last week.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: sjmercurynews.com

49ers commentary: Which 49ers team will show up this Sunday?

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–The San Francisco 49ers after their bye week on October 26th got some rest for the players who were injured and who came back. They were looking like they were coming back and they just beat the Rams on October 13th 31-17 which was on Monday Night Football. So at that point there was no way to anticipate that the 49ers would be in the middle of a struggle.

I looked at the 49ers last game they looked really bad and the offensive line in particular was terrific but at the same time the Niners were bad. While the 49ers are not a Super Bowl team this season but they haven’t looked anywhere close to looking that bad either. The way the defense performed it was disappointing, but the offense was not that bad.

When it comes down to it they were facing a team that had a very good coach last Sunday in the Rams Jeff Fisher whom they played twice a year and the Rams didn’t win by much 13-10 in their last meeting. They came into that game having somewhat of an idea of what to expect. The Rams are not somewhat familar with the 49ers even though they play them twice in the last few seasons.

The Niners have to feel somewhat embarrassed for last week and a lot of times it happens. When you get embarrassed one week a lot of times you come back with a wake up call and the following week you come back. If anyone remembers back in the 1994 Super Bowl season for the 49ers they had a fantastic team but in week four the Niners had a humiliating loss to the Eagles they lost to them 41-8.

Not only was the score awful former 49ers head coach head coach George Siefert pulled out starter Steve Young out with eight minutes left in the game. Young was not pulled out for the last play but the last eight minutes. Young was so livid over that decision he was seen on the sidelines shouting, screaming, and yelling at Siefert they just went balistic.

After that game the Niners got everything together and just went on a tear through the league then they won the Super Bowl. I’m not saying the Niners are going to win the Super Bowl that certainly is a possibility but this team is not as bad as it looked last week. With the offensive line you had to look at the tape and you figure what they did wrong and they need to get themselves together.

Let’s face it they faced a team that haven’t been amazing this year but they have a decent defense and New Orleans does not. While the Superdome is certainly a difficult place to play when the Niners went there before. 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been there before and they feel like they can get around the dome. It’s not going to be an easy game on Sunday but they put together the offense because they’ve been playing quite well in past weeks.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

Stanford preview report: Key to beating Utah is getting Hogan some protection in the pocket

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by Daniel Dullum

PALO ALTO–What your seeing with the Stanford Cardinal are the earmarks of a very average team (5-4) and let’s be very honest about that. This is a team that won four games against unranked teams and their 0-4 against ranked teams. It goes back to the old Bill Parcells statement of “you are what your record is” and right now that is where the Cardinal are.

The Cardinal are hovering around .500 their not ranked anymore, they can forget about the football playoffs system. Right now the Cardinal if anything their hardpressed to get a bowl bid. What their playing for is trying to get that sixth win and squeeze one of the lower tier bowls out of this season. Their in a situation where they need to finish strong to get any kind of a bowl bid and the Rose Bowl is out of the question.

The Pac 12 Championship is out of the question, that’s not going to happen but they still get a bowl out of the deal. That’s kind of your payoff, sure it’s not the Rose Bowl but it’s not going to be the Fiesta Bowl or any of the big New Year’s day games. The Cardinal certainly can get into one of the lower tier bowls and their season is based on a winning note the Cardinal have something to play for.

The Cardinal looking ahead meet the Cal Bears (5-4) at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Sat Nov 22nd and it should be a good match up the only problem is for Stanford every school is allowed to request a game film to watch and I got to believe everybody that plays Stanford is requesting the Arizona State film. The Sun Devils just litterally shut down the Cardinal in that game 26-10 on Sat Oct 26th.

The Cardinal in that game couldn’t pass, they couldn’t throw, they couldn’t do much of anything. We’re not talking about a great ASU team, they’re improving but this is not necessarily a banner year for ASU (7-1). For them to shut down the Cardinal like they did last month that’s the film the opponents really want to look at. With Cal having enough offense to get the scoring done it’s going to be a tall order for Stanford to win the Big Game.

Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan is a fine college quarterback he’s not Andrew Luck nor should he be confused with him. Hogan is better than average and for Stanford’s purposes Hogan is fine. The problem is he’s not getting a lot of good blocking. Especially good pass blocking he’s getting flushed out of the pocket a lot more so he has to run a lot.

In the past Hogan can get by just taking care of business with high percentage passing he has to be a good field general and get the job done. Whereas now he’s being depended upon to be a little more patient and with a little more pin point accuracy with his passing and that’s really not what Hogan is about. He’s flushed out of the pocket a lot more now and he has to throw on the run and he winds up running. We’ll see if he gets some decent protection against the Utes on Saturday at Stanford.

Daniel Dullum covers Stanford football with Jeremy Harness and Jerry Feitelberg for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images