SB Nation - Marvin Jones

Cal v. Washington Report Card

TwistNHook — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:00:16 -0000

Position	QB	RB	Rec.	Run B	Pass P	Run D	Pass R	Pass D	ST	Coach	Overall
Score	1.406	2.188	1.969	0.677	0.531	1.469	0.896	0.302	0.875	0.708	0.490
Grade	D+	C+	C	D-	D-	D+	D	D-	D	D-	D-

There are so many times I want to quit this blog. I ask myself is it worth it? Are risking many Hydrotech Face Punchings worth it? But the amazing community we have here usually inspires me to the do all the work. And working on the Report Card post is usually one of my most favorite posts to put together. Seeing what all you people have written is always a lot of fun.

Fun was not the word that came to mind doing the Report Card post this time. You guys certainly know how to express your opinion and, well, given how the game went, I'm sure you can imagine what went on. If you like positive, optimistic things like daisies riding unicorns and ponies snuggling with rainbows, I suggest you read NO further. But if you like pessimistic things and are full of self-loathing, well, then you are a Cal fan and probably added something to this Report Card. You may read on.

I think PolarBear91 hits the right note here in his "overall" thought:

Worst. Episode. Ever.

Tough to disagree, Mr. Bear91. Tough to disagree.

Gameday Experience

via calbearsonline.com

WTFFFFFFFF - I watched in front of my laptop and had to contain my anger from smashing my keyboard. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. MY LAPTOP COST ME GOOD MONEY. I DON'T WANT TO BREAK ITTTTTTTTT.

OhioBear - I promped by daughter to do another "Go Bears." It's not "Goo Bay" anymore. It came out "Go Bars." After watching the game, that's what I wanted to do.

Kodiak - Well, the baby was squirrelly and just wouldn't settled down to let me watch the game in peace. Little did I know that the little angel had my best interests in mind and was only fussing in an attempt to preserve my sanity. I did sample our Xmas limoncello to make sure that it was fit to give out as gifts...and sort of briefly lost all feeling in my teeth. Unlike our team, it's more potent than it looks. I might be rambling now...Still can't feel my teeth. Damn. This would be the time to see if I could chew through a 2x4. Life is tough sometimes as a Cal fan.

Blackandoldgold - If you like hearing foghorn, this was your game. In other words, terrible.

Swamphunter - Why the fuck did we have to slouch on the job NOW? I'm so pissed that we had to lose to the fucking puppy dogs that I'm going against what I said earlier and doing a report card for this loss. We should have killed these mother fuckers and instead they run all over us.

c98 - sucked.

grinandbearit - Unfortunately, I go to UW for grad school now and made it to this game thinking "hey, it can't be worse than 2007, right?" The crowd was pumped. The whole UW team was pumped. It was the last home game for the seniors (and possibly Jake Locker), and it was probably a bit colder than most Cal players were accustomed to, but man ... what was that?

I guess I had seen this before against Oregon and USC. In fact, this was really just a blend of those two games. The saddest thing about this game was that, unlike 2007, I never got the feeling (whatever that's worth) that the players quit, and still, 42-10. What a beatdown.

Oh, and since we're talking about the gameday experience. A small minority of fans were woofing/barking when UW did something good. I mean, I get it, the Huskies, but really, you see Cal fans growling like a bear every time we get a first down or score?

Last thing, they kept on chanting "one more year" for Jake Locker. I think this was a good send-off for him since they're not playing in a bowl game. My guess is he's gone, but what do I know?

beson - We went over to a friend's house to watch the game and barbeque. Our usual MO is to take shots after every Cal touchdown. Last year, I got obliterated. This year, my friend made blue jello shots. I was anticipating another rough Sunday morning. Unfortunately it was rough in other more horrible ways. The jello shots made for celebrating became jello shots of sadness and frustration.

ososdeoro - Auspiciously tweaked my back playing tennis in the morning.

Golden Rationality Award

Commenter/alias name	Standard Deviation
osodeoro	1.417
polarbear91	1.722
grinandbearit	1.927
Haas8388	2.007
sec119	2.016

Old Blue Award

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
c98	0
prd74	0.364
blackandoldgold	0.485
WTFFFFFFFFFFFF	0.545
polarbear91	0.652

Golden Sunglasses Award

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
Kodiak	1.758
Manwich	1.667
socalbears	1.500
beson	1.470
grinandbearit	1.348

via calbearsonline.com

Kodiak - A few flickers, but mostly bad Riley. In his defense, the protection had something to do with that. And once the game got out of hand, the D could just tee off on him. Even so, it's really disappointing to see him regress and be inconsistent with his accuracy, decision-making, and ball security.

Swamphunter - Short-hops and wide throws. The only bright spots were when Riley was throwing the ball, though.

prd74 - If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.
I have nothing to say.

grinandbearit - I don't like to put too much blame on him since our OL sucks, but his throws were definitely off and sometimes he threw some scary passes to well-covered WRs. He did have a couple of nice runs, and I think he should continue to pull it down and run with it rather than sitting back in a collapsing pocket while loosely holding onto the ball.

That is one thing I really dislike about Riley is that he doesn't have a very good sense for ball security. Maybe he needs to sit down with Coach Gould and get a lesson or two on what the RBs do.

Haas8338 - Riley seems like a good guy and has improved from last year, but, and this is a BIG BUT, he is not good enough to lead a top Pac10 team. I won't use the term "inconsistent" anymore, he just is not very good.

beson - Riley definitely had some pretty terrible throws but I think most of the blame has to go to the O line which just sucked. Sure Riley should have made the throws when he wasn't pressured, but I can't really blame him for having lack of confidence in his line.

via calbearsonline.com

OhioBear - Vereen ran for 92 yards on 16 carries, but it was a fairly quiet 92 given the avalanche that poured over us. Vereen did a nice job, basically the only bright spot in an otherwise pathetic night.
Haas8338 - Vereen did what he could do in the circumstances. Pass blocking needs work that is for sure.

grinandberait - The effort is consistently there, and I just feel bad when I see Vereen run towards the line and hesitate because he knows he has nowhere to run because of our ____ty OL.

via calbearsonline.com

Kodiak - It's nice to have a former QB providing commentary. Apparently, some of Riley's struggles weren't just inaccuracy, but the receivers running sloppy routes. Which is pretty sad considering we really can't use the "young" excuse at this point in the season.

c98 - sucked.

grinandbearit - Marvin Jones is clearly our go-to guy. I was disappointed "they" didn't get Miller more involved. Everyone else is just a clone of a mediocre WR. Marvin is our #1 WR, and he gets open and makes catches more often ... I wonder what all the other WRs are doing differently. Running bad routes? I can't really say because I've never really sat down and followed the WRs on their routes during games, especially not on TV because you usually can't see this happening.

Good thing is that I didn't see too many huge drops except for one possible TD catch that looked to be fairly well defended.

Run blocking

via calbearsonline.com

WTFFFFFFFF - I walked past a Chinese restaurant that prominently displayed the sign "NO MSG". You speak truth Chinese restaurant - so much painful truth.

Kodiak - Inconsistent push. In fairness, UW rolled the dice and bet that Bad Riley wouldn't be able to beat them if they crowded the line and run blitzed frequently. Sadly enough, that's been a pretty safe bet all year.

Blackandoldgold - The only thing worse was the Great Stink of 1858.

Swamphunter - Fire Marshall. He's a virus that needs to be eradicated.

Haas8338 - Even with MSG this line is only mediocre. Schwartz can dominate at times, but Tepper is up and down and the center and two guards were aweful. The Mutts' 340 lb DT (Taamu?) just abused our 260 lb center (shocking) and the guards didn't help much. Cheadle looks pretty darn stout, but man does he get manhandled at times...WTF?

Pass protection

via calbearsonline.com

Kodiak - Up and down. Riley was under pressure a lot, but UW was blitzing multiple guys on obvious passing downs. Chess match win for the UW coaches because we never seemed to have the right call or protection.

Swamphunter - Fire Marshall. He's a virus that needs to be eradicated. I believe in this so much right now that it deserves to be said twice.

prd74 - If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.
I have nothing to say.

stevy - 5 sacks... much more pressures and knockdowns. And it wasn't like it was close. The D-line was coming straight through. Marshall needs to go, I think.

grinandbearit - This was softer than a baby's bottom and smelled like one, too. I really don't know if this was a matter of coaching or scheme or just a lack of talent (though I like Syd'Quan and Cattouse), but we always seemed out of position. Always chasing some guy down who slipped behind coverage, chasing some guy from behind on a slant. Just too many holes in the pass coverage that they exploited.

If I think about all the games this year, our pass defense only had one good game against a reasonably good offense and that was against Arizona at home. They were just good enough against Stanford, but I think we were mainly just fortunate to have our running game clicking and keeping our mediocre defense off the field.

Haas8338 - Tepper better start working out at guard because the NFL just wrote him off at tackle. Guarnero is just overmatched physically, simple as that.

Horrible preformance.

ososdeoro - sack, sack, sack. 3-step drop anyone. Oh yeah, that goes under coaching.

Run defense

via calbearsonline.com

OhioBear - Meh. We held Polk under a hundy but it seemed like we let him get away too much. We didn't have an answer for Locker's running, really.

Blackandoldgold - I can't do this anymore. Too depressing...

stevy - Washington never ran it that much. Defending locker on broken plays is tough, but they need to wrap up and not arm tackle.

Haas8338 - Take away Locker's running and it was a decent performance.

sec119 - I'm not sure if run defense counts the same as Locker scrambling for 15 yards at a time, but either way it was bad.

Pass rush

via calbearsonline.com

c98 - sucked.

beson - The pass rush seemed decent but Locker's escapability killed us. Everytime we got a good rush, it seemed like it was at the expense of containment and Locker made us pay.

sec119 - From snap to whistle, Locker had time to re-tie his shoes, drink some gatorade, and bake a souffle before the pass rush got within five yards of him.

Kodiak - Well, haven't really had one all year, so can't expect it to miraculously appear now. Even when we blitzed, they picked it up pretty easily. We could really use some playmakers who know how to put the QB in the grass.

stevy - Horrid. With this D-line, the 3-4 is ineffective in getting pressure. The outside linebackers almost never got pressure on Locker making it easy for him to dominate the game.

Pass Defense

via calbearsonline.com

Kodiak - Tough game for Nbufie. For all that people have been screaming all year for more aggressive D...More blitzing + man coverage = DB's getting burned for long gains/TD's. Maybe the coaches know that besides Syd, our coverage is a bit questionable and that's why they usually play zone. It'll be addition by subtraction when Johnson and Ezeff leave. It's really disappointing for two seniors to be non-factors, much less liabilities.

c98 - sucked.

ososdeoro - Good God. It seemed like the linebackers were told to: a) pick a receiver to cover; b) cover said receiver for five yards; c) stop and turn around to see if Locker is going to run while receiver goes on his merry way; d) "protect" the astroturf five yards downfield from any Huskies who might bother to venture in his general direction. The first TD pass coverage really wasn't that bad. That said, you give a guy a permanent 10-yard cushion and you're letting him receive the ball anywhere he wants to.

Haas8338 - Locker was on target, to his credit, but he was not pressured and our coverage seemed confused at times.

grinandbearit - This was softer than a baby's bottom and smelled like one, too. I really don't know if this was a matter of coaching or scheme or just a lack of talent (though I like Syd'Quan and Cattouse), but we always seemed out of position. Always chasing some guy down who slipped behind coverage, chasing some guy from behind on a slant. Just too many holes in the pass coverage that they exploited.

If I think about all the games this year, our pass defense only had one good game against a reasonably good offense and that was against Arizona at home. They were just good enough against Stanford, but I think we were mainly just fortunate to have our running game clicking and keeping our mediocre defense off the field.

Special Teams

via calbearsonline.com

prd74 - If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.
I have nothing to say.

c98 - sucked.

stevy - Goal for next year: GET A CONSISTENT KICKER. And Sofele was ineffective on returns. Once, he got a whole 5 yards on a short kick. Not good.

grinandbearit - Kick coverage is still pretty weak, and we missed a not-that-long FG in the first half. I wonder if Tedford will ever consider having someone else coach special teams.

Also, is it standard for college teams to send one guy to loop behind all the other kick coverage personnel acting as a trailer just in case everyone else fails to tackle the returner? I don't remember seeing any team play prevent on kickoffs.

Anger is still decent. Whew.

Haas8338 - Alamar may be the worst coach in college football.

ososdeoro - Just Gawd-fucking-awful. Nice to see Anger finally get off some good punts when we didn't need them anymore. Kickoff coverage sucks(tm) and now punt coverage does too. Nice FG try by D'Amato, er, not.

Coaching

via calbearsonline.com

OhioBear - We were not ready to play. Credit to Washington, obvi, because they played well. But we had no answer. We seemingly had few, if any, adjustments to the offensive onslaught. And we had no answer to getting hit in the mouth by Washington. A lackluster performance from a team that didn't seem ready to play - coaches have to take some blame for that.

prd74 - If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.
I have nothing to say.

stevy - Ludwig is still undecided about what type of offense he wants for Cal. Will they do short pases? will they run the ball? will they do long every down? Cal's offense has no identity and that's a huge problem. If Ludwig is back next year, he MUST decide what type of offense he wants to run. This flip flopping from game to game is hurting offensive production.

grinandbearit - I don't know what to say here because I can't tell what the root causes are of the problems we have. So I guess I'll just list some questions:

1) Our run blocking is piss poor, so is it the coach's fault or the talent?
2) When in the WildBear formation, why do we fake the sweep with Sofele 95% of the time and then have Vereen pause for a few seconds and then run forward into our crappy OL?
3) Playcalling: we ran the ball on 3rd and 23 ... it must have taken UW off guard because who in his right mind would've thought we would make anywhere near 23 yards on a run play with our OL?

ososodeoro - Not a one of them earned their pay in this one. Every other team seemed to have answers for U-Dub (even the Dawg wins were close), why didn't ours?

sec119 - I never would have thought there'd be a game I give the special teams the highest grade. Talk about damning by faint praise! At this point, 50/50 on field goals is on-par for field goals.

Overall

via calbearsonline.com

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFf - Time to start drinking.

OhioBear - I haven't been this angry since Washington 2007. Giving up 42 points and getting blown out by the Pac-10 champion on the road is one thing. Giving up 42 points and getting blown out by a team that was 3-5 in the Pac-10 and 4-7 overall coming into the game is quite another. No excuse for a performance like this.

Maybe we left our heart at stanfurd stadium 2 weeks ago.

Kodiak - Well, it stunk, but I can live with it if the game serves as a wake-up call. As nice as it would have been to finish tied for 2nd with a chance at a 10-win season, could we honestly have said that we've been happy with the team this year? Instead, there's no question that Tedford will have to take a long look at his coaching staff, player evaluations, and what's been done from spring through winter to get the guys ready to play.

prd74 - If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.
I have nothing to say.

c98 - sucked hard.

stevy - Horrid game. Where did the Cal team that played so well against Stanford go? The team needs some to do serious soul searching in the off season.

grinandbearit - Keys to winning given our current set of problems:
- recruit some good defensive players this coming offseason
- get our OL mad before games so that they spark our running game so that we can keep our defense off the field and control the clock.
- start kicking all kickoffs out of bounds until we find someone who can consistently kick it past the 15.
- perfect the fake FG, especially when the FG is longer than 35 yards
- maybe our OL is just 2-3 good guys away from being good ... wouldn't that be great?

beson - Oh juju. Of course we lost after I celebrated USC and their all but assured poinsetta bowl berth.

Manwich - We can't get pumped up for big games other than the Big Game. I take back everything I said before, the optimism I had for containing Luck/Gerhart evaporated in a second. I'm beginning to think the PAC-10 has passed Tedford and Carroll by in terms of philosophy.

Before it was run the pro-style and the bend don't break and it worked. Now we're seeing our opponents run more option based attacks with mobile quarterbacks. It's time to change philosophies, otherwise, Tedford will become a Bobby Bowden, stuck with loyal assistants and doomed to middle of the PAC-10.

sec119 - I have very little to say that might be positive about this stinker of a game. That it occurred at the end of the season tells me that maybe we didn't learn much from our prior losses, nor am I hopeful about next year.

112th Big Game Report Card

TwistNHook — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:00:12 -0000

Position	QB	RB	Rec.	Run B	Pass P	Run D	Pass R	Pass D	ST	Coach	Overall
Score	3.457	4.086	3.076	3.733	3.429	3.286	3.010	3.419	1.943	3.657	3.914
Grade	B+	A	B	A-	B+	B+	B	B+	C	A-	A

Often times, people tell us that the CGB Community is one of the best online communities they have ever been a part of. I usually scoff at that, assuming that they've never seen a single Rishi comment ever. And maybe they haven't, because reading through these Report Cards after the Big Game, it was inspiring. So many of our commenters provided intelligent comments packed with insight into Cal's performance in the Big Game.

CALumbus Bear and Ohio Bear are just two of the commenters who did NOT do that. No, their comments were mostly infantile with a delightful dash of juvenile. But we did get an inside look at the Cal Ohio Fan Club's Big Game Party this year. It was pretty much like my Big Game experience, except Ohio Bear didn't run through my house. Check out the comments and read some of the great ones after the fold. There were tons more, thanks to all our readers for submitting, but there's only so many we can include in the post. GO BEARS!

Calumbus Bear - Woke up thinking stanfurd was just gonna kill us, nervous nervous nervous
Did some work, watched some football, raked leaves, still nervous
Hung the Cal flag, decorated the living room for Big Game, made brownies in the shape of a bear, still nervous
Ohio Bear came over, we watched the first quarter, felt like throwing up, nervous we were gonna lose by 50
We took the lead and started playing well, but couldn't put it away, now I'm REALLY nervous wondering how we would blow it
We take a knee, get a 6 point lead and give furd the ball on the 42, which makes me nervous AND pissed
Toby makes it to the 13 and I'm about to commit nervous suicide
BUT THEN THE PROPHET INTERCEPTS AND WE ALL JUMP UP AND SCREAM, AND I BEARHUG MRS. CALUMBUS BEAR AND OHIO BEAR RUNS THROUGH MY ENTIRE HOUSE SCREAMING HIS HEAD OFF, and I'm not nervous any more.
We then popped open a bottle of good Napa wine that was in an etched Cal bottle that says "Go Bears" -- we were saving it for a great victory, and this surely qualified.
We finished that bottle while watching the end of the OU/AZ game, and then we watched the Cal game again on the DVR. The wine was excellent, had notes of Cal victory, crushed cardinal, and a lingering axe finish.

OhioBear - The annual Big Game gathering hosted by CALumbus Bear and Mrs. CALumbus Bear. It did not disappoint. There was an assortment of fine beers and Mrs. CALumbus Bear stepped it up with delicious (and large) Golden Bear shaped brownies. (I did not ask if they were Tim Lincecum special brownies.) The brownies were so tremendous, I didn't feel right eating them during the game. That would've been bad karma, no? So I waited until after the game, in hopes that the brownie would be part of revelry. And it was. As was a special bottle of wine that my gracious hosts opened after the game to celebrate victory.

Golden Rationality Award (to the most level-headed Bear!)

Commenter/alias name	Standard Deviation
OaklandishBear	0.5954
ajay	0.6916
Kodiak	0.7164
sec119	0.7780
Ohio Bear	0.9655

Old Blue Award (to the most dour grizzlies!)

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
yorzepol	2.788
iVinshe	2.879
Manwich	2.939
AERose	3.030
KikiRevenge	3.061

Golden Sunglasses Award (happy as can be!)

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
LeonPowe	4.091
rollonubears	4
Oaktown123	4
calx	3.909
VandyImport	3.727

Gameday

IMG_0206 (via Monica's Dad)

CaliforniaPete - As I've already posted (twice!), my key decision to break out the Golden Bears (cocktails, that is) early proved pivotal in this one. Down 14-0, and getting home late from my younger son's soccer game--he scored a freakin' awesome goal by the way--I went to the liquor cabinet and started mixing for the wife and me. If you don't know this classic, the Golden Bear from Henry's features equal parts 151, SoCo, OJ, Amaretto, and 7UP. But since I've heard the 7UP can also be substituted for champagne, I figured the dry vanilla, orange-blossom mead I made this spring might be a good choice, too. Bears like honey, right?

Anyway, during the time it took for us to finish the first round--we're slow drinkers--Cal had roared back to take a 17-14 lead. To keep the momentum going, I had to quickly mix up a second batch before the Furd climbed back into the lead, and I managed to hold on to my last sip until the clock read 0:00. I almost drank it down after the Prophet's interception, but I've seen too much in this rivalry, so I wanted to wait until it was truly official.

Needless to say, my wife and I are now well into our third round as I'm typing this.

Troatie - For a while being the downtrodden Cal fans that we are, we started cheering for the 'Furd for good luck. You know, like saying "Break a Leg." We did this through most of the third quarter. It was working. Then we said screw it. Go Bears!!! Several of us lost our voices. Awesome.

AERose - Watched with my mom, the Old Blue who gave up on football when she was a student back in the late 60s but found herself back on the bandwagon around 2005 and brought me with her. Best game either of us has ever seen, and it isn't even close. Also I went out for tacos from the carniceria near our house at halftime, and the adobada absolutely did not disappoint.

JKK - The Greatest Big Game I have ever watched. by far.
I had bet all my money on Cal victory and I was rewarded.

Berkelium97 - I haven't felt this sense of euphoria since Oregon 2007. What a win! I call this season a success!

LeonPowe - 4 Cal alums, 3 laptops, a handful of phones and blackberries. Two other Cal alums stuck in church with their families begging for updates. One Cal alum on a business trip to Chengdu, also needing updates. A stack of muffins and Starbucks. 8.30am Sunday morning in Shanghai - and man it has made the day sooo good.

VandyImport - Sick. Wife unwell. Still bussed up to the stadium, consumed some booze at WIT & RAC'S (Where The Elite Meet To Eat And Greet Stanfurd's Defeat, Since 1989, Accept No Substitutes). Then home, meds, more meds, crouch around laptop, do deals with God, hope neighbors don't think somebody's being beaten (there was yelling), keep drinking for luck (bourbon + naprosyn is fine, right?), win win win WIN.

SwampHunter - Saw Cal beat up the team that had beaten the other teams that kicked our asses. What else is more awesome than that?

Well, if you want more, I guess being able to walk on The Furd's grassy knoll in their shoebox of a stadium was awesome too. Great Cal crowd presence as well. Very loud, much better than what Furd's fans provided.

Also booed the crap out of Tiger. Never thought I'd be doing that.

ajay - Nothing special, drove up there, saw the pretty place, which my roommate noted looked like a weaker westwood. Got free parking, got into the stadium, found the student section PACKED. Just the way I like it.

JrBear - Watched with friends on TV. Cheers from the neighboring apartments as The Profit made his final interception!

SoCalOski - You want to hear my gameday experience? I'm in Santa Monica. I was hosting the Big Game viewing. The Big Game was shown on Versus. I have DirecTV. DirecTV doesn't carry Versus. The only place within 5 miles of me that had Versus was Busby's, and for reasons too long and (quite honestly, stupid) to go into here, we weren't going to Versus.

This was a problem.

The solution? Find some website streaming the game. Connect my PC to my TV via the HDMI cable. Watch a pixelated stream of the Big Game, magnified from a 640 x 480 video onto a 60" HDTV, while listening to Joe Starkey make the call.

Oh, the sound and picture didn't sync -- there was like a 15 second delay.

It was like we were watching the game from the outer steppes of Uzbekistan.

But there was beer, carne asada, beer, tamales, beer, some Mayan Insanity Salsa (the hottest stuff I've ever had), beer, and more beer. And a pack of wild Old Blues, a couple of Ucla folks who deep-down regret their choice of school, and one hell of a Big Game.

My Gameday Experience was great.

KikiRevenge - My girlfriend hates football but I convinced her to watch the game with me cuz it was Big Game. We streamed it online and we started watching just as Cal got in the red zone being down 14-0. We started drinking (beer for me, red wine for her) and I told her that we would likely stop watching at half as Cal was looking like they would get blown out. Then they scored the TD at half. And kept scoring. And we kept drinking. By the time the game was over, the six pack of Stella Artois was gone as was the bottle of wine and we had moved on to the Grey Goose. I was teaching her all the Cal yells. Just as Cal was lining up for the last FG, Justintv FAILED and we had to follow the rest of the action via the 4th Qtr comments on CGB. When I saw the MOHAMED INT! come up, we let out a loud cheer and started dancing around the apt. And drank some more. Feel like ass today, but was SO worth it!

ososdeoro - A more beautiful day has never existed.

yorzepol - This was a very frustrating game to try to watch. It turns out for the second week in a row that Direct TV kept me from watching the game at a sports bar (really? A sports bar isn't carrying a game!?!) Anywho, I had a friend who invited me over to his house because he was having a party and he happens to get Vs (sweet!) The only down side is that he doesn't show up until the second quarter because he was at a wine tasting (like who goes wine tasting when there's The Big Game to watch!) Thankfully I found the game on AM and kept up with it until he showed. I have to say I understand the frustration with Starkey, it was hard to get a feel for the game from him. At last I was watching the game and even if it was with only one other Cal Alum out of 20 people I got to see the game. Oh yeah and WE WON THE FREAKING AXE! So in the end all was good with life.

iVinshe - Raced from the bonfire rally to BART>>>Caltrain>>>shuttle Friday night. Woke up early Saturday; went to a cubing tourney; left early. Got there 1.5 hours beforehand. Predicted everyone would get lost on the way back to their cars in the dark. Admired how small their stadium was. Sightlines kind of sucked from the student section. I liked how the fact that it was an away game meant that the usual "fans" clogging up Memorial, texting their friends, complaining about how everyone is standing, being spoiled brats in general, etc. were kept away. What was left was LOUD. I honestly think that the Cal crowd at Stanford was as loud as Memorial all of this year except for USC first series and Arizona last quarter.

Rushing the field was awesome. Major demerits to RallyCom for attempting to stop us. Supposedly their not allowed to rush the field, but when I came back a few minutes later they were on the field anyways. So much for that excuse. Nobody could find the axe, though I respect their decision to hide it. A mob could've formed if someone had raised it up into the air or something.

jpeng - on the other side of the earth, woke up with a hangover, couldn't make it to the local expat bar to watch the game at 8am so watched a stream while bed ridden. but damn did i feel 100% better after we won....

BTown85 - Flew to San Diego to stay with in-laws. Pre-game watched Notre Dame lose (which is ALWAYS a good start to football Saturday). Settled into Big Game with a beer. Down 14-0, another beer. Scared mother-in-law with 4th quarter cheering. Did the best ever alligator chop at the TV screen when Harbaugh went across the field to ask Tedford what his deal was. Then visited CGB to REVEL in victory.

OaklandishBear - Layered up for the anticipated cold.
Picked up 1988goldenbear who flew up from LA for the game.
Dreaded the prospect of facing Gerhart and hoped that the Bears who played Arizona showed up, rather than the Bears who played OSU.
Cursed DirecTV for not carrying Versus and preventing me from recording the game.
Shot of rum after parking to steel the nerves for the night ahead.
Thought about leaving 10 minutes after the game started.
Got really pumped that we got to within 14-10 at the halftime.
LOVED THE THIRD QUARTER! OMG the best we have played the past two years.
Cursed Ludwig/Tedford for not giving the ball to Vereen/Holley/any RB instead of Riley's off-tackle sneak on 3rd and short.
Cursed Ludwig/Tedford for not giving the ball to Vereen to pick up a first down on last drive.
Cursed Tedford for not kicking deeper on ensuing kick-off.
Cursed everyone during the last StanfUrd drive.
Head exploded when Mohamed saved the game.
Ran on the field.
Drove home happy.
Played poker with the boys until 0130, still cursing DirecTV because I couldn't re-watch the game.

IMG_9968 (via Monica's Dad)

First And Ten - The numbers were fairly pedestrian, but I would say this is one of Kevin's best games. The decision making was generally very good and his numbers would have been better absent a few drops and the badly miss played deep ball (I can't remember the receiver). He missed a few open receivers but he generally was accurate and made big plays when they were needed. His running was fairly effective (though he seemed overly reliant on it early). For the most part the accuracy was pretty good on the intermediate routes, though he overthrew a couple deep balls, and under threw one. The interception was not a good pass but the pick was not his fault. The missed td pass early was actually one his better throws of the day.

Overall this was the Kevin Riley many of us (including myself) thought was going to be the QB this year. The numbers were not spectaculer but if Kevin plays like this for the next two games I will be very happy and optimistic heading into next season.

AERose - It's undeniable that his poor play helped put the team in a 14 point hole at the beginning of the game, but when he got out of the "fuck it, I'm going deep" mindset and just started looking for the open man he came through for the team. I don't know if he'll ever be great, but tonight he was good enough.

VandyImport - A steady hand at the controls, nothing TOO cringe-inducing...the fact that Riley has reached a comfort level with Miller and Lageman is promising in the extreme. He stepped up and answered the bell, and I feel a lot better about next year...

ajay - Finally, finally, in my last game as a Cal student of any sorts, Riley plays exactly how I want him to: smart. Didn't try to force too much, took what the defense gave him, and for the most part, delivered catchable balls (except for the first pass of the game, which would have been to a wide open, streaking Marvin Jones).

Made some smart plays, scampered when necessary, and successfully (along w/ other factors) convinced me he wasn't going to throw a pick when we needed a play. Somehow.

Oh, yeah, and got us a win.

CalX - Riley was just below 55% on completions (17/31), which is much lower than ideal. But there weren't any backbreaking mistakes that I could remember. Running through his throws:

-First two drives, one incompletion, a handful of scrambles, two three-and-outs.
-Drive #3, 10 plays, 70 yards, Cal FG: This was almost all Riley. Vereen had 1 long run for 15 yards. 2 completions for 18 and 13 yds, and a 9 yd scramble. Incomplete on 3rd and goal at the 4 ended the drive.
-Drive #4, 13 plays, 62 yds, INT: his worst drive by far. 4 incompletions and the INT.
-Drive #5, 14 plays, 85 yds, TD: 4/7 for 40 yds, but none of the incompletes hurt the drive. This is where he and the offense pulled it together and took control of the game. Riley followed his first incompletion with a 9 yard pass to make it 3rd and 1. His second came on 2nd and 2, and he made up for it next play with a 5 yd scramble for first down. His last incompletion came on 1st and 10, and was followed by passes for 8 and 16 yds to Lagemann. This drive effectively ended the half, lasted 5:48, and swung momentum to Cal.

-Drive #6, 11 plays, 92 yds, TD: 5/6 for 71 yds! Only miss was 2nd and 7, followed by a pair of 12 yd completions. (5:05 ToP)
-Drive #7, 10 plays, 72 yds, TD: 1/1 for 10 yds. This drive was all Vereen. But the one completion was on 3rd and 4, preventing a 3 and out and keeping the drive alive. (5:02 ToP)
-Drive #8, 6 plays, 72 yds, TD: 3/3 for 47 yds. (1:58 ToP)
-Nothing of real consequence after that (a very meh 4th Q). Mostly grind-out-the-clock runs with Vereen, with a few throws sprinkled in.

So drives #6, 7 and 8 effectively consumed the entire 3rd quarter (about 12 minutes), allowed our defense a huge stretch of rest (drive #5 through halftime through all but 3 minutes of 3Q), probably exhausted the Stanfurd defense, and most importantly, resulted in 21 points. On those 3 drives, Riley went 9/10 for 128 yards. Of his 9 completions, EIGHT of them were for first downs. The ninth was the TD pass to Marvin Jones. I'm scrolling up and bumping his grade up a notch.

IMG_9826 (via Monica's Dad)

First And Ten - What can you say? Overall a fantastic game that should convince any doubters that Shane is the next great Cal running back (boy what a series of backs its been). I guess the only thing Shane did not do was reel off any huge runs, but he was a great workhorse.

The only real quibble I can have with the performance was the struggle of the wildbear. If we want to keep running that we really need some more wrinkles to it because defenses are just sitting on it. This is the only thing that keeps this from an A+, but great game.

AERose - I'm not sure there are even words.

JKK - Vereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!
42 carries? wow. I hope he can walk.
Hes got plenty of time to recover with a bye week.
He fought for 3 yards constantly.
Not a 80yard TD like Jahvid, but Shane can move the chains. and kill time off clock.

Berkelium97 - SHANE TRANE! Shane Vereen is incredible. I love Best and think he's one of the finest people ever to wear a Cal uniform, but I truly think Vereen is a better feature back. He can make something out of nothing and he did that several times today. He doesn't have the same top-end speed (he's close, though!), but he is surprisingly elusive. Even more impressive is that he could still walk after carrying the ball 42 times. He's a trooper. He earns hard hat of the year for his performance tonight.

SwampHunter - IT'S TRUE. IT'S TRUE. IT'S DAMN TRUE.
VEREEN HAS A BEAST MODE AFTER ALL.

Seriously though, 42 carries, 192 yards and three TDs? Vereen is ready to be a star.

Our second stringers Sofele and DeBoskie did really well too. Hope Sofele is alright. I saw him get injured sometime in the second half.

ajay - What a day Mr. Vereen. Provided a glimpse of what we're going to be seeing all of next year, which is power running with that nice elusiveness and drive for the extra yardage. Has that speed and vision to break a big play, and was the work horse today. Held onto that ball like it was his baby, and was an overall play-maker. Not much you can ask for from your No. 1 back no the day.

As for Debo, I liked what I saw. Provides enough talent to keep defenses honest when he is in the game, and didn't make mistakes, which was the main thing. When Vereen is out, get your yards, hold onto that ball, and get Vereen some rest. His time will eventually come.

SoCalOski - I'm convinced that somewhere deep in LSB (or the annex), some pointy headed PhD has created a reagent that imbues superhuman power, enhances reflexes, allows for greater preception, and makes time seem to run slower. This mad scientist gave this elixir to Tedford who had Vereen drink it down. Because he was a freaking Marvel Comics superhero on the field.

Calumbus Bear - IF YOU DONT GIVE VEREEN AN A+ YOU HAVE AT LEAST ONE DEGREE FROM STANFURD AND YOU LOVE TO CLUB SEALS TO DEATH (yes, I know that is redundant)

IMG_9961 (via Monica's Dad)

Troatie - Lots of dropped passes. They weren't always great passes, but passes that should have been caught. Esp. in the first half they needed to catch with their hands not their bodies. Miller was great. So was Lagemann.

AERose - Dropped some balls early, couldn't shake coverage at other times (partially because of Riley being late, see the skinny post to Tucker), got into a groove and started setting up shop beyond the chains and moving the ball.

JrBear - They are saved from a C grade for their inspiring second half play. There is very little adjustment by the receivers to where the ball is thrown, and I see many of them following a route very strictly like some virtual player in Madden. Miller's return was very welcome. Lagemann should see more balls, Calvin....maybe not so much

SoCalOski - Horrible. It's almost as if the receivers believe that the ball has nasty, sharp teeth and is trying to bite them. And that one long pass in the 4th to (I think) Tucker, where the ball fell about two feet in front of him, almost had me in the hospital. All it would have taken was for him to stretch out his arms and that is a catch and a 30 yard pickup.

That poor effort and the dropped pass after the curl (I think in the 3rd) has me believing that maybe he is a Furd double-agent.

KikiRevenge - Mostly meh. Was disturbing to see the dropsies return after a nice effort versus AZ. I was particularly shocked to see Jones drop one in the end zone. Wasn't an easy catch by any means, but he usually comes up with that. Calvin was horrible. Hope he can bounce back next year. We will need him. But the receivers did come through when it absolutely mattered. Tucker and Miller each had huge catches to keep drives alive, move the chains and keep Furd's offense off the field.

sycasey - The Jones/Lagemann/Miller show rolls on. These guys have a knack for getting open and getting their hands on the ball; the receiving corps looks good for next year with these guys coming back. Tucker had some big catches too. Too many drops by the other guys, though.

Run Blocking

IMG_9856 (via Monica's Dad)

First And Ten - Other than some struggles out of the Wildbear, this was the best run blocking effort of the season. Early i thought they struggled a bit, but they really turned it on in the second quarter and were fairly dominant up front. Very well done.

AERose - WE TOOK THEIR LUNCH MONEY.

Berkelium97- Holes, glorious holes! Vereen usually had some room to run, and even if he didn't he managed to find something to squeeze through. They won the battle in the trenches today, and helped give us a dominant 39:21 time of possession. We also ran about 30 more plays than they did. Great job!

ajay - No way our RB's do what they did w/o a great run block in front of them. I'm not the best at this type of analysis, but there always seemed to be a nice hole opening up for Vereen when he got a carry, and that has to be due to the run blocking.

SoCalOski - The line did an outstanding job of giving Vereen the opportunity to gain yardage. But I honestly think that Best doesn't do as well as Shane on this night with this blocking. The line tended not to open giant holes, but to make cracks. And Vereen is good enough, quick enough, and strong enough to take a crack and turn it into anything from a 4 to 7 yard gain.

KikiRevenge - Best effort of the year. It made me sad to think what we would have been able to do if they blocked this well the whole season with a healthy Best in the lineup. Sigh. But I will definitely take their greatest game of the season to beat the crap out of the Cardinal. Not perfect as there were some runs stuffed for a loss or tackles that Vereen just ran out of for positive yardage. But an overall great game for the much maligned unit.

ososdeoro - Run blocking was really very good. It always seemed that Vereen ran for two more yards than it looked like. Some of that is Vereen, but a lot of it is the OL as well. The long TD drives were sustained by the run blocking, which had Furdie defenders gasping for air and pretending to be injured.

CalX - They should be graded a hair below Vereen. On almost all of the negative plays, Vereen had multiple defenders in the backfield. There would have been even more were it not for Vereen's elusiveness and Stanfurd's shitty tackling.

But on the plus side, we had 242 rushing yards.

But on the minus side, we didn't control the 4th quarter like we owned the 3rd, which was disappointing. I was sure that our o-line would maul their exhausted D in the 4th after keeping them on the field for 12 punishing minutes in the 3rd. That never happened, which resulted in several short drives and a too-exciting finish.

The line looked great at times, and awful at times. Consistency would be nice (consistently awesome please, and not consistently awful).

Pass Protection

IMG_9685 (via Monica's Dad)

rurata - Got beaten a few times, but most of the time KR had time to throw for the first time in a few weeks.

First And Ten - Kind of the opposite for the run blocking for me in that i thought they were stronger early in the game and struggled a little in the second quarter. But they played pretty well in the second half. Not quite as strong as the run blocking but still pretty good

SwampHunter - We... did a good job on this this week? MADNESS. UNADULTERATED MADNESS.

The o-line actually did a good job protecting Riley, and Riley was able to throw a damn good game.

CalX - It looked like Riley had enough time to scan the field on almost every pass attempt. He scrambled 9 times, but a lot of them looked like good pass coverage, and not poor pass protection. It looked like a vast improvement over some of our other games this year, when defenders were racing the football to get to Riley, and came close to winning a few times.

Run Defense

Troatie - They let 4 rushing touchdowns go. That said, I was expecting more our of Gerhart for some reason. Looking at the numbers, he had an awesome game. But I feel like Cal slowed him somewhat. Maybe I'm delusional from the win.

pyunny - Terrific, besides a few HUGE plays given up. Either way the defense really stepped it up for us today keeping Gerhart contained probably breaking furd fans' harts along the way

JKK - We stopped Toby. Yeah, he ran 130 yards, but other than 61yd TD to open the game and another one that Cattouse saved a TD on, we stopped him to 3yd or less each play.

Berkelium97 - You wouldn't tell by looking at the stats, but I think they did a great job. After giving up the long run in the first quarter, they shut down Toby pretty well (he had something like 30 yards in the rest of the half). Most importantly, they were so good at containing Toby that Luck was forced to lead the offense (Gerhart only had 20 carries!). That didn't work out so well for Luck. Linebackers did a great job of swarming on Gerhart to bring him down close to the LOS. He plowed his way through a few times, but he was often too overwhelmed to drag defenders for a few more yards. Luck, Stanford's second-leading rusher, was also held in check.

ajay - We did one of two things here: either give up long running plays, or stuff the run. Only a few times were they ever able to gain 5 or 6 yards at a time, and they could never consistently do so.

I was worried about our tackling, especially on a big and strong Gerhart, but we were up to the task and gang tackled him whenever he decided to run, which was all I could have expected.

CalX - meh. Gerhart's 136 yds was about on par with what he's done against other Pac-10 teams. We didn't "shut him down" like OSU did, if you consider 96 yards on 20 carries (4.8 average) for 2 TDs to be shutting down. But we also didn't get gashed like Wash, Oregon and USC. Yes, he had some frighteningly unstoppable runs (2 of them?), but those were by far the exception.

96 yd vs OSU

121 yd vs WSU
123 yd vs Arizona
125 yd vs ASU
134 yd vs UCLA
136 yd vs Cal <-------

178 yd vs USC
200 yd vs Washington
223 yd vs Oregon

yorzepol - You can not stop The Great White Hope so all things considered, they did OK. There was no way that we were going to keep Stanfurd out of the end zone when we kept giving them such great field position. Except for one play, they did a decent job of containing Gerhart.

grouchyBear - Geihart will be an NFL star and he had his moments, but Run defense made it hard enough and not quite reliable enough that Harbough went to the pass on the 13 yard line. That is all you need from the Run defense, the rest is on the secondary.

Pass Rush

IMG_9935 (via Monica's Dad)

Manwich - I was loving it in the beginning. Rushing 4 or 5, constantly pressuring Luck. Then the 4th quarter came along. We started getting conservative and sitting on our laurels and only rushed 3. No pressure, and that's where the grade drops. Keep the foot on the pedal ... although this is more a reflection of the coaching decisions.

Troatie - Got a a little jitters out of Luck. There were times where the pressure was enough that he made rushed throws. The interceptions at the end of the game was a bad throw. Maybe a rushed throw?

VandyImport - I didn't expect much - let's face it, the Cardinal's weapon isn't any running back or QB, it's that wall of beef up front that makes both possible. But they were getting pressure without having to send the house, so...gentleman's B.

SoCalOski - By the middle of the 2nd quarter I began to think that Gregory's plan was not to try and put too much pressure on Luck, but to take away his options. The pass rush never came close to threatening a sack, though it did manage to get close enough to cause Luck's dainty Furdie instincts to become alert to the fact that he might get hit. That caused a few rushed throws and prevented him from going completely through the progression, settling for the lesser options.

CalX - Didn't seem to really turn it on till the 4th quarter (that sounds familiar). But the rush looked instrumental in the last 2 drives, which effectively sealed the game. Before that, they managed to make Luck scramble on a lot of passes, but never really got his uniform dirty.

Pass Defense

JKK - We gave up some easy passes, but we had a good coverage. Luck struggled to find open receivers. I saw Hagan play more today. Didnt see Ezeff again.
Why isnt Conte seeing action other than on special teams?

Berkelium97 - Excellent. Nnabufie is developing into a fine corner. The DBs have been having great coverage of the receivers in the past couple games. Even tight ends are getting covered! The pass rush was helping, however.

SwampHunter - Luck passing 10/30 with a pick? A completion rate of only 33%?
That's what I want to see every week, Bears! Great job shutting him down.

ajay - No passing touchdowns, only a few big plays, but other than that, shut down Luck.

The only other concern was that Luck turned into Riley in that he had a few open receivers, but, to our good luck, just overthrew them. That means that we missed coverage, so we gotta work on that, but I can't possibly nit-pick anymore no a day where we made their star QB look like a fool.

Bobbled a few pick's that we should have had, a few potential game changers, but at the end of the day, that pick at the end was beautiful, and we got it done when it counted.

SoCalOski - The secondary was pretty good, despite a couple of meltdowns early and late. Syd was a beast, Cattouse had a couple of good hits, and the rest of them each had at least one or two plays where they broke up passes on good efforts. Pressure on the receivers caused disruptions in timing, and frustrated the Furd's air attack. But the last two Furd drives were regressions into the pass D we saw against the Ducks and the Beavs.

Special Teams

IMG_9763 (via Monica's Dad)

Troatie - I hate the squib kick. I mean I guess we're playing to our strength there, but my god. Stanford's average starting position must have been 10 or 15 yards better than Cal's. I mean I know our coverage stinks, and Owusu is a great returner, but come on.

First And Ten - The Good --> the field goals went in. Anger is Anger. No major mistakes in the return game.

The Bad --> Kickoffs were terrible. I get we did not want to give up a big return but it was just terrible to let them have the ball at the 40 over and over again. Seriously if we are going to do that we should just onside kick everytime and hope to get the ball back. Anger got blocked. The pressure got there really fast, so i think most of the blame has got to go to the protection.

without a doubt special teams has really hurt this Bears team and we need to improve for next year.

VandyImport - Punting was not outstanding but not disastrous. The erratic kickoff schemes more or less took their return guy out of being a threat. Placekicking was serviceable. I'd sure like to see better tackling on returns, but what the hell, I'm drunk. Gentleman's B.

SwampHunter - ALAMAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
/not s

One of our punts got blocked and (from what I can tell) an average starting position around the 40-50 for Stanfurd? At least we kept it away from Owusu most of the time.

JrBear - Alamar and Weis appear to weigh about the same, and both should accordingly be chucked out to lift up their respective programs. Although I have no problem with the domers wallowing in mediocrity.

SoCalOski - I'm really pleased with the way Forza Azzurri has developed into a solid PAT/FG team. And I think Ludwig's choice of keeping the ball out of Owusu's hands on kickoffs was probably smart. But any time the other guys consistently start play on their 35 or 40, special teams is bad.

On the other side, it seems that our guys fair catch every stinking punt. Either every punter we face has hall-of-fame efforts against us, or our punt teams don't know how to block the other guys. Or the returner (Syd mainly, though my picture was so bad I just saw a white blur) is a fraidy cat.

Calumbus Bear - Anger = mediocre
Blocked punt = epic phail
Pac-10 Special Teams Player of the Week Salami not kicking field goals = WTF?
KO coverage = sheh-tay
Keeping Owusu from making big plays: he ran it back to our 27 once (with penalty help), but we did keep him from housing it
D'Amato = didn't F up on critical FGs
ALAMAAAARRRR!!!!!11 = special teams was the worst aspect of our game, yet again

CalX - I literally covered my eyes by the 3rd kickoff. I think my mouth was hanging open too at just how awful the kickoffs were. There's what, 30,000 students on campus? That's like a small city. There isn't a single person who can put it in or near the endzone?

3 Anger punts. Stanfurd punt returns: 0 attempts for 0 yards.
2/2 on FG = woo. The second one made it a 6 point game, which forced Stanfurd to try for a TD, which led to the game-ending interception. No FG, and Stanfurd probably runs Gerhart non-stop on that last drive with the option of a tying FG. In my mind, Gerhart was a better bet to make a play than Luck. Which is to say, D'Amato's second FG was one of a half dozen plays that won the game.

yorzepol - ALAMMAAAAAAARRRRRRR!

Special teams almost cost us the game. All their touchdowns save one were due to great field position. The saving grace is that Owusu did not run it back for a touchdown. So I guess that's something. But having to squib it every time to prevent that was a little embarrassing.

Coaching

IMG_9868 (via Monica's Dad)

CaliforniaPete - Kudos. Kudos. Kudos. Ludwig had his best game of the season, and Gregory's boys did something that USC and Oregon could not. You guys laid some eggs earlier this season, but this one was a masterpiece.

rurata - I didn't really agree with the conservative call to center the ball on the last scoring drive, but we won, so who am I to question it?
Alamar must REAAAAALLLLLY rock as the TE coach for them to continue keeping him. Also we must be really cash-strapped to not be able to just hire a ST coach.
I think today's OL performance merits giving Marshall another year with the OL, but if they play the same next year, we might need to find a new coach.

Manwich - I liked the gameplan up to the beginning of the 4th quarter. We were aggressive, attacking them time and time again. You could see Riley getting comfortable as we passed on all 3 downs. Vereen was able to capitalize and eat up yardage on the ground.

Then we sat back and almost let Stanford win it. Wildbear/Bearcat 3 plays? Rushing 3 and dropping back and daring Luck with no pressure to make the throws? Come on guys, it didn't work for USC what makes you think Cal is so special? No, you attack and keep attacking.

Coaching in the 4th was the biggest WTF moment for me.

Troatie - The team looked really well prepped. 2nd half adjustments looked great. I'm really not diggin the Wildcat/Crazytown/Whatever formation. Vereen is not a great thrower, and Stanford knew it was a run and how to defend it, every time.

First And Ten - The team came in with a very good game plan. It was balanced and effective. Gregory's defense brought it today and slowed one of the top offenses in the conference. The offensive play calling was the best its been all season. Also i am thrilled to see the performance of Coach Marshalls line today. Great job Coaches for winning the Big Game and getting the team to bring it today.

Okay now a few complaints. My first complaint: The special teams is a disaster. We gave up field position on every kickoff and got a punt blocked. We are lucky that did not cost us the game. Whatever we are doing to get ready for special teams needs to be improved.

My second complaint: the Kevin Riley kneel before the last field goal. Accepting that Tedford wants to be conservative there I still do not get the play call. Sure you want to center the ball but why not just hand it to Shane up the middle on the off chance he manages a huge play. The only downside risk is a fumble which is both unlikely and honestly not that bad a result. A fumble gives stanford the ball with relatively little time left needing to drive the length of the field for either a game tying field goal (with a somewhat shaky kicker) or game winning TD. A kneel gives you a chance at a field goal to go up 6 knowing you have to kickoff to stanford with the accompanying risk of a big play and absolute knowledge they will have good field position. Of course you want the field goal (at least) but why not give yourself even a chance at a game clinching touchdown.

Anyway I am just happy it all worked out for the best

AERose - I was on the "fire Marshall" bandwagon, now I'm off. Sorry dude! I guess you just needed time. I wish it hadn't taken so long, but we have a winning season, a solid ranking, a bowl berth and the Axe. Let's see what you can do next year.

I was never on the fire Gregory tip, and I'm glad he's given us all reason not to be.

Alamar needs to go, but what's new.

Tedford will lead us to the promised land. Only a matter of time.

Berkelium97 - Great play calling throughout most of the game. One nitpick though: the wildcat was getting predictable and Stanford was not respecting the Sofele flysweep out of the formation. They really should mix it up with a pass or a handoff to Sofele out of the wildcat.
Defense was great. After giving up the long Gerhart TD, Gregory did a good job of making sure guys were in position to take him down if he broke through the first line.
Alamar was ALAMAAAAARR

SwampHunter - FIRE EVERYBODY! FIRE TWIST, ROY, HYDRO, AVI, YOUR MOM, MY MOM, AAAAUGH!
/totally s

Outside of Alamar, everyone did a good job shutting down the Furd where it needed to be shut down. I do have a nitpick with the field goal on our last drive. Why not punch it in for a TD?

I think it was an act of showboating.

Ludwig was willing to put the game on Gregory's shoulders, pointing out at 'Furd and going "Haha! We're gonna kick in for a field goal and watch as your offense tries to score for the last three minutes!" The problem is, is that 'Furd's offense only works with big break-open plays which is what happened on the final drive. Sure, when they're going at a slow pace they can have a hard time getting something going, but when they give it to Gerhart and Gerhart is moving WITH A PURPOSE, there's gonna be trouble. And there was. Until Mohamed saved the game.

SoCalOski - All Hail the great Tedford. He and his staff had an outstanding plan, and it worked. Though, to pick nits (and I must) -

Gregory: I guess this is what BBDB is supposed to do, and it worked. But we gave up 28 points, and the last two Furd drives were seemingly effortless. Yes, I know it was by design, but it is a dangerous way to play a game. I think our D held in spite of the plan, because of outstanding effort, and that the plan didn't actually put our guys in a position to win. If that makes sense at all. In other words, barring such huge effort from the players, this defensive plan has the Furd hanging 50 on us, too.

Ludwig: You know, I get why (theoretically, anyway) you want your QB to throw some deep passes. But not why Ludwig insisted on so many potentially drive-killing ones. Riley is most effective on the 10 - 15 yard throws over the middle or curls. And the rationale behind the long ball doesn't work when the opposing team doesn't respect you enough to actually believe it will work! The long passes did nothing to soften the Furd D -- they were just play wasters.

Alamar: This guy was like GW Bush after Katrina - in pure damage minimization mode and hoping that there wouldn't be any more rain.

Rope Guy: I wanted to see more Pete Townshend-like windmilling and less helicoptering from him. Very very disappointing.

KikiRevenge - Great game plan on either side of the ball. Was weird and glorious to see us in long, sustained drives. Some nit-picks: I think we overused the Wildcat, especially in the red zone. We desperately need to pass out of it at least once a game, because everyone knows it's a run. It got stuffed a lot in the red zone. God bless Tedford, but for the love of Bak Bak, please loosen up a little bit! Going for the FG at the end was SO playing not to lose and you just knew Stanford was going to march down the field after yet another shitty KO/coverage. I could maybe see playing that conservatively if the Rose Bowl was on the line. But we aren't going there, are already bowl eligible and IT'S THE BIG GAME!!! Lighten up, Francis, and go for the TD! End of rant.

sec119 - Tedford will catch a lot of flak for playing conservative in the last drive, but looking at the big picture the coaches had an organized gameplan for stopping Gerhart via the gang-tackle, for neutralizing Owusu via squib kicks, and for taking advantage of the Stanford pass defense via all that stuff Hydro will probably cover. Let's not lose the forest for the trees (get it? get it?), a Big Game win over a rising Stanford team going away means the coaches did lots of stuff right.

secret ASian man - Up until the point where Tedford got conservative near the very end. I had no complaints. Doesn't Tedford know he works in one of the most liberal ZIP codes in America. Conservative does not work in Berkeley.

Not running up the score is one thing, but when the lead is just a field goal, you can't go conservative. It's the Big Game, punch the Furd in the mouth and play to win. If the team was up two scores, you have luxury to be classy. There was no such luxury that night.

sycasey - Just to get it out of the way: Tedford's decision to take a knee and center the ball for a field goal was indefensible. There was way too much time left to not at least try to get the first down with a Vereen run. Outside of that, though, the game plan on both offense and defense worked to perfection. Cal controlled the ball on offense, and the defense kept Gerhart from dominating the game and forced Luck to be the deciding factor. His game-ending interception was the culmination of that strategy.

Overall

IMG_9741 (via Monica's Dad)

rurata - WE HAVE THE AXE!!!!!!! WE HAVE THE AXE!!!!!!! WE HAVE THE AXE!!!!!!!
WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pyunny - Overall a terrific game. I was so proud of our Bears. Our defense really stepped it up this game and our offense was actually clicking giving us those long sustained drives. We took command of the game and put those ingrates in their place =]

First And Ten - Go Bears! This is the team I thought we would have and am glad they finally showed up. For me this season will always be something of a disappointment, but today did a lot to makeup for that. Overall this was the best game for the bears all season. While many will always cheer against Stanford, I have to say the Big Game is just more fun when both teams are good. Ideally this game would decide the Rose Bowl every year for both teams (with Cal winning every game of course).

This game should kill any ghosts of 2007. After the devastating losses to the hated Trojans and the disliked Ducks, this team has proven resilient and gotten better, especially the last two games. The effort is even more impressive given the absence of Mr. Best.

A great game that will deserve its place in Big Game Lore.

JKK - Nothing beats a win over Furd in the Big Game.
And to play a spoiler against ranked opponents two weeks in a row.

Kinda sucks our team finally shows up at the end of the season. I feel like this team can beat USC. If we won at least the OSU game... we would still be in Rose Bowl hunt.

If we finish strong, we can make it to Holiday Bowl. and I can go watch.

Berkelium97 - Vereen was the player of the game, but there was one member of Rally Comm who stole his thunder today: Mr Death Stare (anyone who watched the game knows who I'm talking about). That stare could melt granite. Even Zach Follett would be broken by that stare. Physicists looking for the source of dark flow (the mysterious force that is propelling galaxies towards a common point) need to look no further than that stare--those galaxies are fleeing his gaze.
Also, kudos to all the Cal fans who rushed the field. They were louder than the Stanford house and made it seem like Stanford Stadium was our house tonight. They deserved to trample that field.

VandyImport - WHOSE AXE? WHOSE MOTHER-!-ING AXE????

ajay - What a way to finish a last Big Game. They could not stop us. There was a point where we did not punt for a good stretch of time. On Defense, we got the stops, we made the right plays. On offense, we constructed drives (which hasn't been done much at all this year), we mixed things up, and best of all, we silenced the crowd.

We could smell their fear, and you know what? We frikken capitalized, and that felt damn good.

Top that off w/ a nice rush the field, and a big ol' California suck it in the Stanfurd end zone? What a great Saturday.

JrBear - I LOVE THIS TEAM!
Of course I would have preferred the 2 TD win that we should have had, but seeing harby's face after THE PROFIT's interception is just fine by me!

SoCalOski - Despite all the nits I picked, this was a Big Game win. At the Furd. In front of their (now departing) bandwagon fans. For the Axe. And keeping the Furd out of the Rose Bowl. And likely giving us a better bowl bid. So, even though the average of all the grades I gave might be a "B" the team gets an A+ for shutting up Furdies, ruining their precious season, making Harbaugh choke on his blue-collar hubris, and giving us all a good reason to ask any Furd we see two questions:

1. Hey, Furdie, what's your deal?
2. Who's axe?

KikiRevenge - This game was more than the sum of its parts. Overall, Cal played its best game of the year in its biggest game of the year. But it was more than that. I was sure we were going to lose heading into the game and absolutely certain when it was 14-0. Man, they proved me dead wrong with a resiliency I have rarely seen from a Cal team. We keep the Axe. For me, this more than makes up for the three losses and dashed hopes. A season-saving victory.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

GO BEARS!!!!!

Calumbus Bear - We were supposed to get curbstomped, and in the first quarter we did. stanfurd looked better and was getting the big plays and breaks. BUT THEN OSKI LAID THE PIMPSLAP ON FURD AND WE WHUPPED 'EM BACK AND FORTH ON THE FIELD UNTIL HARBAUGH WAS LEFT WEEPING "WHAT'S OUR DEAL???" AND WE SAID "THERE'S AN AXE IN YOUR FUCKING NECK, THAT'S YOUR FUCKING DEAL" AND THEN WE REVELED IN VICTORY IN THE MIDDLE OF PALO ALTO, AKA BEAR TERRITORY
What a great f-ing Big Game win

CalX - My only concern was the 4th quarter offense, and it wasn't necessarily the play-calling. In the Tedford years, when our running game is humming for 2 or 3 quarters, we tend to own the 4th. The o-line devours an exhausted defense, and our stable of running backs turn 3 yd draw plays into 15 and 20 yd scampers. You can literally see the air go out of a defense as they try to arm tackle and shoelace tackle the 2nd and 3rd string RBs. But not tonight.

Stanfurd doesn't quit? Yeah, neither do most of the teams in the Pac-10. They should've been exhausted after that 3rd quarter, but they managed to step up and punch back. I don't think I'm worried so much as disappointed that the offense didn't have another 10-play, 5-minute drive drive in the 4th.

Still, an excellent win overall. Having graduated in 2002 (and experienced 4 years of the Holmoecaust), the '02 Big Game is still #1 in my book. I flew back and stayed with friends for Thanksgiving just to go to that game. This one's a close second, given the rankings, standings and the satisfaction of denying them any shot at the Rose Bowl.

sycasey - Any Big Game win is great, but to pull off an upset and kill Stanford's dreams of winning the Pac-10 made it even sweeter! Also, for Tedford to prove that he hadn't lost the team despite the consecutive blowout losses early in the season and the scary injury to Jahvid Best two weeks ago might make this his most impressive motivational job ever. To still have a shot at a 10-win season seems nothing short of miraculous after the early debacles. Kudos to the Bears!

Cal vs. Stanfurd, Post-112th Big Game Thoughts

HydroTech — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:23:42 -0000

More photos » by Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP

22 days ago: California players celebrate an interception by Mike Mohammed (18) late in the fourth quarter against Stanford during a NCAA college football game in Stanford, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009. California won 34-28. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Browse more photos »

(1) Tedford's decision to center the ball on 3rd and 8 was a conservative decision but not a wrong decision. Let's get something out of the way first. Tedford centered the ball. He didn't take a knee. I see a lot of people, and newspaper writers who seem to think the only point of that play was to not stop the clock and make Stanfurd use their last timeout. If those were the only reasons, then Tedford would have just called a run play. But Tedford centered the ball. Centering the ball places the ball directly between the hash marks to give the kicker a straight-line kick. As we all know, the further you move left or right from directly between the hash marks, the smaller the width of the uprights become due to the angle. Thus, centering the ball is more crucial in college football than the NFL because the hash marks in college football are wider than the NFL. And centering the ball is also more crucial the closer you get to the goalline because the angle of the kick is harsher from the 10 yard line right hash (for example) as opposed to the 30 yard line right hash. In short, Tedford centered the ball. He did not just "take a knee."

This decision to center the ball was clearly a conservative decision. I personally would have run the ball left (because Cal was on the right hash). Running the ball left serves two purposes: (1) it keeps the clock running; and (2) it can potentially center the ball. Of course the runningback might take the ball outside one of the hashes rather than keeping the ball between the hashes and thus the ball is no more centered than it was earlier, but the benefit of actually running the ball is that there is a potential to score a touchdown. By centering the ball, Tedford gave up any chance that Cal might score a touchdown. At the time of that 3rd and 8, Cal was up 31-28 with about 2:45 left on the clock in the 4th quarter. A touchdown would have made the game 38-28 (assuming Cal goes for the PAT and makes it). That would have made the game a two-score game and essentially would have iced the game - or at least made it very difficult for Stanfurd to come back. On the other hand, centering the ball and kicking the field goal merely assured that Stanfurd needed a touchdown to win, as opposed to 10 points to tie or 11 points to win (if Cal had scored a touchdown on the 3rd and 8 with a play).

I suppose it's possible that the team could have executed a run play to the left and told Vereen to directly between the hashes as much as possible. Such a play preserves the chances of getting a touchdown (although those chances are probably reduced because Vereen is restricted to his running space), but it also serves the purpose of centering the ball (although the centering probably won't be as accurate as a QB-centering).

I do believe that centering the ball is more important than most critics of Tedford's decision realize. This should not be confused with saying that centering the ball is extremely important. However, critics of Tedford's decision don't even mention the lowered chances of a successful field goal kick from a far hash at extremely close range. To them, it appears, as if there is no difference between kicking a field goal from the 11 yard line far hash, and from the 11 yard line center. This is where they are wrong. Clearly there is a difference and kicking from a far hash is harder. How much of a difference does it make? It's a small one. Small enough that many coaches will just ignore the diminished percentage, and essentially trade a slightly bigger chance at missing the field goal for a chance at scoring a touchdown by running a play on 3rd down instead of centering the ball. Using numbers, it might sound like this: a kicker has a 95% chance at making a field from the 11 yard line center; a kicker has a 90% chance at making a field goal from the 11 yard line far hash; and the team has a 15% chance at scoring a touchdown on a run play from the 11 yard line. Most coaches will gladly take a 5% less chance at a field goal to keep that 15% chance of scoring a touchdown. Obviously Tedford isn't one of those coaches.

Was Tedford's decision wrong? No. I don't think so. There are two ways to win the game in Cal's situation. You go for a touchdown on third down, and if you get it, you ice the game with a 10 point lead. Or you kick the field goal, go up 6 points, and force the offense to score a touchdown. Both ways are valid ways to win. Of course one is more conservative than the other, or one is more aggressive than the other, but neither way is wrong. What is a wrong decision in football? Had Tedford passed the ball on the 3rd down to get a touchdown, I think that would be a wrong decision. You clearly want to run the ball on the 3rd down to make the offense use its last timeout. Even if Tedford passed the ball and Cal scored a touchdown, I would still criticize the decision as being wrong. Anyways, I don't think Tedford's decision is "wrong" as so many of his critics suggest. Conservative? Sure.

If you want to talk about "wrong" decisions, then let's talk about Stanfurd Head Coach Jim Harbaugh's decision to go for it on 4th and 8 on his own 23 yard line with 3 timeouts remaining. That was wrong. That decision pretty much gave Cal a very good chance at scoring a touchdown that would have put Stanfurd into a 10 point hole, and at the very least it gave Cal an extremely good chance at a field goal which would put Stanfurd into a 6 point hole. The 6 point hole now required that Stanfurd get a touchdown to at least tie the game or win it. On the other hand, if Stanfurd had punted the ball on the 4th down and subsequently forced Cal's offense to punt on Cal's next possession, then Stanfurd would only need a field goal to tie the game. If Stanfurd scored a touchdown, they would have gone up 35-31 which then would have required Cal to get a touchdown to win the game.

Clearly, Tedford's decision to center the ball on 3rd down was conservative, but it was nowhere near as "wrong" as Harbaugh's decision to go for it on 4th and 8 from his own 23. That decision was clearly wrong (no quotes).

Addendum:

Coincidentally, Cal's first field goal of the game, was from the 11 yardline right hash - the very same position that Cal was in during the 4th quarter with just under three minutes remaining. Tedford had no problem kicking the field goal from the far hash then. On their face, these situations seem the same, and people might suggest that Tedford's actions were inconsistent. But the situations were slightly different. The first field goal kick was early in the game and Cal had tons of time left in the game to score again even if the field goal was missed. But the second situation was near the end of the game. Cal needed points and knew that they might not get the ball back this game. Thus, the added risk of a far hash kick may be less acceptable, hence why Tedford centered the ball.

And, of course, CGB did delve even further into these decisions last week, which you can read about here.

(2) Tedford should have gone for it on 4th and less than one yard. Another conservative decision. I personally would have gone for it. It's hard for the defense to prevent the offense from gaining less than a yard. That first down which never occurred could have led to a touchdown drive or perhaps another field goal.

(3) Gregory kept the 3-4 defense on the field on most third downs. When Cal forces opponent offense into 3rd downs, Cal usually brings out its 3-3 defense. However, in Big Game, the first thing I noticed was Gregory keeping the 3-4 defense out on the field for third downs, even third and longs. Why? He clearly wanted greater run support against Stanfurd runningback Tony Gearhart. Cal's pass rushing linebackers, and nickleback are less effective in run support than Cal's bigger 3-4 linebackers. I liked this decision by Gregory. It did concern me though because this decision also allows Stanfurd to put a slot WR against LBs. That is a huge mismatch that Stanfurd tried to exploit, but believe it or not, Cal's linebackers played very well and didn't allow too many easy completions against them.

(4) The wildcat might be better served if it handed the ball off to Sofele on the fly sweep more often. When Cal uses wildcat, the runningback will usually keep the ball. Usually may be an understatement. I think that perhaps 95% of the time, the RB will keep the ball. Stanfurd's defense was clearly not respecting the fly sweep action much during Big Game and was just hitting their interior gaps to stop Vereen. They were pretty successful too, as since Vereen was mostly limited to tough 2-4 yard gains. If Cal handed the ball off about as equally as the RB kept the ball, it would get the defense into more of a read-and-react mode allowing the offensive line to push back the DL with more ease, and freeze outside defenders who are responsible for outside containment of the fly sweep allowing Sofele to gain an advantage. But since Ludwig has the RB keep the ball a very high percentage of the time, the defense is less likely to be read-and-react, and will just play the RB as opposed to the fly sweep.

(5) Cal's offensive line shows up for once! The run blocking clearly wasn't the best we'd ever seen, and perhaps it wasn't even "great" but it was better than we have seen for a couple of months now. I don't know what Marshall did during the week to motivate the guys, but it seemed to work.

(6) Trick plays; the flea flicker. When they work, everyone heaps praise on the coaches. When they don't work, everyone always says something like "that was a wasted play, why'd they get fancy when they didn't need to?" The announcers said pretty much exactly that after Cal tried to run a flea flicker. Cal's intended WR (Boateng?) was open deep too and had beaten the deep defender. That could have been a touchdown if Riley had space to step up into the pocket. But instead, Cal's LG (Summers-Gavin) got beat very badly on the play. The LG lost his individual battle and his defender was the one who pressured Riley to scramble and throw the ball away. Again, it takes 10 men winning their individual position battles and executing for plays to work.

(7) Cal throws in a new blocking scheme! Cal's past power running scheme has utilized a backside pulling guard. There have always been just one pulling blocker. But against Stanfurd we saw the revealing of a new scheme where Cal had two pulling blockers. This occurred out of the 12 personnel set (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs). Cal would put two TEs to one side of the formation. One TE would be on the LOS in their normal position just outside of the offensive tackle, and the second TE (sometimes called H-back) would be just back and outside of the first TE. The side that the two TEs are lined up on is the strong side. Cal would actually run to the weakside and pull the strongside guard (the backside guard), and the second TE. This play works well theoretically for two reasons: (1) it breaks Cal's tendency to run strongside; and (2) it makes it riskier for the defense to overload on the strong side of the offensive formation in anticipation of a strongside run. Cal also ran this same scheme with 21 personnel (2 backs, 1 TE, 2 WRs) from the Weak-I formation using the fullback on a pull in lieu of the second TE.

(8) The outside zone returns! I'm not really sure why Big Game was the game that it made a reappearance. But in the 4th quarter we saw it run a few times. Perhaps Ludwig saw something schematically that he wanted to exploit, but that doesn't quite explain why we didn't see the outside zone earlier on in the game. Or, perhaps Ludwig felt that the Stanfurd defense was getting tired and would be too slow to stop the outside zone. He did use a new wrinkle in that he used some pre-snap motion to the playside with the fullback. This pre-snap motion gives the fullback a head start on his block, and allows him to get further outside.

(9) Cal covered up the TEs a lot. This was actually something that I did notice slightly during the game but had forgotten about by the time I got home. Commenter Missing Barry asked me about this, and despite his questioning I still didn't recall these plays. But after watching the game again, yes, I did finally remember some of these plays.

Cal rarely covers up their TEs. By "covering" or "covering up" I mean that the TEs become ineligible receivers and thus cannot go downfield for a pass. Cal rarely does this because it removes the TE as a passing threat to the defense. Why does Cal do it then? Well, if covering up the TE removes it as a passing threat to the defense, then the TE becomes a blocking threat to the defense. Because of this, the defense has to respect the run a little more. And that's just what Cal wanted the defense to do. Cal, in formations where the TE was covered up, would mostly playaction pass. In other words, Cal purposely used formations where the TE was covered up to cause the defense to bite harder on the run-fake (because the defense expected run due to a covered TE), to open up the pass.

When Cal covers up the TEs, it's usually out of the I-formation with twin WRs to the side of the TE (the strong side). Because the rules requires that the offense have at least seven men on the line of scrimmage (LOS), one of the WRs has to be on the LOS. 5 OL guys, plus 1 TE, plus 1 WR, equals 7 men on the LOS. However, in these formations that Missing Barry noticed, Cal was covering the TE up with 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs) rather than the usual 21 personnel (2 backs, 1 TE, 2 WRs) for I-formation.

(10) Cal's punt which was blocked was due to a player not winning his individual battle. I know we all love to hat ("hate" for all you CGBers, or non-CGBers who are unfamiliar with our slang) on Alamar but I'm not sure we can blame that blocked punt on him. Cal's long snapper, Rios, missed his block pretty bad and thus his defender got into the backfield for the block. I know lots of people might be thinking, "well, It's Alamar's job to prepare his players so if they mess up then its the coach's fault." My response is that the players play the game and not the coaches. At some point, you have to stop blindly blaming the coaches and you have to start looking at the individual players. Does this mean I don't think Alamar is on the proverbial hot seat? No. He definitely is. Not for this blocked punt, but for many years of sub-par kick return and especially kickoff coverage.

My point here is that there isn't a lot or any blame to be placed on Alamar for this blown play. It wasn't a scheme issue or confusion between players on who to block. All the Cal blockers knew who to block, it was just a matter of the defender beating the long snapper. Rios just got beat bad. He knew it too. Despite him recovering the blocked punt, after the play he had his head down and slowly walked off the field. He knew he was responsible for that block.

(11) The 112th Big Game was perhaps Riley's most clutch game. I don't know if I would say it was his best game. That was probably the Maryland game earlier this year where Riley finished with a 65.4% completion rate, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. But Riley sure was clutch towards the second half of the game. He got yardage when nobody was open, and he threw some great balls too.

I sort of hate using that whole cliche "maturity" line, but after the Arizona State game and this game, I do feel like Riley's matured. Matured not in the sense that he's been messing around and now he's finally decided to get his head in the game, but matured in that he's seasoned. He's seen it all. He's been through lots. He's played in a variety of situations to the point where it's nothing new and he's more familiar with things. He's probably less rattled about the situations than before. And I hate making these kind of statements based off of snippets of TV coverage, but he did just seem more calm, poised, and "in the zone" than ever before.

In the podcast this week, some of my fellow Marshawnthusaists expressed the idea that perhaps Riley is now the second best QB of the Tedford era. I whole-heartedly disagree with such a notion (imo, at least two other QBs come to mind before Riley), but I do admit that this game has inched him up the ladder a little bit. If he really turns things around in 2010, perhaps he can take the title of the second best QB of the Tedford era, but that's going to take a lot of work.

(13) Empty set is killer. I love empty (when Cal spreads out the defense with five receivers - and not necessarily wide receivers). I love it for two reasons: (1) Cal seems to be fairly successful out of it; (2) if nobody is open Riley seemingly is always able to run for a few yards of gain. I'm glad that we've seen the use of empty formation increase over the past few weeks. I've been advocating for it quite a bit as since Cal usually runs seam routes, and vertical routes out of this formation and those routes are routes that Riley is pretty good at hitting.

In previous post-game thoughts against Arizona, I've noted how Ludwig had been using 5 WRs in the empty set. Such an observation was significant because Cal used to only use 11 personnel (3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 RB) out of empty. So the switch to 5 WRs out of empty was a surprise. But in Big Game, Cal went back to using 11 personnel. Why this special change? Well, first of all, using 11 personnel helps disguise the empty set. Cal uses 11 personnel in other formations, so when Cal sends 11 personnel into the huddle the defense doesn't really know if Cal is going to line up in empty or another regular formation. But when Cal was using 5 WRs for empty (and Cal only uses 5 WRs for empty and nothing else), the opposing defenses knew they would be seeing an empty formation. Because the defense knows this prior to the defense breaking the huddle, the defense can call a play in response to not only just the personnel group, but the formation too; whereas with using 11 personnel, the defense can only call a defensive play in response to the personnel grouping and not formation.

Side Note: The defense can call a play in response to the offense's formation without seeing the formation post breaking of the huddle based on tendencies. For example, Cal usually passes from shotgun on 3rd and long. Defenses, can extrapolate from this and can make the (generally correct) assumption that if Cal sends 11 personnel on the field, that they are going to see a shotgun formation too.

Cal was also using a little neat trick with the empty sets to get player mis-matches. Specifically, Ludwig would put the TE and RB out as the widest receivers leaving the slot receivers (the WRs) inside and lined up against safeties and linebackers. This is a very simple tactic to get mismatches. I will cover this in-depth in a frame by frame analysis later on.

(14) Luck's ill-fated pass. So Mohamed did a great job reading Luck's eyes and getting the perfect depth. Even if Mohamed wasn't there, I think Cattouse might have INTed the ball anyways. Cattouse was on the intended receiver like white on rice. If Cattouse hadn't intercepted the ball, he definitely would have at least defended the ball. I can see why Luck thought his receiver was open, because his guy definitely was for a moment. But by the time that Luck threw the ball, and by the time the ball would have gotten to the intended receiver, Cattouse had cut in front of the intended receiver to defend the pass. What Luck needed was to put more air under the ball to get it over Mohamed. But more air under the ball might not have helped anyways actually because Cattouse was there to pick anything thrown near him. So I guess what I'm saying is Luck was screwed even if Mohamed wasn't there and even if Luck had put more air under the ball like he had wanted to.

(15) Vereen rushes 42 times! Not much to say here but Vereen was beastly. Sure he's a bit slower than Best, but what he lacks in pure speed, he makes up for in his uncanny ability to gain a few extra yards when surrounded by four defenders and having no business getting any additional yards. He just has that subtle elusiveness to intricately weave through the defenders and trash to get those yards nobody really thinks he'd get. I suppose this is a bit surprising because Cal really hasn't had a RB like him before. Previous RBs just brutally powered their way through the trash and defenders (Lynch, Arrington, Echemandu). Best sort of puts his head down and runs through them but without tons of power. But Vereen just kind of slips through them - like magic.

(16) Cal owns the time of possession 39 minutes to 21 minutes. Stanfurd's defense had to have been tired. Being on the field for that long, having to defend 88 offensive plays!!! Geez. Cal has been averaging 65.2 plays per game prior to Big Game with a 4.87 standard deviation. It's been a while since done statistics, but doesn't that mean something like 95% of the data points will be within two standard deviations greater than and less than the mean? So that means 95% of the time Cal will run anywhere from 55.46 to 74.94 plays per game. Running 88 plays in a game put Cal 4.68 standard deviations above the mean! That's ridic. Straight ridic. Perhaps this is why Ludwig wanted to try some outside zone late in the game; he wanted to see if the Furd defense had the energy in them to defend the outside.

(17) Cool story, Hansel. So my parents' neighbor went to Big Game. He apparently knew some big Furd donor and got to go with him to the game or got his tickets or something. The Furd donor has luxury box suites. The neighbor got to the stadium early before most of the fans got there. In the luxury boxes, there was tons of free food around. My neighbor, taking advantage of the situation, began gorging himself on all the food set out for the rich Furd donors who hadn't arrived yet - everything from fancy burgers to monster sized hotdogs. When the Furd donors arrived, they were quite stereotypically, old and white. Stanfurd, quite intelligently, had a coffee bar in the luxury suite area so the old fogies could stimulate themselves to an awake state to watch the game. Also, quite intelligently, the luxury suite area had a full bar where the rich donors could then drink themselves into a stupor after the loss. Some famous people that were in attendance in the luxury suites: Condoleezza Rice, and Jim Plunkett. Best part of this story: the old Furd donors did not appreciate the loud cheers of the neighbor. Quite literally, when the neighbor would cheer, the old Furd donors would turn around to him and say for him to not cheer so loud. Something about the cheering overloading their hearing aids or something. How rude of the neighbor. Doesn't he know that he's at a football game? You're not supposed to make noise!

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Bonus Thoughts from college football games from the weekend of Friday, November 27th, to Saturday, November 28th.

Texas vs. Texas A&M - Exciting game. Texas A&M got risky and frisky with some blitzes and man coverage. They got burned. Perfect examples of what can happen when you roll the dice. I'm not saying Cal shouldn't be more aggressive (sending more pass rushers) on defense because this is what happens, but this certainly is what can happen. We should all be aware of the risks. Also, if I recall correctly, Texas A&M missed a short field goal from far hash that could have made a difference in the game. Just another reason why perhaps Tedford isn't completely crazy for centering the ball on that 3rd and 8.....

Alabama vs. Auburn - Auburn really showed some 2-minute drill ineptitude at the end of the game. They needed to drive the field in about a minute, and ended up calling about 3 plays in all that time. Their QB was confused. The coaches weren't getting playcalls into the game quickly. It was one ugly hot mess. That is what happens when you don't practice the 2-minute drill and you don't have a system to get playcalls into the game quickly. Thankfully, you'll never really see Cal do the epic failure that Auburn did. First of all, Cal practices its two-minute drill every practice. Every single day, they practice scoring in under two minutes.

Second, and I've talked about this before, but Ludwig has installed a great two-minute drill system. In previous years, the sideline QBs would signal in the playcall to the starting QB. The signals would take a few seconds to signal in, and then the starting QB would spend another 15 seconds telling the play to the players - in actual team language. Meaning, the defense can hear what the offense's playcall is. Sometimes, you can figure out what parts of the play will be based on the terminology (some of the terminology was too closely tied to the words/routes that they were meant to represent). But now, the sideline QB just signals in a number, one through nine. This takes about half a second. The QB will then yell out the number to the offense. All the offense players have those 9 plays memorized. The players need only to merely line up and run their play. This takes less time than the previous system. The additional benefit of the new system is that the actual playcall terminology isn't being yelled out by the QB so the defense can't hear it, thus further protecting the playcall.

To Center the Ball? Or to Not Center the Ball?

Texas vs. Texas A&M - aTm doesn't center the ball and misses a short field goal that would have made a difference in the game.

Arkansas vs. LSU - Arkansas doesn't center the ball and misses a short game-tying overtime field goal.

Arizona vs. Arizona State - Stoops centers the ball for a game winning field goal and the kick is good.

It's like the football gods are talking to us and telling us to center the football. This weekend might be the undeniable proof that so many center-the-ball haters need to finally appreciate Tedford's decision.

Golden Nuggets: The Great Transformation

Berkelium97 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:36:13 -0000

SFGate looks at Tedford's recent transformation and the transformation of the program during his first 99 games.

Tedford, 48, will say he learned his lesson two years ago, when the Bears started 5-0 and then lost six of their final seven regular-season games amid rampant locker-room moping. Cal players say Tedford's transformation helped them avoid a similar plunge this season, after blowout losses to Oregon and USC. They since have won four of five entering the Big Game.

"I've noticed he's really more fiery this year - my first year here (2006), you didn't see too much of that," linebacker Mike Mohamed said. "He's more of an offensive guy, but he's also trying to get more involved with the defense, just so everyone feels like we're one big team and everyone can trust him.

"The yelling he's done this year, good yelling, some guys have said, 'OK, this is a new Tedford.' We get fired up because it's a side of him we really haven't seen before."
...

But as cranes hover over the west side of the stadium, and the facility begins to rise from a giant hole in the ground, other not-so-encouraging elements converge. Some fans grumble about Tedford's troubles in important games. They question his play-it-safe strategy and lament his inability to coax quarterback magic out of Riley, the way he did with Aaron Rodgers.

Then, on another level, an entirely different problem: Cal professors recently recommended the school stop subsidizing the athletic department's annual shortfall, given the bleak economy. That's especially relevant when the football coach will earn more than $2 million this year; Tedford's guaranteed salary is $1.82 million, and he pocketed another $500,000 in bonus money in January.

It seems fair to expect big results for big money. So has Tedford reached a crossroads at Cal? Will the Bears reach Rose Bowl/BCS glory under him, or will they stay stuck in the pack of good-but-not-great teams?
...
This much is certain: The Bears will be held to a high standard in the coming years. Offensive tackle Mike Tepper, on the verge of completing his sixth season in the program, flatly predicted that Tedford "will win a national championship at Cal, without a doubt."

After the yump we look at Sports Illustrated's Pac-10 fan survey, practice notes (Hill is back!), Ludwig's response to the UNLV rumors, post-Syracuse quotes from Randle/Montgomery, and instant recap, quotes, and analysis of today's loss to Ohio St.

Before we continue, let's take a moment to remember Uga VII, the University of Georgia mascot who died prematurely at age four (!) this week. May he be succeeded by more glorious Ugas who will rest comfortably on bags of ice and bite at Auburn players.

R.I.P. Uga VII

Cal Football

Sports Illustrated released its 2009 fan survey results. Among Pac-10 teams, Cal is last in "biggest conference rival" (3.3%), fifth in "favorite stadium to visit" (8.8%), third in rudest fans (I blame the tree-sitters) (9.2%), and, paradoxically, third in most polite fans (8.2%).
JO's practice notes: Derrick Hill will return in a limited role Saturday. After missing the last practice with a deep quadriceps bruise, Marvin Jones was back in action last night at full capacity. Tedford addressed the issue of kickoff coverage, particularly since Cal will be responsible for slowing down Chris Owusu. Tedford says he has no idea where the axe is kept throughout the year, as he only sees it during Big Game Week. If Tedford himself doesn't know where the axe is, whoever is in charge of it should consider putting it in a more prominent location.
Ludwig says no one has contacted him about the UNLV job. He says he has no interest in it at this point in his career anyway, he just wants to beat Stanford.
Tedford downplayed the fact that this is his 100th game. He says 100 wins would be a bigger milestone, and said this week is about the players, particularly the seniors, and their accomplishments.
Gregory and the defense talk about what is needed to stop Stanford's offense this weekend. They have to stop Gerhart and play smart to avoid letting Luck beat them through the air. Last week's performance seems to have given Gregory and his crew some confidence.

Cal Basketball

Farudo's game thread is a good recap of the game. Turnovers, fouls (questionable or not), and blocked shots killed Cal in the first 25 minutes before their rally fell short in the last few minutes. ESPN recaps the game.
CalBears.com has post-game quotes from Monty and Randle. Monty says the zone defense and the blocks huge in determining the outcome. Randle was pleased with the effort, particularly during the attempted comeback.
CCTimes recaps last night's loss to Syracuse. Without Robertson and Kamp, the Bears didn't have much of an inside presence and instead had to rely on jump-shots and threes. Unfortunately, the shots weren't falling. It sounds like the team is discouraged and lost its confidence. Monty hopes his team can bounce back Ohio St.
Monty and Randle have some post-game comments. Monty knew Syracuse's size and 3-2 zone defense would give Cal trouble, and he said some things they worked on in preparation for the game did not show up on the court. It didn't help that Syracuse hosted a block party in the paint. Monty said that really discouraged and shut down the inside game.

Cal vs. Arizona Post-Game Thoughts

HydroTech — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:52:08 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

29 days ago: Arizona quarterback Nick Foles (8) signals a touchdown after teammate Keola Antonin scored against California during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Browse more photos »

(1) Cal won. Yay. I'll admit, I wasn't optimistic going into the game. I figured the safe bet was a Cal loss - a big loss. So when the game stayed close, and the fourth quarter came around, I felt like me and the entire stadium started believing - believing that we really could win the game. I mean, not in the theoretical sense that every game is winnable. But the sense that yeah, if we really stuck it out, got loud, played tough, that we would will a win. I can't remembered the stadium being that into the game in a long time. Memorial does get loud in key situations during your typical game but last Saturday there was energy in the air, and not just noise.

(2) Cal won thanks to its defense but Gregory still needs to go. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass that Cal won because of the defense. Gregory needs to go. The dude was still only rushing four pass rushers most downs. Doesn't he understand that you have to pressure the QB? Let's not forget that we only sacked their QB three times. That is unacceptable. I'd be willing to have anyone, even TwistNHook as our defensive coordinator. Anybody but Gregory, please.

(3) I was kidding about #2. Did I fool anyone?

(4) Cal having deep coverage issues? I want to talk about that play where the Arizona was driving north and the Arizona QB rolled out right and threw a floater into the endzone towards an undefended WR. The play was broken up by Mohamed but still... something didn't go right that play. I think it's safe to assume that something didn't go right on that play when there is an undefended receiver 40 yards down the field... and the closest defender to that receiver is a.... linebacker. This play was in the first quarter with 6:25 remaining (for those of you who want to look at it).

I watched over that play a few times and in reminded me of something. Oh yeah, it reminded me of that play against Arizona State where the ASU QB threw an 80 yard touchdown on the defense because we lost our backside safety on the deep half coverage. There are a few differences between the plays. ASU's intended WR was located in the slot formation to the opposite side of the field prior to the snap, and against Arizona the intended WR was located in nearside slot lined up directly on Cal's left safety (defense's left). But on both plays, the offense's right most WR, the one to the side of Cal's left safety (defense's left), ran curl routes. On both plays it appears as if Cal's left safety (against Arizona that was Johnson) jumped down on that outside curl route vacating his deep coverage (assuming Cal's defense was in a two-deep, which I think it was).

I think opposing offensive coordinators are onto something. They must be seeing that Johnson is quick to bite on underneath routes. In fact, I think Arizona specifically designed this play to attack Cal's left deep safety. From the very start of the snap, Foles is looking at the intended WR straight down the field. Arizona's decoy WR, the one running the curl, was very lazy in his route running. He didn't put forth the effort which a WR would when he knows the ball might be coming to him. In other words, that WR knew the ball wasn't coming to him.

Attacking Johnson makes sense. Of him and Cattouse, he seems to be the more aggressive of the two when it comes to reacting on the ball. Furthermore, his range (ability to cover ground) is less than that of Cattouse. The lesser range makes it harder for him to compensate for a blown coverage - like the one Arizona was hoping he'd blow.

Anyways, it's hard to tell exactly what happened on that play because Versus was zooming in their cameras too much, but I'll just recap what I think happened one last time. Cal defense in two-deep zone with underneath zones too. Arizona wants to attack Cal's left safety. Arizona right-most WR runs curl hoping to get Cal left safety to bite. Cal left safety bites vacating his deep 1/2 of the field. Arizona slow WR runs right up into the vacated zone for an easy touchdown pass. Praise be to ~~Gregory~~ (Gregory is an idiot and needs to be fired) any idol except for Gregory that Mohamed got enough depth on his original coverage to make a play on the ball, and did not vacate his zone to assist in QB pursuit.

(5) What did Gregory do?!?! So Cal's defense goes from le suck to dope like a click of the switch. Why? Was I completely wrong in saying that I think Cal's defense just isn't that talented? No, I don't think so. I still think the defense as a whole, isn't that great, but last Saturday they just played really really well. Players were timely to the ball - something we really haven't seen a lot. Our pass rush was getting through on frequently enough occasion - even with just four pass rushers!!! Oh noes! Hell hath frozen over!

I wish I could give more of a detailed answer, but I'm not entirely sure what Gregory did differently this week if anything at all. I just pulled an all-nighter practicing a new mango chicken mole recipe and I'm like half asleep and drooling on my keyboard right now, and I haven't had much time to go through the defense game film to see what's up. So I can't really say what he did differently.

And actually, I don't think that Gregory actually did much differently. We played our usual zones, or so it seemed to my amateur eye seated on the 50 yard line. We pass rushed four pass rushers. They would twist (stunt) occasionally. The defense seemed focus on bringing the pressure right up into Foles' face rather than from the edges. Two-deeps. Cover 3 with Syd in center field - nothing new there. But other than that, the gameplan seemed pretty normal. I didn't happen to notice any corner or safety blitzes. And for the record, we still use these blitzes. We just don't notice them because our blitz is getting picked up instead of resulting in sacks.

A good friend of mine, whom I brainstorm Cal Football with, did have the time to give the defensive film more of a look. He noted that Gregory was bringing a linebacker pass rushers through the A-gaps quite frequently. My friend noted that the linebacker would line up behind the Cal NT prior to the snap so the offense's two guards and center wouldn't know which gaps the two defenders would hit, thus causing confusion and hesitation along the Arizona OL. I went back and looked at the film for a little bit while my chicken mole was cooking, and indeed, that seemed to be one of the strategies.

(6) Vereen is the better trash and poor-blocking running back of our two RBs. By trash, I mean strewn and downed defenders, as well as the offense's own blockers. When there is a lot of trash in the runningback's way or vicinity, or there is poor blocking, I think Vereen is a little more adept at getting the yards than Best. Vereen has a subtle elusiveness to him that makes guys miss. Not in the Sportscenter type of huge stutter step or juke stick (for you NCAA College Football kids) kind of way, but he just gives a little stop, shimmy, or shake to make a guy miss just enough so he can push forward for another few yards. Best on the other hand, he's more of a big play guy that needs space. He's more prone to pause to wait and see how the trash sorts itself out in an attempt to get that huge gain, rather than pushing forward for those few yards. And when he does push forward, he just barrels through.

(7) Riley had his typical try-too-hard game. Like I've said in previous posts, the kid means well and is a competitor and blah blah blah and he's trying to win. But he's got to learn that in some situations he just has to get control over his overwhelming desire to make a play, and just be safe with the ball so the offense can try again on the next down. I'm talking about that cross field bomb to Boateng that was INTed. Just run with. He could have run for a few yards of gain. And his second INT, I get he was trying to throw it away, but sometimes you just have to take the sack too. On the positive side, Riley did have a few good throws here and there.

(8) I liked the opening drive playcalling.

1st play - 21 personnel, crackback toss. We haven't seen these crackback tosses in a while. We used them a ton against Miami in the Emerald Bowl with a large amount of success. Although our OL doesn't seem to be the most athletic OL in past years, I like this play because it moves the point of attack away from the center of the field which is where we've been concentrating our attack for the past few games.

2nd play - 21 personnel, zone run to the weakside. Haven't really ran weakside too much all year. Ludwig is letting the defense know that he'll run weakside so they shouldn't be too aggressive to the strong side.

3rd play - empty set, seam pass. Seam passes are one of Riley's best passes. Seam routes and four verticals should be staple plays in the Cal playbook. We have seen these plays a fair amount this season, but perhaps maybe not enough.

4th play - 12 personnel, playaction QB boot. Nice way to move the QB, and get the ball to Marvin Jones for an easy completion.

5th play - 12 personnel, masked inside zone using a TE in the slot, motion the TE back to center to cut the backside defender. We added this play a few weeks ago.

Anyways, I like these plays because these plays are all staple plays that Cal has used frequently in the past. The team is familiar with them and can probably execute them very well.

(9) A little old and a little new. Ludwig brought back a little bit of old stuff by using the crackback toss run play that we saw so much in 2008 and especially during the Emerald Bowl. We also utilized a backside tackle pull on another play. We haven't seen those types of blocking schemes since Dunbar was our offensive coordinator in 2006. I liked seeing these plays getting dusted off and used because it adds some diversity to the offense.

As for the new, Cal is now using 5 WRs in its empty set. In previous years, Cal has used primarily 11 personnel out of empty (3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 RB). Why has there been this change? Perhaps Ludwig feels that the receiving threat posed by the fourth and fifth WRs is greater than that of the TE and RB that would normally be in with 11 personnel. Such reasoning seems very plausible considering that Alex Lagemann comes in as one of the 4th and 5th WRs, and is often targeted on those plays too.

(10) Ludwig seems to be attacking the middle of the field a bit more. In the past, Cal has frequently shied away from passes over the middle of the field. If you imagine the 3 by 3 grid of a phone dialing pad, Cal has shied away from the number 5 and number 8 - those numbers representing the short middle and mid-range middle of the field. But it seems like in Cal has been a bit more willing to make some passes over the center. We've seen a few slants this year in an attempt to get the ball over the short middle. Alex Lagemann, as one of the 5 WRs in our empty sets has frequently made short and medium catches over the middle. I like this development. Ideally, you'd really like to be able to attack all over the field (all over the 3 x 3 grid) and not regulate yourselves, or let the defense regulate you to passes only in certain sectors.

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Sorry for the tardiness of this post and any weirdness in it. It's been a long day.

CGB Report Card: Grading Cal's Performance Against Arizona

TwistNHook — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:30:47 -0000

Position	QB	RB	Rec.	Run B	Pass P	Run D	Pass R	Pass D	ST	Coach	Overall
Score	2.307	3.667	3.173	2.653	2.633	3.787	3.107	3.253	2.467	3.253	3.631
Grade	C+	A-	B+	B-	B-	A-	B	B+	C+	B+	A-

Some of our CGB regulars recently had their first children. So, to Carp and ZooNews, I present to you a few tricks from a seasoned Cal dad. Use these to ensure your kids never get in the way of Cal football. Because you gotta have priorities:

Kodiak - Well, I was the somewhat negligent dad and used every trick in the book to distract the 3 year-old and 5-month old so that I could watch the game. I noticed that the Bears seemed to play better whenever I took a swig of beer, so I cowboy'd up. I launched the 3 year-old into the air with "Go Bears!" when we stopped then in the 4th and when Vereen had his back-breaking run. She told me, "I hope the blue people win so I can fly again, Da Da." Well-lubricated by this point, we did victory laps throughout the house.

Let nobody ever say we're bad parents here!

Gameday

Goldblooded - i stayed in bed watching the game on the justin.tv feed on my laptop. i had to deal with obnoxious AZ fan posters who i then got to type angry things to after we won. i also coughed up a 12 oz. tub of lung butter.

Rocksndirt - f*n direct tv doesn't show Versus in our area, so the usual nice quiet bar i watch the games at didn't have it. Had to go to the 'Grad', which is nice enough, but....1) they play music, and game audio, 2) UCDavis had a home game and won, 3) the food blows.

That said Whoo Hoo, go bears!

LeonPowe - So, we were 0-2 (Oregon and Oregon State) slingboxing at my apartment, so we decided to go switch it up and go to my friend's place for Slingboxing (also, I remembered to listen to the Cal Band CD [3-0] and wear my Top Dog t-shirt [4-0])

But we couldn't get the Slingbox to work - I blamed it on my Cal friend's brother (password was gotrojans) - so we were listening to Starkey trying to get the Slingbox to work. . . then I noticed a button on the menu "No Picture?" - clicked it, and it said - the power was probably off and to press it to turn on and EUREKA . .. picture for the 2nd half!

Also the fuzzy nature of the Slingbox made it really difficult to discern if catches were happening, but we got loud in Shanghai during the last drive. And nerdy - 5 people, 8 laptops were open.

coolingfan - The final 5 minutes of the game drove me frenzy, and I'm just grateful that we are on the winning side of this crazy game -- it was by far the most entertaining game I watched this season.

secret ASian man - Drunk on Tightwd Hill and was still able to rush the field. Life is good. I'm having fun at Kip's right now, what a novel idea. EMERALD BOWL! WOOT!

sierrabear - Record the game and begin watching after 45 minutes have elapsed to avois commercials through the 3rd quarter. Scream at the Cal D for missing tackles, run dancing through the house when Vereen scores the icing TD

BleedinBlue - Woke up 'round 1130 am and debated driving 60 miles to see Cal lose to Arizona. 8 hours later, am very glad that I made it out! Vereen's game sealing TD run left me with a sense of euphoria I haven't gotten from a Cal game in a long time. To boot, the game finished around 7 and I was pleasantly surprised to find my favorite taco stand at Bancroft and Telegraph.

C98 - Got a stiffy when Vareen busted that 61 yard run and I'm not afraid to admit it. So who's with me? Come on, who's with me. ... well, I'm taking the fish!

CALumbus Bear - So I woke up early to play golf in unseasonably warm Ohio weather. Played pretty well, almost had an eagle (missed the putt but tapped in for birdie), drank some beer at what was 8 am on the West Coast (11 am local so I'm not technically a huge lush).

So the early part of my day was like Star Wars. I was bummed watching stanfurd pimpslap USC left and right, and also got bummed watching Ohio State get to go to yet another Rose Bowl (yawn). I realized we were about to get stomped by AZ, would likely get curbstomped by stanfurd the following week, and we'd see someone other than Cal beat up on a weak Big 10 team in the Rose Bowl.

So the middle part of my day was clearly the Empire Strikes Back. I had a nice dinner right before the Cal game, and I watched as our defense held it together and we played just well enough to beat what I thought was a far superior team. I was jumping around and screaming as we held on 4th down and when Vereen did a Best impersonation with a long run for a TD. I also screamed a bit when we blew the PAT, but that just made the very end of the game that much more exciting. We then popped a good California wine to celebrate a great California win. So that part of my day was Return of the Jedi, without the Ewoks.

ososdeseoro - Lunch at the faculty club, tried to figure out whether I was happy about the USC/Stanfurd game (answer, yes, because now the Card will be full of themselves for next week, but did they have to break our record of 52 points as the most ever scored against USC(!?), and by the way Fox Radio said that Notre Dame held the previous record with 51). Voice held up the whole game. Great sunset. Brrr. Beer.

rollonubears - Met Twist, Rags, and Turkey (plus a few others?). Twist did not honk me.

Ohio Bear - I had my drink on before this thing started, having attended a family gathering at which there was a keg and extra large beer mugs. Prolly a good thing, as it took the edge off. My emotions prolly would've have been much more pronounced without the pregame imbibing. I really thought we'd blown it by not putting them away in the 3rd quarter when we had the chance. And then I was beside myself with the thought of, "We're so pathetic now, that we have to play for a field goal on purpose with 3 minutes left in the game?!?" But then the euphoria of the illegal double pass and 4th down stop, followed immediately by the the jizz in my pants when Vereen scored. I nearly collapsed at the buzz kill when Mansion WTF'd the PAT. My history of Cal fandom was telling me that Arizona would score and send the game to OT. All's well that ends well!

NorCalNick - Spectacular game. Spent the first half with Rollonubears and Ragnarok and the 2nd half losing my voice and spraining my ankle in the student section. The defense stopping Arizona over and over in the 2nd half was easily the best moment/performance of the season so far.

Berkelium97 - I decided to take the day off from watching football. Instead, I joined Mrs Berkelium and a friend of ours (USC alum) on their shopping trip. Big mistake. They shopped for FIVE HOURS. Midway through, I found out USC lost and our USC friend and I were quite disappointed. I was exhausted when we finally got home. After not watching a single snap of football since OSU@Cal, I was encouraged by the 1-point deficit at halftime. I watched the third quarter before joining the two for dinner. I found out Cal won and was thrilled! Moral of the story: never give up football and more importantly, never go shopping with more than one female at a time.

grouchyBear - Small-ish crowd got into it and really made some noise. You could see the team feeding off the energy. Considering last week's game, this was an amazing turn around.

Goldblooded - Riley didn't have too bad of a game considering the INTs and sacks. He was under 60% completion AND threw a redzone pick but he didn't piss away the game like Longshore or Ayoob. I'll defend him any day after we come back for an upset win.

coolingfan - It was so unlike Riley today, making bad decisions. The first pick was a bad throw but the second pick was a pure misjudgement. There were times where he hung onto the ball too long, taking sacks that were avoidable.

Jake - Riley came very close to giving the game away multiple times. Both picks could not have come at worse times.

BleedinBlue - Riley underthrew one pass, intended for Boateng, for a pick and then threw a pass to a Wildcat DB. Seems to have trouble making passes to receivers running laterally, away from him; I think someone on CGB has remarked that he has difficulty leading receivers in those situations. Also had trouble protecting the ball. He did make some clutch passes, though. However, this game was on despite Riley's overall efforts.

Kodiak - Classic Riley game. Flickers of brilliance interspersed with some bad reads and bad throws. The two INTs were uncharacteristic, but I think he was pressing and trying to make something happen. Unfortunately, the first was a bad throw and the 2nd was bad throw and a horrible decision. He showed better touch on the short and intermed stuff, however. And getting us to a FG in less than two minutes at the end of the 1st half turned out to be a pretty big deal.

BatmanSF - Two awful picks (unusual for Riley, that's not normally his issue), but some big completions, and of course an incredible block. I am just tired of people coming down on him so hard. He is 4th ranked QB in Pac-10, he has thrown 15 TDs and only 5 picks, he has guts, and quite frankly, his OL has abandoned him at time. Not the best, but certainly not the worst!

ososdeoro - (C+) I like Riley, but if the defense doesn't play its game of the year (so far, they'll do better next week), we lose because of his three turnovers. What the TV didn't show on the first INT is that TWO receivers were wide open short with no one on them yet he chose to throw to Boetang, who also had a bit of a jump, but it was against two defenders and the throw was against the grain. From the north the second INT looked like he just overthrew someone, but on the TV it was the OL failing to pick up a blitz.

NorCalNick - Although the interceptions can at least be partially blamed on pressure, both were poor throws and have to fall to Riley. Still, when Riley was given time and an open receiver he usually hit the mark, and gained lots of yardage when he did (13 yards per completion). If you took away the INTs it would have been acceptable.

Berkelum97 - Kevin Riley had a forgettable day after throwing two picks. One was a poor attempt of getting rid of the ball on a near-sack and the other one was badly underthrown (since when does Riley underthrow anything?). Riley's accuracy seems to be getting better, however. I've been noticing fewer wildly inaccurate passes in recent weeks.

Goldblooded - GRA-VY SHANE! GRA-VY SHANE! GRA-VY SHANE! Covaughn looked good on his single run too! Liked it. Do not like the stuffed runs up the middle.

furrybear - Shane already had 100+ yards before he broke loose for that game ending run, but really it was that final run that put the game away.

JKK - To be honest, we faired better with Vereen than with Best. Best probably could not have gained 3-4 yards constantly as Vereen did. Would like to have seen more of DeBoskie-Johnson carry the ball.

BleedinBlue - Shannanay, or Shane Train, or Clutch, is a beast. Time after time he ran up the middle and picked up tough yards, and then he went for Arizona's jugular with his 61 yd TD. I remember looking at Shane and Jahvid's recruiting class and thinking Jahvid would be the one to make a big impact, but, man, Vereen's a pretty killer back, too. Neh?

C98 - Shane Vareen is a stud. His downhill style brings an element JB doesn't have. He was muscling for those extra 3-4 yards all night long. Vareen/DeBoskie is gonna be good next year (and anyone can hope and speculate and drum up all the reasons you want - Jahvid Best is gone).

Kodiak - Vereen actually seemed a little off his game. He seemed hesitant hitting the holes and spent more time dancing than usual. On the other hand, how can you fault the guy's heart? He was dragging guys and fighting for those extra inches on every play.

Wish we could have seen more Debo or even Isi to give their D a different look and keep Vereen fresh. In his one carry, Debo showed some nice burst.

NorCalNick - Shane Vereen was clearly the offensive MVP, perhaps even before he broke off a 61 yard touchdown that should have iced the game. 30 carries is a monster effort, and he consistently found holes, pushed tacklers forward and even once gave the best Jahvid impression I've ever seen when he reversed field on a crazy run for 10 yards.

Berkelium97 - Shane was great out there. He carried the team on his back and was instrumental to this win. What he lacks in top speed (though he's still silly fast) he makes up in shiftiness and tackle-breaking. I'm glad to see he can be an every-down back too. I thought DeBo would get more touches, but Shane did a great job by himself.

rurata - I don't really remember a lot of drops. I remember Lagemann making a couple great catches.

JKK - Jones and Lageman have become very reliable, especially important in absense of Anthony Miller.
Curran made a nice grab in the endzone. We no longer get the deep ball into the hands of Tucker or Boetang, as we would love to see more, but we dont see too many drops lately. Thats a good thing.

BleedinBlue - Dropsies, clutch catches, and what looked like routes that weren't run correctly. We got a mixed bag with these guys, today, and it certainly wasn't what Kevin Riley needed.

BatManSF - Not bad, although Tucker and Ross could be more consistent. It seems to me like Marvin Jones should be getting 8-10 balls a game. Would also like to see more of Lageman. I wish Anthony Miller would come back

NorCalNick - Jones, Tucker, and Lagemann all had solid days and I don't recall many drops. All of our receivers took vicious hits but held on. Ideally I would have like to see more guys open, but it was still a solid if unspectacular performance.

iVinshe - No AWWWWWW drops that I can remember a day later, which is....an improvement, to say the least.

Run Blocking

Sec119 - I saw holes open up, real genuine bona fide holes I tell you! It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. And you just have to accept that any team, including Cal, won't open up 10-yard-wide holes in the line every single play.

BleedinBlue - On one hand, Shane got 150+. On the other hand, too many times he found himself facing defenders behind the line of scrimmage. I guess I'm giving the O-line a "Good" rather than "Fair" because Shane was able to get that 61 yard TD. Hopefully they'll do just as well or step up for the last 2 games

Kodiak - Hit and miss throughout the game. Didn't do a terrific job opening holes, but at least we weren't dominated. Kinda sad that our standards have fallen so low. In fairness, Az has a fast, aggressive defensive with almost all seniors in the front 7. A lot of plays got blown up due to blitzes or because the D had a pretty darn good idea of what we were going to do.

GBears81 - Much improved over last week, but still nothing close to 2004 or 2006. Backs still hit in backfield too frequently. However did seem to be playing harder and getting more push. OL seemed to play with more passion and shows in game results.

NorCalNick - Better, still not as good as we'd hoped for. Vereen usually had tiny lanes and holes, but nothing bug enough for huge gainers like greedy Cal fans have come to expect. Still, Arizona has a stout run defense and Cal would have had a solid day even without Shane's 61 yard topper.

Berkleium97 - I can't complain about 5.5 ypc (which does not include Riley). I'm relieved that the numbers should only go up against the not-so-great defenses of Stanford and Washington.

iVinshe - The blocking that produced the Vereen run was what was a part of nearly every game last year, and what I've been waiting on this year. That element of "Okay, we're kind of due for a long....YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!" really makes the game that much more exciting. Grade lowered by penetration in the backfield on a few occasions.

Pass Protection

Goldblooded - Well, Riley got off the passes when he needed to, sometimes he got sacked. Our O-line leaves much to be desired. I blame myself for not coaching them better.

rurata - Pretty bad. 4 sacks allowed today? There was one sack I remember where the D-line just passed right through the O-line like they weren't even there. At first I thought it was a screen pass, but then Riley got picked in the endzone, and I realized just how bad our O-line really is.

BleedinBlue - Pass pro? What pass pro? Did anyone see any pass pro?

Well, ok, so there was pass protection. But not enough of it; see Kevin Riley getting sacked and pressured for more details.

CALumbus Bear - We were ok to ok minus. I think if our O-line were minus Tepper we'd be plus 1000. Dear Tepper, we hope you put your Cal degree to good use somewhere, and the Gold Bears thank you for your 6 years of service, but the time has come for you to leave and take your holding/false starts/standing still while allowing the defense to run around you elsewhere.

NorCalNick - Riley took a few sacks, but most of the time I got the sense that he was holding onto the ball for too long. I'll get a better idea if I get the chance to rewatch the game but the pass blocking seemed much improved over the OSU game.

Run Defense

Goldblooded - We did well stopping that large fellow, keeping him under 4 ypc. I wasn't worried whenever I saw a run play keyed up.

JKK - Antolin ran all over us last year. Not today. Stopping Quizz last week and Antolin this week, we certainly see improvement. A totally different style back in Gerhart, it will be another challenge next week.

BleedinBlue - For the most part, the defense kept Arizona's running game in check. Most runs were under 5 yards, few were under 10, and there was that one play by Antolin where he disappeared amidst the scuffle in the trenches and reappeared 30 or so yards downfield. Aside from that run, I'd say our run D was pretty damn stout.

NorCalNick - EAT IT YOU FLAT IRONED GIRLY HAIRED SEASON RUINER!!!

iVinshe - Antolin up the middle....No gain.

Pass Rush

Goldblooded - Foles had alllll day. Only turned it up at the end. At least they came through at the end! And Cameron pounced like a lion at him. That was great fun to see.

LeonPowe - Bad. . . until it counted. So . . . I don't know. Huge play in the clutch - Jordan and Jordan. Did I see Richard Price in there too?

coolingfan - Finally, we saw the opposing QB get pressured, enough to break his rhythm, and the defense garner 3 sacks, against an offense that allowed only 4 the whole season.

rurata - They got to the QB a couple times at the end of the game, but were being pretty much dominated the rest of the game. Almost no pressure at all.

BleedinBlue - Oh man, so we finally get some pass rush and it turns out our defenders have forgotten how to tackle a QB. After enough times, they got back into it, though! Like riding a bike, right? Arizona had .5 sacks per game up until today, I think, and we handed them 6 times that average in one game. Furthermore, those sacks came when Cal needed them.

GBears81 - Better than expected, but still too many times where QB had too much time. Difficulty actually finishing sacks -- let QB escape sacks several times with bad pursuit angles and/or bad tackling. However did get some pressure and sacks. Price actually made impact at end of game. Jordan and Alualu both played pretty well.

NorCalNick - The 1st half was pretty standard and then Cal somehow turned it on in the 2nd half, consistently pressuring Foles and getting 3 huge sacks. It was the performance we had been expecting during the entire conference season.

Berkelium97 - Foles was sacked three times (after only four in the previous 8 games), but he still periodically had a lot of time to throw. When he had time, he made us pay. Still, it was nice to see us break through that solid O-line, particularly in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line. Alualu had a huge, game-changing tip.

iVinshe - It bothers me how we never seem to get sacks except at the very end of games. I'm not actually concerned about Stanford's OMGERRRZ GODZLY 1337 O-line because we never get any pressure during the first 3 quarters of games anyways.

Pass Defense

Sec119 - A couple of PI calls, which were varying degrees of legitimacy, balance out the interception and overall playmaking that Mike Mohamed and others demonstrated.

rurata - Was okay, some good pass break-ups. Unfortunately there was the one drive with 2 PI's called that led to a score.

JKK -Syd has finally been playing extremely well in recent games. But we gave up two Pass Inteferences on the same drive late in the game. I think one was 2nd and 17 and the other was 3rd and 9. We are giving chances to the opponents for free. Cant afford it.

Also, the only scene I saw DHagan on the field today was his interference penalty. Cattouse has been superb, in absense of Ezeff.

Jake - UA had to try to beat us through the air, and they couldn't. It was a pleasant surprise, though the incessant pass-interference calls were kind of a downer.

BleedinBlue - WHERE WAS THIS DEFENSE IN PREVIOUS GAMES?!!!

The pass D still gave up lots of completions but they certainly looked better than last week. Notably, I don't remember many Zona receivers finding themselves wide open and then amassing ridonkulous YAC. Good day for the defense.

Kodiak - Where the hell has this been all year? LB's actually dropping back in zones far enough to tip balls? Safeties not being at restraining-order distance from receivers? Microcosm: After singlehandedly giving Az a go-ahead touchdown with a horribly boneheaded PI, and then whiffing on covering a TE in the endzone, Brett 10-Ft Johnson (Usually 10 feet away from relevance) comes up with two huge pass break-ups to stop them in crunch time.

GBears81 - Overall did well -- much better than expected. Main downsides were couple stupid PI penalties resulting from not looking for ball. Also helped that Foles missed long balls a couple times when receivers appeared to be open.
Mohamed made great save 40 yards down field to save TD -- but why is LB having to do that -- where are the DBs?

ososdeoro - Really good. The PI calls were good calls, but the first one was accidental and the second was better than the completion that would have resulted. Clearly the LBs are beginning to get the underneath passing game, which is great because everyone tries it against us.

NorCalNick - WOW! Only 61% completion percentage against an offensive style predicated on short, high percentage passes. Plus, when they actually completed a pass Arizona only averaged 8 yards per catch. Shane Vereen had more yards per carry than arizona had per attempt! Arizona almost never had a receiver open deep and we allowed few YAC yards against a team trying to beat you with them.

Special Teams

Goldblooded - Do not overpursue. We always overpursue on KRs. How is this anything but a coaching problem? Even when Giorgio booted it to the 1!

furrybear - Brian A. is the man and George T. was awesome! Too bad we missed that last extra point. But it sure made it an exciting ending.

JKK - Coverage sucked. It never gets fixed. But I give points to Tavecchio for connecting on 4 FG today. Hes gained back our trust, to some extent at least. He also had a kickoff to 1yd line.

BleedinBlue - I think Tavecchio's consistently putting KO's between the 15 and the 5; to be honest, I don't really know if this is the norm. Are kickers supposed to put it in the endzone every time? In any case, he had one of his longest kickoffs of the season today and, when coverage couldn't stop the return man, he made the tackle himself.

FORZA ITALIA.

Anger turned in a subpar performance, I think, and KO and punt coverage was above average (judging from Zona's starting positions, if I remember correctly).

Kodiak - Punting was solid. Mansion showed Romo-like unclutchness.

We had only one decent kickoff all game long and sloppy coverage let them advance it past the 30 anyway.

I'm still in disbelief that Giorgio hit two from 46yds. Nice breakthrough game for him.

GBears81 - A or Tavecchio on FGs. F to Mansion (holder) and team in general for losing focus and missing clinching extra point at end of game. D- for kickoff coverage. A for Tavecchio on his two saving "tackles". Give a B grade as Tavecchio really had good game to offset problems in other special teams areas.

CALumbus Bear - Anger great! Salami great! KO coverage unit FAIL FAIL FAIL ALAMAAAARRR!!!
Dear Coach Alamar: in case you haven't noticed, you suck hard in coaching effective kickoff coverage. So take that sucking think and stop doing it. Like right now. Please. We beg you. We just can't stand having to rely on lucky holding penalties to keep the ball on their side of the field. Sincerely, every Cal fan on the planet p.s. ALAMAAAAARRR!!!

DrBeeper - The season-long fear that special teams would cost us a game almost came true today. It was heart-attack time when we missed the game-clinching PAT and then almost gave up a TD on the ensuing kickoff.

Cudos to Tavecchio for 4 FGs, but when you have tries of 21 and 22 yards it's hard to not be frustrated with the offense.

NorCalNick - Good: Georgio, Anger, Ross, Arizona's crappy punter

Bad: Christ, I'm starting to think our coverage teams on kicks is a bigger problem than the actual distance of the kicks. Bad Bad Bad. Also, what's with the missed hold, party yacht? You owe every Cal fan something for taking an undetermined amount off of our lives from stress.

Coaching

secret ASian man - EMERALD BOWL, and fuck Stanfurdddd.

rurata- The Riley read option at the goal-line was a head-scratcher. They really should have just given it to Shane.

furrybear - The most conservative Tedford in the past 7 years and now he decides to go for two! Next week he might surprise us and go for it on fourth down!

sierrabear - Obviously they coached well enough to win. That being said I didn't think that we got guys open enough via our offensive playcalling.

Defense had their number - might be a few less calls for Gregory's head this week. Linebackers finally figured out pass coverage - gotta give that to Gregory

BleedinBlue - FIRE GREGORY!

Kidding. I don't think Gregory is a terrible coach; you make do with what you have, and I think he's been trying to do it. Of course, this is me assuming things would be a lot worse if we tried something other than what Gregory has had planned. Actually, with regards to coaching, I don't know if I can really formulate an informed opinion, so I'm just going to stop right here.

Kodiak - Amazing how un-dumb Gregory looks now that his players actually execute. It's still on him and the other position coaches to put them in a position to succeed and to accelerate their learning curve sooner rather than towards the end of the season.

Ludwig called a bit of a weird game. Pretty conservative, but by design for ball-control, I think.

Considering how on paper we should have been absolutely blown up, credit goes to the coaches for a solid gameplan and getting the guys ready to play.

BatManSF - Obviously the defensive scheme worked this week----first time in a long time!

Didn't like the conservatism on the drive leading to the FG that made it 18-16. If Riley is your QB, don't stop passing just because he makes a boneheaded play. 9 times out of 10, playing for the FG in that situation will come back to haunt you. Tedford dodged a bullet this time

CALumbus Bear - Gregory: A
(Fire) Ludwig (!): B
ALAMAAAARRRR!!!: D-
Coach Hold The Rope: A+
Tedford: still God
O-line coach (trying not to get attached by using his name, because I kinda hope he's gone next year): C---

DrBeeper - 30 carries for Vereen, almost every one right up the middle - wtf? Many of us are annoyed by Tedford's late-game conservatism, but this is a game where it pays off. I'm fairly convinced that if we had been more aggressive offensively late in the game, we would have coughed the game up - we almost did anyway...

Ohio Bear - Have to give credit to our coaches here. The coaches put us in a position to succeed, and the players executed it well. You can't really (reasonably) criticize the defensive game planning: we clearly took Arizona out of things that they liked to do and held down an offense that had been humming for the last several weeks. Offensively, my only regret was the conservative approach we took when we got to the red zone, leading up to Tavechhio's go-ahead FG. But with Riley's red zone foibles, it was a reasonable way to play it.

NorCalNick - I listened to Joe Starkey interview a few seniors on the post-game report and they praised Bob Gregory for his great preparation and game plan for Arizona. Although I agree that this hasn't been Gregory's best year and that some criticism is warranted, he deserves just as much credit when he does it right. This game shows how successful a team is when they combine talent, execution and good coaching. Great job by the defense!

Overall

Sec119 - WE WON!!!

Goldblooded - Aaahhhh....back to the snot rag. My fever is fallign after that win, so i think I may have beaten the cold just as the Bears beat the Cats. Thank you Bears for a great entertaining game! Thank you seniors!

LeonPowe - IT'S BEAR TERRITORY!!!!!

furrybear - Great win against a great team, and a perfect way for the seniors to leave memorial stadium. Let's hope they finish with a 10 win season! Get the axe, beat the Huskies, and hope for a good bowl game.

JKK - Overall, fun and scary game. The defense finally stepped up. Riley obviously can play better, and should have gotten at least one more TD. But in the end, he did not make too many mistakes. Vereen covered well for Best. If Best doesnt return this season, I would like to see Vereen get 500 yards in next 3 games including the Bowl game, and continue 1000yd rusher tradition.

sierrabear - We're still inconsistant and miss too many tackles... we need to fix that or we are in trouble against Stanfurd. This game really belongs to the "D"... kinda felt a little bit like last year's D at times tonight.

BleedinBlue - Surprisingly enjoyed this game. The defense played extremely well, better than I could've hoped for and made up for the offense's shortcomings. Shades of 2008, I guess. The running game didn't miss a beat without Jahvid and Shane even reeled off a big play run.

Kodiak - Biggest win of the year. It's the best team we've beaten and in a tight game that required clutch play on both sides of the ball. No matter what the Vegas line was, anyone who had watched this team all year would not have been surprised if we had given up 400+ passing yards and 40+ points. I'm glad that we have some momentum going into next week because the 'Furds are playing pretty darn well.

So, were we close?
http://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2009/11/13/1125570/roll-on-what-will-cals-offense#25531660

Go Bears! Beat the 'furds! Make Hairball cry into his bidet!

GBears81 - Good win vs. good team that ensures Cal will have winning season and get to bowl game again. But some problems remain (e.g., kick coverage, Riley turnovers, predictable play calling) that will need to be fixed before facing Furd.

NorCalNick - Huge, huge, season changing win. Keep the momentum going on the farm.

grouchyBear - Great bounceback game, wonderful Sr day... a nice tribute to Jahvid... now they need to bring it for the Big Game...

iVinshe - It was awesome to see all the players fired up and getting the crowd into the game at the end. The west side responded, and it was the first time all season (not including the first 5 minutes of the USC game) that I could hear anything out of the alumni on defense. That atmosphere has been missing all year, and I'm a little sad that it was the last home game. Hopefully we can carry that into Circus Minimus.

Roll On: What Will Cal's Offense Look Like Without Jahvid Best?

Avinash — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:00:25 -0000

I wish I could come up with something optimistic to write, but the fact is Cal's offense was pretty screwed up even with Jahvid Best back there. At this point it all boils down to blocking. The run blocking and pass protection stink. It's been stinking all year, it hasn't improved from week-to-week, and it's wishful thinking to expect anything to change during these last three weeks. Coming up? Arizona, 23rd in sacks, 11th in rushing defense, 37th in passing defense. Oh yeah, I'm totally hot for this. Dipping myself in cocoa butter right now.

If Cal's going to beat Arizona, the offensive line is going to have to play way better than they've been showing through conference play. Steve Marshall's going to have to coach these guys up, really make them play this game for Jahvid, and try to finally open holes for Shane Vereen and Covaughn Deboskie-Johnson. If these guys aren't talented enough to execute the sets they're given, adjust accordingly. What's been the most frustrating thing about this season has been the lack of adjustments on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. I understand losing these games, but to get blown out in each game? It's just hard to sit there and take the same plays being called when they haven't been working not just for one game, but ONE MONTH.

Well, the Bears are going to have to adjust now; without Jahvid Best this is a drastically different team. Find out more about what Cal might look like after the jump, and why the Wildcat might be used quite a bit.

The rushing burden is on Shane Vereen. I doubt Tedford and Ludwig feel Deboskie is ready to handle anything more than 15% of the snaps at this point, so a lot of the burden will be put on Vereen to play a Forsett 2007-type role. Vereen did a manageable job against Arizona State last season, and the same thing will be needed (probably more) from him to pull off a victory against Arizona. Unfortunately, he's not going to have any more leverage getting through no holes as Best did.

Less inside zone please? Hey Coach Ludwig. Everytime you run inside zone between the tackles just so our poor running backs can get levelled for a one yard gain, you're taking days off my life. Arizona has a running defense that is very good, on the rise, confident in themselves, and is certainly going to play Cal the same way every defense has played Cal since the start of the season. Please try something somewhere.

The Bears can no longer run two running backs in a multitude of ways. That kind of eliminates the double threat of having one of either Best and Vereen line out as a receiver. So now Cal loses some of the unconventionality they were showing the previous three weeks (and who knows how the Oregon State game turns out if Best doesn't get injured) and they probably return to the conventional sets typical of a pro-style offense, since Deboskie or Sofele aren't going to be lining out wide or forcing defenses to stack the box.

Without the great receiving threats our running backs offered...

This will put more pressure on the receiving corps. Outside of Jones, no receiver has really played two good games in a row. Lagemann has shown promise, Tucker has vacillated between brilliant and bad, Ross can leap a lot, Calvin hasn't really been heard from, nor has Boateng. These guys are going to have to start playing well to help Kevin Riley out by getting separation from their defenders, not quitting on their routes, anything to adapt to the bad O-line play.

Anthony Miller is also sorely missed here--he'd become Riley's go to option in bad spots. With Jarrett Sparks or Skylar Curran you just don't know what you're getting.

More rollout options for Riley? Given how bad the pass protection has been, you'd have expected more of this even before Best's injury. But Kevin does seem to be more effective out of the pocket than in it--it might be worth considering just getting him going with play action fake bootlegs. Or something of the sort.

Best's absence doesn't diminish the Wildcat option. Many people think that the Wildcat is used primarily to put another blocker on the field, but in this case I feel that the Wildcat hasn't been used this season just because the blocking has been so porous, no matter how many guys you put out there to block. It's also to get the ball into the hands of the runner more quickly.

Why is that? When you direct snap to your running back and quarterback, that gives them an extra few seconds that would've been otherwise used to hand off the ball. This time allows your blockers to get in place and open up the holes for the running back to cut through. But the blocking has been so bad this season though that you're often seeing defenders penetrating the line of scrimmage at the time it takes the Bears to handoff the ball (the Bears have allowed 78 tackles for loss this season, and that number's probably greater if you add in 0-2 yard gains). Hence you put it in the running back's hands quicker to just let him take off before defenders can anticipate it coming.

(Notice that the quarterback draw has also been used in previous weeks to surprising success. It's a pretty damning indictment of your offensive line if your best running plays are quarterback keepers and direct running back snaps.)

Is it time to go back to the book of tricks? Around this time last year the Bears were totally flummoxed by the passing ineptitude that they had to resort to flea-flickers, hook-and-ladders, running back lateral/wide receiver passes. Although I've seen signs of unconventional plays, they've been for the most part snuffed out or failed due to execution errors. This next two weeks are the difference between a 6-6 disaster and an alright 8-4/9-3 season. Might as well try and throw everything out of the playbook.

In the end though, unless Riley has a monstrous game, this one's probably coming down to blocking again. The fact is the Bears still have to run the ball. Going straight to the pass and expecting the receivers to make good catches is a recipe of quick 3 and outs, and leaving one of the worst passing defenses in the country out there for Foles to pick apart. Sounds reallly enticing.

If no one blocks well, the offense is going to throw up another turd sandwich. And we could see something we've never seen at the end of a Tedford-era Cal football game--an empty Memorial in the 4th quarter.

(For those wondering why I didn't write anything about the defense...they are what they are this point. Smarter people than me said we'd miss our senior linebackers, and they're right. Plus I haven't watched enough defensive gametape this season to know how much of this is on Gregory for putting them in the wrong positions to make plays on the ball, so all I can do right now is hope they play better.)

Poll

Cal's offense will be __________ without Jahvid Best.

clicking even

11 votes

surprisingly pleasing

36 votes

making me groan a lot

80 votes

unbelievably bad

31 votes

forcing me to drink more

65 votes

223 votes | Poll has closed

Cal-Oregon State 2009 Report Card

TwistNHook — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:00:32 -0000

Position	QB	RB	Rec.	Run B	Pass P	Run D	Pass R	Pass D	ST	Coach	Overall
Score	2.140	2.281	2.167	0.658	0.633	3.267	0.975	1.000	1.883	1.350	1.079
Grade	C	C+	C+	D-	D-	B+	D	D	C	D+	D

A new week. And a new drunk commenter trying to tell the world his thoughts. Last week it was Goldblooded. This week? USAFGoldenBear. Even American heroes aren't immune to the emotional disaster that was Jahvid Best's injury. I've highlighted the best part:

USAFGoldenBear

QB - Just whn i was goin to sau riley doesnt suck...he does.   Unfortunately there was a lackj on the oline as well...

RB - I hape jvid is ok....dude is oo aweme to go downre like that

whhhy cnat we get a runn gng? wttf is up?

WR - Can the not dropp good passe plz? give marvin the balll

Run Blocking - well for th lorve of god......quit suckling...

Pass Protection - ummmm, makkeres me so mad. reley needs the time to throw

Run D - quioss got stopp...nice, bestn jobr\.

Pass Rush - i saw som blitzx...but osu got tu much time. sackls to muccch to ask fr

Pass D - haaaaaaa...cent gert protrec whenn qb get al day

Special Teams - angr did k but to mnyy punts    cnt beart beavres? whyy?

Coaching -    iu thouygt gregoy coulkd stop canfilllesd ....wryoung...my bad

Gameday - i got to watghc the gamre on ZTV...no mare internetz....javid got hert....drank by my sedf...i dtn have a problam

After the fold, see more of your comments on the Cal-OSU football game! GO BEARS!

Golden Rationality Award, which I think is for being rational, a rare occurrence for internet college football fans.

Commenter/alias name	Standard Deviation
Kodiak	1.348
yorzepol	1.527
rickruss	1.764
Berkelium97	1.869
Ohio Bear	1.872

Old Blue Award, for I guess being really really really really really old.

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
rurata	0.515
ososdeoro	0.758
bluehenbear	0.818
iVinshe	1.100
Oaklandishbear	1.364

Golden Sunglasses Award, for spending way too much money on a pair of sunglasses that is going to bend too easily. I mean gold is one of the most malleable substances on earth. Just an imprudent purchase in my view.

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
BTown85	2.333
ajay	2.273
USAFGoldenBear	2.212
Manwich	2.152
MadBum	2.037

And now onto the report cards!

IMG_6971 (via Monica's Dad)

rurata - Riley back to his overthrowing self. What was his final completion percentage, like 35%? This has convinced me that we should be giving the backups more playing time. At least he didn't fumble the ball today.

MadBum - Riley did an okay job. Was I overly impressed? No. Was I incredibly dissapointed? No. Riley was shaken up by a cheap shot, and I think that hurt us. Kevin did what we could hope for: not too many mistakes, an occasional shot down the field keeping the D honest, and giving the run game a chance. He did make a INT throw in the redzone that was called back. But let's address one thing: Riley isn't a quarterback that can lead a team back into games. He's a guy that'll give you occasional shots downfield, and he'll do a nice job mid-range game. But he's not a guy you want attempting 30+ passes per game. He doesn't possess the ability to single handedly bring a team back into the game, and when asked to he'll dissapoint. Riley was passing tonight, and you can't blame him for the loss.

ajay - It's the same problem he has been having all year long. Whether it's a screen pass or a short pass, his passes just aren't on target, and that's what is killing us game in and game out. One thing that I noticed this game compared to others was that he would hesitate on throwing some of his deep balls, and after that slight hesitation, throw it anyways. When doing that, I remember him only completing one pass. It's something I never saw before, and I definitely don't think it's a good thing . . .

oaklandishbear - Why, oh why, can't Riley hit a screen pass? Such a power weapon for the Bears eliminated by the utter failure of Riley to hit Best or Vereen in stride. Absolutely inexcusable. Riley not terribly "on" tonight, and I know the O-line bears most of the responsibility for Riley being constantly hurried, but I'm not seeing Riley step up on a consistent basis.

Ohio Bear - Riley was inaccurate. Being pressured constantly prolly didn't help. It would be nice if he had opportunity to plant has back foot on the last step of his drop and not have someone already there whom he has to elude.

via www.calbearsonline.com

MadBum - Our runningbacks touched the ball 14 times all night. And we weren't falling behind huge early. Play-calling takes the blame. Obviously, Best's situation hampered the team completely. He's the team's biggest play-maker, and without him the running game is severly hurt. Vereen didn't have a chance, 5 carries isn't enough. Poor blocking crushed any hopes of a passable run game.

ajay - Jahvid had a relatively quiet night until the first touch down drive, which was great until he went down (sadly with that second concussion this week). From that point on, we just struggled running the ball, so I can't say anything positive. One thing I do remember us not doing is making a run of 15 yards or more. I'm guessing they just played us well.

BlueHenBear - Jahvid's concussive run was the only highlight of the game (except for the injury). I hope he's OK for his sake...and for his sake I hope he takes the rest of the season off, cuz there appears to be no daylight for him to run to anymore. The beavs forced us into a passing game, so there's no reason to fault the running game, except maybe in the first quarter, but all the holes were plugged.

BTown85 - Unimpressive running, but what can you do without run blocking? Best flew through the air and I was holding my breath for him. I was SO glad to see him move his hand while they put the c-collar on him.

OhioBear - Losing Jahvid didn't help the running game, and certainly not the psyche of the team. Not a film guru, but near as I could tell, we got everything we could out of what the O-line gave us. The fateful play that hurt Jahvid was a testament to Jahvid's courage and tenacity.

via www.calbearsonline.com

Berkelium97 - Too many drops, again. I'm really losing confidence in Ross. Lagemann had some great catches. He has a great presence in the middle. Nyan had a few nice catches too. Sparks made his presence felt a couple times.

MadBum - Pretty meh performance here. Tucker impressed me with his pass-catching ability, and he did make some big plays. He needs to cut down the trash-talking. Verran was our lone star, and I'd say he was very good. Everybody else didn't carry the load. Sorry, Marvin isn't a star quite yet. It was obvious to me that Anthony Miller is one of the keys to this club's success, and he was out.

ososdereo - This receiving corps clearly suffers from separation anxiety.

oaklandishbear - Probably the brightest unit on the field Saturday. Tucker was active and Lagemann had a couple of nice grabs. Only one catch by a TE, though. What's up with that?

kodiak - Generally did okay...Not sure if Riley was missing open guys (again), if the WR's weren't getting open, or if there just wasn't enough time. Disappointing not to dominate an inexperienced secondary. Losing Miller hurt here a lot. Ross had his one crucial drop...He must have a quota or something.

Run blocking

via www.calbearsonline.com

Berkelium97 - I thought OSU was supposed to have a weak front seven, but you'd never be able to tell against the Maginot line of OSU. I don't know why we didn't at least try more outside runs to go around the Maginot line. Even if the O-line isn't athletic enough to block like that out of standard I-formations, we've had success running outside out of the wildcat. I was hoping to see more wildcat.

yorzepol - Once again our O-line was owned by the opposing D-line. I don't know enough to know if it is guys losing their individual battles or our run blocking philosophy in general but something is rotten in Berkeley. We can not run against any team with a decent run defense. No running game makes baby Jesus cry. :(

BlueHenBear - Rodgers brothers got their yards and their TDs. Not spectacular running and we did get some tackles for loss, but OSU was able to execute their methodical clock eating drives that were not quite as painful as getting my fingernails ripped out. Maybe danzig can make a highlight film for the beavs showing our linebacker whiffs.

Pass Protection

via www.calbearsonline.com

rickruss - It's as though we were we missing a lineman tonight during the game, i.e., we were missing a down lineman (4 instead of 5)

yorzepol - Riley was not sacked much but he was hurried. OSU's pass rush got in his head for most of the game and he was in a funk almost all night. I was encouraged by our last drive but sad that we couldn't do it earlier in the game when it might have made a difference.

OhioBear - It was a "huzzah" moment every time Riley could plant his foot on the last step of his drop and actually have a moment to look downfield before throwing. Those moments were too few. OSU was in our kitchen all freaking night.

Run D

via www.calbearsonline.com

Berkelium97 - Except for the one TD run, it was the best performance of the year. No one has been able to shut down Quizz and James like that. I was very impressed. Holding them under 2.5ypc is an incredible feat. Syd had an especially strong presence in the run D.

yorzepol - I thought we did as good as could be expected under the circumstances. The circumstances being that we got owned in just about every facet of the game. With the passing game able to convert first downs at will, it makes it very difficult to stop the times when they do run.

DrBeeper - Very credible job containing Rodgers. The bend-don't-break strategy is pretty consistently undermined by the pass D breakdowns

OhioBear - Excellent. We basically held Quizz down the entire game until he finally broke the 24-yard TD and we had effective defense against the fly sweep. Syd is an awesome DB in run support - best I've ever seen at Cal.

Pass Rush

via www.calbearsonline.com

Berkelium97 - Canfield had all day to throw and unlike recent QBs we've face, he's deadly when he had time. He torched us all night. Gregory tried a few stunts and blitzes, but nothing was getting through.

MadBum - What pass rush?

yorzepol - What pass rush? I think we got one sack. Canfield had time to pick our secondary apart and like most other quarterbacks we've faced, we made him look like a Heisman candidate (of course he was leading the Pac-10 in yards/game before this game but still, he was above his average today.)

JrBear- FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
We should really be in a 4-3 this season.

Pass D

via www.calbearsonline.com

Berkelium97 - As usual, a TE had his draft stock boosted tremendously. Without the pass rush, there's not much to do against a QB like that. Syd had a great day, but everyone else was mediocre to poor, particularly with tackling.

MadBum - What pass defense?

secret Asian man - It was disappointing to see them contain the run and to see them convert on long third down situations again and again. Canfield picked apart the defense like it was a video game today.

BlueHenBear - What was OSUs third down conversion percentage? Seemed like ~75%. 3rd and 6, 3rd and 9, even 3rd and 12, 3rd and 16, etc. Rinse, lather, repeat. I think our opposition has scouted our zones and yet we continue to camp out where the WR/TEs are not. :banghead Oh, and tackling :banghead whiff!

kodiak - Cattouse is getting better and it's good that they're giving him more time. Ezeff should stick to special teams. He gave up another TD and this one can't be blamed on Conte. Johnson blew so many tackles that they should check him for concussion symptoms...maybe he forgot which team he wanted to win. Syd is a flat-out stud that we're really going to miss.

Special Teams

via www.calbearsonline.com

BTown85 - Kickoffs were worse than ever. To the 30??? In warm-ups I thought Tavecchio was trying some sort of pooch/onside thing. Little did I know this was his full leg for the evening. Brian anger continues to impress.

Coaching

DrBeeper - The good news? We only kicked off twice so how bad could our coverage be. Anger was typically great punting.

BlueHenBear - Hey, they didn't lose the game for us! woo hoo. OSU seemed to always have good field position though to go along with their steady consistent drives.

Coaching

via www.calbearsonline.com

rurata - O-line has sucked all year. Right now I'm not sure if this is on Marshall, or the athletes. Maybe both. Very depressed about the state of our o-line.
Alamar's ST killing us again. We can't hope to keep a team like OSU contained if they're consistently starting at their own 45.
I was a little annoyed to see Riley in on the last drive. Sure we scored a TD, but it didn't make a difference. Why didn't Tedford put Sweeney in?

Berkelium97 - I don't know what's going on with the O-line, but Marshall's unit is the worst line we've had during the Tedford era. I understand that we were playing from behind for much of the game, but the play calling was uninspiring after Best was out. No wildcat, little running. I understand the running game wasn't going well, but neither was the pass. I was hoping we'd mix it up a little more.

MadBum - I can't give an honest grade here. The Best injury completely changed the game, and I don't think any coach could've recovered from that. Before that, he did a medicore job. We still abandoned the run game way too often, and I don't know what happened to our pass defense. Liked implementing the WildBear, and it worked pretty well. Our gameplan was to stop Quizz, and it worked to perfection. After Best's injury, there was nothing Tedford could do.

JrBear - Ludwig, I don't know. I can't even see how the play is going to develop if the O-line doesn't do its job. I think the O-line needs another year of growing up to truly judge Marshall. Coach Simmons (DB) had that monster season last year for Syd and Hagan. Thompson (LB) was stolen from San Jose St., so maybe we can do better? Daft (WR) has got the receivers improving slightly, but they're still dropping good balls and having trouble getting open. Of course Gould and Lupoi are absolute keepers. Gregory isn't perfect, but has shown he can run a good defense.

Tedford is Tedford. When it works, it works. When it doesn't, hold on to your seats.

BlueHenBear - Did anyone watch tape of OSU vs $C? anyone? Bueller? They have this position called tight end and they tend to throw to it after clearing out the zone over the middle, but maybe you were busy thinking (not doing something) about a pass rush. The coaches have installed their systems and that is that it seems. Our weaknesses are exposed and it appears we have neither the horses nor the imagination to do anything about them.

OhioBear - We got outcoached, it seemed. Oregon State appeared to have a much better game plan than we did and we did not respond. I suspect that the coaches had a difficult job to do after the Best injury to keep the players focused on the game at hand, and it appeared that they did an okay job with that. But all in all, the game took a back seat to what happened to Jahvid.

Overall

via www.calbearsonline.com

rurata - Another year, another loss to Oregon State. I had hoped to see the team step it up when Jahvid left, but nope. They seemed as let down as me.
Why is it that every time Cal does well enough to just get my hopes up, they find a way to crush them in the worst way possible?

MadBum - Best's injury crippled the team. It took out our biggest decoy, our biggest threat, and our biggest source of yardage. We also simply seemed shell-shocked from his injury, and the intensity and execution reflected that.

secret Asian man -In the end both teams took the field to contain the opponents running game and put points through the air. Cal lacked a functional O-line and there were probably some physical mismatches in the secondary and that made all the difference. If there were fewer false starts in the first half and an actual pocket for Riley, things might have been different.

yorzepol - I honestly thought we could go 10-2. Boy was I wrong! I hope that Jahvid gets well regardless of whether he can play again this season or not, but that could be a season crushing injury for the team. Let's see how they react. I hope they bounce back but, I would not be surprised if we finished 7-5 or even 6-6. Without a running game or a passing game, it will be hard to win many more games. At first I thought that every team we played kept having their best games against us and that it was just luck, but now I wonder if maybe, just maybe, it's us.

ajay - Two things: open field tackling and our passing game.

I don't have the stats on this, but I'd venture to guess that due to missed open field tackles, we gave up an extra 150 yards, and most importantly, let them complete third downs and get into scoring position off of those plays. This happened again and again, and not only ate up time (w/ the new set of downs), but hurt the crowd noise, and caused the D to be on the field longer, which isn't anything you'd want.

The other is the passing game, and again, Kevin Riley overthrowing or throwing passes that don't catch our receivers in stride. On our screen passes, the receivers have to adjust to the football, and can't get their first positive step until the defender is relatively close. On OSU's screen pass, the pass led the receiver perfectly, and the receiver's first step literally his first step with the ball, which is how it should be. Riley's deep balls were okay, but a good repertoire of short range passes leads to drives, which leads to touchdowns and keeping defenses honest. Long passes are only good a few times because you have to catch the D sleeping.

JrBear - All that matters is that Best is okay.

2008 spoiled me. That was a fun season, with sackmaster Follett&Friends and the zany hijinx of our receivers. Every game in Memorial I felt this sense of invincibility that Cal was going to win, and I just loved that team. Now we're in 2009, and I'm very split over how to approach this team. Do I love them for the az st and ucla games, or do I hate them for the sc and or st games? This definitely isn't 2007 though, not nearly as bad.

BlueHenBear - Every time OSU comes to Memorial (under Tedford) we lose the same way. OSU puts together drive after drive, get enough of them into the endzone or between the uprights while our offense sputters after a few (nice, but ultimately meaningless) completions. Rinse, lather, repeat. It's been a long time since I dreaded the Big Game and I'm feeling a little queasy.

kodiak - Tedford loves X's and O's, but Riley has his number and has for years. It's no coincidence that Aaron Rogers had the worst game of his career against the Beavs.

Pawlawski made an interesting observation during the telecast. He said that the Beavers don't run a lot of plays, but do so out of several different looks. This focus on execution and simplicity lets them play fast. I'm wondering if we're over-coaching our guys on both offense and defense. Too many things for young o-lineman to think about. Too many keys and checks for young linebackers. We're certainly not maximizing the use of our talent. Either that, or we're way off base with our recruiting and talent projections.

Gameday

via www.calbearsonline.com

Berkelium97 - Awful. Just awful. I haven't been that disconnected from a game since...I don't know, Tennessee 2006? Once Best was out, I couldn't enjoy it anymore. This was a dark day for Cal fans. I just pray Best will be able to recover fully.

MadBum - I spent 15 minutes in horror watching the same replay over and over again. One of the saddest days in Cal history.

secret Asian man - What gameday experience? I was cleaning parts of my house in preparation for Mad Men party tomorrow so the game was background. Listened to Starkey during the fourth on the way to Fremont to have dinner with the secret ASian dad.

iVinshe - I fell in love with Cal football last year as a freshman. Games were actually fun (it helped that we never lost at home). Now...

ajay - Played bball before the game, so didn't experience the tailgating, but the fans definitely showed up and were behind the team at the beginning. We pulled together and cheered loudly, almost as loudly as for USC. But after incompetence, people started leaving, and our fourth quarter mic man even started to get us to cheer for booze to keep us in the game.

JrBear - -Some alumni definitely ought to be supporters of the other teams if they're going to talk shit about us the whole game.
-Did we really need a hurt Jahvid to get the volume up?
-Hail to California, home of the best armchair QBs!

ososdereo - The result against OSU is exhibit A in why football games are to be used as an excuse to have parties with your friends outside on beautiful Fall afternoons, and that a victory by the team, should it happen, is merely icing on the cake.

BlueHenBear - Stadium attendance is beginning to dwindle. QQ, usually a somewhat rowdy place, was sitting on their hands. Can we stop the card stunts please, cuz they look lame if the students don't bother to show up. And who is Oskette and where has she been all my life? A transfer from ucla perhaps?

oaklandishbear - I couldn't attend the game as I was in DC. Spent the afternoon in Northern Virginia doing some sight-seeing, and then found a sports bar to watch the game. Got them to turn a TV to the Cal game, and proceeded to drink my Newcastle and have some food. By the 4th quarter, I had seen enough and left. I was so sick to my stomach at the Bears performance that I couldn't even bring myself to keep drinking...

BTown85 - Flew down from Portland and took my son and Dad to the game (three generations of BTown85). Walked to Sproul for a rousing drumline performance, which was awesome. Lunch at the faculty club (yummy). Sat in the Alumni section and tried to represent, but boy are they a bunch of lumps on a log. Made as much noise as I could and sometimes a few others came to life. I was impressed by how much noise the student section made. Props to you. I'm tired of the color orange.

OhoiBear - I nearly cried when Jahvid went down. Seeing it on the screen, I was scared. He just didn't move, at least not what I could see. I feared the worst and was ecstatic to hear it was "only" a concussion.

kodiak - I got food poisoning, so instead of quaffing cold beverages from my giant Cal mug, I lay curled in a fetal position while watching the game. It was oddly appropriate.

Cal @ Arizona State Post-Game Thoughts

HydroTech — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:22 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

about 1 month ago: California wide receiver Marvin Jones, left, celebrates with teammate Verran Tucker, right, after Jones made a touchdown reception against Arizona State in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Browse more photos »

(1) Story of the game: Bad Execution Everywhere. Fumbles. Penalties. Dropped passes. Un-sustained blocks. Poor tackling. Poor recognition of offensive plays by defensive players. Poor passes. Bad playcalling. Missed field goals. This game was ugly and scary. How appropriate since it was on Halloween. While a lot of complaining has been made about the defense, and the offense, things would be a lot different if the players just executed and all won their individual player battles.

(2) Cal played sloppy and deserved some of those penalties, but ASU got some calls which they shouldn't have. Tepper's hands to the head call? Totally deserved. Jones' facemask penalty on his deep sideline go route? Totally deserved. But Conte's pass interference call? That was a bunch of crap. Receivers and defenders have equal right to the ball. Conte played the ball, and it just so happened that the ASU WR ran his route right into Conte. That should not have been a penalty. Miller's holding call? More bs. I can understand that to the ref who threw the flag that it might have looked like holding based on the way the defender fell down, but Miller didn't hold. It seemed like due to the sloppy nature of the game, that the refs were even more ticky tacky and threw even more flags. I don't remember a single call going against ASU that shouldn't have. But there were definitely at least two flags on Cal that shouldn't have been flags. I don't mind losing games with fair penalizing, but I hate it when a loss is aided by the help of incorrect flags from the refs.

(3) Riley's best *passing* game of perhaps his career. This game was perhaps the best passing game of Riley's career. Aside from one pass that should have been intercepted, and another missed easy swing pass to Best (if I recall correctly) he was incredibly in the zone - especially on that final drive. On that final drive, ASU was pretty aggressive in their defense by sending five to six pass rushers every other down. Riley recognized the blitz, and got the ball out quickly (when the offense is facing a blitz, the ball has to come out fast). If I had to give a grade for Riley's passing, I'd probably give him an A- or so.

But, as for Riley's *overall* grade, that's different. Riley did scramble around when needed to extend plays and make some great throws. But he also had three very unfortunate fumbles. I do realize that the pass blocking was not excellent, but the ball must be protected. Either get rid of the ball quickly, cover up and take the sack, or cover up and run. Riley's overall grade for this game is probably more in the B range due to his fumbles, and a delay of game penalty. But on the whole, Riley did a pretty good job managing the game.

(4) Riley comes with good and bad. The good: plays like the scramble in the 4th quarter on a 1st and 25 for a 26 yard completion to Marvin Jones. Having a QB who is a bit of a gambler can lead to awesome plays like this. The bad: plays like the 3rd and 2 playaction bootleg where Riley tried to dump the ball off to a receiver but instead put the ball right into the chest of an ASU linebacker - who miraculously dropped the easy interception. The way Riley plays, we can definitely expect to see some great and spectacular plays we haven't seen for the past few years with Longshore as our QB, but we should also be prepared to see some bad plays that we rarely saw for the past few years with Longshore as our QB.

(5) Riley comes with more fumble risks. This point is sort of related to the previous point. Riley is more prone to fumbling. This has to do with the way he carries the ball in a collapsing pocket. But also because he doesn't always get the ball out when the pocket is collapsing. I'm sure I'm not the only one that was a bit surprised to see Riley fumble. To me it was a surprise because it's something that we never really saw for the past three years. Why is that? Well, Longshore was great at getting the ball out quickly - even against a collapsing pocket. Therefore, the ball was rarely in his hands to get popped out for a fumble. But Riley is a different QB. He hangs on to the ball longer to make a play. With his style, we should expect a greater chance of QB fumbles. This is just another one of those bads that comes with this style of QB.

(6) ASU might have made a tactical error on Cal's final drive by sending five and six pass rushers over half the time. Prior to that final drive, ASU was doing a pretty good job getting pressure on Riley with just four pass rushers. They'd often send five pass rushers and get even more pressure, but they seemed to be doing just fine with four pass rushers. Yet on that final drive, they seemed to be a bit more aggressive than normal, and I think it was a mistake. By dropping more defenders into coverage, the QB will often have to hold on to the ball longer. Since ASU's pass rush was fairly effective, why not just drop seven into coverage, force Riley to hold onto the ball longer, and let your pass rush get to him? He already showed the penchant to fumble this game. But instead, ASU went a bit more aggressive than normal. They played man coverage, and without that seventh or sixth defender, the secondary opened up. Riley had space to make easy mid-range throws - mid-range throws that he didn't really have tons of room to throw earlier. Riley absolutely torched the ASU defense on their blitzes. Riley did a great job reading the blitzes, the coverage, getting the ball out quick, and placing the ball. I'm not defensive coordinator, but after it became apparent that Riley was getting the ball out quickly, the last tactic you want to do is to send more pass rushers. You're basically setting yourself up for death. I mean, it's essentially the same as blitzing the QB when you know the offense is going to run a screen. You just don't do it.

(7) Ezeff was not really at fault for ASU's 80 yard touchdown pass; Conte was at fault. I think there is a lot of blame getting pasted onto Ezeff for that touchdown. It sure looked like Ezeff was at fault. But he substantially wasn't. Here's what Gregory had to say about that play:

We were in a two-deep. It probably wasn’t the best call in the world. It was first down and we were taking a shot because they had run it a bit on first down. It was a play-action pass and we lost our middle linebacker and we also lost our backside safety on the play-action pass. They kind of jumped at the run a little bit quick as opposed to playing back a litlle bit. It was a combination of not great technique and I could have had a better call on first down.

Indeed, Gregory is correct. Cal was playing its 3-4 defense in a two deep - meaning Cal had two deep safeties each covering 1/2 of the field. This is not to be confused with a Cover-2 defense. A Cover-2 defense involves all zone coverage. But a two-deep implies that there are two deep defenders and the rest of the coverage is not zone coverage. Gregory, being the football expert he is (I know many Cal fans may dispute this), clearly made this distinction. If you look at the play, you'll see that indeed, Cal is playing two-deep and man coverage. Both Conte and Syd are locked up in man coverage. What happens is that Conte reads run, and bites down on the playaction, leaving his the WR that he is supposed to be covering completely undefended. The Cal safety to that side of the field (the "backside safety" that Gregory is referring to), presumably Cattouse or Brett Johnson, leaves his deep 1/2 of the field and jumps down to defend the wide open WR that Conte left unguarded. This opens up the deep 1/2 of the field opposite of Ezeff - which is NOT Ezeff's primary responsibility. The ASU WR whom the pass was thrown to ran a deep post which ran him right into Cattouse/Johnson's deep 1/2 of the field. Had Cattouse/Johnson been there, the play might have been broken up. Cattouse/Johnson probably would have been there if Conte hadn't been sucked up by the playaction.

Conte's error, caused Cattouse/Johnson to cover Conte's man, causing a hole in Cal's deep coverage, which resulted in a touchdown. It only takes one mistake by one player to cause a domino effect. This touchdown goes against Conte, not Ezeff.

(8) Riley doesn't come off the field during wildbear because it tips off the defense of the impending play. The Marshawnthusiasts talked about this in last week's podcast. It's been suggested left and right by many, and including me at one point, that perhaps Cal should just put a RB, TE, or WR out there instead of Riley. This makes sense if Cal isn't going to pass. But if Ludwig subs out Riley for wildbear, the defense will be notified of the impending play. The defense's coaches in the coaching box watch the offense's substitutions so they know what personnel are on the field. By keeping Riley on the field for the wildbear plays, the defense doesn't know until they see the offense line up, whether the play is wildbear or just some other play (Cal can and does run its regular plays out of the wildbear personnel).

(9) The wildbear pass on 2nd down was a bad playcall. I've been debating this for a while now. At first I thought it was a bad call. Then I changed to a more neutral stance saying it just merely depends on how aggressive you want to be. But now I'm changing back to the bad playcall party. Here's why.

Cal gets a first and goal on the ASU 8 yard line with 1:29 remaining. The playclock runs down to about 1:12 remaining at the snap of the ball on first down. The playclock resets at 40 seconds when there are 1:03 seconds of game time remaining. Had Cal ran the ball on 2nd down, instead of passing, the clock could have been milked down to about 24 seconds. Then Cal would have faced a 3rd down (assuming they don't score on the 2nd down run). Assuming ASU doesn't take their timeout (even if they did Cal could still milk the clock down on the subsequent play), Cal can center the ball on 3rd down, and then call a timeout with 3 seconds remaining. Cal can then kick the field goal to win the game and ASU never gets the ball back.

Now, proponents of the second down passing wildbear play say that the touchdown would have put the game away. This is only half true. A touchdown would have made the game a 26-21 Cal lead. Regardless of whether Cal gets the two point conversion or not, it requires ASU to get a touchdown to win the game or tie the game. While a touchdown is harder to get than a field goal - which seems to be the crutch of the argument for fans who support the second down passing play, this argument fails because it gives the ball back to ASU with time remaining on the clock. That result is undesirable and it is the last thing you want to do because ASU can potentially score again to win the game or tie the game. Had Cal milked the clock down, they could have kicked the game winning field goal as time expired without ASU ever getting the ball back. Even if ASU had taken a timeout somewhere in those final four plays, Cal still would have been able to milk the clock down to 3 seconds for one final field goal.

I understand that many Cal fans like to see "going for the jugular" playcalling by Ludwig or more aggressive playcalling, but that 2nd down playcall was the incorrect playcall and there is no valid argument otherwise. It's not that the playcall was bad because it was going for the jugular or because it was aggressive, it was a bad playcall because it disrupted the clock management and timing of the game. Cal could have won the game without giving ASU back the ball, but instead Cal attempted to win the game with giving ASU one more possession. This is an unnecessary risk. As Cal fans, who are constantly reminded of crazy shit like The Play, we all know that crazy stuff can happen. You don't want the other team getting the ball back at all. Ludwig's pass out of the wildcat was one of the worst playcalls of this year; hands down, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

(10) That specific wildbear pass play can only be used in goalline situations. That specific wildbear pass play can only be used in goalline situations. Why goalline situations? Because since the offense is so close to the defense's goalline, the defense has to heavily play the run as since they can't give up any yardage. Since the defense is playing the run so heavily, it sucks in the linebackers towards the line of scrimmage pretty quickly and thus allows for easy passes over the top. Furthermore, because the play occurs at the back of the endzone, the ball can easily fall out of play for an incompletion lessening the chances of an interception. Had the offense used this play somewhere else, such as at midfield, it would not have been effective at all since the defense doesn't need to play the run as heavily. Also, tipped balls are more likely to be intercepted at midfield since there is no out of bounds immediately behind the intended receiver.

I am very glad Ludwig does have a passing play installed. I hope he has more. I have been advocating for passing out of the wildbear for a few weeks now. Obviously, that particular 2nd down playcall is only really good for goalline situations, but there are perhaps a few other ways to pass out of wildbear where the offense doesn't need to be a few yards away from the defense's endzone. I hope to see a few of those here and there.

CGB Report Card: Grading Cal's Performance Against Arizona State

Avinash — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:26:53 -0000

Position	QB	RB	Rec.	Run B	Pass P	Run D	Pass R	Pass D	ST	Coach	Overall
Score	3.520	2.697	3.081	1.470	2.354	2.889	1.970	2.424	2.225	2.828	2.838
Grade	A-	B-	B	D+	C+	B	C	C+	C+	B-	B

Thanks to the 34 people who submitted grades this week, and again thanks to Twist for gathering these.

goldblooded, perfectstrat, MadBum, slaphancock, USAFGoldenBear, GoldenBear 77, JrBear, coolingfan, BTown85, TKE Prytanis 79, BatmanSF, minesweeper, rocksanddirt, CaliforniaCMB, Jake, totallyawesome, jsnell,
Kodiak, California Pete, Berkelium97, BeastMode, yorzepol, beson, bluehenbear, Ohio Bear, oldBear, CALumbus Bear, solarise, HOUSE66, omnizzle, rurata, GBB4188, ikoolykedat, Prd74

Your gameday experience winner goes to inebriated goldblooded, who got bonus points for writing this post drunk.

i drNK LIKE 7 beers in 100 mnutes plus a shotgun fter we won i am heppy also alex gots beers for us hen they were empty and chrius is doing homeworjk and i am pissing him off, ps geeeeeogeeo kicked a fild for ONCE wow

Quarterback--kevin riley for the seahg geneiss is the best quarter back ever/

Running backs--kahvi sstill rules, and shane is tight cause he didnt throw an inT

Receivers--ummm mrvin made me cry once but then he won the game so i hd a beer

Run blocking--i hope that we got bettercause hahivid needs to run feree as a birrd now

Pass protection--jebin riley threwew a shovel pass like tim jesus and he was good, even thoguh the other guys culdnt really helpo him and he got sacked a few trims

Run defense-- that fat guy 26 i hate him a lot i think that mikey mo needs to be better

Pass rush--it was ok, especailly on the last play where we broke the ASU quartererbacks arm haha two penakties

Pass defense--syd uan is so good at everything syd quan, sometiems si se him on the glkf cart, i think i wqill give him a ug nect time i see him he is so good

Special teams--gireeeegeeeo kicked q filed goal over 50 years sthen another one and won it was cool

Coaching--well jeffy bear didnt lose dso he is still kinda tight and alomar was a poop

Overall--we require more vespene beer

The lesson as always? Alcohol is a beautiful thing.

Here's the best of the gameday experiences:

coolingfan - Nothing much, just watched the game at home in my "graduate student" costume.

GoldenBear77 - I missed a couple of minutes of the first quarter -- shopping with my wife. After being gone three days this week on a business trip, didn't think I could just blow it off. She is gone to see her sister next week, so you know where I will be at 4 at when the Oregon State game starts.

totallyawesome - Picked up some KFC and b/c of some unfortunate circumstances (Bay Bridge being closed, GF doing halloween-related errands, friends out of town) I plopped down on my couch to watch the game by myself. Lurched back during Ross's dropped pass and hit my head on the wall. I was shaken up but the wall was ok.

yorzepol - In Hawaii watching in a sports bar with an incredibly drunk and obnoxious bunch of UF fans. They have some pretty lame cheers BTW. As Cal kept making me more and more nervous, those Gator fans kept getting louder and more obnoxious. Fortunately, Riley drove us drown the field and Taveccio redeemed himself and then those Gator fans weren't as annoying (don't get me wrong, they were stil annoying, just not as much.) BTW be very afraid of the Loco Mocos at Giovanni Pastrami's (you Hawaiians know what I mean; they are ginormous!)

rocksndirt - guy in the bar i watched the second half at had a little radio and was listening to starkey....the feed for that was a bit a head of the ABC feed. That and Norrie's kill'n me.

House66 - Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up,Sitting down, standing up, and almost throwing up at the end of the game.

JRBear - Watched the game on ESPN 360. Then I went to Chipotle on Telegraph with a Zack Follett jersey and a tin foil hat with a spike on my head for a free burrito. My costume was "The Space Rhinoceros."

OhioBear - I watched this bad boy on espn360. Unfortunately, I was late getting logged on and missed the first 3 plays of the game. In my zeal to hurry to get the game on, I totes forgot to open a separate window for the first quarter thread on CGB. I was so engrossed in our fine start, that I didn't think about joining the in-game threads until late in the 1st quarter when we were up 14-0. After I opened a window for the threads (and even posted a couple of comments), bad stuff piled up one by one: the Riley fumble at the 3, the ensuing TD, the missed Tavecchio FG, the brutal 80-yard TD pass. So I decided my logging into the in game threads was a reason that we had lost control of the game. So I left CGB and didn't come back until the post game thread, after we'd won. Clearly, I was instrumental in the victory.

BTown85 - Tape-delay viewing of Cal game with a beer. Riley fumbles three times in the first quarter......more beer. Vereen tries to give the game to ASU with 24 seconds left......bourbon !!!!! Line-up for game-winning field goal - knock at the door. Pause DVR to greet guests for Halloween Party. Back to the TV with a beer. 21 seconds of hell after the Field Goal; Party Begins.

minesweeper - My gameday experience began Friday night with some early Halloween partying. To make a long story short, lots of Indian food for lunch followed by an open bar at night does a number on one's stomach. After leaving most of its contents on the streets of San Francisco, my companion (who's smaller than me but can somehow handle much more liquor) helped me stumble home where I promptly passed out.

The main benefit of evacuating ones stomach before passing out is no hangover Saturday morning, and I was up early enough to take in a full 10 hours of college football.

TKE Pryantis 79 - Watched it in a sports bar in Fort Worth TX, with no audio, joined by my wife and colleagues from Scotland and New Zealand, so was put in the interesting role of explaining the rules, strategy and meaning of American College Football...not sure how I did, but the Bears effing won so that's all I cared about

CALumbusBear - I watched it on lo-def. BOOO Time Warner Cable. Why the F did I pay 160 bucks for ESPN Game Plan (aka fleece plan) to watch shit in lo-def? Because I HAD NO CHOICE. Lo-def sux donkeys f'realz

Kodiak - Mother in law came over to babysit, so I got to go fishing for the first time in months. After nailing some nice smallmouth, spotted bass, largemouth, and one really mean trout, I zipped home in time to take the 3 year-old trick or treating for the first time. With the kid safely geeked on sugar, I passed her off to grandma, got the wife to bring me my big mug 'o beer, and watched the game on dvr. Managed not to stroke out while watching it...but holy crap, it's tough being a Cal fan, sometimes.

Golden Rationality Award

Postponed for a week. Data is all screwed up. I'll try and figure out and have the actual answers in next week's report card. So I declare you all winners!

Old Blue Award

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
prd74	1.939
ikoolykedat	2.000
GBB4188	2.030
rurata	2.091
omnizzle	2.152

Man, the guy who took photos last week seemed the most distressed about our team, and now it's our video guy. Is it going to be danzig next week? NOOOOOOOOOO...

Golden Sunglasses Award

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
perfectstrat	3.182
MadBum	3.121
slaphancock	3.030
USAFGoldenBear	3.000
GoldenBear 77	2.939

Quarterback

GBB4188 - Some great deep balls once again from Riley. However, he once again through some funky thing into the flat while he was rolling out of the pocket which was fortunately not a pick 6. Combine that with 3 fumbles and you get, despite the nice passes, a pretty sloppy overall game.

That beard is what champions are made of, though.

bluehenbear - Well, Riley didn't make any mistakes and his mediocre completion percentage is on the WRs to had several drops (Ross and Tucker especially). Managed the game and got us in position for the winning FG. Wanted to give + but just couldn't do it with the fumbles.

Jake - When he's good, he looks like Aaron Rodgers, and makes the crowd hold their breath. When he's bad, he looks like Nate Longshore, and makes the crowd hold their breath for reasons. He looked good today, but the offense went nowhere for 2 1/2 quarters. Also: seriously, dude, three fumbles in the first half?

Only reason it's a B is that he came alive that last drive.

jsnell - Riley played pretty well, other than a couple of bad decisions and the fumbling. But really, that last drive... pretty much erases the rest of it, doesn't it?

Running back

ikoolydekat - Both RBs were contained today, but I believe most of the blame should be placed on the OL.

Berkelium97 - There wasn't much they could have done with the lack of holes being opened up. The wildcat wasn't too bad against the stout ASU D (especially that Vereen run called back due to penalty).

totallyawesome - Meow! Moar Wildcat pleez!

No, but seriously, aside from some great catches, our running back couldn't do much against this ASU run defense. Thankfully, the ASU D Coordinator dared us to beat him thru the air and we did (mostly).

yorzepol - Javid had an ineffective running game. Shane was not much better. I saw Jahvid completely whiff on a block and then come back to prevent the sack. The problem was by that time Riley was so out of position he had to throw it away. Then I saw him make some great blocks. Blocking continues to be a problem for him. Maybe if he stayed another year he could work on it? Anybody?

MadBum - Vereen never had a shot. Wasn't given the ball enough, only seeing one rushing attempt. This is unacceptable, as against UCLA he was key in freeing up Best for his big plays. Best did okay with what he had. I'm not thrilled with 3 yards per carry, but Mr. Best came up big in the passing game as well. This linebacking corp is tops in the Pac-10, and Best did what he could. His average relies mainly on big plays, and he didn't get one. ASU refused to let Best beat them, and he freed up Riley.

BatmanSF - I thought the backs played well, given the limited holes available. Jahvid actually showed more toughness and grit and willingness to grind out tough yards than he has earlier. Shane Vereen is just a QUALITY player, all the way around...OK, maybe he can work on his passing! And, BTW, a very nice Brian Holley contribution!

BTown85- Uninspiring at running the ball. Best and Holley catching passes were awesome; let's do more of that. I KNEW Vereen was going to throw the ball at the goal line 'cause he came up there in the WildBear and I thought "Everyone KNOWS you're running....wait, unless THIS is the first time you EVER decide to pass it....against the MAN-CHILD who is Burfict!!!!" I put the call on the coaches ($%##$) and the crap pass on Vereen, who should have tucked the ball and taken a knee and 18 more seconds off the clock. ANOTHER thing the coaches should have prepped him for!!!!!

Receivers

GoldenBear77 - Verran, you made a great catch on the low throw on the final drive, but you owed Riley one. The one you dropped down the sideline hit you in a bad place -- your hands -- and that had six written all over it. Ross, you can't drop the screen when it is third down. We appear to be feast or famine here. Thankfully, there was enough to eat at this banquet.

Berkelium97 - Drops, drops, drops, drops, drops (mostly from Tucker and Ross). Everyone was getting chances, though. Marv made some great catches. Everyone really stepped up (Marv, Miller, Lage(r)mann, and Tucker) for some huge catches on that final drive. I can forgive the drops if they're willing to play like that in the clutch. Miller is really establishing himself as a consistent target. He made big catches today (just like he did in his lone catch against Miami last year).

bluehenbear - Great first half, lousy second half...another case of the dropsies. Way to hang in there on the last drive, though. Wanted to give a B, but but just couldn't do it with the drops.

MadBum - Great job done right here. Mistakes were made, like drops by Ross and Tucker that hurt us. That facemask hurt us as well, and that holding hurt us big by Miller. But Miller made up for that mistake with his catch on the next play, Ross came up with big play after big play, and Tucker had that huge diving catch. Lagermann proved that his studliness on NCAA 09 wasn't just restricted to the video game, and made some catches that we haven't seen in his career. If these guys play the same way they did today minus those mistakes, then we'll be tough to stop.

slaphancock - Two drops nearly cost us the game. But then they caught everything on the last drive. Still, those two drops (the over the shoulder td one and the screen pass on third down) were inexcusable. It looked like both bounced off the receiver's chest protection. Maybe they should find new pads?

beeson - I think Marvin Jones sweats super glue. The ball just sticks to him.

Run blocking

ikoolydekat - No hole, no glory, no fun.

GoldenBear77 - Almost a non-issue in the game. When is the last time you said this at a CAL game?

Berkelium97 - It was mostly non-existent. Matt Summers-Gavin wasn't playing, but I don't think he alone would have made a tremendous difference.

yorzepol - The line was dominated today. Jahvid and Shane had no room to juke. Fortunately we had a passing game to overcome the terrible blocking, but we might not always. Or it could be that their run D really is scary good.

CaliforniaPete - It looked like there were some nice holes created in the line, but the Bears had a hard time carrying it through the second level. In other words, a lot of 3 yard gains. Don't know if this was a scheme issue or guys failing to make plays, but it sure would have been nice to established more of a rushing attack after jumping out to a 14-point lead.

Beastmode - What run blocking? I know teams are stacking the box, but teams do so against Stanfurd and Oregon too. I know, different schemes, but that just means we need to scheme better, even if we have a young line, so does Oregon by the way.

OhioBear - The most frustrating part of the game, by far, was the inability to open holes for Best. ASU was all over our running game and our O-line didn't seem to rise up to the occasion. Credit to ASU, for sure. But I can't believe we're not better than that. Fewer than 100 yards rushing? We're lucky to win a game with that number.

Pass protection

coolingfan - Riley's running ability saved the game -- pass protection was awful, but this was the case pretty much for the whole season so far.

totallyawesome - Pass protection was circumspect, but thankfully, Riley and his happy feet bailed them out on a few plays. They held the line when it mattered, thankfully, especially on that last drive.

yorzepol - I don't remember thinking that they got owned very much. There were sometimes they allowed too many defenders through but mostly they gave Riley the time he needed. Oh yeah, except for the two sacks which led to two fumbles from Riley and made it a much closer game than it should have been. But besides that they didn't get owned much.

MadBum - I was impressed these guys. False starts and holdings derailed some drives but overall very well done. The last 2 drives were executed to perfection, as the only time they got a rush was when Riley took his time. They even held on plays when Riley scrambled around, not holding and letting him keep the play alive. Tepper seems to be a weakspot for us though. He commits too many penalties, but I can't complain too much.

OhioBear - Gave up 3 sacks, and pressure seemed consistently there from the ASU pass rush. I was holding my breath every time a guy got close to Riley, praying to Oski he wouldn't fumble again.

USAF Golden Bear - This seemed like a two faced o-line. Sometimes they were giving Riley a perfect pocket, and then other times it seemed like a minimal rush they were just getting straight beat.

solarise - Riley was running for his life like Neve Campbell in Scream 1 through infinity. It'd be nice to see what Riley could really do if he gets protection a la Matt Barkley.

CALumbus Bear - Dear O-line: Let's talk about that sucking thing. You know, that thing you've been doing a LOT of recently. Please stop doing it. Really. Stop. Like now. Holes are your friends. Please open them. Just push that big fat guy to the side you're supposed to push him. You've been doing it for years. Vacation over, get back to F-ing work.

Rush defense

Berkelium97 - The run D was generally good, but they could still move the chains on us (see ASU's last TD drive). I was surprised ASU's ypc (adjusted for sacks) was only 3.5. I thought it would have been closer to the mid-4s.

totallyawesome - Very solid. Saw Cattouse get in on a few plays. ASU is much improved running-wise from last year but still couldn't manage much against our defense.

JRBear - Defense is so hard to grade for this game. It's hard to give them credit for their first two lucky TDs. I think the Run D did a good job holding back Bass, not so much Marshall.

OhioBear - Statistically, pretty good. But it seemed like Cam Marshall gave ASU a spark in the 2nd half, getting good gains. I would've graded the run D higher had it not been for ASU's run game awakening in the 4th quarter. Props to the D, however, for stopping them when we had to in order to get the ball back.

Kodiak - Did a nice job in the 1st half, seemed to wear down in the 2nd. No question we're more stout with Derrick Hill. I hope he's back soon. For the 1st time in...a month(?) we didn't give up a bone-headed long run from someone being woefully out of position.

Pass rush

ikoolydekat - what pass rush?

GoldenBear77 - CAL was stronger as the day progressed, and that was a good thing. I thought we did not get enough pressure in the first half, but, particularly in the first drive of the second half stepped it up. However, no one is going to mistake Sullivan for Aaron Rodgers.

Berkelium97 - Sullivan generally had a lot of time to pass. Alualu was abusing their O-line in the early third quarter, though. The 4:3 helped get more pressure, but Sullivan still had some time.

totallyawesome - Very pedestrian. Our D-lineman need to get better at shedding blocks and we need to dial up a few more blitz plays. They need enough, however, to force Sullivan into some bad decision making.

Beastmode - No sacks. Not many TFL. Teams obviously know to get rid of the ball quickly against Cal, but it isn't just a matter of that. it's that our guys do not get enough of a push, particularly on the interior.

slaphancock - When we got the QB under pressure, he looked like a normal college QB, not like the hyper-accurate heisman contenders the rest of the QBs we've played have looked like against us.

USAF Golden Bear - This was the most abysmal part of the team, IMO. Play after play, I saw no pressure being put on Sullivan, who was playing poorly in the 1st half all by himself. Unless ASU's o-line suddenly became not-horrible in the last couple of days, Cal's pass rushers need to figure what the deal is and fix it.

Kodiak - Sullivan is a statue with happy feet who makes bad decisions when pressured. Yet, he had enough time to stand there and utilize his scud-arm to some effect. It's becoming pretty apparent that our 3-4 is more than a little gimped without a legitimate pass-rushing threat from the LB's.

Pass defense

GoldenBear77 - What happened on the 80 yard reception in the first half? That simply should not happen, the way we play pass defense. Other than that, OK with two interceptions, one of which led to the half-time lead.

Jake- Syd is a beast. 'Nuff said. The picks were works of art.

BTown85 - There were some SPECTACULAR plays that often will bring a PI call, but didn't 'cause Cattouse and Thompson played 'em PERFECTLY (no hand on receiver's back, etc.). We got lucky that we were able to jar the ball loose a couple of times from receivers who should have held on. Whew.

Totally blown coverage on that deep TD.

solarise - Syd & Josh Hill made some big plays. Cattouse deserved the start. The man produces big hits and provides coverage in the middle. I'd like to see Cattouse w/ even more playing time.

Kodiak - On the one hand, we finally got a couple of ints. The CB's seemed closer to receivers than previous weeks. Cattouse is such an obvious upgrade over Ezeff, it makes you wonder what took the coaches so damn long to make that call. On the other, I can't shake the feeling that the only reason we didn't give up another career day of 300+ passing yards is that Sullivan is really, really bad.

Special Teams

ikoolydekat - NO.

Berkelium97 - Anger quietly had a big day (53.0 average!) Giorgio missed some easy field goals, but also managed to kick a 51(!) yarder and --HOLY CANOLI--kicked the game-winning field goal! Return coverage was serviceable, but I still get nervous every time we kick off.

yorsepol - ALLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAMMMMMMAAAAA

AAAAAAR!

but also:

ALLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAR!

Some decent plays (finally a kickoff in the endzone,) but too few to merit a higher grade. Taveccio would not have had to make the game winning filed goal in the last seconds if he had made either of the other two field goal attempts or better yet, if he had made both. But at least he redeemed himself. Those kick offs and kick off coverage WILL cost us a game though, mark my words.

BTown85 -We squeaked this out. Only one kickoff from the 30 got within the five, two makeable FGs missed, Tavecchio jumping OVER a would-be kick-rougher then falling down to ensure he didn't the call......and then squeaking out the last FG. Dang, I gave up the wrong week to quit doing tequila shots.

Anger was stellar as usual (to the point I'm disappointed if he doesn't get some punts in the 60-70 yard range....now THAT'S not fair), but our kick-off coverage was weak, weak, weak.

CALumbus Bear - Punting was good. KO coverage was mediocre to very poor. Salami's FG grades were as follows: F-, then a most shocking A+, then another fat F, then "why the frig are we sending him out there this is a coaching phail just go for it Tedford O MY OSKI HE ACTUALLY MADE IT WHEN WE REALLY NEEDED IT TAVECCHIO FOR THE GROZA AWARD GIVE IT TO HIM NOW!" So they get a nice + on the end of that medicre C.

Kodiak - Anger punted pretty well. I don't remember screaming while watching our kickoffs or kick coverage in general. You can go half-empty/half-full with Tavecchio. Yeah, he blew a couple of gimmes...But he also nailed on from 51, and had the stones to come through at the end. It does worry me when Tedford waits until gametime to name a starting kicker...and does it by asking Alamar who looks better in warm-ups. We're officially flogging the horse's fossilized skeleton at this point, but we need to do better than our current Mickey Mouse approach to special teams.

Coaching

coolingfan - Didn't get much out of Wildcat formations, but otherwise showed a variety of plays and formations, which we missed early in the season against 'SC and Oregon.

GoldenBear77 - Great confidence in Riley on the final drive. I am torn on the Vereen wildcat toss into the end zone. On the one hand, if it had succeeded we would have all thought the coaches incredible. On the other hand, if it was intercepted, idiots. Was it a lack of confidence in the kicking game? In any event, someone once told me "you can't argue with results", and the result is that we are 6-2, and 3-1 on the road.

Berkelium97 - There were a lot of smart play calls today. From the first play, that took great advantage of ASU biting on the run to the calls on the last drive. I was really surprised that we threw for the first down so often on that last drive (even on 1st and 25). Then that WildVereen pass, I loved that call even though Miller barely missed the pass. They did a great job of moving the ball (on that last drive and others) through the air. The offense still looked competent without Best or Vereen running for chunks of yardage. Gregory's unit made a huge mistake, but was otherwise good enough to keep us in the game. It's too bad we can't find a way to get more pass rush, but our unit just doesn't seem to have the personnel for it. Alamar lives to see another day...by the narrowest of margins.

CaliforniaPete - From a season-wide perspective, I'm happy. This team has really responded well to the adversity of two brutal losses. And for the second time this year, the Bears have won a game, on the road, in the fourth quarter. That's all good.

I'm a big Bob Gregory fan, and with the exception of the debacle in Eugene, I'm generally with the defense. As for Tedford/Ludwig's offense, I'm of two minds. For much of the year, this team has been fun to watch, and the Bears have often jumped out early to sizable leads. Such was the case again today. But when the offense stalls, it really struggles to get going again--or at all in the case of the two losses. All of this leads me to question the coaches' in-game adjustments; what's their response when Plan A is no longer working. Given today's performance, I wonder if we'll see some no-huddle series in the future, even when the clock isn't an issue. The change of tempo really appeared to help.

MadBum - This is where I question. That throw with Vereen on 2nd down and goal was completely unneccesary; he hasn't thrown a pass all year, is inaccurate, and there isn't alot of room for him to work with. Also, ASU knows Vereen is the back in the WildBear that throws. Didn't like some defensive calls, but can't think of specific ones. JAHVID BEST IS OUR BEST PLAYER. GIVE HIM THE BALL. VEREEN IS ALSO GOOD TOO. Both still need touches. Best could use 20 carries, but I guess I'm okay with that. Vereen really needs the ball more. He completely opens the offense up for Best and Riley. Without him, our rushing game is completely onedimensional and ASU keyed completely on Best.

JrBear - I like the WildVereen pass. Were you expecting that? I bet you weren't.
Overall, alright. Coaches aren't responsible for momentum changes, and that's what happened in the 2nd quarter.

jsnell - I wonder if they called for that halfback pass at the end of the game just to make people stop talking about how conservative the play-calling is, and instead let us talk about how reckless the play-calling is.

USAF Golden Bear - Whatever Tedford and Ludwig have done with Riley, its amazing. Keep it up. Gregory on the other hand, needs to get this D on track, and not make inept offenses look servicible. OSU is going to pile up huge numbers if this continues, and I'm not sure Cal's offense will be able to keep up.

solarise - I liked Ludwig's playcalling in the 1st. Aggressive & revealed some plays I haven't seen before. Some adjustments were made in the 2nd half to give Riley more protection. I thought the coaches showed a lot of faith in the players, especially for giving Vereen the freedom to pass out of that Wildbear at such a critical junction of the game.

Cut down those penalties.

Kodiak - 1) I still hate our special teams.
2) I'm skeptical of our defensive playcalling...but at least appreciate that we seem to be trying different schemes and players to get better.
3) I like the diversity and innovation displayed on offense. I hope there's some continuity. I get the feeling that the execution and range of plays will only get better as the players become more comfortable.

Overall

rurata - An ugly game overall, but we won on the road, and are bowl eligible now. Hooray for that.

Berkelium97 - Too many penalties, too many dropped passes, inadequate holes for the running game, but--Bak Bak Almighty--that last drive was incredible. I am as confident in Riley as I have ever been. He puts the ball where it needs to be (just outside of where the defense can get it) and can make huge plays when necessary. I am now confident--and more importantly, so is the team after today--that this team can run the table. It won't be easy, but they can do it.

totallyawesome - This was an emotional rollercoaster, to be sure. A very sloppy performance by both teams (penalty-o-rama). But I like how our team kept their heads in the game, overcame some huge letdowns and managed to escape with a win. Riley's last drive will definitely go in some kind of highlight reel from Danzig. Also, great to see Tavecchio make the game winner. He should have made at least one of the other two field goals, but he's our FG kicker and hopefully will learn and get better from this experience.

yorzepol - Let's face it, we were lucky to come out of there with a win. The worst thing is that IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN THAT CLOSE! I couldn't believe all the lost opportunities I saw. We need to execute better. Still, we didn't play well and still won against what I think is a decent ASU team so that's got to mean something right? (Right?) If we keep playing like this we will be unlucky sometime and lose a game we really should have won. I hope this doesn't happen and we finish 10-2 but only time will tell.

rocksndirt - Just win, baby.

Beastmode - A road win is great no matter how it happens. First win in Arizona since 2004. And, makes Tedford 6-1 against ASU. This win also makes Cal bowl eligible and sets us up for the opportunity at a very good season. That said, the weak running game is troublesome and the passing defense only got slightly better. Both better improve with OSU, Arizona, and Stanfurd in consecutive weeks.

BatmanSF - The team had not been in a close game all season. Therefore, I can't be too disappointed that they rallied when necessary to pull it out. I still have the nagging feeling that coaching is holding this team back as much as anything, but I admit I don't have the answers....its a bit of an odd season, so far, isn't it?

OhioBear - There is no such thing as a bad win, especially on the road against a team that is far from terrible. This is the type of game we would have lost during the Holmoe, Mariucci, and Gilbertson years. Hell, we hadn't won a game on a last minute win or lose FG since Coach Snyder's Citrus Bowl season in 1991 (if memory serves). So we should characterize this one as "good" for grading purposes. But we need to play better. Much better.

minesweeper - Generally an ugly game with lots of penalties, turnovers, and missed FGs, but not every game's going to be pretty, and to win an ugly one is almost more satisfying than a scrimmage win against the likes of EWU or WSU. Riley, Tavecchio, and the rest of the team showed a lot of guts and maturity regrouping after some early miscues and pulling out the victory.

Earlier in the season, when our expectations were much higher, I'd be focusing on everything the team didn't do right in this game. Now that our expectations are more modest, we can focus on what went right, and after all a win is a win is a win, and I'll take 'em any way we can get 'em.

And hey, we have the same record, overall and in conference, as USC now? Say what???

Kodiak - I'm sure there are plenty of fans screaming about how bad we are. Geez. Shut up already. We're Cal fans. Our teams are supposed to give us coronaries every now and then. This is the winnable/favored game that we blow every year...but somehow didn't. I'm happy with the resolve that the team, and in particular, that Riley showed. The ball doesn't always bounce your way, but good teams find a way. We're not a great team, but we're learning to be good. I also absolutely loved the call to pass out of the Wildbear at the end of the game. That's the call Tedford makes in his first year when he was bold, dynamic, and played to win. There's been too much of playing not-to-lose, and playing scared the last few years. As a program, we need to get that mean, hungry, no-nonsense-I'm-going-to-beat-

you-down-and-step-on-your-throat edge back.