So the cold, dead, buried corpse of this Cal game isn't even cold or dead yet, but it's a 4 score game (assuming no two-point conversion) with 6 minutes to go, and I'm just left wondering... unsure... wondering what went wrong.

Cal never even had an inch in this game. For most of the day, Best had run for NEGATIVE yards. Maryland spent the whole game eating the clock and shredding the game on the ground.

Kevin Riley's line looks fine, but the early turnover is probably a clearer indication of his play today than the late, almost meaningless touchdown. The defense was pitiful. I just don't know what to think. I was getting excited for this season. Kevin Riley looks like a stud. Best looks like a stud. The receivers were playing good ball and the defense made a little bit of a case for itself against a decent Michigan State team.

I thought this might be the year to get excited. The QB trash we've dealt with the last 3 years finally looked like it was over with. The national expectations were low after consecutive disappointing seasons, but the talent was there.

Bah... another heartbreaker for the Bears. There goes the national ranking.

NOTE: I just held off on posting this because Cal scored a shit ton of points in the fourth quarter to make it interesting and I actually thought they were going to have a chance, but yahoo box score didn't tell me there were apparently no timeouts and before the screen had the time to 30-second refresh, it was over. :(

On the bright side, it's not the end of the world. We'll look back at this game and laugh when we beat USC later in the year.