SB Nation - Chris Conte

Cal-Oregon State 2009 Report Card

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

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

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

USAFGoldenBear

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And now onto the report cards!

IMG_6971 (via Monica's Dad)

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

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

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

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

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

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

ososdereo - This receiving corps clearly suffers from separation anxiety.

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

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

Run blocking

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

Pass Protection

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

Run D

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

Pass Rush

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

MadBum - What pass rush?

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

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

Pass D

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

MadBum - What pass defense?

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

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

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

Special Teams

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

Coaching

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

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

Coaching

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JrBear - All that matters is that Best is okay.

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

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

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

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

Gameday

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Looking Back At Arizona State: Playaction & The Domino Effect

HydroTech — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:15:32 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

about 1 month ago: Arizona State quarterback Danny Sullivan looks for an open receiver in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against California Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Browse more photos »

During the 2009 Cal @ Arizona State college football game, Arizona State scored on an 80 yard touchdown pass. Who was to blame for this defensive error? Most football fans use a general rule of blaming the closest defender to the offensive player. On this particular play, that was safety Marcus Ezeff. Such however, a rule isn't always correct. The closest defender to the intended receiver is not always the player at fault for the completion.

On this particular play, the defender who is more at fault for the touchdown is a cornerback, who is away from the intended wide receiver.

Here is the play at issue (please excuse my poor quality images, I no longer have photoshop on my computer):

Arizona State is facing a 1st and 10 from their own 20 yard line. Cal lines up in its 3-4 defense showing a two-deep look and with the cornerbacks showing man coverage. A two-deep defense is a defense which has two deep defenders each guarding the right and left deep halves of the field.

The defensive error occurs at the snap of the ball. Conte, Cal's left cornerback (the defense's left) reads run, and bites down on the playaction, leaving the WR that he is supposed to be covering completely undefended. I've shown Conte's pursuit with a blue arrow, and I've circled the ASU WR in red.

The Cal safety to Cal's left side of the field presumably Cattouse or Johnson, leaves his deep 1/2 of the field and jumps down to defend the wide open WR along the sideline that Conte left unguarded. I've shown the Cal safety's pursuit with a blue arrow. This opens up the deep 1/2 of the field opposite of Ezeff (Cal's right safety)- which is not Ezeff's responsibility. The ASU WR whom the pass was thrown to runs a deep post. I've shown the ASU WR's route with a red arrow.

As you can see from the above picture, Cal's left deep 1/2 of the field is completely wide open. I've shown this area with a green box. This is the area that Cal's left safety should be covering.

The above picture was taken exactly when the ASU WR caught the ball. I've shown the deep left 1/2 side of the field with a blue box. I've circled the ASU WR in red. As you can see, the ASU WR is in the deep left 1/2 zone - where the left Cal safety should have been. Ezeff was expecting help, but got none.

Below is the play in its entirety (youtube video below courtesy of ieeebear):

Some people might think this play was a corner blitz and Ezeff had man coverage responsibilities on the ASU WR. This conclusion is incorrect. Had Conte been blitzing, he would have placed himself on the line of scrimmage, pretending he was trying to jam the WR he was covering. Such an act would place Conte closer to the QB and would decrease the amount of time to get to the QB on his pass rush. Conte did not do this. If Conte was on a blitz, he more than likely would have continued his pass rush - but like most defenders who are fooled by playaction, he stops his approach on the ball fake and heads down the field to resume his blown coverage. Conte does this. Furthermore, if Conte was blitzing, then Cal's left safety would have had man-coverage responsibility on the WR that Conte was pretending to cover. Thus, Marcus Ezeff would have been the lone deep defender to cover the entire field and he would have aligned himself more towards the center of the field and not so wide to the right. Ezeff did not do this.

Comments from Cal Defensive Coordinator Bob Gregory support the conclusion that this was not a corner blitz. Here's what Cal Defensive Coordinator Bob Gregory had to say about the defensive playcall:

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

Indeed, Gregory is correct. Cal was playing its 3-4 defense in a two deep - meaning Cal had two deep safeties each covering 1/2 of the field. This is not to be confused with a Cover-2 defense. A Cover-2 defense involves all zone coverage. But a two-deep implies that there are two deep defenders and the rest of the coverage is not zone coverage. Gregory clearly made this distinction. If you look at the play, you'll see that indeed, Cal is playing two-deep with man coverage. Both cornerbacks Conte and Syd'Quan Thompson are locked up in man coverage. The linebackers appear to be in zone coverages (except for Young who is pass rushing).

Had Gregory would have called up a corner blitz, he probably would have mentioned it in his quote. Furthermore, the resulting playcall would have put Cal into a 1-deep coverage and Gregory specifically states that we were in a two-deep.

Conclusion:

It only takes one defender to make an error on the field to give up a touchdown. That defender doesn't even have to be the defender nearest the intended receiver or the ball carrier. In this play, Conte was far from the intended WR. Yet his mis-read of the offensive play as a run instead of a pass caused a domino effect. His error caused him to leave his ASU WR undefended. This caused Cal's left safety to vacate his deep zone to cover the ASU WR that Conte left undefended. This allowed ASU's intended WR to catch the ball in Cal's left 1/2 deep zone where the Cal left safety should have been.

Perhaps Ezeff shouldn't have been playing so deep. Perhaps Ezeff shouldn't have been playing so wide. Ezeff may be partly at fault, but his fault is minimal compared to Conte's. Conte's error was the one domino which fell and knocked over the others.

Cal Football has been plagued this year by its "10 man defense." This is one of those plays. It takes all 11 defenders to execute and win their individual battles for the play to be a success. On this play, only 10 defenders executed and won their individual battles.

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.

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

What Excites You The Most About Cal Football? (2009 ed.)

Avinash — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:00:18 -0000

A few weeks ago, we focused on the Debbie Downer side of Cal football. Would the sky fall on our team's chances from the opening kickoff? Would quarterback, quarterback, quarterback continue to torment us? Would one of those doomsday scenarios that chowder was thinking of here unfold?

Yeah, enough of that. Let's move toward the brighter side of life. Let's figure out what we'll all be looking forward to the most in 2009. I'll talk about three particular units that have me excited this season, and the first one has something to do with some mystical trophy that everyone obsesses over for whatever reason.

via fc03.deviantart.com

(Click here for the image wallpaper of Jahvid Best above!)

Running backs: I'm pretty sure that this has been at the top of every Cal fans's list since 2004. Going into every season since 2004, the run game behind Ron Gould has blossomed into one of the most effiicent in college football. They have placed near or at the top of the Pac-10 every season, often surpassing USC in terms of pure production. Take a look at two of the most common metrics of success in the run game.

Yards/game for Cal run offense
Year	Yards per game	Division I rank
2004	256.75	6th
2005	235.25	9th
2006	162.38	35th
2007	166.77	44th
2008	186.23	28th

Yards/carry for Cal run offense
Year	Yards per carry	Division I rank
2004	6.05	1st
2005	5.84	3rd
2006	4.94	13th
2007	4.92	14th
2008	5.57	5th

It appears with Best entering his junior campaign, the Cal run game is back on the upswing after two good but not great running campaigns. Assuming he gets at least adequate backup from Shane Vereen or Covaughn Deboskie, he should . Anything more would set the Bears offense right on track for 2009, hopefully opening up the passing attack to exploit Pac-10 defenses looking to box in Cal's power run game.

Defensive Line: During the first year of the 3-4 (click for danzig's brief rundown of it), there were indeed significant improvements from 2007 to 2008. Four particular improvements stand out that highlight how important our D-line has been to our rebirth as a defensive stalwart in the Pac-10. First numbers are from 2007, second numbers from 2008.

Rushing yards per carry allowed: 4.02 (59th) to 3.21 (15th)

Rushing yards per game allowed: 164.46 (68th) to 122.23 (26th)

Tackles for loss/game: 5.08 (109th) to 6.92 (18th)

Sacks/game: 1.62 (94th) to 2.69 (14th)

Rulon Davis is gone, but filling in his shoes should be the very capable Cameron Jordan, who showed very promising signs going into next season that he is ready to step into Davis's giant shoes. Rounding out the line with the capable senior Alualu and the developing Derrick Hill at nose tackle, this should be a very strong unit in 2009, and should make up for the losses of the linebackers with additional experience running the 3-4 set.

Secondary: My favorite position. The Bears pass D allowed only 5.8 yards per attempt (10th in the country), completed 51.6% of their passes (4th in the country), and picked off 24 passes (3rd in the country). And guess what? Those stats could possibly be better (or at least the same) this year. EVERYONE is back.

Syd'Quan Thompson and Darian Hagan combined for 36 individual pass in 2009, tying them with Verner/Norris of UCLA as one of the best lockdown corner units in the country. Brett Johnson and Marcus Ezeff aren't quite on their level, but they can certainly tackle well enough. Add in capable reserves in Sean Cattouse, Chris Conte, and Bryant Nnabuife, and it's hard to see Cal's secondary not being second to none in the Pac-10.

What makes you optimistic about 2009 Cal football? Voice your thoughts in the comments!

Poll

Which part of the 2009 Cal football team excites you the most?

Running back

158 votes

Defensive Line

24 votes

Secondary

40 votes

Quarterback

13 votes

Receivers

4 votes

Offensive line

2 votes

LInebackers

10 votes

Special teams

6 votes

Coaching

11 votes

268 votes | Poll has closed

2009 Spring Depth Chart

HydroTech — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:31:18 -0000

Well, I meant to do a spring depth chart post, but then culinary school finals ambushed me. In the mean time, fellow Cal Football blogger Ken Crawford over at Excuse Me For My Voice beat me to the punch. Nevertheless, I'll continue on with this post despite my tardiness.

Here are my thoughts regarding the 2009 Cal Football post-Spring ball depth chart (the depth chart is available to view here):

No QB named the clear starter.

via blog.oregonlive.com

What does this tell me? The QB job is still pretty wide open. However, Riley is listed at the top, followed by Mansion then Sweeney. What does this tell me? This is the tentative standings between the three QBs. What else can be inferred from the depth chart? Well, it looks like experience is definitely giving Riley and edge over Mansion, likewise Mansion's (albeit limited) experience is giving him a slight advantage over Sweeney. ESPN writer Ted Miller put it pretty accurately when he said that Riley is the clear front-runner but he could easily lose his job too.

Does Tedford need to name a QB now? No. I've perused other Cal sports boards and I've heard some talk of how Tedford has lost his mind by not naming a starter. Quite frankly, that's straight silly talk. Naming a starter now accomplishes very little. At the most, it may instill some confidence into the named starter. However, naming a starter now, this early, will breed complacency. The starter won't push himself as hard as he would when he knows his job is at risk. The backups won't push themselves as hard when they know they can't win the job. Furthermore, naming a starter now, after spring ball accomplishes nothing. Some people think that naming a starter now will allow the starting QB to work on his timing with his WRs. However, this really isn't true. Right now it's summer. The coaches can't work with the players. The players are conditioning and don't really have rigidly structured practices. During the summer the players will get together and practice among themselves but not all players are here during the summer. Some are in school, some are home. With as much as 1/2 the team gone during summer, and the players having mildly organized practices (as opposed to highly structured fall camp practices) are they really going to get a lot of quality reps together? No. In other words, a "starting" QB really won't do much else differently than a non-starting QB. So why name a guy a starter and just have him get complacent?

Finally, I think some Cal fans have been complaining that USC and Pete Carroll named a starter prior to their spring game and thus Tedford should be able to do it too. Well, Tedford pretty much did. Riley was essentially the starter for our spring game since he worked with the first team. Does Tedford need to make a public announcement so it's official?

The most compelling reason why Tedford hasn't named a starter is because with all of Cal's QB problems last year, Tedford wants the most information possible before he makes his decision. Naming a starter now, without seeing the QBs' performances during fall camp (the more important camp), would be premature.

The Battle for Flanker

In the Emerald Bowl, Jeremy Ross played exclusively as Cal's flanker WR in base personnel. Now the depth chart is showing Nyan Boateng in that spot. Perhaps the senior finally showed enough to earn that top spot? It's still early but it's possible there could be an upset special and Ross wins it back.

The Battle for Split End

Towards the end of last season, Verran Tucker played split end WR almost exclusively. With all that experience on the field you'd think he'd be an easy write-in for the starting spot at split end again. I guess not. Sophomore Marvin Jones, with little game experience, is at that top split end spot. Again, it's still early, but a seasoned WR with lots of starting experience loses his starting spot to another player who was mostly injured all of last year? Either Tucker is slipping or Jones is that good.

Who Will Be the Top 3 WRs?

This is a fairly important question. Cal's top 3 WRs get the majority of the snaps on the field - perhaps upward of 90%. So who is it going to be? Tucker, Ross, and Boateng have the most experience so you might think it'd be them. However, we all saw sophomore Alex Lagemann blow up in spring ball. Right now he's penciled in at the #1 slot position. When Cal goes to its 3 WR sets (11 personnel), if we assume the top players at each WR position see the field then the top three will be Boateng, Jones, and Lagemann. That leaves out experienced WRs Jeremy Ross, and Verran Tucker - and puts the more inexperienced Jones and Lagemann on the field. Do we want more inexperienced WRs on the field again another year? Is the talent that Jones and Lagemann bring to the field worth more than the experience that Ross and Tucker bring? Cal could have a Rose Bowl season next year if its passing game comes together (and assuming the running game stays dominant and the same goes for the defense). I'm not exactly sure that having more inexperienced players on the field is the greatest way to get that passing to improve. The alternative is that Cal adopts some sort of 5 WR rotation with all the aforementioned players rotate in frequently. It will be interesting to see what happens with the WR situation when fall camp ends.

via imgs.sfgate.com

Hagan Locks Up A Starting Spot From the Classroom

Darian Hagan has been out most of the spring working on academics. Most of us figured Chris Conte had a chance to steal a starting spot. It doesn't look like that is going to happen. Frankly, I'm not surprised. While Conte has shown improvements from his shaky freshman year, I still think Hagan has superior coverage skills as well as being better in run support too. The fact that Hagan still sits #1 at his CB spot despite being mostly MIA speaks volumes about what the coaching staff thinks of him.

Ted Miller of ESPN has been saying the secondary might be the best in the Pac-10. Well, he might be right. We all know Syd'Quan Thompson is a stud and an NFL talent. We all know Darian Hagan is great too (he's got two years remaining too!). Actually, I think Hagan is underrated and should have made Miller's Top-30 Players in the Pac-10 list. And with Sean Cattouse coming on strong and pushing Brett Johnson, and Marcus Ezeff being his stud self, our secondary could be wicked good again. Of course, let's not forget that a secondary's success also relies on the linebackers, and defensive line too.

Tad Smith Locks Up A Starting Spot From the Training Room

So Tad Smith breaks his Scapula, looks to be out perhaps through opening kickoff and set to lose his presumed starting spot to Anthony Miller but then he's still #1. Hmm... okay. I think it's safe to say that unless something crazy happens in the fall camp that he's still going to be #1.

via imgs.sfgate.com

Mychal Kendricks to Will and Devin Bishop to Buck

The biggest change in positions this spring was Mychal Kendricks moving from Buck (weak outside linebacker) to Will (weak inside linebacker), and Devin Bishop moving from Will to Buck.

I think a lot of fans are a bit hesitant about this move because Kendricks doesn't have prototypical size (6'0" 230 lbs) however I don't think that's a big concern. Former Cal middle linebacker Anthony Felder was 6'2", 233 lbs. Former Cal middle linebacker Worrell Williams was 5'11", 240 lbs. Both of those guys were very productive at their positions despite Felder being a bit under the prototypical weight of a middle linebacker, and Worrell Williams being under the prototypical heigh of a middle linebacker. Are we really going to make a big deal out of a Kendricks being perhaps 10-20 pounds lighter than the prototypical MLB? Or the fact that Kendricks is perhaps 2-3 inches too short for the prototypical MLB? I don't think we need to or should.

What matters the most is player production. The coaches feel that Kendrick's production is maximized at Will and that Bishop's production is maximized at Buck. I see nothing wrong with their decisions despite having Kendricks, who is only very slightly undersized, at Will.

Poll

Which position do you think has the fiercest competition for earning a starting spot?

Quarterback

43 votes

Wide Receiver

120 votes

Linebackers

36 votes

199 votes | Poll has closed

Spring Football Quick Hitters

HydroTech — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:00:11 -0000

via grfx.cstv.com

Here are a few quick thoughts of mine after reading the scrimmage reports...

Regarding Riley:

Riley starting off 6/7 on passes sounds good. But I wouldn't read too much into this considering he was also working with the top WRs from last year. He also had the benefit of a more experienced offensive line to protect him. Fellow Cal Football blogger Bears With Fangs has a nice post asking how long we're supposed to wait until a starting QB is named. From the first practice report, it doesn't really sound like anybody is "pulling away," as the cliche goes, from the rest of the QBs. Riley is probably the favorite to win the starting job, and he certainly has more experience than Mansion and Sweeney but that just puts him ahead of the other two QBs and not necessary meaning he's running away with the job.

Riley also was tinkering with his footwork and throwing motion with Tedford over the summer. I think this is a good move. Riley's overall throwing motion last year wasn't consistent, and at times looked pretty bad. Specifically, his footwork, and his syncing of his footwork to his upper body throwing motion were off. This lead to his throwing motion being behind the movement of his lower body which can cause overthrows.

Tedford also said he was working on "shortening" Riley's throwing motion. Having a short throwing motion has always been a Tedford staple to obtain a quick release and also to prevent DBs from having more time to "read" the QB's arm.

Regarding Tad Smith's Injury:

This is unfortunate. Tad Smith seemed set to be our #1 tight end. This injury could keep him from playing a few games into the season, or at least prevent him from practicing which would limit his chances to be evaluated by the coaches and competing for the top two TE spots.

Anthony Miller appears poised to obtain the starting spot with Spencer Ladner or Skylar Curran to take that second spot if Smith isn't available for season kickoff.

This TE injury reminds of me when former Cal TE Julian Arthur suffered a leg injury during fall camp which knocked him out of the lineup. Many Cal players really felt for Arthur at the time, not only for his injury, but because he had positioned himself to be on the traveling squad that would go to Tennessee. For many players, and especially those that aren't starters, football isn't just about playing football but also about having a chance to travel. Those non-conference games across the country (Michigan State, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, etc.) are a chance for many players to travel to locations in the United States that they otherwise would never have a chance to go to on their own dime.

Regarding Chris Conte:

This is his best chance to re-assert himself as a starting CB. With Hagan out to concentrate on academics, all eyes are on Conte. Conte looked okay as a freshman, and had a few shining moments as a sophomore last year, but I still think Hagan is the favorite to win the starting CB spot opposite of Syd. One thing Hagan has going for him is that he's wicked good in run support which gives him another edge over Conte.

Regarding bootlegs:

BearInsider reports that QB Beau Sweeney ran for a touchdown on a QB bootleg (link, 12th paragraph). Bootlegs have disappeared from the Cal playbook for many years. I can't remember running bootlegs consistently since 2004 with Aaron Rodgers. It will be interesting to see if we see more QB bootlegs in 2009. With Riley's mobility, bootlegs are definitely an option, but Tedford will only run them if Riley shows he has the ability to also pass accurately on the run. It is uncertain as to whether Mansion would have bootlegs called for him if he wins the starting job since Tedford has described Mansion as more of a traditional dropback pocket QB.

Regarding "Tedford's Offense":

Contra Costa Times reporter Jonathan Okanes reported a while ago that the QBs were watching old film of former Cal QBs Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers to get "in tune with Tedford's offense." This comment can be interpreted many ways but to me it sounds like as if Tedford might be hoping to return to a slightly more pro offense. In other words, we might be seeing a slight shift back towards the offense we saw in the 2002-2005 seasons.

Last year, Cal used the I-Formation less than previous years. Double TE sets were also used less. In essence, Cal Football's offense has been using a 3rd WR more instead of a 2nd TE or fullback. This has been a product of Tedford's evolution of the offense incorporating spread elements from Mike Dunbar.

Cal's offense from 2002-2005 used double TE sets (12 personnel), and the I-formation (21 personnel) a lot. Watching film from the 2002-2004 seasons seems to hint at the idea that Tedford might be wishing to revert back slightly to a more pro offense. This is not to say that it will be a completely pro offense again, but merely that the Cal Football offense will be moving a little bit more towards the "pro style" side of the pro/spread offense spectrum.

This also brings me to the function of TEs in the offense. Gone from the glory days of Rodgers were the short TE passes over the middle. Remember those days? TEs would run little curls against the linebackers, find the seams (holes between zones), and sit. Perhaps we'll be seeing more of that in 2009 since Tad Smith, and Anthony Miller's playing styles are more suited to that style of play rather than the deep down-field speed stretching-of-the-defense style that NFL-departed Cameron Morrah brought to the table.

Cal's "Power" Running Game:

Ever since that blog post from Trojan Football Analysis of one of the Cal coaches breaking down Cal's running game has circulated the internet, everyone and their mother now call Cal's rushing a "power rushing" attack.

I don't like calling Cal's rushing attack a "power rushing" attack. The phrase is misleading to the lay football fan.

Is there something which Cal does to its offense which makes it a "power rushing" scheme rather than a regular rushing scheme? In other words, does Cal have "regular runs" and "power runs?" Does Cal hit the defenders harder on "power rushing" plays? No, no, and... no.

The reason why Cal's rushing scheme is a "power rushing" attack is because Cal pulls the backside guard on run plays. That is where the word "power" comes from.

Now, I heard people using the word "power rushing" attack last year (2008) and that's been bothering me because Cal didn't really run a "power rushing" scheme last year. Rarely, did Cal ever pull the backside guard on its typical inside running plays (by "inside" I mean anything that's not a sweep or draw). Instead, Cal used mostly man blocking without any pulling guards. This change in running scheme is something I will cover in the summer.

So my point here is to raise people's awareness when they use the phrase "power run" and especially the word "power." I think most people were just throwing that phrase around because they heard or read it somewhere but they really didn't know the meaning. Now that we all know the meaning I'm hoping we can start using it correctly.

Cal Numbers & Notes: v. Bear Defense

Nestor — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:00:06 -0000

So let’s start look through some of the numbers of our next opponent (focusing on their defense). Cal is coming into this game with a record of 4-2 and right in the thick of the race for the Rose Bowl with 1 loss in conference play. Yet there is a sense of discomfort up in Strawberry Canyon. Mario Gomez from CalSportsDigest has a little recap of the “up and down” first half of 2008 season (excerpting here since the article wasn’t behind a subscription firewall at the time I wrote this post):

California’s season has been up and down thus far through the first half of 2008. The win over Michigan State to start the season looked huge until the Spartans were plastered 45-7 by Ohio State this past weekend. They subsequently fell out of the top 25. The opening road loss at Maryland looked very bad on September 13; however, the Terps are now 5-2 and in contention for the ACC Atlantic division title. Nonetheless, last Saturday night’s showing in Tucson was arguably Cal’s worst performance of the year.

The Bears built a solid 10-point halftime lead only to be outscored 28-3 in the third quarter to lose 42-27. The loss not only knocked Cal out of the top 25, but also it came against a Pac-10 foe, a foe the Bears should have beaten. Now, at 4-2 and 2-1 in conference, the Bears face an uphill battle to secure one of the conference's top three bowl slots. Cal should be able to lock up a bowl berth regardless with three of the four remaining home games coming against Pac-10 teams with records at .500 or below. Yet just one week ago, it looked like Cal had a great shot to be in the top 15 heading into its matchup with USC on November 8.

With goals readjusted, quarterbacks issues still unresolved, no proven wide receivers, and the lack of an effective game plan, Cal must regroup midway and not fold as it did last season.

I wouldn’t get too giddy about Cal’s roller coaster ride though. Jon Wilner from the San Jose Mercury News gives us another perspective on Cal’s 2008 season:

On the whole, the Bears have played well this season. But they’ve had two miserable quarters: The first at Maryland and the third at Arizona.

In those 30 minutes, they’ve been outscored 42-6. In the other 330 minutes, the tally is 218-90 in their favor.

So can the Bruins count on Cal imploding for a quarter next Saturday? Well the odds are overwhelmingly against us (not a shocker that we are 18 point dogs) at this point. Cal is also looking at UCLA as the “perfect opponent” to rebound from last weekend’s loss. From Mario again:

UCLA is a perfect opponent for the Bears to rebound and get back in the win column. The Bruins are fresh off a 23-20 win over Stanford at the Rose Bowl, but they have struggled on the road. UCLA is averaging just 307.7 yards of total offense per game, including less than 100 yards rushing per game. Cal’s stout rush defense was exploited by Arizona, but UCLA should not be able to have the same success. True freshman running back Derrick Coleman has rushed for 191 yards this season for the UCLA. Khalil Bell has added 187 – only averaging 2.5 yard per carry – through an injury-riddled season. Quarterback Kevin Craft has been effective at times, but he can be mistake prone. He has thrown for 1,518 yards and seven touchdowns, but has completed just 58.5% of his passes.

So with those notes in the background here are the statistics matching up the Bruin offense v. the Bear defense:

Bruin Offense	07 Rank	Per Game	Bear Defense	07 Rank	Per Game
Rushing Offense	9	90.86	Rushing Defense	3	109.00
Pass Offense	6	216.86	Pass Defense	7	200.50
Pass Eff. Offense	7	111.68	Pass Eff. Defense	3	102.43
Total Offense	9	307.71	Total Defense	4	309.50
Scoring Offense	7	20.43	Scoring Defense	3	22.00

This is a better Bear defensive unit than the one against which we pulled of a Dorrellian upset win last season. The Bears changed up their defensive scheme to 3-4 after running a base 4-3 set in previous seasons. One of the main reasons behind this change was to take advantage of good linebackers on the Bear’s roster (or another way to look at it would be to mask shortage of good “linemen”). From Rivals.com’s pre season preview:

STRONGEST AREA: The move to the 3-4 wouldn't be possible if Cal didn't have four potential starting linebackers. The Bears' three starting linebackers from last year return. Two 100-plus tacklers, Worrell Williams and Anthony Felder, will play inside. Mike Mohamed, who had 46 tackles as a true freshman in a backup role, will team with Follett at outside linebacker.

BIGGEST PROBLEM: Cal is attempting to mask its troubles by using three down linemen. End Tyson Alualu, tackle Mika Kane and tackle/end Cody Jones are returning starters, but lackluster line play was a big reason the Bears were last in the Pac-10 in sacks and tackles for loss. Davis can be a playmaker at the other end spot, but he has not played a full season in his career.

OVERVIEW: Cal returns enough experience and talent to be competitive, especially if the transition to the 3-4 goes smoothly. The linebacker corps isn't quite as good as USC's, but Cal can make a strong case for No. 2 in the league at the position. Junior Syd'Quan Thompson and sophomore Chris Conte form a solid cornerback tandem, but the secondary needs a replacement for free safety Thomas DeCoud - last season's leading tackler. The new free safety is expected to be Marcus Ezeff, who started four times at strong safety last season. Bernard Hicks is back, and he started the bulk of the games at strong safety.

Well so far this season the Bear rush defense had done pretty well until it was mauled for 140 yards by Arizona’s back up freshman running back. The tackling from Cal's secondary was also pretty sloppy. I don't expect that to be the case this weekend in Berkeley. I think it will be a huge challenge for the Bruin offense to get a running game going against a ticked off Bear’s defense.

As we have mentioned ad nausea one thing I would really like to see is coaches increasing the reps for Coleman at Bell’s expense. I think we will be better served by going with Bell’s explosiveness right out of the gate.

Also, I am not too sure about whether we want to get into a lot of the same trick packages we have already shown in last few games. I like the combination of Forcier of Craft out there with Forcier running the option. But I think at this point you can bet that Cal’s defense will have that play scouted out pretty well. If any of you can go back through your DVRs and isolate that package, it would be interesting to hear whether there were any one open for a short pass underneath. I think that package will work better if Forcier can show he has the ability to throw it, otherwise the defense will tee off him whenever they line up in that formation again. Just my 2 cents.

As for Craft, he must get off to a good start. We can probably expect him to be under duress from the Cal front-7 as they are current 3rd in the conference in terms of sacks (and I don’t need to go over our troubles in terms of giving up sacks). It will be imperative for Craft to make quick, smart decisions and have a better pocket presence than what we saw from him in that first half of the Stanford game. Also, I imagine Chow might put together a scheme moving him away from the pressure in designed rollouts, so that he can be situated from a better launch point to throw at his targets.

Again, the Bruin offense cannot afford to make any mistakes. To echo what CRN said during half time of Stanford game, our guys can’t try to make plays they don’t practice. We will move on to notes re. Cal’s offense tomorrow am. That will follow my notes on expectations/predictions re. this upcoming Ben Ball season in about couple of hours.

GO BRUINS.