SB Nation - Sean Cattouse

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

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

More photos » by Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP

29 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)

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(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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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.

College Football Halloween Morning Open Thread

Avinash — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:00:24 -0000

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

Saturday Morning Bears. In case you've been spending the entire week deliberating on your Halloween costume, here's the Cal-ASU news that you should be ready for this week.

Darian Hagan was suspended for missing a class. Josh Hill will take his place. Marc Anthony and Charles Amadi will also be ready just in case, Amadi could see snaps.
Derrick Hill and Matt Summers-Gavin are out with shoulder injuries. Kendrick Payne or Aaron Tipoti (Chronicle is saying Tipoti) takes Hill's place, Boskovich and Fisher will split snaps in replacing Summers-Gavin.
Sean Cattouse will be starting over Marcus Ezeff; Ezeff will still play.
Although this is homecoming, expected attendance at Sun Devil Stadium is around 46k, well short of the 53,000+ that showed up for the Washington night game. And you didn't think the start time would make a difference.
As for ASU injuries, receiver Kyle Williams will be returning for the Sun Devils after missing last week's game at the Furd. He also spots as their punt returner.
ASU is missing their starting center Altieri though, so that hopefully cancels out the loss of HIll. Garth Gerhart will shift from right guard and handle snap duties. Tom Njunge will also replace the starter against the Furd, Matt Hustad, at right tackle.
ASU Cornerback Omar Bolden is out, and wide receiver Kerry Taylor is questionable.

After the jump, sample the early morning slate before our game.

The ghosts are out, and they've blessed us this morning with a fantastic slate of games.

Noon PM EST/9 AM PST
Indiana at Iowa, ESPN
Purdue at Wisconsin, ESPN2
Cincinnati at Syracuse, ESPNU

12:21 PM EST/9:21 AM PST
Ole Miss at Auburn, SEC TV/CSN California

12:30 PM EST/9:30 AM EST
Nebraska at Baylor, Versus HD

1:30 PM EST/10:30 AM EST
Missouri at Colorado, FSN HD/CSN Bay Area

Oh. Um.

Well, at least Gameday's in Autzen! Enjoy that as we get set for our rumble in Tempe (pregame/1st quarter thread should be up 45 minutes before kickoff).

Poll

My current state is...

Excited

24 votes

Disinterested

4 votes

Calm

15 votes

Scared

10 votes

Drunk

8 votes

61 votes | Poll has closed

Is Cal's Defense Underachieving?

Avinash — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:30:26 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Cal's pass defense struggled again. Are we going to see this all year long?

Browse more photos »

DEFENSE, BEARS...DEFENSE???

Most of the postgame reaction has been focused on Cal's lamentable defensive effort, especially against the pass. It's been discussed everywhere, and I figured I'd throw myself into the fire. Literally, since I figure 80-85% of Cal fans will disagree with my next statement:

Outside of Autzen, Bob Gregory hasn't done that much wrong.

Now before all of you start hollering about Prince and Tuel lighting us up, I understand where you guys are coming from. Like many people, I assumed that the depletion of our linebacking corps would be offset by improvements in the defensive line and the secondary, with everyone having starting experience coming back.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Units don't just revamp at certain areas and expect to get by because the front and the back are supporting them. The linebackers are the core of the defense, especially in a 3-4; take them away and the middle is open to exploitation.

Think of an army with great tanks and experienced soldiers but no aircraft, anti-aircraft or flak. You might have the power and the wherewithal to take out your opponents, but a good enough air attack can blast all that heavy weaponry and veteran savvy out of the park. So it is with the passing defense this season, where the weakness of the linebackers has been felt by the rest of the lineup.

Cal is returning seven but we're missing those four BIG TIME. Let's rank the top players on our defense last year.

1) Zack Follett
2) Syd'Quan Thompson
3) Tyson Alualu
4) Anthony Felder
5) Worrell Williams
6) Mike Mohamed
7) Darian Hagan
8) Rulon Davis (when healthy)

So those four who are gone are in the top 8, and the three linebackers in the top five. Big big losses.

Rulon Davis might never have been as healthy as we'd have liked him to be, but when he was, he was ON. Cameron Jordan is a jolly guy from what I've seen, but at the moment he really hasn't stepped up to replace Davis's raw ability. Don't be deceived by those 6.5 sacks--3.5 came against really bad teams. He's on pace for 2008 numbers, and he's playing probably 50% more than last season after splitting time with Rulon in 2008.

Derrick Hill has performed well, but centers can still battle him one on one, leaving one side to double, triple team Alualu at will. So that means that extra one or two guys blitzing or moving in on the line of scrimmage has to step up, rush in, and hit the quarterback.

Unfortunately...

Cal does not have a pass rushing linebacker. When Cal put that linebacker at the LoS on passing downs last season (usually Follett), it collapsed the pocket, overwhelmed the edge and forced the quarterback into the errant throws, incompletions or sacks. Not this season. Young, Mohamed, Kendricks, Bishop, Holt, none of these guys have been able to fill that mantle. Jarred Price might be the guy to show it, but what he has in pass rush (2 sacks) he lacks in consistency (4 season tackles)

Follett had 10.5 sacks and 4 hurries on his own last season; through seven games, the ENTIRE Bears linebackers corps has combined for 7.5 sacks and 4 hurries.

Note: Interestingly enough (as you probably saw with some of the highlights), Gregory tinkered with a four down linemen set on passing downs to gain extra pass rush, although I'm not sure how much of it had an effect on slowing down Tuel. I'd been pondering a similar idea considering the weakness of our linebackers to add an extra defensive lineman (our strength) for more pass rush, and it seemed Gregory was thinking along the same lines. We'll see how it bears out when Cal plays formidable/weaker offensive lines down the road.

Cal's linebacking corps is still learning the pass defense ropes: Probably the biggest mistake I made in my predictions was asking this question: "is Mike Mohamed capable of becoming Cal's greatest linebacker of the Tedford era?" Whoops. Desmond Bishop, you keep the title.

Don't get me wrong, Mohamed's been good, still the best all-around linebacker for the Bears (he has picks, a forced fumble, a sack, and 61 tackles). Nevertheless, he seems to be suffering from the Rajon Rondo syndrome--he looked like the best linebacker last season because guys were always throwing in his direction to avoid Felder and Williams. Unlike Follett or Desmond, he lacks that game-changing ability. Maybe that'll change, but right now he's merely good when Cal needs great.

Devin Bishop and Eddie Young are okay, but as BWNQ noted, they probably lack proper football instincts, as they've been duped on several important occasions by doing bad things on the field. No matter how good the coaching is, it's REALLY hard to undo instinct.

As for Kendricks and Holt, they have promise, but as sophomores they're still not fully polished. We can probably expect better things from them...in 2010. Right now we can only hope they're given the time to grow and mature so they can come back and smash next season.

Finally, the secondary. This is probably the most mystifying of the three units, even to a guy like me. Last season these guys were ballhawks, and now they're getting pumpfaked, beat at the point of attack. What's going on??

Syd'Quan Thompson has done his job, but the other side, plainly, has not. Darian Hagan got pump-faked out of the starting lineup in Minnesota. Josh Hill got the Oregon start and got picked on, over and over and over. And then both have been taking their turn even though they've been playing more man coverage. Although both are improving, it does leave you a little frustrated, especially with Hagan, who looked so promising last season. The safeties have been competent--Ezeff and Johnson are good at delivering hits, and Cattouse has also shown great promise, but for whatever reason they've been beat a lot.

So why has the secondary regressed? A few possibilities:

1) With the linebackers having trouble defending their zones and tackling afterwards, the secondary has to edge toward the middle of the field to be prepared to support...which in turn opens up the flats and sideline throws. And it doesn't necessarily secure the middle either.

2) The secondary might be more experienced, but given the depth of gamefilm, there is plenty for opposing teams to scout on them. Cal's secondary is not like USC's, whose weaknesses are harder to pinpoint and exploit. Even Syd'Quan might be lockdown one-on-one, but he's still undersized--tall physical receivers can do damage against him if given the proper time. You can only imagine how many more double moves and pump fakes against Hagan and throws to the flats against Hill we'll see this year.

3) PAY ATTENTION. This is the big one...

There are a lot of good quarterbacks in the Pac-10 this season.

Four freshmen have shown great promise--Foles, Luck, Barkley, and, yes, even Tuel (don't forget he also went about 67% against USC too). Add in three guys who've been here before (Masoli, Locker, Canfield) and that's SEVEN Pac-10 quarterbacks who are at the very least competent. That's the most depth the conference has shown at the quarterback stable this decade.

Compare it to the Pac-10 QBs we saw last season: Sanchez was pretty good but still developing, Willie Tuitama had his ups and downs, Masoli was in his first year escaping the shadow of Dixon, Lyle Moevao had his moments although he was carried by the Rodgers brothers, Rudy Carpenter was digesting turf thanks to his awesome offensive line, the Kevin Craft Interception Show missed no stops, Tavita Pritchard was a placeholder, the Washington/Wazzu quarterbacks we faced were bad, bad, bad.

Masoli has quietly worked his way back to a solid 60% completion percentage. Canfield and Foles are horrifyingly good at finding their receivers, hovering at 70% and putting them in the top seven in the conference. Luck isn't as accurate, but he throws touchdowns and not many picks (kind of like Riley-lite). Locker is the most dangerous player in the Pac-10 if he faces a defense that gives him cushion. And Barkley is only going to get better.

They're so good that they're not just beating Cal's zones, they're beating Cal on man. Tuel's two touchdown throws came against man coverage, where he fit that ball in just the right place for the receiver to get it and the defender had no chance to play the ball. Kevin Prince had excellent throws that burned a few guys with excellent man coverage too. Surprisingly, they played pretty well against Barkley after spotting the Trojans ten points. Of course the big fail was Masoli where the Bears played mostly zone, but even when they played man they got beat.

Now the solution would be to be aggressive in the pass rush and send more guys. But who? Cal's linebackers haven't shown they're able to speed their way. Not many of these guys have the ability to stunt or delay the way our group did last year--maybe Alualu, but again he's facing constant double teams. Plus with the quarterbacks being better this season, sending more guys leaves the Bears vulnerable to a precise pass going for six.

So pick your poison. So pick your poison. Do you key in on stopping the run and not allowing big plays and risk giving up easier underneath throws, or gamble with a pass rush or man coverage and take the risk of quarterbacks connecting on long strikes? This is the quandary Gregory is in, and we’ll find out what he comes up with these next few weeks. (HT Hydro for the rephrase)

Is Cal's defense underachieving, overachieving, or performing as expected?

Reactions to defense.

More reactions: AERose has some interesting numbers on 1st/2nd half stats, Rocky63125 wants Gregory to go, royrules had thoughts about Cal's D against UCLA.

Gary Peterson, San Jose Mercury News:

Then came the part no one expected. When Tedford had finished dousing his defenders in lighter fluid, linebacker Steve Fanua set them on fire.

"He's a young buck, a redshirt freshman," Jordan said, smiling. "He has fire in his veins. He gave us a nice little talk."

And this was received how?

"That only amps you up more," Jordan said. "Here's a guy, barely 18 years old, letting us know what this means for him. He's a young kid. He's hungry."

So was Cal's defense when it returned to the field. Jordan recorded two of his two-and-a-half sacks, and three of his six tackles in the second half. One sack defused Washington State's first drive after the intermission. Another, coming on fourth-and-10, ended a Cougars drive at the Cal 18.

Jimmy Tran, Daily Cal:

One of the points emphasized was tackling.

Arguably the most noticeable player guilty of missed tackles was cornerback Darian Hagan. Despite coming off one of his best performances ever last week against UCLA, Hagan struggled to make several key tackles in the open field and gave up a couple big passing plays against WSU.

"He needs to be more consistent, no question about it," Gregory said. "Very poor game today, and we just got to keep working with these kids to grow and mature."

Duck Soup: How Cal's Defense Can Break Down Oregon's Zone Read

Avinash — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:13:08 -0000

For a look at Cal's offense versus Oregon's defense, go here.

After watching last year's tape on Oregon's offense, I came to three conclusions.

I am so relieved we don't have to deal with Max Unger, maybe even more so than with Nick Reed (and that's saying something).
I was surprised Oregon didn't run the outside zone read much in the 4th quarter.
Jeremiah Masoli has a future in ballet. He's light on his feet, and it shows with some awkward-looking throws.

After watching last week's tape of Oregon versus Utah (thanks to danzig for sending that to me), I came to three additional conclusions.

Cal is getting their first big running test of the year in LaMichael James.
The Oregon offensive line is still piecing things together.
If Cal can stop the run, they will win this game, because Jeremiah Masoli seems to be auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance in the backfield.

Note: I probably got ~~all of these~~ ~~most~~ a few of these zone plays wrong (I'm sure I could've placed a few draws and counters in each vid too). If there's anything you see, let me know and I'll add your corrections in the post. Thanks again to ieeebear, who cut the videos for Cal's offense against Oregon's defense too.

Inside zone rush attack

(Music: Disconnected by Aceyalone, produced by RJD2, who was born in Eugene! Here's the instrumental.)

You're probably disconnected watching this. What do these runs mean? More elaboration, plus other facets of Oregon's offense after the jump (Scroll all the way down for play-by-play breakdown of each play in each video!).

How do you think Cal will disrupt Oregon's zone-read offense? Can we stop their ability to run the football?

There are so many details and subtleties in Oregon's offense that I can't really go into huge detail about this

Here are some of Chip Kelly's notes. (Hat-tip to Trojan Football Analysis for these valuable notes).

We give the running back the opportunity to run the same path every time he receives the ball. We call it a J-path. The step looks like the letter J. The running back takes a slight open step with is playside foot. His second step replaces the spot where the QB’s foot was. On this third step he starts to square his shoulders to the line of scrimmage. The running back takes his step and aims at the butt of the frontside guard.

...

The second fundamental on the play is the fake when you do not have the ball. It is not a great play if the QB hands off to the running back and watches him run every time. The QB fake is critical and he has to accelerate off the disconnect in the mesh area. The action has to look the same whether the QB keeps the ball or not.

...

The same applies to the running back. He cannot get the ball pulled and stop running. We grade the running back on his fakes. If he does not penetrate the line of scrimmage on his fake he gets a loaf. He needs to stay on the front side when he does not get the ball. Obviously when he has the ball he runs to daylight.
That is the concept of the play. It has to look like it is hitting one way and it has to go the other.

Alright, if that stuff confused you, here are the bullet points.

Usually on zone read plays one player is left unblocked, almost always a defensive end (In Cal's case, it's usually a linebacker because we run the 3-4). You'll see in the video above, in order, Mohamed, Alualu, Williams, Kendricks going unblocked on the first four plays, and similar shenanigans occur on subsequent showings.
Misdirection. The idea is to fool the defensive end rushing to the wrong side. Against the Bears, this happened on the second play from scrimmage (and the first play in the video above), with both Williams and Mohamed digging against the run and giving Masoli the perfect angle to break to space for the score.
Selling the handoff. Crucial. A bungled fake/real handoff could blowup the play, or worse, lead to costly turnovers. Sadly, the replay angles aren't usually good enough for me to tell if it's a good fake or a bad fake, and even I wouldn't really know the difference. Anyone who knows better on selling fake draw handoffs, tell us what we should look for in the comments!
If he has the rock, the running back tries to hit the hole quickly to evade the linebacker. He doesn't hit it immediately, but the inside zone is a power play for the running back.
If he's handling, the quarterback looks to stretch the field. You'll see Masoli almost always go north-south toward the sidelines, or angle away from the offensive-line package.
In either case, the fake allows for greater gaps to open for the defense, and this allows teams like Oregon (with fast, quick athletes).

I'd say this is probably the most important video to watch to get a sense of the 2009 Duck offense. Against Utah, Oregon was doing almost exclusively inside zone reads, at least on their successful plays. We'll see plenty of these looks on Saturday, I'd say at least 55-60% of the plays will have some variation of the inside zone read.

Interestingly, during the Utah game, Masoli sometimes went inside into the teeth of the defense on the inside zone, which makes you wonder how much he trusts his linemen to seal the gaps. That doesn't mean he won't go outside--he caught the Utes biting not once but TWICE on the backside, racing untouched to the end zone with nary a defender within range.

As for LaMichael James, as a freshman, he's definitely got moves. Against Utah there was one particulary impressive play where the right guard completely whiffed on his block, the D-linemen came racing in to blow up the play, and James adjusted, spun around, and raced through the crease for 25 yards. Wow. You can't teach that stuff:

Also, there are times where he can hit the hole, stop and then go again. Running backs who usually charge ahead full steam hit a defensive wall and pretty much go again, but when you stop and go it allows you to adjust, maybe fall down and pick up extra yardage. He picked up a first down that way. He's a little elusive and definitely has a smaller frame (5'9" 180 pounds), which could pose difficulty if the offensive line executes its blocks.

There are of course deficiencies in his game. Most notably, and understandably, he doesn't quite have the vision yet to find the gaps, and took several wrong moves that ended with him getting cradled by a Ute. But for a freshman to get 152 yards on 27 carries against a 10 senior Utah defense...most impressive. I'd probably expect similar numbers this week against Cal.

Outside zone rush attack

Music: The Game by Jurassic 5, instrumental track here.

Here's the other variation on the zone read. See the differences between outside and inside?

Chip Kelly talks about what's going on here (big ups again TFA).

The outside zone play is a complement to the inside zone play. The inside zone is a hole to cutback play. The outside zone is more of a hole to bounce play. The reason we run the outside play is to circle the defense. When you get good at running the inside zone the defenders begin to tighten their techniques and concentrate on squeezing the inside gaps.

If we feel that is happening or we start to get many twists and blitzes inside we run the outside zone play. It gives you speed in space and the offensive line can play with confidence when you have something to change the focus of the defense. We ran the outside zone play 122 times last season for 6.8 yards per carry. It is a good compliment to the inside zone play.

The blocking rules for the offensive line are the same as the inside zone. The difference is the aiming point of the offensive linemen. The "who we block" is the same, but the "how we block" is the difference in the outside zone. The linemen take a kick step to the outside and a crossover step to get up the field. The backside opens on the playside foot and loses ground. The farther you are from the point of attack, the more ground you can lose.

Again, bullet points for those who glossed over all that.

The big difference to notice between the inside and the outside zone run is the way the running back is moving his feet. Usually you'll see the inside zone run, the back is cutting to the hole and then cutting back if he can't find space. In the outside zone run, the Oregon back is usually running north to south until he finds a hole suitable for him to blast through. It's really difficult to discern the difference between the two, because sometimes a running back can get blown up on the coverage.
Look for that 90 degree turn. The moment a running back sniffs a hole, he turns right into it. Johnson was really good at this last year; Blount not so much against us, but better against other teams; James is a total unknown at this time.
You'll also see the blocking change a little. The O-linemen usually are moving forward on an inside zone read, here you'll see a lot more pulling or at the very least the backside opening up and moving to open holes in the area where the running back would turn 90 degrees inside.

Cal got killed on this play last year, as you can see during the last plays of the vid above. Signed, sealed, delivered by Max Unger. In the third quarter, Unger snapped, then immediately pulled and blocked out the unblocked defender. Every. Freaking. Time. You'll get some great clips near the end of the video of Worrell Williams getting engulfed like he was hugging Robert Paulson and Marcus Ezeff flying like a Dutchman.

If you wanted to say Unger was the most valuable offensive player, you get no arguments for me--he unleashed the runs responsible for the three sustained drives Oregon had the entire game, all in the 3rd quarter. Mysteriously though, I think Oregon ran the outside zone only once in the fourth quarter after falling behind by 10, and it didn't involve Unger. Thanks Coach Kelly!

Interestingly enough, against Utah, I don't think the Ducks went to the outside zone more than a handful of times. In the clips danzig sent me, I only noticed one involving James, and he was quickly chased down. I can kind of see why--at the moment the offensive line and downfield receivers aren't really doing their job grappling with their defenders, and the pull blocking really generates no momentum, not the way it did with Unger leading the charge. Utah's D-line had plenty of freedom to operate, and they had no trouble chasing down LaMichael going north and south.

This is probably where the Ducks miss Blount the most. He was unspectacular against the Bears and the Broncos, but he did have the vision to find a hole to cut to. Against the athletic Cal defenders, he was swallowed whole, but at least he gave the Ducks a second option in the zone attack.

Would Oregon try this anyway? I'd think they'd have to give it a shot, but the weapons that made this so effective (Unger, and his left guard pulling companion Jeff Kendall) aren't there, and Johnson and Blount are gone. That leaves Masoli as the only true weapon to the outside, and he hasn't nearly been effective as he was last season. I'd expect a lot of the plays to go inside, because the O-linemen at least seem competent at times doing this.

How should Cal beat the zone read?

Despite the succeses Oregon shows above, Cal has plenty of examples of them stuffing the run game. So it's not like the Ducks have gashed us. Several things are big on this front.

They need superior athletic play from the front seven. Cameron Jordan, Derrick Hill and Tyson Alualu got great penetration in the clips above, and Zack Follett, Mike Mohamed and Anthony Felder did some great work closing up the holes during the middle and later stages of the game. The athleticism needs to be on full display to make sure zone reads get blown up early and often, otherwise the Ducks might be able to break free for big, game-changing plays.

The front seven should have the experience and talent edge over the Oregon offensive line, but this is all contingent on the linebackers being solid in support. If the defensive line struggles at all in puncturing the gaps, Young, Kendricks, Holt, and Mohamed better be prepared to deal with Masoli's decision-making and make sure they don't freeze up on one or overpursue the other. They'll have plenty of unblocked opportunities, if the Ducks do stick with the inside zone rush.

Clamp down on the outside zone. It was only when they were turned to the outside and trying to chase Masoli and Johnson that the Bears nearly lost their grasp on last year's game. While Unger and Johnson are both gone, the Bears shouldn't take any chances with this. Any sniff of the outside zone read, bottle it up so that they don't think twice of doing it again. Keep the Ducks running in the middle of the field with the inside zone and take your chances with that.

Pass coverage

Music: Wylin Out (RJD2 Remix), check out the instrumental used in the video here.

There isn't really much to say on this front. If Oregon has to rely on their passing game to win, they're fucked. SoCal Oski elaborates.

I love [Masoli]. He is nothing but guts and determination. But he can’t throw a freaking ball. JTLight is right to place the blame on his shoulders — but it’s not really as if anyone should be surprised. Masoli is just not a passing QB. He’s a running QB who can make some passes some time if the planets are aligned and Ganesh is feeling extra happy. Otherwise, if Oregon needs his arm to win, they are in a bad place.

The key in this area for Cal will be to have solid zone pass coverage. Big emphasis on zone. Yeah, I know, some people will be bitching about this because Adam Weber to Eric Decker killed us last week. Whatever. Oregon has no Eric Decker on their team, and even though Adam Weber isn't about to light the Big Ten on fire, he's still way ahead of Masoli in terms of pocket presence and precision throwing. (Staring his receivers down though? I'd say they're on the same playing field.

Against our zone coverage last season, he completed one-third of his passes in Memorial last year, and threw two terrible interceptions (both times he stared down his receiver, both times Cal defenders made plays on the ball).

The only time Masoli had a good throw against the Utes was in stride, downfield, against what looked to be man coverage (and I have no idea what happened to the defender on the play, either he got beat or tripped up). On another one, the Utah defender overpursued, and that led to a sizable gain. After that? Two more completions.

How much this has to do with having inexperienced receivers and O-line can be debated, but it's not going to be easier going against a Cal secondary that didn't have its greatest week and is looking to perform much better.

Look for the Ducks to try and exploit with the screen and the middle of the field, especially in obvious passing situations. Because, you know, everyone has. And if the run game stagnates, for the Ducks to win, Masoli is probably going to have to up it to at least 55-60%. Any figure below that against zone coverage without a decent run game is a recipe for doom.

Bonus: Extra runs

Music: Duck Tales for the win.

Mostly fly sweeps and draws/options I noticed here. Against Utah, I did notice some fly sweeps to take advantage of the receivers, including one fake. Masoli also did attempt a quarterback keeper here and there (Question: When he's drawing, is that a midline option? TFA identified it in the Holiday Bowl, and I've seen similar plays with these characteristics). I might be missing some of the counter plays, or I mistook some of them for zone rushes.

I expect Kelly to unload more running plays like this to surprise the Bears, because he knows that it's always a tough slog against the Bears's defense. And it'd probably be very difficult to win with the strategy he played last week. Expect either more outside zone runs or sweeps, something out of the ordinary.

California has had pretty good run defense against the best teams in the Pac-10 the past two seasons, even against Ducks. Although Oregon put up 206 ground yards in 2008 and 191 in 2007, it's fairly below their average of 280 and 252 yards per game those respective years, tied for second and sixth best rushing YPG in the country. Also, the Ducks averaged 4.9 and 4.1 rushing yards per carry in 2007 (9th in the country in YPC) & 2008 respectively (when they were numero uno), which are both fairly below those averages.

Stop the run (like we did in 2006 when we held), you stop the Ducks. Keep it going, and Oregon will be in this one to the end. Go for the kill Bears. The race to Pasadena is on.

Reveling in Victory - Cal wins on the road!

CBKWit — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:41:53 -0000

The third in (hopefully) a thirteen part series, this is a quick recap of a glorious Cal victory. Continue reveling!

The last time I witnessed a Cal victory game away from Memorial Stadium, Steve Levy was our quarterback. We had an all-american center, but his name was Marvin Philip, not Alex Mack. It was the 2005 Vegas bowl, and following the game I was served free cocktails as I made a hundred and fifty bucks at various blackjack tables. Saturday night's post game celebration may have been a bit less glamorous (driving around my former Twin Cities stomping grounds, drinking Grain Belt Premium at Sally's, the country bar on campus), but this victory seems equally important, and a bit more surreal. I had my picture taken with the scoreboard in the background, just to prove that this rarity - a road victory - actually happened and that I was there to see it.

"Premies," proudly endorsed by local waitresses: "I like them better than Miller Lite."

via legalbeer.com

For three quarters, this game followed the same disastrous formula I witnessed at Ucla and Stanford back in 2007. Due to my job, I arrived late and missed early Cal touchdowns in each instance (my job also pays for my flight, hotel, and tickets, so don't shed any tears for old CBKWit). I received word that Cal was up by 7 as we were leaving the hotel, and heard noticeable roars followed by the announcer's subdued report of Tucker's 50 yard catch and Best's second touchdown as we walked to the stadium. I arrived at my seat in time to see Cal force a punt, and remarked to my dad that Cal could essentially end the game with a third straight touchdown.

Much like those games in 2007, Cal did not score that touchdown. Eventually Decker got the Gophers into the game with his spectacular catch while getting absolutely CRUSHED by Cat-house - from the video screen in the stadium, it looked like Decker bobbled the ball as he was falling, which would make it an incomplete pass since he landed out of bounds, but a closer look on espn showed that he somehow held on. That guy is a player.

via stmedia.startribune.com

Cal responded with a third Best td (I started yelling "touchdown! touchdown!" when he was at 25; the hole opened by the left side of the line was big enough for me to gain a few yards), but predictably gave up a score to the Gophers 40 seconds before halftime. When the Cal defense dominated Minnesota to start the second half and force a punt, only to have the terrible kick take a funny bounce off Cat-house's back and end up as our first turnover of the year, I informed my Gopher friends that they had now seen true, authentic Cal football. It continued throughout the third quarter, Cal drives stymied by a phantom holding call on Tepper and an inexplicable trip by Vereen in the face of another huge hole (this time I ate my words after seeing the opening and shouting "first down" just before he fell). A Minneosta drive was elongated by an even worse PI call on a very active Cat-house (I've long liked Ezeff for his strong play at the beginning of the 2007 season, but Cattouse and Johnson are our best safeties right now), perhaps a little hometown payback for his monster hit on Decker. The Gophers tied the game at the end of the third, and every Cal fan in the stadium was thinking "Not again." None of us said "I can't believe it's happening again," because we've all seen it happen so many times.

I entertained those thoughts for most of the third quarter, but a strange, unfamiliar wave of calm washed over me after the Gophers tied it up and the game moved into the fourth. I am hardly an optimistic person, but I felt very confident that Cal would prevail. And unlike in those road games I attended in 2007 and those road games I watched in 2008, where Cal had held the lead for most of the game only to wilt at the end, they did.

Riley's 3rd and 16 completion to Jeremy Ross was the play of the game, the difference between this year's team and the Cal teams of the recent past. It is obvious that Riley and the receivers can now make plays consistently that Cal simply couldn't and hasn't since Longshore's injury at Oregon, but the difference is more complicated and profound than simply completing passes down the field. This team has toughness, cohesion, and composure that it hasn't had since the 2004 squad. This manifests in blowouts of inferior teams at home and the ability to win tough games on the road. I would have liked to see Cal close out Minnesota early when they had the chance, and I would have liked to see better playcalling and execution in the third quarter when the Gophers were selling out to stop the run. Minnesota often left its corners in one-on-one coverage on the outside, and instead of completeting quick stop routes for 3-5 yards on first down, we missed an inordinate amount of passes and were frequently faced with 2nd and 10. A lack of offensive execution left the defense out to dry, and the Gophers tying touchdown was almost inevitable.

Still, it's hard to win on the road against decent to good teams (and the Gophers certainly fall into that range), much less to win with style. It's loud. The ball takes funny bounces. The homer refs exert a huge influence, killing your drives, extending theirs, and flipping field position. Minnesota came back to tie the game and had the crowd at their back, seeking a third straight late game victory. They gave Cal their best shot, and Riley calmly stepped up and put the ball right on the money, in the soft spot of a two-deep zone between the shallow corner and deep safety. Ross caught it, something he doesn't always do (see his drop in the endzone against Eastern Washington a week ago), and dragged the Gopher defenders for another 10 yards. The game was over. Cal throttled Minnesota for the last half-quarter to win going away. It wasn't Ezeff's great hit at the goal-line to win at Oregon in 2007 - Cal didn't let this game come down to the wire. The Bears asserted themselves and left little doubt about the outcome.

The question now becomes, can the Bears do it twice in a row? Few would contend that Oregon has a better team than Cal, but Cal's superior performance so far is not really the issue. This Saturday's game will likely be determined by Cal's ability to recover from a fluky turnover, to fight through an awful call, to execute with a hostile crowd on its feet. Cal has struggled in these areas over the last few years, but they gave notice three days ago that this year's team is different. If they maintain their heretofore nearly impeccable composure (and of course stop the run, goad Masoli into another terrible passing performance, and dominate the line of scrimmage), our Bears will come home 4-0.

A road win - they do exist!

Four Questions To Ponder About Our Golden Bears

Avinash — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:10:43 -0000

More photos » by Paul Battaglia - AP

Jahvid Best's health is something to worry about, but should we also be worrying about his production?

Browse more photos »

(Quick reminder: don't forget to fill out the report card! Need those ballots in by midnight!)

As we enter the heart of our season, we still have a bunch of issues to address about our team. Our community raised some of those excellent points in the postgame thread, and I added a few more. Ponder these questions in the comments.

1. Has the secondary regressed? Syd'Quan Thompson and Darian Hagan looked like lockdown corners last season. Yet now on two straight weeks, both the Squid and the Barbarian have been caught staring and given up crucial scores. Hagan was especially brutalized last week.

Although Bob Gregory has always favored zone schemes to stop attacking offenses (and for the most part, it's worked), you have to wonder if it frustrates his talented corners to not be playing more straight man coverage. Other than Thompson, the secondary looked totally discombobulated trying to defend passes, getting called for penalty after penalty. I have to say that of the three areas of defense, pass defense worries me the most.

2. Will Cal again struggle to run the football in Pac-10 season? Now you're probably going "Whaaaaaa? We've gashed everyone we played." Well, Minnesota's front seven pretty much stuffed the run from the middle of the second quarter to the middle of the fourth (why we didn't take advantage of the outside, I don't know). And this is just an appetizer to the real meat of the schedule.

Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Oregon State all have fast and physical defenses that can seal the edges as well as they can contain the middle, which means our blocking will have to drastically improve. We've seen it plenty of times in the last few seasons that if you stop Cal's ability to run the ball, you can take them down. Based on what I saw against Minnesota, they aren't ready to open up the front for a sixty minute game. So color me concerned.

3. How do we cope with the bad kicking? The special teams has reached crisis point. Although Bryan Anger is still doing his thing, and the punt coverage was great (Isi Sofele's hit was legal from the replays I saw), the kicking game has never been in a more wretched state of affairs. We're having such trouble kicking field goals that if the Bears had 4th and 10 on their own 25, I wouldn't hesitate in putting Riley under center and letting it ride.

dballisloose summed it up well.

Seriously, the special teams is sickening…….

why can’t Syd get enough protection to run back the punts?

why can’t we get decent kick-offs? 12 yard line, 15 yard line, 20 yard line, out of bounds…..wtf?! this is a top 10 team and one position (kicker) is fucking this up for us. we can’t let the other team start at their own 40 every time. against the better teams its going to really hurt us.

Minnesota started the first half on average their own 47. Cal was on their own 20.

4. Are we going to unleash Kevin Riley early? TedfordIsGod noted a certain conservatism to the strategy after Cal took the lead.

We really should have been throwing more – guys were open. Riley wasn’t great, but was hitting enough guys down-field to keep the defense on their heels – that is all we need from the passing game. I know some people will get freaked out by a couple of his bad throws, but I feel good about the fact he just doesn’t seem to put his bad throws in places where defenders are going to catch then (except that pass that Tucker had to break up – seemed that was on Tucker though.)

As I said in the pregame preview about our offense versus Minnesota's defense, I was really hoping the Bears would establish the pass to get Best going, but I also didn't expect Ludwig or Tedford to let loose the artillery until they absolutely needed to (which as it turns out was the 4th quarter). Thus we still don't know about his capabilities early on in this game.

Maybe it will happen this week. Maybe.

Anything else you want to ponder about our Golden Bears? Discuss in the comments.

Poll

What question leaves you the most concerned going into Pac-10 play?

Secondary

40 votes

Inside running

16 votes

Kicking

273 votes

Establishing the pass

30 votes

359 votes | Poll has closed

Bear Down: How Cal's Defense Should Stop Maryland's Offense

Avinash — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:02:20 -0000

(This is the first of a two part series; offense today, defense tomorrow. For all the latest SBN stories on Cal-Maryland, click here!)

Maryland could actually be more stacked at the skill positions than they were last season. Their quarterback is entering his senior campaign. Shouldn't we be a little bit more afraid of the Terps's offense, knowing how their offense slashed and dashed their way around us this season?

I'd say the answer is yes and no. Here are several key factors to this game that I'll elaborate on after the jump.

Don't spot Maryland an early lead.
Don't change up the pass defense strategy against Maryland too much.
Why the younger running back might be Cal's primary concern over the incumbent.
Maryland dominated the line of scrimmage last year. It's our turn.

What do you think Cal's defense should do to stop Maryland's offense?

via media3.washingtonpost.com

Don't let Chris Turner break you down: I wrote this after last year's game.

I don’t know what was up with surfer dude turned quarterback Chris Turner, but he played out of his goddamned mind. He was six for six on 3rd downs, getting five first downs (including on a 3rd and 9, 3rd and 12, and a 3rd and 16). Either way, it reflects badly on the defense.

His excellent performance against Cal though, appeared to be an anomaly--against ACC competition he averaged a 56% completion rating, which is barely passable. After looking at the stats and his overall season numbers, I'm getting a clearer picture as to why he was so good against Cal.

Turner was extremely confident playing from ahead. Cfbstats.com shows that he completed a whopping 67 percent of his passes when his team was up 8-14 points, which was pretty much the entire Cal-Maryland game (it drops slightly to 63 percent when you include even larger margins into that set).
In fact, Turner's numbers were fairly mediocre in all other cases. He completed about 56 percent of his passes when his team was barely up, but that number dipped to 52 percent when the game was tied. He threw seven touchdowns and eight interceptions when the game was tied or when Maryland was behind. It'd have been very interesting to see how Turner would've performed if Cal had scored first.
On average, he converted about 40% of his 3rd down throws into 1st downs. Average numbers (I think the mean is like 45-46%), but compared to Kevin Riley's 2008 campaign (25.8%), they look practically sparkling.
Testudo Times claims he plays to the level of his competition; I'd say they're about 80 percent right. He played ACC champs Virginia Tech and Cal very well, he destroyed a solid Wake Forest team. he was mediocre against an 8-5 North Carolina team, was up and down against Boston College (58% completion rate on 57 passes and 2 scores, but 2 picks too). The exception was a poor perfromance against a strong Florida State squad, which ambushed him into a two interception, 53% completion rate, 149 yard game. Considering how good Cal is going to be this year, look for Turner to come out especially confident that he can knock off the Bears.

Thus, it is imperative not to spot Maryland an early lead. Turner becomes a more efficient quarterback and he gets more comfortable with taking risks. I guess the analogous term would be being the chipleader at the poker table, a lot of people would relax and be a little bit more dicier having the edge. Turner went all in against Cal last season and it paid off.

Force him to come from behind, Cal defense. Then see what he's capable of.

via www.yardbarker.com

Zone in, or zone out? As stated before, a lot of Maryland's success came over the middle. Hydrotech talked about this after last year's game.

Zone coverage. Our zones were getting picked apart pretty darn well today. But there's not a lot we can do really other than get a faster pass rush, and perhaps have better anticipation on passes. Because we got picked apart in zones necessarily mean we should switch to man? Not really. There seems to be a huge dislike of zone coverage by many Cal fans. The reasoning seems to be that zone coverages don't work. Well, today they didn't, but zone does work and has in the past in previous years. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if more than 50% of our INTs in the past 3 years were from zone coverages rather than man coverages.

Despite the loss of Darrius Heyward-Bey and Dan Gronkowski, Maryland's receiving corps is deceptively deep. Torrey Smith will be Maryland's primary weapon, having caught 29 passes last season, tied for 2nd on the team.

Smith flashed his potential last year as a redshirt freshman, starting the season’s final six games. In addition to setting the ACC single-season record for kick return yards, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Smith caught 16 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown over the season’s final five games, including eight catches for 115 yards and a touchdown in the regular-season finale against Boston College. Smith has also consistently tested among the fastest receivers on the team, with a 4.36 time in the 40-yard dash, behind only Lee-Odai and McCree.

Also, Adrian Cannon seems to be the best Terp at short-range. So if we're looking for a short-range target who will be targeted to break down the zones, he could be the one.

Thus, due to the deep receiving corps, I wouldn't drastically change the approach we used in defending the pass. Turner's performance in breaking down the zone was, as Charles Barkley likes to say, "better offense beating good defense". Tip your hat, shake his hand and move on.

What I might recommend is occasional shifts in personnel. Mychal Kendricks and D.J. Holt are unknown commodities and we don't know how good they are in defending the pass at this point. Expect Cal to occasionally shift into a 3-3-5 on passing downs, utilizing the talent of the deep secondary, bringing in someone like Chris Conte or Sean Cattouse to try and disrupt the zones Turner was so effective at breaking down last season.

Another possibility is trying to turn Turner away from the middle and into the teeth of the experienced secondary, either by going in the flats or progressing deeper downfield. Although Maryland's receivers are probably talented, outside of Smith they lack the experience to deal with Thompson or Hagan on one-on-one coverage. Heyward-Bey and Gronkowski. However, the downside to this is that the Terps have plenty of speedy receivers who have the ability to break the coverage.

Hence, it's unlikely we'll see a huge difference in the way Bob Gregory approaches this game. They'll just have to count on Turner not being perfect again. Probabilistically, the advantage is with Gregory.

via www.dailycal.org (Image from Nathan Yan)

Who's the back? Da'Rel Scott did most of his damage early on (89 yards on 19 carries, 2 scores). Even though he settled down as the game went along (half of his yards came on the first series of the game), he set the tone on offense for his team. Without his contributions, Cal doesn't play tougher to defend the run, and doesn't make the back eight more vulnerable to Turner's probing. So I'd say he was just as valuable in the victory as Turner.

However, there is one thing worth mentioning. Scott has been a TERRIBLE road running back.

In his four conference games last season he rushed for 105 yards combined, averaging out to a woeful 1.84 yards per carry. His lone 100 yard rushing game on the road came in that infamous loss aganst Middle Tennessee State. To be fair, he was playing pretty good rushing defenses (Boston College was 6th at rushing defense YPC, Virginia Tech was 17th, Virginia 40th, Clemson 42nd), although his numbers were still well below the average rushing performance against those opponents. Considering that he'll be playing on the road against a very good rushing defense, these are positive sticking points for Cal in being able to settle him.

Which is why I'd focus on stopping Davin Meggett. Once Scott went down with an injury in the third quarter, Meggett took over and ran at an even faster pace (82 yards on 13 carries). Given that they'll both be splitting snaps, we should keep a close eye on whether he can be more elusive and able on the road than his counterpart.

Davin Meggett has virtually pulled even with Da'Rel Scott, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season, in the race to be Maryland's starting tailback, offensive coordinatorJames Franklin said Thursday night after the team's final preseason scrimmage.

Franklin's comments were surprising because Scott rushed for 1,133 yards last season and was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection.

It's not that Scott hasn't played well, but rather that Meggett, who had a solid freshman season with 457 rushing yards, has improved, according to Franklin.

"Meggett has improved probably as much as anybody," Franklin said. "I think we've got two No. 1 tailbacks, and we're going to use them as such."

That's why in this game I'm more concerned about Meggett than Scott. Although his numbers aren't great on the road either, the sample is far more limited, so you can't really draw any conclusions. I'd prefer the enemy I know over the one I don't.

via a.espncdn.com

Return the favor: All that being said, Cal fans should be optimistic about their chances to stop Maryland's skill players. Why? Their offensive line from a season ago is gone.

[Senior center Phil] Costa, who moves over from left guard, is one of the Terps' few known quantities. Another is hulking left tackle Bruce Campbell, whose academic issues from the spring are no longer a concern.

Elsewhere, there is uncertainty. The right tackle battle features an undersized technician (Paul Pinegar), an inexperienced option (redshirt freshman R.J. Dill) and a promising player with an extensive history of foot injuries (Tyler Bowen).

Redshirt freshman Justin Lewis is favored to win the right guard job, and Andrew Gonnella and Lamar Young begin camp splitting reps at left guard.

The three have combined to play in three career games, almost exclusively after the outcome was decided.

Thus, we have an inexperienced right front going up against the seasoned Cameron Jordan and the talented Trevor Guyton. I like the sound of that.

Costa and Hill will probably be tangoing most of the game, so that leaves us with how Alualu will handle Campbell. I'd be surprised if the Bears didn't try any of these things.

1) Take Campbell out of the picture by rushing a linebacker or a d-back to the blind side, forcing Campbell to pick up the blitz and putting more pressure on the young Lewis to go one-on-one with Alualu.

2) Selective pressure on the right front. Maryland's Achilles heel on offense is right here. You can expect the Terps won't be running much right off-tackle like they did last season.

3) Drawing from (2) force the Terps toward the middle and away from the edges. Expect Maryland to employ a Cal 2008 strategy of running up the middle behind their veteran center and hoping to bust open some holes. Hopefully the new linebacking corps will be up to the challenge of taking down Scott and Meggett.

4) You actually might not see much additional pass rush. Cal's D-line did an excellent job causing havoc last season on their own, sometimes mixing in a linebacker or two to overwhelm offensive lines. Even against Maryland's experienced o-linemen, Cal managed four sacks on Turner and seven tackles for a loss. It's likely you'd see similar, perhaps better numbers this season, even with Follett gone.

Remember when the Maryland defensive line took advantage of an inexperienced Cal front? It's time to return the favor.

Cal 2009 Position Previews: Secondary

Avinash — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:00:16 -0000

via farm3.static.flickr.com (Image from jsnell)

Read the previous position previews: Quarterback, running backs, offensive line, receivers and tight ends, defensive line and linebackers.

I think we're ahead of last year. Everybody seems to moving a little faster this year. We got a lot of healthy guys and defensively being into this 3-4 defense over a year, just allows us to come in and install more to the defense and be able to play faster. And the offense, they look pretty good adjusting to the new coordinator that came in, in the spring. Everything seems to be moving fast and real comfortable.
- [Syd'Quan] Thompson on the difference between this year and last year's defensive unit.

Syd'Quan Thompson has come a long way. When he was thrust into a starting role as a redshirt frosh, Cal fans went ballistic, proclaiming him useless, a failure, a saboteur, etc. They wanted him benched, banished, gone, and it took nearly a year for him to escape the shadow of that inauspicious debut.

Now? Check out his accolades after the jump.

How do you feel about the Cal secondary? At this moment, where does Syd'Quan Thompson rank among Cal's greatest defensive backs?

Preseason All-American. Watchlist for the Lott Trophy, where he will be going toe-to-toe with fellow Pac-10 D-backs like Taylor Mays, T.J. Ward, and Alterraun Verner. Finalist for the "Jim Thorpe Award (Best DB in Nation), Chuck Bednarik Award (Best Defensive Player in nation according to Maxwell Football Club), and Bronco Nagurski Trophy (Best Defensive Player according to Football Writers of America)". Unlike many who have wilted from the pressure and the hate, Syd has not only risen to the challenge but transcended it. He didn't whine or wilt, he emerged as one of the best Golden Bear defenders of the Tedford era.

Jahvid is going to get all the hype and pub this season, and he should. But let's not overlook how far Syd has progressed a player. One could say his journey of personal and athletic growth as a Cal football player parallels the odyssey of many a Cal student. True Golden Bear, through and through.

via www.mybearterritory.com

The Squid and the Barbarian: I'm not even sure what to say about these two. They combined for 36 passes defended, tied for first with Alterraun Verner and Michael Norris of UCLA for tops in the nation. They broke up 29 passes, second to Verner and Norris. I mean, you'd think there isn't much room for improvement, right?

Well, if we have to nitpick, Hagan and Thompson only combined for seven interceptions last season (only? Yeah, only). Although the Bears were third in the nation in interceptions with twenty-six (a leap up from 90th in 2007 with ten), and the secondary combined for seventeen of those, you'd figure that Darian and Syd would be able to rein in more of those broken up passes.

Pass break-ups are great (and Hagan and Syd had plenty of spectacular ones last season). Interceptions are better. So, uh...try to rein in the balll when you can guys.

(I feel so wishy-washy with this, because both of these guys turned in A+ performances most of last season and now I'm asking for A++. I hope I don't ever do this again.)

via farm4.static.flickr.com (Link to original image)

Why we need a healthy Ezeff: Ezeff has supposedly stepped into a leadership role this offseason, and that's great news, but even better would not be seeing his name next to an injury report. Because If there's any position the Bears are vulnerable in terms of depth, it's at strong safety. Bear Will Not Quit points out why:

Since 2007, all meaningful snaps at strong safety have gone to Hicks and Ezeff. No one else on the roster has had much of anything in the way of experience at the position. If Ezeff goes down, it's sophomore DJ Campbell, or one of the myriad corner/safety hybrids like Conte, Nnabuife or even Cattouse.

I think DJ Campbell can be a nice player eventually. He shows some nice athleticism in his high school highlight video (link here), and he got scout team player of the year honors. But as with defensive line, he's got very little experience. And he's a bit light to be playing the position at 5'11 198. Ezeff is 220. And Conte, Nnabuife and Cattouse are really free safeties or cover-2 corners who aren't exactly built to come up and play in the box. I have no doubt they could adapt to the position eventually, but that will involve a dropoff in production at least for a time.

Ezeff is not necessarily an all conference player, but he is a solid guy who knows the position very well, can play all 4 downs, and has a lot of starts. If he goes down, it will leave a bigger hole than people think.

Which is why I winced at this news from earlier in camp.

After pursuing Vereen on a 30-yard scamper, safety Marcus Ezeff pulled up lame and had to be carted off the field. Tedford said after practice that Ezeff had a sprained ankle.

Eek. He should be fine, but stay healthy Marcus.

via grfx.cstv.com

Meet our secondary coach: Finally, Rivals profiles Al Simmons, who found his groove pretty quickly in creating one of the strongest defensive back corps in the country.

# One of the more noticeable catches of watching the secondary every practice is observing position coach Al Simmons in action. Every coach has their style of teaching. Some like to yell, some are very energetic and some are mellow.

# Simmons is just as demanding as any other coach out there, but his coaching methods definitely scale more towards the relaxed side.

# A Bay Area native, Simmons joined Tedford's staff last season and the results have been through the roof. If fans don't think coaches make that big of a difference, just look at what Simmons has done to help the defensive backs get better over the last year and a half. Absolutely night and day.

# Every practice during 7-on-7's and 11-on-11 sessions, Simmons stands way behind the last safety on the field, presumably to get an 180 degree look at the entire field. The second a play goes dead, the springy Simmons sprints back towards the line of scrimmage to talk to his players.

# Additionally, when a running back breaks off a big run and gets into the second level, Simmons sprints alongside the defensive back that is chasing the ball-carrier and you can hear him constantly say to his player, "finish, finish, finish" as to make sure his players don't give up on the play. Truly one of the more impressive position coaches in the business.

Poll

Where does Syd'Quan Thompson rank among Bob Gregory's greatest defenders?

Number 1!

43 votes

Top 5

158 votes

Top 10

23 votes

Top 20

1 votes

Lower than Top 20

2 votes

227 votes | Poll has closed