Bears get 2nd shot at vexing Pistol offense;CAL

While there's no home-and-home in the same season for college football teams, Cal does get a mulligan, of sorts, when it faces UCLA today at Memorial Stadium.

The Bears can't do anything about their humbling result against Nevada a month ago, a 52-31 pasting by the Wolf Pack, but they do get another chance to face the Pistol offense, that confounding shotgun-triple-option attack that bedeviled them so.

"It definitely is a chance to redeem ourselves and prove how good a defense we are," linebacker D.J. Holt said. "We were a little embarrassed. We're a better defense than that. That night didn't show it. No excuses. They were the better team that night. We try to have a short-term memory as a defense and get ready for UCLA."

Presumably, defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast told his lads to keep an eye on the Nevada quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, but that gazelle in cleats and pads still rushed for 148 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 181 yards and one score.

His UCLA counterpart, Kevin Prince, won't put up numbers like that, but he does have the Bruins on a roll of late with three straight wins after opening the season 0-2.

"We had some guys that didn't read their keys," Pendergast said of the first time the Bears saw the Pistol. "If you don't read your keys and get off your blocks, you're not going to play well defensively."

The Bruins get most of their yards from tailback Johnathan Franklin, a sophomore who has rushed for 625 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 6.3 yards per carry.

Cal coach Jeff Tedford said, "We're going to find out," when asked if his defense would give a better account of itself today. "Having experience with it always helps. ... It's tough to stop, no doubt about it. It's very important that we play disciplined, that we're aggressive but not overaggressive. Tackling is key, that we're able to wrap up."

Linebacker and team leader Mike Mohamed should help the Bears. He missed the Nevada game with a toe injury, and his absence was certainly felt, although it's doubtful he could have plugged all the holes in Cal's defense that night.

Kaepernick padded his rushing statistics on simple keepers around the right side of Cal's defensive front. Outside linebacker Keith Browner was conspicuous by being out of position most of the night.

"It left a really bad taste in my mouth," Browner said. "It made me sick after the game. Seeing somebody else put up 52 points on us is not a good feeling at all. Once we heard UCLA is doing the same offense ... we'll definitely be prepared with a better defensive scheme to stop everything. They shouldn't be able to run on us. We're a run-stopping team.

"In this go-round, we should be well prepared for this type of offense."