SB Nation - Marcus Ezeff

Cal v. Washington Report Card

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

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

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

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

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

Worst. Episode. Ever.

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

Gameday Experience

via calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

c98 - sucked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Golden Rationality Award

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

Old Blue Award

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

Golden Sunglasses Award

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

via calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

via calbearsonline.com

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

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

via calbearsonline.com

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

c98 - sucked.

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

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

Run blocking

via calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

Pass protection

via calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Horrible preformance.

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

Run defense

via calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

Pass rush

via calbearsonline.com

c98 - sucked.

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

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

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

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

Pass Defense

via calbearsonline.com

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

c98 - sucked.

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

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

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

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

Special Teams

via calbearsonline.com

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

c98 - sucked.

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

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

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

Anger is still decent. Whew.

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

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

Coaching

via calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall

via calbearsonline.com

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFf - Time to start drinking.

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

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

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

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

c98 - sucked hard.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cal 24, Arizona 16: Bears Play Spoiler. Can They Do It to The Furd?

Avinash — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:59:14 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

The Golden Bears spoiled Arizona's rosy outlook this season. Can they do the same to their hated rivals across the Bay next Saturday?

Browse more photos »

After five home duds, we finally had a winner. The Bears avenged their 2006 defeat to Arizona with a game strikingly similar in its flukiness and heartbreak.

An upset goes two ways. Cal had a lot of lucky breaks, from dropped passes, to Nick Foles missing streaking receivers downfield, to surviving two really bad Riley interceptions (one on the offensive line, one on him), to Mike Stoops and Sonny Dykes calling a curious amount of runs to Keola Antolin on 1st and 2nd down, to MVP of the game Giorgio Tavecchio playing the game of his life on special teams defense (2 big tackles), to Foles catching his own pass and throwing it again...anything else swings the other way, Arizona walks ahead to an epic showdown with Oregon unscathed. Oh well, at least they know how we felt three years ago.

But Tavecchio hit clutch field goals, the defense stepped up, Shane Vereen played the game of his life, and the Bears held on. The question now is, can they replicate that effort against their cross-Bay rivals?

CBKWit will have more detailed postgame thoughts later. But I want your guys's thoughts. Based on what you've seen of us, and what you've seen of the Furd, how do you feel about the Big Game?

Poll

How do you feel about the Big Game?

TIMBERRRRRRRRR!!!!!

117 votes

We have a good shot, Tedford will have something planned.

184 votes

Probably losing, hope Harbaugh goes to Notre Dame.

135 votes

Drop a tree trunk on me. It's gonna get ugly.

102 votes

538 votes | Poll has closed

Cal-Oregon State 2009 Report Card

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

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

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

USAFGoldenBear

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And now onto the report cards!

IMG_6971 (via Monica's Dad)

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

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

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

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

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

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

ososdereo - This receiving corps clearly suffers from separation anxiety.

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

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

Run blocking

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

Pass Protection

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

Run D

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

Pass Rush

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

MadBum - What pass rush?

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

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

Pass D

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

MadBum - What pass defense?

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

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

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

Special Teams

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

Coaching

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

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

Coaching

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JrBear - All that matters is that Best is okay.

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

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

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

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

Gameday

via www.calbearsonline.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

College Football Halloween Morning Open Thread

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

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh. Um.

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

Poll

My current state is...

Excited

24 votes

Disinterested

4 votes

Calm

15 votes

Scared

10 votes

Drunk

8 votes

61 votes | Poll has closed

Is Cal's Defense Underachieving?

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

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

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

Browse more photos »

DEFENSE, BEARS...DEFENSE???

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unfortunately...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So why has the secondary regressed? A few possibilities:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reactions to defense.

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

Gary Peterson, San Jose Mercury News:

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

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

And this was received how?

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

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

Jimmy Tran, Daily Cal:

One of the points emphasized was tackling.

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

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

Spaulding Roundup: More California Game Notes

Nestor — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:50:43 -0000

Let's get back to football and talk a little bit more about the game this Saturday. If you haven't done it yet make sure to listen to ryebreadraz and ucla13_usc9 talking about Bears-Bruins match up with Ragnarok from California Golden Blogs. The nugget I found most interesting was the discussion about the special teams. Now special teams have been a huge topic of discussion (or shall I say consternation) here on BN. I didn't know that it was such an issue for the Bears as well. Ragnarok pointed to a post from Jon Wilner that at least on surface points to a UCLA advantage for UCLA specials teams (don't LOL) on Saturday. I thought the numbers on punt and kick returns were especially surprising:

Punt returns

UCLA’s Terrence Austin averages 10.5 yards per return with a long of 45.
Cal’s Syd’Quan Thompson averages 5.6 ypr with a long of 12.

Kick returns

Austin averages 24.8 ypr.
Cal’s Shane Vereen averages 25.6 ypr.

Coverage units

It’s about even on kicks, although UCLA has 10 touchbacks and Cal has one.

UCLA has a huge edge in net punting, with a 41.3 average (first place) vs. Cal’s 33.9 net (last place). The Bears have also allowed one touchdown, the 66-yarder by USC’s Damian Williams.

Advantage

UCLA, by a substantial margin.

Again, I am not sure if we can get too comfortable looking at those numbers. In fact looking at those numbers it worries me even more for what could happen this Saturday. If anything it seems like now it's a done deal that Syd'Quan Thompson or Shane Vareen will take one to the House against us. Austin is a good kid but to me Vereen and Thompson are way more explosive than TA.

We saw last weekend how falling asleep in one play can change the dynamic of an entire game. They can't just depend on booming kicks from Locke ( leads the conference with a 46.3 net.) every time out. I hope our specials took that lesson to heart and are working extra hard this game week because they will need to focus as hard during punt and kickoff coverages as they did against Stanford's Chris Owusu in Palo Alto when they were able to bottle up Palo Alto. More on the game and other team notes after the jump.

The guys over at California Golden Blogs have the notes up on UCLA and I think they are pretty much on the mark. I have been saying all week Saturday is going to be about how UCLA offense performs against Cal's defense. Avinash's thoughts on the "biggest battle" on Saturday:

Not only is their starting tailback a frosh, but their starting o-line is very young. 1 frosh, 3 sophomores on the offensive line, Even more interestingly, their left tackle is a true frosh (although Su'a-Filo might be their best guy on the line). So they're going to struggle generating offense as they get their reps in and they make those mistakes.

It's why the biggest battle will be UCLA's offensive line playing Cal's defensive line. The Bears D-line has played well the last two weeks, but got overshadowed by the other deficiencies and strong O-line play by Oregon and Southern Cal ~~UCLA~~. They'll certainly want to make their mark, and Alualu might have his most favorable matchup of the season playing either Harris or Su'a-Filo. The Bruins have to hold their ground to make sure Kevin Prince is comfortable in the pocket and execute their blocks to get UCLA's running backs to that second level against our weaker linebackers.

Not only are we working in freshman and sophomores, two of our offensive line starters are also transfers. I actually think our guys have done an average job (which is substantial improvement from the miserable state of things last season) of giving our QBs time and opening up running lanes. They just need to do be working on becoming more consistent. They are aware of what they need to do:

Sophomore center Kai Maiava said he takes personal responsibility for the team's inability to punch it in from inside the 2-yard line on four consecutive plays against the Ducks.

"Shoot ... Oregon did a good job plugging up the holes," Maiava said. "We just couldn't execute it. We never really practiced that play. But either way, we should've punched it in. I take most of the responsibility on that. We should have wedged it in and gotten that seven."

The key question will be whether our guys (Prince or Brehaut) will be able to get in a rhtyhm early on. There was no doubt Prince was rusty early on against Oregon. He did get back into it somewhat in second quarter (IIRC at point he had completed something like 8 passes in a row) but he went back into a funk during that Duck explosion early in the 3rd. I think it will be imperative for Chow to call a game on Saturday that will put Prince in a comfortable spot and facilliate his game management decisions. Perhaps having Christian Ramirez this weekend will help:

"He's (Christian Ramirez) looking like he's healthy and he's starting to work his way back into the mix a little bit," UCLA running backs coach Wayne Moses said. "When you're away that long, it takes a little time to get your timing and rhythm back. It looks like he's starting to get into the flow."

Ramirez presents a completely different option than the team's more diminutive backs. At 6-foot-2, Ramirez is the biggest Bruin back, with two inches on Coleman, four inches on Franklin and six inches on Knox and Thigpen.

His size gives him a built-in advantage in pass protection and in the receiving game, though he was admittedly shaky with his blocking against Oregon.

"I need to try to use the combination that I have - the size and speed. And I pride myself on catching the ball, being a receiving back. I can split out and turn it into a five-wide easily. I still need to get some more experience in (protection). I felt a little rocky out there Saturday. I'm coming. I need to get back into the groove, and try to establish myself again."

I wonder if we will see Ramirez in goal line situations this Saturday. As for the Jet Ski sounds like it's a day to day deal with him at this point. From the LA Times:

Franklin, who gives the Bruins speed in the backfield, was unable to get in a full workout.

It leaves coaches pondering other options.

"We'll find out on Saturday," Franklin said about whether he would play.

Asked what was difficult about running on the ankle, Franklin said, "No comment on that." Asked if it still hurt, Franklin said, "No comment on that."

For some reason I am not as worried about this as I should be. I am thinking in a situation like this is perfect for backs like Ramirez and Knox to pounce all over and take advantage of the opportunity. At least I hope that's the case and they get the chance to do it. We will see.

Speaking of personnel decisions it looks like Hester is not going to be available for this week. The earlier he might be available is for the Arizona game on October 24. But CRN might decide to work him in cautiously and wait till October 31 when the Bruins take on Oregon State (See the OC Register report). Meanwhile, Sheldon Price is scheduled to start against California this Sat:

The UCLA depth chart listed Price and sophomore Courtney Viney as possible starters this week, but Bullough said Price would keep the job.

"I think he's growing up more and more every game," Bullough said. "He's a very gifted player and hasn't had as many mental mistakes as you would expect as a freshman."

Honestly, I don't get this decision. No doubt Sheldon is giving eveyrthing he can but to me it seems like Viney brings a more noticable physical presence in the way he covers and tackles (despiting giving up size). At least that's what I remember from the effort he gave against pretty athletic Tennessee receivers at Neyland stadium. Anyway, we will see how it goes on Saturday.

Lastly, let's end with a note with a quick look into the mindset of the Bears. They are desperate for a win and per Jonathan Okanes of the MercuryNews.com, apparently Tedford has been tyring out some "new practice rituals" to fire up the Bears for this Saturday (and rest of the season):

Tedford also introduced some new practice rituals in an attempt to work on intangibles. The team began and ended practice by assembling in a big huddle, and jumping up and down and hooting and hollering, as though they were about to take the field for a game.

"That's the swagger that we have all day, every day," Kendricks said. "That was fun. That's what they're trying to install in us. You have to have fun while you're doing this. We always have a sense of urgency and we always want to win, but I feel like having fun while we're out there playing is just going to help us play better."

"A lot of people had high hopes for us. The season isn't over," Cal safety Marcus Ezeff said. "The season is brand new now. That's how we're looking at it. "

I hope it all works out for them ... starting on October 24th.

GO BRUINS.

Golden Nuggets: Press Luncheon Quotes Continued

Berkelium97 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:30:18 -0000

JO has many more quotes from yesterday's press luncheon. He has quotes from Mychal Kendricks, Marcus Ezeff, and Marvin Jones. Let's take a look at what Kendricks said.

On the prognosis for the rest of the season

We have to win every game for now on. We can’t lose again. We lost two games already. We’ve only had six points in eight quarters. We can’t lose again. I don’t think we are, either. Actually, I know we’re not.

...

On Jeff Tedford having the team form a "rally huddle" at the beginning and end of practice

That’s that swagger that we have all day, every day. That was fun. That’s what they’re trying to install in us. You have to have fun while we’re doing this. You just can’t be out there playing this game for no reason. You have to have fun while doing it.

On the importance of having fun on the field

We always have a sense of urgency and we always want to win, but I feel like having fun while we’re out there playing is just going to help us play better. Win or lose, honestly all of us play this game and we all have fun, win or lose. Now when you win, you have a lot more fun.

On whether it’s a positive that the problems the team is having appear to be fixable

I wouldn’t say it’s positive, but it’s a reassurance that it’s fixable. Just take a step back and do what you have to do.

On what he’s learned this season

What we’ve learned is that we win as a team and we lose as a team. From the coaches to the players to the waterboys — We win as a team, and if we lose as a team, we can bounce back.

After the jump we have more articles on Kendricks' quotes, how weather has limited the team's ability to practice, how UCLA plans to improve its defense, info on the upcoming open scrimmage for men's basketball, and more.

Wilner goes over special teams and--no surprise--UCLA has a huge advantage. "Watch the fake, Alamar!"
Led by Mychal Kendricks, Cal is playing with great determination. SFGate article on Kendricks' post-practice quotes. Daily Cal profiles Kendricks.
Rob Calonge goes over some of the issues Cal has had with practicing this week. Weather has prevented the Bears from getting practice time in at Memorial and Witter Rugby Field, which they would have used to get accustomed to playing on grass.
BruinsNation has a pretty comprehensive fanpost detailing Cal's running game.
After allowing Gerhart and James to run all over them, UCLA's defense needs to improve on basic execution if it hopes to stop Best. UCLA's Reggie Carter has been sitting out practice, but he should play this weekend.
Men's basketball will hold an open scrimmage Tuesday October 27th.
Ryan Anderson had a big night with 22 points, including 6/9 on three-pointers.
Kelly Mendoza has chosen to commit to Cal's women's water polo team over USC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inside zone rush attack

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

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

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

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

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

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

...

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outside zone rush attack

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How should Cal beat the zone read?

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

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

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

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

Pass coverage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus: Extra runs

Music: Duck Tales for the win.

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

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

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

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