SB Nation - Brian Holley

Golden Nuggets: Prediction Thursday

Berkelium97 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:15:10 -0000

Congratulations to all the members of the football team who made the Pac-10 All-Academic team! The first team included Mark Boskovich, Alex Lagemann, and Mike Mohamed. Ernie Owusu, Matt Summers-Gavin, and Giorgio Tavecchio made the second team, and Skylar Curran, Chris Guarnero, and Mitchell Schwartz made received honorable mention. At a school like Berkeley, it is even more impressive that they made the list.

Despite thinking that one or both teams may come out playing flat, Ted Miller anticipates a big Cal victory.

California 35, Washington 21: The Bears have steadily -- and quietly -- risen in the Pac-10 since suffering those embarrassing consecutive losses to Oregon and USC. It seems like things are clicking on both sides of the ball, and the Bears certainly have the athleticism on defense to handle a scrambling Jake Locker. Moreover, Cal seems to have an advantage coming off a bye week while the Huskies might not be focused after winning the Apple Cup last weekend.

All five CBS experts predict a Cal victory.

All five Yahoo experts predict a Cal victory.

After the jump, we have player quotes from Tuesday's press luncheon (including some humorous remarks from Tepper), injury updates for Cal and Washington, motivation for both Cal and Washington to win this weekend's game, recap/analysis of basketball's loss to New Mexico, 20 questions with DJ Seeley, and a preview of the weekend in Cal sports.

Cal Football

JO has quotes from a few players from Tuesday's luncheon. They talk about preparing for the December weather in Seattle, the loss to Washington in 2007, bowl game possibilities, bouncing back from the losses to Oregon and USC, and preparing to take on Washington. Tepper had some funny quotes that are too good to pass up:

On bowl experiences

It’s gotten to the point with me that I don’t know where we’re going to go. I’ve been to Vegas, I’ve been to Holiday, I’ve been to Texas before – I’ve been a lot of places. I’ve kind of learned over the years that bowl games are what you make of it. Even though I was under 21 in Vegas, I made the best of it. You find ways. In San Diego, they have the whole gaslamp district and the whole party scene down there. Texas, Dallas had its own little scene down there. It’s what you make it. If you want to sit in your hotel room, like previous centers (Alex Mack), and sit there and do nothing, that’s fine with me. But I don’t think I’m ever going back to Dallas unless I’m playing for an NFL team there, or I’m transferring flights there. So I’m going to go have fun. That’s part of the bowl game. You realize you’re playing a game, but you also realize you’re traveling somewhere and you want to have fun with it. I don’t really care where I go. Vegas is always fun, but I’ve had fun in San Diego and I’ve had fun in Texas.

Tedford seemed quite proud of all the players who made the All-Academic team and made a point to talk about it before any reporters even had the chance to ask about it. In a surprising development, it seems MSG sustained a concussion against Stanford and he may not play against Washington.
No one has forgotten the loss to Washington in 2007, what many considered to be the low point of the season. Holley, Mohamed, and Riley were especially bothered by the loss and are committed to coming out of Seattle with a win.
Most everyone on Washington has seen the clip of Best's concussion-inducing fall and that got the team thinking about whether or not to hurdle defenders. While the players are not prohibited from attempting to jump over a defender, their running back coach makes a point to tell them "If you are going to leave your feet, you are on your own."
Washington's starting center and team captain Ryan Tolar will likely miss Saturday's game after it was determined that he suffered a concussion against WSU. This seems to be a major blow to the O-line, as it was riding momentum from a great performance against the Cougs.
After last week's shutout, Washington DC Nick Holt is especially excited about playing this week. He believes his unit is finally starting to develop into an effective, cohesive group. He thinks Cal will be a great test for the D and he and his players embrace the challenge.

Cal Basketball

Farudo has another segment of 20 Questions; this time, DJ Seeley answers the questions. He talks about his dream team, which historical figures he'd like to have dinner with, best and worst Pac-10 fans, and more.
Injuries, foul trouble, the mile high elevation, and a rowdy home crowd all proved to be too much for the Bears as they lost to New Mexico despite leading for most of the game. With injuries and illness hurting the Bears, guys ran out of energy by the end of the game. Monty's post-game comments indicate that he thought the team played with great effort, but not enough energy. It didn't help that New Mexico switched to a zone D--which has really hurt Monty's team this year--with just under ten minutes to go.. In his post-game notes, Farudo says the Bears have to heal up and play better if they hope to challenge for the Pac-10 title.
No. 19/20 women's bball hosts the Colliers International Classic this weekend, featuring Colorado State, Southern Illinois, and no. 10 Texas A&M.

The Rest of the Weekend in Cal Sports

Women's volleyball opens the NCAA tournament with a matchup against Lipscomb at 4pmEST on Friday.
Women's swimming and diving sends its swimmers to the AT&T Short Course National Championships today through Saturday while the divers will compete at the Texas Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame Invitational today through Saturday. On Sunday, the swimmers will head to the U.S. Long course Timed Final National Invitational.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poll

Cal's offense will be __________ without Jahvid Best.

clicking even

11 votes

surprisingly pleasing

36 votes

making me groan a lot

80 votes

unbelievably bad

31 votes

forcing me to drink more

65 votes

223 votes | Poll has closed

Is the Cal Offensive Line Failing Due to Talent or Coaching?

Avinash — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:00:41 -0000

by Ben Margot - AP

Missing: Cal Offensive linemen. If you find them, please call Jeff T. at...

View full size photo »

Although the postgame article about our offensive line was meant in jest, some people like Cali49a took what I was saying seriously.

Let’s look across the line at what we have. LT Tepper is a good guy, but he’s not nearly as good as he’s been made out to be. LG was a RS Frosh starting who got injured and his replacements are a former walk-on in Fisher and a current walk-on in Boskovitch, who spends more time whiffing on blocks and losing his feet of any OL I’ve seen in the Tedford era. Our Center is an undersized RS-JR taking his first meaningful snaps at C but who has no business playing that position, especially against top notch DTs. The RG is a RS-So who has the size to play the position but has lapses. The RT is a RS-So who has been pretty reliable. The TEs cannot reliably block and are all young. Just looking at our starters, they are a recipe for inconsistency. As much as size of OL is important, mentally they need to know their assignments and how to adjust on the fly when blocking, which comes from repetition.

In a sense, the line is still young with 3 underclassmen starters. The interior of the OL is the biggest issue right now, and quite frankly, the reason why we absolutely stink running between the tackles.

While this post was funny to read because it pokes fun at a glaring weakness on our O, this post really does not look at the root of the problem: recruiting. There have been too many scholarship busts and/or misses on the OL front in 05-06 and we are really feeling it now. There is exactly ONE starter on the OL from those classes. Guys from those 2 classes are who should be starting right now unless there were some super sensational underclassmen who could beat them out. That is not the case.

To clarify, no, I don't think Steve Marshall should be fired. In general, with college coaches, I don't think you fire people who've been here one year unless they totally faceplant (and in any case with Marshall, given his previous track record, he'll probably leave of his own accord). However, I do feel that he and Andy Ludwig have missed some crucial elements in developing their guys, some controllable, some not. And those struggles have resulted in these offensive stinkbombs we've seen against good defenses.

How much of Cal's O-line struggles have been due to talent, and how much has been due to coaching?

After the jump, I look at both sides.

So one possibility is talent. It's been argued by many people, especially Hydro, that maybe these guys just aren't who we thought they were.

In the podcast, CBKWit makes the argument that this is one of our highest star rated offensive lines perhaps ever during the Tedford era. CBKWit made this comment in response to my remark suggesting that the OL's poor performance could be a talent issue. It seems that CBKWit might have been disagreeing with me. If that is so, CBKWit is clearly making the assumption that the higher the star rating of the player, the more talented they are. Such a notion is generally true, but not always. CBKWit seems to make it a forgone conclusion that is always true and thus this year's highly rated OL suckage cannot be due to lack of talent; hence obviously a coaching problem. I disagree. I think it's possible that there is a talent issue here, perhaps as well as a coaching issue. I have not discounted the talent issue, whereas CBKWit seems to have done so. CBKWit points to last year's OL which started Guarnero (prior to injury), Cheadle, and Boskovich (after Guarnero's injury) as evidence that this OL shouldn't be this bad due to the fact that so many of this year's starters saw playing time last year and were fairly productive. Last year, I personally thought Guarnero was doing fine at guard. However, I was not that impressed with Cheadle or Boskovich. Thus, I am not convinced that just because he have players from last year's OL, which performed decently well although not great, means that this year's OL cannot be suffering from lack of talent.

Here's been our starting depth chart the past few seasons, starting with 2006 as the first season our entire O-line was ranked by Rivals (some of these guys could be wrong from 2006, let me know). Thanks to AERose for gathering this data up.

2006

Mike Tepper (2 stars/2 stars)--2
Erik Robertson (2 stars/1 star)-1.5
Alex Mack (2 stars/2 stars)--2
Norris Malele (3 stars/3)--3
Scott Smith (2 stars)--2

Average rating: 2.11

2007

Mike Tepper (2 stars/2 stars)--2
MIke Gibson (4 stars/4 stars)--4
Brian De La Puente (???)
Noris Malele (3 stars/3 stars)-3
Alex Mack (2 stars/2 stars)-2

Average rating: 2.75

2008

Mark Boskovich (???)
Noris Malele (3 stars/3 stars)-3
Alex Mack (2 stars/2 stars)-2
Chet Teofilo (2 stars/2 stars)-2
Mitchell Schwartz (3 stars/3 stars)-3
Justin Cheadle (3 stars/4 stars)-3.5

Average rating: 2.75

2009

Mike Tepper (2 stars/2 stars)-2
Mitchell Schwartz (3 stars /3 stars)-3
Matt Summers-Gavin (4 stars/4 stars)-4
Justin Cheadle (3 stars/4 stars)-3.5
Chris Guarnero (4 stars/3 stars)-3.5
Mark Boskovich (???)

Average rating: 3.2

Of course the star rating only tells so much, but as you can see on average Cal's recruiting star ratings are better than the last few years, and there seems to be no correlation with star rating and rushing success (hell, you could say the relation's nearly INVERSE; the lower the star rating, the better Cal's O-line has done.) This could probably lead you to think that recruiting stars are bunk.

So while I agree with Cali49a, that yes, the offensive line has had depth problems and too many walk-ons coming in to fill crucial roles, I also feel that the Bears talent is still comparable to those of previous seasons. Although a lot of the guys we recruited haven't been up to snuff, they still shouldn't be struggling this much, especially with almost all of them except Summers-Gavin seeing action last season. This should be a line that dropped off a little, not a lot, even with Mack and Malele gone.

So let's assume these guys aren't terrible o-linemen. That leads us to coaching. If the problem isn't talent, What are the problems that could be going on here?

1) The offensive coordinator turnover. Hydro mentioned in the podcast how O-linemen were having difficulty adapting to Cignetti's new pass blocking schemes (explaining the struggles in protecting Longshore and Riley). You can only imagine how difficult the Bears O-linemen are doing with all the different looks they've run in the run blocking game with Ludwig's offense installed. Perhaps we'll see drastic improvement next season when these guys have had time to run through the system, but right now it just isn't there.

2) Fullback and tight end blocking dropoff. This is where I do agree with Cali49a. In terms of tight ends, the Bears really haven't had great tight end blocking since Craig Stevens was lining up. But Brian Holley? Nice enough guy, but big big downgrade from Ta'ufo'ou in terms of blocking awareness. Who exactly Cal's fullback will be next year (Kapp?) will need to show better than Holley has this year. And Anthony Miller will hopefully become as good a blocker as he is a receiver.

3) The complexity of the offense. This might be the biggest issue for me. We've talked over and over how the Bears offense has gotten more sophisticated as time has gone by (and that in turn has led to the quarterback struggles). While that might give us all sorts of delight as fans to watch, the fact is the players aren't getting older with them. So the learning curve has grown steeper for new players, like a sadistic professor who decides to add three hundred more pages of reading each year for the same class, with an occasional extra midterm thrown in there. You can only imagine how difficult it is for offensive linemen to struggle to do so much.

4) Failure to adapt. The fact is these players are not going to grow old with us. They're going to leave for other places and that means Cal's coaching staff have to adapt to the situation. We have to recognize that our offensive linemen might not be as experienced or as gifted as previous guys like Mack and Ta'ufo'ou. So instead of throwing so many different looks in our playcalling perhaps we should return to the more stodgy but effective type of play that defined early Tedford football, especially in the run game.

One of the beautiful things about Coach M's style of line coaching is that we ran the same two plays almost every time in the run game, and defenses were lost trying to stop them. As Hydro described it, "Defenses knew what was coming, and they could almost never stop it from going." (Now on the flip side, defenses WERE catching up to Cal's offense as the years went by (the Bears running game dipped in production every year since 2004), so there might be the need to evolve as time goes by. But hey, sometimes it's best not to fix things that aren't broken.)

5) Coaching development. This is where I attribute blame to the coaches directly. I don't think we need to bring Coach M back to recognize those issues, nor even make Marshall the scapegoat for our failings. But it's clear that Alex Mack, Mike Tepper and many others from our more successful squads were not highly sought-after talents, yet they evolved into O-line forces of nature in their collegiate primes. Although Michalziak might not have been the greatest recruiter, he did a great job making these guys execute on Saturdays. How much of this had to do with the simplicity of the offense might be difficult to say, but I've always found simple works best with young offensive lines. Just look at how Oregon has recovered from the Boise fiasco, when their line couldn't block stationary objects. Simple effective blocking techniques set loose their offensive players.

6) Recognizing the big picture. As the guy now overseeing the program, Tedford should try and recognize that players, based on their individual experience level and their collective experience as a unit, need to be treated differently on a year-by-year basis. He, like many fans, incorrectly assessed the losses of our top three blockers and assumed we'd get by with the experience the returning starters had managed. That's clearly not been the case. Now that he's no longer playcalling, his job in the games is to manage and see what's going on beyond the Xs and Os. I'd say he hasn't done a very good job of that this season, especially with regards to the offensive line (and of course there are other issues, but that's for another day). Running the same set of plays and schemes (inside zone run) over and over again seems like a peculiar type of madness.

Whatever's going on, coaching or talentwise, with only three games left, it's probably too late to fix these deficiencies until the bowl game, and we've got to ride the ship the end and hope somehow we can pull some wins out before we reach port. And then hope everything gets back together for next year's cruise.

Poll

Cal's O-line struggles are due to...

coaching issues more than talent issues.

53 votes

talent issues more than coaching issues.

16 votes

coaching and talent issues about the same.

57 votes

something else entirely.

7 votes

133 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

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

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

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

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

Pass Rush

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

MadBum - What pass rush?

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

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

Pass D

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

MadBum - What pass defense?

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

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

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

Special Teams

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

Coaching

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

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

Coaching

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JrBear - All that matters is that Best is okay.

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

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

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

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

Gameday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oregon State 31 Cal 14: I'm Steve Marshall, And I'm Here To Make Your Offense Terrible

Avinash — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:48:14 -0000

Hi, I'm Steve Marshall. You might remember me as the guy who coached the O-line that got David Carr sacked 76 times or the dude that coached an O-line on a Browns team that had the fifth to last rushing offense in the NFL last year. You might also remember me as the guy who's spent no more than one to two years at any one destination. You'd think that'd be a telling sign that teams might be happy to get rid of me.

I currently am the Cal offensive line coach. Instead of utilizing simple blocking concepts a former successful Cal offensive line coach used for seven years that worked to perfection, I'm going to give a bunch of 19-23 year old o-linemen a thousand different pro style concepts that they need to cram in their heads in a month of fall practice and a few hours each week. That way when they face good defenses they'll stumble, make mental and physical errors, turn one of the most potent college running offenses of the past decade into crap, and help reacquaint Cal fans with a Holmoe-level experience I feel they've lacked. Keeps them from feeling optimistic about anything.

Case in point, today's game. I'm going to show how I can make the worst Pac-10 pass rush in the conference look like the Chicago 46. As follows:

Gets pressured on the first snap, dumps it off to Best on a broken play. This is not going to be a one-time thing.

Gets hit for no gain.

Gets hit for 1 yard gain.

Gets schooled off the edge, lets his QB get sacked rolling left.

"Um some helllppumpppph..." Hit again.

Gets pounded on a 3rd and 1 for no gain.

Runs up middle for 1 yard. Ponders if this is what the rest of his Cal career will be like.

False starts.

After much trial and tribulation, picks up first down.

False starts.

After much trial and tribulation, picks up first down.

Lets man blow by him to set record for fastest time to hit QB after snap.

Screws it, puts on the hero cape, scores a touchdown, scares the shit out of everyone.

Kneel down, pray, get back up, all ready to get back up and play in honor for #4...

"No no, guys, this isn't part of the plan. Get back out there and do your absolute worst. Zone block pull someone left and man block fly sweep ruh-duh-duh-duh!"

Sacked.

Pressured.

Levelled.

(on the phone with Ludwig) "Please, give me a play that doesn't end in me eating turf. Get me anyone who knows how to block. Bloc Party. Lego block fort. Max Zhang. HELP ME!"

Reads existential poetry.

After Cattouse interception, nearly gets stuffed for safety.

Capitulates, calls quarterback sneak on our own goal-line.

Hit.

Two yard gain. Realizes that he might have to suffer through another year of this. Sobs quietly.

Ponders future blogging career.

Throws ball out of bounds as a lateral. Less painful than another sack.

Pocket collapses again and again, starting to feel like the captain of the U-Boat in Das Boot.

Out of desperation, starts throwing screen passes, dumpoffs, anything quick for fear that a linebacker might commit a level-one homicide on Riley. Beavers sniff every play out.

Frantically looks up Coach M on his speed-dial.

Glumly wonders how Cal students will blame it all on him.

That's me baby. Steve Marshall. I will make your offense blow.

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.

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

Avinash — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:00:36 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Shane Vereen was pleased with his performance last Saturday. Were Cal fans pleased with their team?

Browse more photos »

Position	QB	RB	Rec.	Run B	Pass P	Run D	Pass R	Pass D	ST	Coach	Overall
Score	3.125	3.827	3.125	3.573	3.427	3.375	2.353	1.013	2.4	2.958	2.958
Grade	B	A	B	A-	B+	B+	C+	D	C+	B	B

Here's the list of graders from this week!

secret ASian man, Rocksanddirt, Swamphunter, JakeDanHarry, Calbearfan, rurata, USAFGoldenBear, Ohio Bear, CaliforniaCMB, GBB4188, omnizzle, atomsareenough, BeggarEd, tommyelee7, bowlbasaur, iVinshe, carp, beson, calbearfan, JrBear, Monica's Dad, Kodiak, Berkelium97, Haas8388, JerrottWillard45

Thanks again to the 25 who took out their time to put in their opinions on the game, and big thanks to Twist for gathering the best comments.

The best gameday experience...goes to secret ASian man, who will soon post it on the Internets.

I have an epic video of an old, cracked out white guy do a keg stand on Tightwad Hill. I will load this on YouTube when I get the chance. Cal win+booze on Tightwad Hill equals good times.

Rest of the gameday experiences after the jump!

Calbearfan: It wasnt a packed stadium, but the atmosphere was there from the beginning

USAFGoldenBear: Its really hard to keep my concentration when the game is only on radio. I swear, I go into ADD mode...so I didnt listen to the entire game...

Ohio Bear: I stuck with Starkey the whole broadcast. Despite not knowing where the ball was at various points throughout the day, I didn't mind him too much. Unfortunately, because I was listening to the game instead of watching it, I may not have been paying the best attention when Mrs. Ohio Bear was trying to tell me things during the game. I hope I didn't agree to do something I don't want to do.

CaliforniaCMB: I just hope there is some video of this game, some where, save us Sandy, save us!

GBB4188: Half my face is burned, the other half is not. Damn you late October sun. My sister and her BF came down from Portland for the weekend/game so they enjoyed the burning at least.

omnizzle: It was kind of hot

BeggarEd: Great day in Berkeley (Sunny and 70's). Crowd was light, but parking was easy and I could stretch my legs in the stadium. Crowd was also a bit lethargic, but once you go up 21 points in half a quarter, it's kind of understandable.

iVinshe: Got up at 8:00 am, sped down from Davis to work concession stands (turkey legs - South Rim!!! They're massive; basically a meal for $8). Crowd was painfully small at kickoff; and the alumni side really is a graveyard. I think I like the visiting section seating better than the low rows of the student section simply because you can see both horizontally and vertically as plays develop. Am I weird?

carp: Outside the student section I saw Brian Holley's mom. At least I assume she was because she was wearing a #33 jersey with "Mama Holley" on the back. Let me tell you something, I know why Brian Holley has a big ass. Let's just say if she had eligibility left, she'd be starting.

beson: As this game was not televised, I had the interesting task of convincing people to come over for a Cal football listening party. As might be expected, the turn out was not as robust as usual, however, I did not let that ruin an otherwise awesome Saturday afternoon. I set up a TV in my backyard and spent the game bbqing and listening to the Cal game while watching the UO/Washington game from our jacuzzi, followed up with the OSU/USC game. 8 plus hours in a hot tub sure makes you prune-y.

JrBear: Anybody complaining about the student section did not endure what I did. This was just as bad as the ucla game in my opinion because the sun was directly on us the whole time. As for complaints about noise hey guess what? We were up by three touchdowns. If the rest of the stadium were louder than us you could have some beef, but without the students it was dead silent.

Kodiak: Got to listen to the game on radio while messing with my fishing tackle. My wife was good natured enough to respond to "Beer Wench!" and kept my thirst at bay. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Berkelium97: It was the first Cal game I didn't watch in I don't know how long. I even went up to Memorial for the Slingbox game in 2006. I'm very thankful for the clips that have been posted to give us an idea of what was going on. Listening to Starkey was...interesting. He always has some bizarre tidbit to say about everything.

JerrottWillard45: Great to hear the cannon so many times. Reminded me of old times having a regular afternoon game time. If you thought it was too sunny/hot, get a freakin' hat and sunscreen. Please - you are such a pussy, Twist. Our cheerleaders are hot this year. Several are All-Pac-10 contenders, so nice job on the recruiting there (who is our cheerleader coach, by the way?). Students didn't show enough, and left too early.

Alumni, though staying a bit longer (mostly the ones in the shade), were so pitifully quiet it was shameful.

Nice to have an offense again. Miss having defense.

Golden Rationality Award

Commenter/alias name	Standard Deviation
tommyelee7	0.728
Ohio Bear	0.970
USAFGoldenBear	1.033
Swamphunter	1.075
beson	1.406

tommyelee7 wins the award for reason this week! Here's his unedited report card.

QB: Good overall, but Riley still made some pretty bad decisions on the interception and another ball thrown in heavy traffic. He still tries to force things too often.

Sweeney looked good on his 3 pass attempts.

RB: As usual, Best and Vereen were solid. Loved the Covaughn hurdle over a defender and a stiff-arm at the end of the play. Had he broken that last tackle, that would've been the best college football play this year not shown on TV!

Receivers: Ross dropped a pass, but solid otherwise.

Run blocking: 8 yards per carry is pretty good.

Pass protection: No sacks allowed is pretty good.

Run defense: Limiting them to 2 yards per carry was pretty good.

Pass rush: From the AP game summary:

"Tuel had his best game yet in his third straight start, getting much more time than he did the previous game when the Cougars allowed 12 sacks against Arizona State."

Pass defense: The last few minutes of the first half were terrible. Corners were just running with their man instead of looking for the ball. Tuel looked OK, but we were giving him way too many options. We didn't take anything away from them. They were throwing short, medium, and long passes. There were several opportunities that WSU wasted with poor passes, miscommunication on routes, and drops.

Special teams: Kickoff distance remains an issue, our only field goal attempt was blocked, and Anger wasn't great. But we did score on a nice punt return by Ross and had some nice kickoff returns too.

Coaching: Glad Beau Sweeney got some reps throwing the ball. We were again conservative at the end of the first half, settling for a long field goal attempt even though we had timeouts and time for at least 1 more play.

The coaches made some adjustments at halftime. We responded after a poor end to the first half by pitching a shutout in the 2nd half.

Overall: Blowout win and no major injuries (that I'm aware of), so we did what we needed to do. We haven't played in a single game decided by less than 14 points, but that figures to change soon. At least we are relatively healthy going into that stretch. Our pass defense is going to really hurt us if it doesn't improve quickly.

Old Blue Award

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
Monica's Dad	2.182
JerrottWillard45	2.212
GBB4188	2.364
calbearfan	2.515
atomsareenough	2.545

Monica's Dad took great photos of the game, but he also didn't like all that he saw.

Quarterbacks: Riley was mostly on-target, but the interception was unforced. You wonder what will happen when we face Arizona and Oregon State and their better defenses.

Receivers: Jones is a solid player who will be great, and I was impressed with his blocking. He's an all-around fine player. But the rest of our WRs disappear for long stretches. Ross is exciting from time to time, but we lack a consistent pass catcher. Maybe Lageman should get into the game more.

Pass rush: Blowout win and no major injuries (that I'm aware of), so we did what we needed to do. We haven't played in a single game decided by less than 14 points, but that figures to change soon. At least we are relatively healthy going into that stretch. Our pass defense is going to really hurt us if it doesn't improve quickly.

Pass defense: Syd is playing OK (just OK), but Hagan is really struggling on the other side. I'm not an expert, but look at the stats these past four games. Our secondary is getting torched. You'd have to say it's our greatest weakness.

Overall: I'm scared to death that, unless the D starts showing up, we may have just won our last home game of the year. How are we gonna stop the Rodgers brothers? Or Foles? Or Antolin? The trips to Stanford and Washington are no walks in the park either. The ASU game is the only one left I feel at all confident about.

Golden Sunglasses Award

Commenter/alias name	Average score (out of 4)
Calbearfan	3.545
BeggarEd	3.455
Berkelium97	3.394
JrBear	3.303
omnizzle	3.273

There were two Calbearfan's this week! One of them soured on what he saw, but the other really liked what he saw.

Quarterback: Riley made good decisions, except for the 1 interception and a couple of minor mistakes, where he could've ran for the first down instead of trying to throw it in.

Running back: Overall a great day for the backs

Receivers: Jeremy Ross came up big today

And finally, the best of the report card. Tried to include everyone in on it, sorry if I missed anyone!

Quarterback

JakeDanHarry - Kevin Riley had a few glaring mistakes and misses (forcing the pass on a roll-out and throwing the INT; overthrowing Jahvid Best in the end zone) but he was once again on the money for big throws. The touchdowns were cool, accurate passes, and the 61 yarder was a show of faith in Jeremy Ross that just dropped into his arms.

Riley was also good running the ball, and blocking on the edges in the Wildcat set.

USAFGoldenBear - 3 passes, 3 TDs...nice! He gets a B+ because a int to freakin Wazzu?!?! Thats been the one thing he hasnt sucked at.

iVinshe - Alas, if only Riley had kept his 1st quarter streak going... Not sure if the 1st and goal overthrow of Best was entirely his fault; Best looked like he took a bad angle into coverage before curving out for Riley's pass.

GBB4188 - Riley started off strong and threw some beautiful deep balls today. However, there were two poor choices made when he had an opportunity to pick up yards on the ground and instead forced passes into coverage, one incomplete and nearly picked, the other picked. So, Riley continues to be an enigma, able to make some great deep throws, unable to make the "easy" stuff underneath.

Sweeney came in and made some passes. I don't know that you can take anything away from that.

Running back

Swamphunter - Best and Vereen did a great job again this week. 328 yards on the ground total averaging 8.2 YPC. We also saw some great runs from the young-uns as well, including an amazing run by DeBoskie in the fourth quarter when he totally hurdled a WSU defender.

JakeDanHarry - Huge day for the running backs, who slashed through the Cougar defense with ease. The running game made it easy on the offense, with Best seemingly picking up a first down with every carry, and Shane Vereen putting in a solid game to supplement.

The 61-yarder from Best was bad-ass. The crowd was noticeably on edge for Best to get a signature touchdown-drive-in-a-single-

sprint and they got another from Jahvid today.

carp - Best had a great game. His ususual critiques (too damn fast, doesn't wait for blocks, doesn't "break" tackles) were also present today.

Vereen had a nice game as well. While he's no Jerome Bettis, I like how he gets forward momentum, can absorb a hit, and keep going.

Debo hurdled a sucka (aka pulled a Russell White).

I love the Sofele fly sweeps. He should get at least a few carries a game.

jrBear - 金色熊 #1!!!
Everyone was good, even the backups. The wildBEST was pretty good and I thought they sold the fakes quite well.

Receivers

Omnizzle - Marvin Jones is a beast. Jeremy Ross needs to learn how to catch (specifically, the 5-10 yard hitch route that he dropped that killed a drive at the end of the 1st half, which subsequently led to a Wazzu touchdown)

BeggarEd - Jeremy Ross and Marvelous Marvin are stepping up to become Go To guys

JakeDanHarry - Dropped balls were what knocked 'em back. Tucker, Ross, and Calvin all dropped balls.

But the Bears had deep threats for much of the game. Marvin Jones had another big play, as did Jeremy Ross. They have a much easier job when it's just, "Block the edges until we tell you to go deep."

Swamphunter - Eleven guys touched the ball today. When you have a team with that many receivers to throw to, the other defense will have a hard time trying to find someone to key on. Not a perfect day as there were a couple of drops, but as a whole the receiving corp did a good job.

Run blocking

USAFGoldenBear - Couldnt see it, but given 309 rushing yards, I'll give em the benefit of the doubt

beson - I assume it must have been good because we ran all over them.

GBB4188 - On more than one occasion toss plays were blown up 5 yards deep due to missed blocks that have to be made, the toss is too valuable a tool with Best to allow it to be mucked up by poor blocking.

Pass protection

JrBear - Adequate. I only remember a couple of times where the pocket truly broke down.

Kodiak - Don't remember seeing Riley getting pressured...
...
Yeah.

Berkelium97 - No sacks and Riley didn't seem to be hurried too much. I can't complain.

Rush defense

Omnizzle - Held Wazzu to under 100 yards, pretty solid. D-line played well.

BeggarEd - Only 55 yards, seemed to shut down the running game up front

JrBear - Always the strong point of the defense. Truly resembles a steel curtain in how opposing backs have to run into a wall of LBs and linemen.

Monica's Dad - If we didn't jump out to a big lead early, we might have seen the Cougs running it more. When they did run, they had some success against us. And past games have shown we can be gashed.

Pass rush

Swamphunter - Five sacks, coming from a team that has had a recent problem trying to find some. This should be the game that will get the defense back into sniffing out the enemy QB.

OhioBear - Five sacks, but it didn't sound like we pressued Tuel consistently. Would love to know from witnesses what the pass rush was like. His 385 yards passing suggests to me that it wasn't consistently good.

JrBear - Adequate only, but I welcome the return of Cam Jordan. A good job by the defense to get a sack on fourth down in our territory.

Berkelium97 - It was alright given the LBs we're working with. As usual, D-lineman came up with all the sacks. It was nice to see Cam get some confidence heading into ASU, where he'll surely want to make an impression in front of his family and friends.

Pass defense

Secret Asian Man - While I was still sober I felt that our Bears played too muc soft zone, par for the course. But I can't really be a judge of this because I was wasted on Tightwad Hill for much of the second half.

rurata - It wasn't there all day.
SQT probably wasn't 100%, and the rest of the backfield couldn't stop anything either.
Making sure you get the tackle is great and all, but you GOTTA be able to get some pass break-ups.

OhioBear - So Tuel may as well have been Bledsoe, Leaf, Brink, or any of those WSU QBs throughout history who have torched the shit out of us. Yet another freshman QB whom we make look good.

carp - I was shocked to come home and see Teul threw for 385 yards. However, our pass defense looked similar to the kind we trotted out vs E-Wash when the game was well in-hand. The zone works when there's havoc in the backfield and I think that has to happen 50-66% of the passing plays to be effective. The sit back n wait bullshit requires fast, smart players. The other concerning thing is that the DBs don't turn their heads to find the ball. They played the receiver and didn't really do that either. I do like that Johnson is a big hitter.

Special Teams

Swamphunter - We returned a punt for a TD! Ross should be the go-to guy for the rest of the season.

Our kickoff coverage still needs some work though. And Anger needs to find his rhythm again, he seemed a bit off.

USAFGoldenBear - Nice return by Ross. Tavecchio continues showing that he is capable of kicking the long ball, but for some damn reason he can only do it enough to just piss you off all of the other times.

Omnizzle - J-Ross' return was sick. Giorgio needs to kick higher and not get blocked. Giorgio also needs to get kickoffs deeper. D'Amato isn't much better, but oh well. Anger needs to gain some consistency.

JrBear - Gregory needs to tighten up the D for arizona and or st.

Alamar rating last week: ALLLLAAAAMMMAAARRRR
This week: allllaaaaaMMMMMAAARrrrrrrr

Coaching

Swamphunter - Ludwig went with a lot of wildcat calls again, but unlike against USC it worked well. It really can work when you have a team with a lot of speed against a defense like WSUs. This week Gregory's only problem was pass defense, and it comes from having a lack of seasoned DEs and coverage LBs.

Alamar was ALAMAAAAAR.

And Tedford was usual Tedford... which in my book is a good thing (I know there are some out there that would disagree).

JakeDanHarry - Loved the direct snaps they were calling, though Best seems to do this much better than Vereen. When the Bears used this setup so early, I was hoping that meant the coaching staff was going to use a variety of plays from a similar look. I was not disappointed.

OhioBear - The most formidable enemy was complacency, which bit us in the 2nd quarter. The coaching staff must have done something right motivation wise and adjustment wise, as we shut them out in the 2nd half.

BeggarEd - I liked the kneel down to end the game. Tedford is getting flack for not showing the "killer instinct" but in all seriousness, the outcome of this game was NEVER in doubt whatsoever.

Tommyelee7 - Glad Beau Sweeney got some reps throwing the ball. We were again conservative at the end of the first half, settling for a long field goal attempt even though we had timeouts and time for at least 1 more play.

The coaches made some adjustments at halftime. We responded after a poor end to the first half by pitching a shutout in the 2nd half.

CalBearFan - AGAIN CAL FANS ARE STUCK WITH A CONSERVATIVE COACH. FOR SOME REASON TEDFORD REFUSES TO RUN UP THE SCORE AND CREATE STYLE POINTS. NO IM NOT ONE TO DO THIS EITHER BUT AT THIS STAGE IN THE SEASON CAL NEEDS ALL THE HELP IT CAN GET. OPEN UP THE OFFENSE AND LET LOOSE. TIGHTEN UP ON DEFENSE BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WE FACE ANG GIVE UP 440 YARDS TO WILL LOSE.

Overall

USAFGoldenBear - The offense seems to have gotten its mojo back. I'm really wondering how this defense is going to handle an offense with a pulse in the coming weeks. Hopefully theyre just in a funk, and were fortunate to have 2 inept offenses in a row, and make them look good btw.

OhioBear - The win is great. And a big win at that. But seriously...385 yards passing to Jeff Tuel? A freshman QB at WSU working with a patchwork offensive line? It might be time to just call a spade a spade: our defense just isn't good. We are who we are, and we seem to be a team you can throw the ball against at will.

Monica's Dad - I'm scared to death that, unless the D starts showing up, we may have just won our last home game of the year. How are we gonna stop the Rodgers brothers? Or Foles? Or Antolin? The trips to Stanford and Washington are no walks in the park either. The ASU game is the only one left I feel at all confident about.

Kodiak - Well, I feel like the blind lookout from that bad Mel Brooks flick "Men in Tights"...It's all clear, I think. Sounds like we pounded them early, lost focus and got really sloppy when the backups went in. Then, re-focused and kind of held serve for the rest of the game. I'm sure we'd love to have a start to finish dominating game, but we're just not that good.

The more I think about it, the more I think Ludwig is doing a really good job. Each week, I think he's tailoring the gameplan to accentuate Riley's strengths and hide his weaknesses. The whole feast or famine, big plays over meat n' potatoes approach is the result. I think Ludwig/Tedford know they can't rely on Riley to methodically march us anywhere. So they play the percentages and try to get our speed athletes in space. It's almost like building your team around 3-pt shooting when you don't have a reliable low-post game.

Our defense is perplexing. Considering his suspect hands and superior athleticism, I almost think that Ross would have made an awesome free safety. We're missing leadership, playmaking, and attitude. Some of the problems are execution and some of it is scheme. At least I see Gregory trying to make changes. I wish this stuff would have been figured out earlier...like, say, spring ball.

What Are the Greatest Cal Football Runs of All Time?

Avinash — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:00:51 -0000

Hard not to argue that Jahvid Best's 93 yard touchdown run definitely put itself into the annals of greatest Cal runs. Everything about that play--the Kevin Riley block, the six to seven whiffs by Bruins depending on who you count, good enough man blocking to give Best plenty of open space to evade the tackles, Matt Summers-Gavin knocking Jerzy Siewierski down not once but twice, Brian Price flailing in pursuit before ultimately giving up, poor Alterraun Verner getting juked out and burned again (not his finest game)--places this one into Cal football lore.

So readers, we want to know what you think: Where does this rank among the greatest Golden Bearfootball runs of all time? And what are the greatest Cal football runs you've ever witnessed or experienced whether at the game or on TV? We've had so many stud athletes, like Lindsey Chapman, Russell White, Deltha, Joe Igber, Arrington, Marshawn, Desean, Forsett, Jet, plus all the others in between, let us know your best! Rec your favorites and we'll list the most rec'd in a future post! Bonus points for any video you can scrounge up.

Note--kick returns and punt returns count, as do wide receiver runs--anything where one player had to do all or most of the running is what we're looking for.

(hat tip to Cal Ranger from Bear Insider for the idea!)

Poll

Where does Jahvid Best's 93 yard touchdown run rank in the greatest Cal football runs of all time?

Number 1!!!!!

22 votes

Top 5 for sure, not my number 1.

130 votes

Top 10 definitely, although not top 5.

33 votes

Not in my top 10.

4 votes

189 votes | Poll has closed

Trojans 30, Golden Bears 3: More Quarterback Blues

Avinash — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:06:32 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Kevin Riley had a lot of awkward-looking throws like this in the Bears 30-3 loss against the Trojans.

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For the fifth straight matchup in the series, a Golden Bear quarterback could not beat the Trojan defense.

Kevin Riley spread his first quarter inaccuracy woes (three TDs and a low completion percentage thrown careerwise in the first quarter) through the entire game. The result was a stagnant Cal offense that couldn't pass the ball for more than a few spurts, and by extension couldn't run the ball. You can blame it partly on the 20 mph wind gusts which might've put extra air on the balls, on receivers missing their cuts or stopping on routes, on the offensive line occasionally blowing their matchups and forcing the pressure (albeit they only allowed 2 outright sacks).

But most of the execution failures, for better or for worse, fall on Riley; there were too many throws that just weren't even close to the target. He held onto the ball for too long, his throwing motion just didn't look right, and he hesitated after making his drops in the pocket, whether due to good downfield coverage or...hell if I know, what else can make you hesitate in the pocket?

Neverthless, the opportunities were there; his accuracy wasn't. His completion percentage, one of the best in the country through three weeks, is now hovering at a horrifingly Ayoobian 50% on the season. I sincerely apologize to everyone for claiming Kevin Riley is no Joe Ayoob. He sure looked like it tonight.

It got so bad that Andy Ludwig ran the Wildcat with Best and Sofele in motion, down 23-0 for an entire drive. That's a damning indictment of our passing game--down three scores in the second half, our quarterback was set out wide to block for 30-40% of the offensive snaps.

The Oregon game was a much more complex failure. The USC game is a simpler one to figure out. The Trojans stacked the box on Best early on and dared Riley to beat them in the air. After the first drive, he couldn't. We can guess what the formula will be from here on out to beat the Bears.

Do I think Riley should be benched? Not in the slightest, and it's not just because Tedford's saying so. It's just too early in the season to mark this as a trend, and he did just face one of the best defenses in the country. Let's see if he can settle himself down and work his way into the system against the rest of the Pac-10. If the struggles persist deep into play and jeopardize Big Game or bowl hopes, then I might be persuaded to go the other way. But for now, I'm far from that jumping point.

Playcalling bad? I dunno. I know a lot of people are going to be mad at the run/pass disparity when we have #4 back there, but USC was selling out to stop him all day, and they have the talent and athletes to do so. And that first drive was going well there until the end. After that, it's hard to tell how much of that is on the players not running the plays right, or Ludwig calling in plays the defense can anticipate.

What does annoy me is that I'm beginning to predict what Cal will run on every play based on formation and snap motion, and I'm still fairly novice on the subject. Two tight end set to the left? Best running to the left. Riley in the shotgun is almost always an automatic pass downfield. Put Holley back there and it's almost always an inside run. Lord knows what other defensive coordinators are brewing together in the upcoming weeks.

We have a new tight end for the future. Anthony Miller was our offense for much of the game. The Trojans pretty much blanketed Verran Tucker and Marvin Jones, so that left the middle open, and Riley hooked up with Miller on some big catch-and-gains. At 6'3 258, we might've found someone who combines the blocking of Stevens and the pass-catching abilities of Morrah. In a game full of negatives, this is a pretty enticing development.

Bob Gregory's defense did their part. While the Cal defensive scheme bended plenty in this one, putting the Trojans in the red zone a lot, the final result was 16 offensive points going into the third quarter, with three impressive goal-line stands by an outmanned and outgunned defensive front. There were no big offensive plays other than the first McKnight touchdown. Add in the three points the defense helped cause from the turnover, and that's only a differential of 13 points. If you'd told me Cal's defense had held USC to 16 points going into the 4th, I'd have been strutting like Usain Bolt.

Yes, I'm frustrated by the zone coverage holes too, but give credit to the other team's quarterbacks. Masoli and Barkley made some huge completions that most college quarterbacks probably wouldn't have handled. That zone defense should do its job in future weeks in keeping Pac-10 quarterbacks from hitting their spots. For right now it looks bad, even though it was far from the reason for our loss.

Our linebackers are in serious learning mode. These guys are struggling. First they had to deal with the spread, than the best talent in the country in back-to-back weeks. Bad pursuit angles, dominated by blockers, no pass rush, nothing. I can't even talk in complete sentences about these guys, because it's frustrating to watch them struggle like that. They did hustle in there and help make some nice goal-line stops, so that's encouraging for upcoming road tests in Pasadena and Tempe.

You know how Mike Mohamed looked like the best linebacker last season? I'm starting to think that's because he was the fourth linebacker opposing offenses worried about. They should get better as the season goes along, but the growing pains hurt on our defense for now. The secondary and defensive line have been carrying too much of the weight. It's got to start evening out.

Two mistakes made a big difference in this game's outcome. The first mistake was the Riley interception (the worst of many bad throws), which turned a promising Cal start into a deflating Trojan bite-back touchdown drive. The second was the straight-on punt by Anger to Damian Williams right for the touchdown. Although I knew we'd get an Alamar special one of these days, these are the sort of things you throw out over the long run as anomalies rather than trends. Those two mistakes comprise a 15-21 point swing right there, which could've turned a 23 point margin into a field goal/touchdown margin going into the 4th.

Cal fans are being too critical of Jahvid Best's weak performances in big games. People need to get over how Jahvid is no longer a viable Heisman candidate. A Heisman Trophy almost always rewards the best QB/RB on one of the top two regular season teams; seven of the last ten seasons that's been the case. The odds were stacked against the Jet from the start, and it was impossible to live up to the hype in the long run without additional help from his offense.

Jahvid has his weaknesses, there's no doubt--his pass protection and blitz pickup abilities need plenty of work. However, in terms of running ability, he needs his blockers to open gaps for him and a stable passing game that plays in tandem with his abilities. He got neither in Oregon and only average run blocking against the Trojans. And even if he had Alex Mack and Will Ta'ufo'ou, they too would have had their difficulties against eight to nine Trojans in the box in that first quarter when it was a relatively close one.

Besides, how can Best step up if his counterpart in the backfield steps down?

USC brought their A-game. While it's always fun to blame the Bears for our woes, let's not forget the other team on the sideline is the six-time defending Pac-10 champs. I always worried in the back of my mind the Husky upset would awaken the sleeping giant, and...yeeeeap. They're back alright.

Matt Barkley only completed 57% of his passes, but converted several huge passes for crucial 1st downs. Joe McKnight stepped up big in the absence of Stafon. And God, those offensive linemen--I know it'll sicken you to hear me gush over USC linemen, but they dominated this game. Barkley had plenty of time to make his throws, and they were much of the difference between 3 and 4 yard runs and 6 to 8 yard runs. The most important part of this game that no one will notice was how well the Trojans blocked, from the tackles and guards and center to the fullback and the receivers and tight end.

Of course all that and we still held them to 16 points on offense going into the 4th quarter. I dream longingly of the day we'll hit 16 points on offense again.

We might have played the two best teams in the Pac-10 in back-to-back weeks. So let's keep that in perspective. Both our opponents came out with a specific strategy on offense and defense, executed it to a pinch, and watched while we bungled our opportunities. Yeah, it sucks to deal with the bad execution stuff, but it can happen with 19-23 year olds.

Yes, our expectations are smashed, but we have two weeks to refocus and retool for the rest of the season. I never really saw quit in our players, even late in the games, so you have to feel that the Bears will be ready to bring it the rest of the year. As much as we'd like to think it's the end of the world, there are other things our football players are willing to play for other than a Pac-10 title.

If our coaches are able to make the right adjustments in the upcoming weeks against formidable but equally flawed Pac-10 opponents, we should be able to right the ship and win five or six games in the conference. There are plenty of good but fairly winnable games coming up for the Bears in the upcoming weeks, we just need to focus on executing above all else.

And let's hope that Kevin Riley's arm can start throwing footballs like a regular quarterback again. Because I miss seeing regular quarterback play for the Golden Bears.

The Autzen Massacre: What Went Wrong With Cal's Offense in Oregon?

Avinash — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:00:02 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

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A few weeks ago after opening week, Smart Football wrote this post about what makes a football offense terrible, and this really stuck out to me.

- Line play, in every phase: It’s a cliche, but it’s still undervalued. The most important coach on the staff is the line coach. I didn’t say most important assistant, I said coach. The head coach gets things organized, brings in the boosters, the OC calls the plays, but the line coach makes the whole operation go. If you’d like to know how Boise State was able to stymie Oregon’s fancy spread, the answer is simple: they whipped Oregon’s line, which was starting four new guys. Similarly, with all these spread offenses you see a lot who want to throw the ball, but they don’t understand pass protection or focus enough on it. There’s both a "who" and a "how," and awful offenses can do neither. Runningbacks are nice, but beyond Heisman-winning breakaway speed, the run game won’t go if guys can’t block. (Note that with modern zone plays, it is not always about driving guys off the ball, it is about technique and leverage. This only increases the need for good coaching on the line.) And even the most high-flying offenses have been grounded by a lack of pass protection.

After extensively reviewing the gametape of the possessions when Cal's offense could've made a difference in the game (i.e. before the score was 32-3), I'd say that's about an accurate description about what happened yesterday. We all think Jahvid Best can be otherworldly in the open field, but if his O-line doesn't block for him, he is mortal, and so are the Bears.

If you just want the bullet point details instead of the gruesome summary of what I saw, just read below and move on with your day. You will be much happier not clicking after the jump.

The coach I would be questioning the most isn't Andy Ludwig or Bob Gregory, but Steve Marshall. Oregon's front seven played physical and Cal's offensive line played soft and slow, and it showed, all game long.
The Bears were unprepared for some of the angles Nick Aliotti threw at them in terms of blitzes, but often it was just straight man fronts overwhelming the O-line.
The playcalling was occasionally headscratching, only because it became terribly obvious by down and distance (which can't always be controlled) and formation (which can be controlled) near the end when Cal was going to throw and when Cal was going to run.
I'm not sure Matt Summers-Gavin should've seen action, much less started this game. He looked ineffective for much of the game.
He wasn't the only one though. Every starting O-linemen had their shares of whiffs or weak blocks, mainly in man but also in zone. Cheadle, Guarnero, Schwartz, Tepper all struggled.
Will Ta'ufo'ou's presence was missed. Brian Holley played well for us the first three weeks, but his inexperience showed.
The tight ends blocked well. So that's good.
Marvin Jones did not. For a guy who's always being signalled in to block, that's bad.
Jahvid Best's got one big issue to work out before he plans on being an NFL back. But also I'm not sure if Ludwig utilized him well at all.
Cal's pass offense did not exploit the zone holes, partly due to playcalling, partly due to protection issues.
Cal was in a lot of long yardage situations. They had one 3rd and short, a few 3rd and 5s, but they were in a lot of obvious passing down areas which had a lot of Ducks dropping into coverage.
I was really surprised at how conservative we were with our gameplan. Other than that cross route Tucker dropped, the Bears went downfield a handful of times, but a lot of the throws were very short.
Any play when the O-line played well, the skill players made a mistake, and vice-versa. That's a recipe for offensive disaster. It's like Tedford said Sunday night: "Typically, it was one thing, one guy. It really becomes evident, it’s just so important that 11 guys play together. You have 10 guys doing the right thing and one guy doesn’t do his thing . . . it’s a lot of opportunities we didn’t capitalize on.

Although Kevin Riley made several throwing errors, Verran Tucker dropped a big pass and made a stupid penalty, these things worry me far less than what has become the glaring weakness in our 2009 Golden Bears. How our offensive line adjusts from this game will determine how the rest of our season goes.

After the jump, here's my brutal play-by-play notes and "analysis". I put "analysis" in quotes because I'm a football novice and probably don't understand the nuances of football blocking techniques. I just report what I see. If you see things I get blatantly wrong, correct me in the comments. Bad knowledge is just as dangerous as no knowledge.

What else do you think went wrong with Cal's offense in Oregon, and can it be corrected in time for USC?

First drive, after the kickoff fumble.

1st & 10, ORE 22, 14:56:
Cal Offense: Shotgun max protect, Vereen shifts from weak to strong
Oregon Defense: 4-3 under, seven drop back

Tepper slow to respond to snap; his man (Kenny Rowe) blows by him; note Rowe is not a typical DE, more of a converted linebacker

2nd & 18, ORE 30, 14:20
Offense: Ace slot right, back strong
Defense: Nickel? Five drop back agains the receivers

Cal has SEVEN people in pass protection (including Best & the TE) on four (FOUR!) and Riley STILL gets pressured at the end. This time it's Schwartz's man.

3rd & 18, ORE 30, 14:10
Offense: Ace slot right, back strong
Defense: Nickel? Five drop back against the receivers

Tough throw by Riley to make in all that coverage. A screen would've been nice here considering Oregon was dropping lots of men into coverage.

Second drive, Cal up 3-0 in the first quarter

1st & 10, CAL 41, 13:08
Offense: Ace, two receivers right, two tight ends shift from right to left
Defense: Nickel of some sort

Good blocking to the left to give Best room to run to the right

2nd & 4, CAL 47, 12:38

Offense: I-Form, fullback offset strongside
Defense: Not clear.

Tepper pulls from the left tackle spot, not really sure if Holley had trouble blocking here

1st & 10, ORE 48, 12:12

Offense: I-Form, fullback offset weakside, tight end to the left, Riley audibling?
Defense: Playing to defend run, eight people in the box

This feels like a play where they were trying to run something off-tackle or sweep. Best kind of stumbles here, hard to decide whether he could've made it to the edge. The redshirt freshman Boyett does nicely filling Ward's role as safety trying to plug gap.

2nd & 6, ORE 44, 11:33

Offense: I-form, fullback offset strongside
Defense: Looks like a 4-3 under, but Aliotti plays a lot of nickel with an extra safety

Uhh, Summers-Gavin, when you have no one to block, and no one's coming to blitz, might be nice to try and help your linemen. Guarnero loses Ferras, who flushes Riley out of the pocket and into a throwaway.

3rd & 6, ORE 44, 11:25

Offense: Shotgun spread, two halfbacks (Best & Vereen), Vereen goes in motion to the left
Defense: Oregon rushes 3, drops 8, and still had Verran wide open on the cross route.

Crossing route, pump fake. Pass might've been a little ahead and a little high for Tucker, still could've made the catch.

Third drive, Tied at 3 in the first quarter

1st & 10, CAL 49, 5:45

Offense: Shotgun 2 TE set (Best lined up a little behind Riley)
Defense: Blitz from the weakside

I'm not sure if Best was a decoy here on the swing, but the receiver screen to Ross is thrown maybe a step too early and the throw takes awhile to get there. Summers-Gavin whiffs on a block downfield on the eventual tackler.

2nd & 8, ORE 49, 5:09

Offense: I-form, 2 WR right
Defense: Seven in the box, could've been a big play if the blocks were executed right.

Man blocking fail. Jones goes in motion to block. This is a mess to begin with. Guarnero loses his man again, forcing Holley to help, then Summers Gavin can't get on his man downfield either. Leaves two Ducks uncovered to make the tackle on Best.

3rd & 5, ORE 46, 4:30

Offense: Shotgun 2 RB, 3 WR
Defense: Oregon brings 5, maybe a LB blitz?

Pretty good pass protection, Riley didn't have to leave the pocket unless it was by design; he flushes out to find Ross on a comebacker

1st & 10, ORE 39, 4:00

Offense: Ace 2 WR left, TE right, someone else lined off the line behind TE
Defense: 4-3 under, 9 men bite! Single coverage downfield left!

It's Cheadle's turn to get owned. Cal sets up perfect play action, maybe Riley holds the ball a second too long before trying to hit the corner, but Cheadle can't let Brandon Bair brush him aside like that. Riley forced to run when he might've had single coverage downfield.

2nd & 8, ORE 37, 3:31

Offense: Shotgun spread
Defense: 4-3 under

Jones goes in motion to the left, goes out into the flat, Riley throws behind dangerously, spinning off his back foot. Again Tepper's failure to cover his man (although he does keep him from getting to Riley) might've made Kevin throw that one a little earlier than he'd have liked to avoid the sack, but still.

3rd & 8, ORE 37, 3:27

Offense: Shotgun 3 WR left, TE right
Defense: Nickel, but here's the first interesting wrink: 2 LBs come in showing blitz; one comes with the rush, the other stay backs (as well as a DT), maybe to defend against Best coming out of the backfield?

First call that really left me shaking my head. 3rd & 8 and you go with a WR screen? It might've worked except Summers-Gavin and Guarnero again with a mental error, only brushing at the tackle between them before going into downfield blocking instead of pushing him back; defender goes on to pummel Riley as he's throwing the ball, leading to a low throw and giving Ross no chance to escape Oregon defenders.

Fourth drive, Oregon up 11-3 in the second quarter

1st and 10, CAL 44, 14:46
Offense: Aces, TE left, 2 WR right, someone lined a little left & behind TE (I think it's another TE, can't be sure)
Defense: 4-3 over?

Again Jones comes in motion, decent blocking here and nice moves by Best.

2nd & 5, CAL 49, 14:08
Offense: Aces, 2 WR right. Again, someone lined behind TE to the right, TEs shift from right to left, second time I've seen that.

Summers Gavin with the false start. Sigh.

2nd & 10, CAL 44, 13:47
Offense: Wildcat, QB left, TE right, 2 WR right
Defense: 4-3 under

This might be the best offensive play of the game. O-linemen seal toward right has a lot of the Ducks D biting right, Best fakes and goes left, freezes up Paysinger, then picks up the 1st down with ease.

1st & 10, ORE 45, 13:18

Offense: I-form, fullback offset strongside, Tight ends behind each other,
Defense: NINE Ducks in the box.

This is on Cheadle, didn't execute his take down block well enough to knock Simi Toeaina out of the play, who gets up and makes the backfield tackle on Best. Holley also misses his assignment and Guarnero was a step too late on his downfield block. Three Duck defenders were in the vicinity of the Best before he hit the LoS.

2nd & 14, ORE 49, 12:38

Offense: I-form, Tightend lined left, WRs right
Defense: Corner is shading the running back all the way.

Riley audibles, again Jones comes in motion toward the line, again a run. Methinks Oregon is getting the hang of that motion thing, Talmadge Jackson reads it all the way, although the facemask penalty is what slowed Vereen from hitting the hole.

1st and 10, ORE 29, 12:13

Offense: I-form, TE lined left, fullback offset strongside
Defense: Eight in the box.

Second biggest play of the game for Cal's offense for me. This would've set up 1st down in the red zone. Perfect playfake with the box stacked, put Cal on one-on-one in the end zone, total interference. Tucker with the stupid taunting penalty negating it.

1st and 10, ORE 29, 12:03

Offense: I-form, 2 TE, WR right, again TE moves to the left, then TE from the right motions to th eleft
Defense: 4-3 over, EIGHT IN THE BOX

I replayed this one about ten times trying to figure out what happened. Someone was supposed to block out Paysinger. At first I thought it was supposed to be Guarnero. But it could also have been Summers-Gavin, who looked like he was pulling toward that hole but then sort of stayed behind Guarnero in some weird sort of block. (If you guys have ESPN360, go to 59:54, then watch the play develop, anyone know enough about the O-line blocking techniques to tell me what was designed?). If Paysinger gets blocked out Vereen probably goes 10-15 yards.

2nd and 12, ORE 31, 11:25

Offense: Wildcat formation, Riley lines up left, two WR right, TE right.
Defense: 4 man front, plus something else...

They run the same play they ran five plays ago, from the same formation. The difference is that the backside guard is pulling from the right (Cheadle) to try and seal the left side for Best to have the outside space. Looks good. Except Cheadle slips. Fuck. Then Holley tries to make the cut block on the defender Cheadle was supposed to take (when he probably should've aimed downfield at the faster incoming d-back) and whiffs. FUCK. And thus, the D-back Holley was supposed to take out finds Best and drags him down quickly.

3rd and 11, ORE 30, 11:08

Offense: Best moves from the backfield to the left side of the LoS, WRs right, TE left
Defense: Nickel

Questionable playcall #2: Why are we using a 3rd and 11 with a tight end screen? All these short passes make me wonder how much Ludwig trusts RIley's ability to throw the medium-range pass. The blocking here is slipshod, probably because no one has any idea who and where to block against defensive backs.

Fifth drive, the Riley/Best fumble

1st and 10, ORE 40, 10:00

Offense: I-form, fullback offset strong, TE right
Defense: looks like a 4-3 over

Most important play for Cal's offense. This play made me cringe, not only because of the fumble, but because if that handoff is executed right, Best is zooming through the crease, with a great chance to break through to the second level. Seven of the eight Ducks were blocked perfectly man-to-man, and Jones's guy would've been well out of the play. Still not happy that almost every time Jones has been motioned toward the line it's been a run, but a minor gripe compared to the fumble. This is the crucial play that has us standing between a tied game and the eventual rout.

Sixth drive, Oregon up 18-3 in the 2nd q

1st and 10, CAL 23, 8:13
Offense: Ace, two tight ends shift from left to right. Let me guess, it's going to be a run.
Defense: Predictably Oregon stacks eight in the box.

Yep, although there's good inside zone blocking this time opening the inside for Best to cut in and cut left. Great downblock by Anthony Miller coming from right to left. Secondary with good pursuit.

1st and 10, CAL 33, 7:50
Offense: Originally I-formation fullback offset strong, but Best moves into the slot.
Defense: 4-3 under

Best comes from the slot for the direct handoff (we saw a variation of this against EWU). Again Summers-Gavin has trouble blocking out his assignment, Brandon Bair, who gets off him rather easily and chases Best down to prevent further damage.

2nd and 7, CAL 36, 7:08
Offense: Aces, 2 WR left, 1 WR right, TE right
Defense: If I didn't know better, this looks like a 3-4...I must be seeing things.

More motion so the receiver from the right goes left into a trips formation. It got a first down because it recognized the pressure that was coming, but again, these screen passes make me wonder how much Ludwig trusts Riley's midrange game.

1st and 10, CAL 48, 6:45
Offense: I formation fullback offset strong, 2 WR right, TE right

Riley took way too many steps, didn't really look for alternatives other than deep, then launched that football into orbit. Great coverage by Glasper. Left tackle (Tepper? Not sure whot he number was) also allowed another defender to get a lick on Riley.

2nd and 10, CAL 48, 6:33
Offense: I formation, 2 WR right, TE left
Defense: Oregon brings nine in the box, anticipating rush. Try the pass again?

Again Marvin Jones goes in motion to the O-line, and maybe Oregon takes it as their cue that a running play is coming, since that's what happened on almost every receiver going into motion toward the O-line play. Jones makes a critical error not seeing the incoming linebacker, and he spends most of the play looking for someone to block. He's right behind you Marv, making the tackle on Vereen! Guarnero spends his time on this play blocking the ground from the sun, missing on two Duck defenders who help out on getting Vereen.

3rd and 9, CAL 49, 5:57
Offense: Shotgun, 3 WR right, 1 left
Defense: Oregon rushes three and drops eight into coverage.

Isn't the best way to break down this particular coverage zone to go toward the sidelines, like around that 8-10 yard receiver? Anyway, Riley telegraphs Anthony Miller, and that ball should've been picked.

Seventh drive, Oregon up 18-3 in the 2nd q

1st and 10, CAL 36, 3:45
Offense: Two WR right, WR left, FB goes in motion to make I-form fullback offset weak.

Riley audibles, Man blocking, Cheadle opens up a hole but can't hold onto his man and the defender closes it up!

2nd and 8, CAL 38, 3:08
Offense: Two WR right, WR left, TE right, RB weak
Defense: 4-3 over

Quick throw to Anthony Miller.

3rd and 2, CAL 44, 2:41
Offense: WR right, TE split on both side, I-form fullback offset strong
Defense: Oregon stacks 8 in the box

Quick snap, Holley whiffs on his outside block that allows the outside LB to rush up on Best in the backfield. Think we're missing Ta'ufo'ou right now?

Eighth drive, Oregon up 25-3 in the 2nd q

1st and 10, CAL 20, :59
Offense: Shotgun, RB weakside, 2 WR & TE right
Defense: WLB blitz, 4-3 over

This is on Best for not picking up Rowe rushing blindside, although Oregon did put two defenders close to Tepper, so Best probably felt he needed to help out. I'd worry about the guy unblocked first though. Still, shouldn't we be using Jahvid as a quick dumpoff receiver rather than putting him in pass protection?

2nd and 14, CAL 16, :20
Offense: I form, FB strongside, 2 WR split and TE right
Defense: 3 down linemen

Solid gain and blocking from Best. They're using the Bend but not Best D versus the Jet.

3rd and 5, CAL 25, :12
Offense: I form, FB strongside, 2 WR split and TE right

They're just running out the clock here.

Ninth drive, Oregon up 25-3 in the 3rd q

1st and 10, CAL 20, 15:00
Offense: Best weakside behind Riley in the shotgun, TE right, 2 WR split left
Defense: Could be a dime package

There's that sideline throw to break the zone! Luckily Riley threw that when he did, because Summers-Gavin again struggled to protect against his man.

1st and 10, ORE 30, 14:46
Offense: Shotgun, RB strong, TE right, 2 WR split left
Defense: Not sure

Corner read this right, had a chance at getting a pick.

2nd and 10, ORE 30, 14:41
Offense: Shotgun, RB weak, TE right
Defense: 3 down linemen, Strongside linebacker blitz picked up, it was the tackle Bair who came in untouched.

Oh my lord. Three down linemen and Riley still gets hit??? Tepper with a real weak effort containing the edge and Best is nowhere close to picking up that block. Not sure who the FAIL goes to there. I know Jahvid wants to go to the NFL, but so far I've seen two really questionable decisions by him in pass protection, and in the NFL running backs have to learn to pass protect to stay in the game.

3rd and 10, ORE 30, 14:36
Offense: Shotgun, 2 RB, 2 WR right
Defense: Again, 3 down linemen, 8 drop.

Riley hit AGAIN as he threw with three down linemen rushing; other players are in the box, but all of them drop. Inexcusable. Schwartz can't seal the right side against Tukuafu and Tepper allows his man to at least get in the throwing path. The worst part is Best was open, scorching on the flat again down the sideline.

4th and 10, ORE 30, 14:31
Offense: Shotgun, RB right, 2 WR right
Defense: 3 down linemen, three up in the box, full on blitz by the linebackers

This time it's Cheadle who's out of position to defend the rushing linebacker and only gives him a brief brush by, and this throw by Riley looks rushed.

Alright, that's about as far as I want to go. In all, here are the mistakes I enumerated, for each blocker.

Matt Summers-Gavin--8
Chris Guarnero--5
Justin Cheadle--5
Mike Tepper--4
Brian Holley--3
Mitchell Schwartz--2
Jahvid Best--2
Marvin Jones--1

That's 30 clear blocking errors on the first 41 offensive plays, almost all of them drive killers (to be fair, some blockers committed their mistakes on the same play, so the average percentage of bad blocking plays was around 55-60%, it wasn't one blocking error per play. Still pretty bad). If you expect to win games making that many mistakes at the line of scrimmage, I have beachfront property on Mars I'd like to sell you.

It's why I find it hard to blame quarterback play or our running game for not getting going. How on Earth can you blame the quarterback and skill players when your linemen keep on missing man assignments, when your guards aren't pulling properly, and you aren't able to contain and seal in the zone?

Finally, I'm not going to absolve Andy Ludwig on this. There were several things I noticed that I didn't particularly like, it made those warnings we heard from Utah and from Oregon before the season all the more unsettling, and Saturday made this mocking animation from Off the Pond seem depressingly prophetic.

*Any time the Bears max protected (stacked up two tight ends or had the fullback in the game), they ran the ball. They stacked the box and we stacked right back against them. I think we tried to play fake and go deep once or twice. Any time Riley lined in shotgun, we passed the ball (it's pretty much automatic at this point that we pass the ball out of shotgun, we maybe do one draw a game, none today).

*I also didn't like that Cal always had a lot of people (fullbacks, tight ends, even tailbacks) staying back in pass protection when Oregon barely blitzed at all and got most of their pressure with four down linemen, so often Cal had six or seven blocking four. You're robbing yourself of intermediary and short passing options when you have Jahvid Best or Shane Vereen blocking on passing downs, and you're allowing the coverage to play tighter on the receivers and making it tough for Riley to get rid of the ball, making it more likely for him to get sacked.

*Now you might be saying "WTF MAN OUR O-LINE GOT KILLED Y U WANT LESS MEN BACK IN COVERAGE." Well, fine, don't listen to me, listen to Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers on Wednesday said the best thing might be for coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Joe Philbin to let the front five on the offensive line fend for themselves.

"I think one of the things that happened last week was because of struggles (in protection) in Week 1, we’ve kept more guys in (to block)," Rodgers said. "Our backs were staying in a little bit longer, and so our stuff was all down the field because we didn’t have any of our check downs out.

"The push, hopefully, this is week is, ‘Hey you guys got to hold up up front.’ We need more options underneath the coverage. When they’re dropping off so far, you need some check downs."

It might seem counterintuitive that the guy who’s been getting killed — 10 sacks and 19 hits in two games — wants less protection, but the logic is that by keeping in running backs and tight ends less often, Rodgers will have more options to get the ball out quicker if he’s facing pressure. Against the Bengals, many of his throws were deep because there were so few short options.

*The shifting of the tight ends was interesting, and the tight ends did seem to do their job well in blocking, but it didn't matter with the big five in the middle committing mental error after mental error.

*Almost any time Marvin Jones motioned toward the line, Cal ran the ball and Jones blocked someone on the edge. Not such a great job this week.

*With T.J. Ward out with an injury, we did not test the deep middle at all. How much of that had to do with the wind I'm not sure, but Cal probably had chances to strike up if Riley has time to make his reads or if the O-line pass protects better. The receivers had single coverage on the secondary much of the game except on obvious passing down situations.

*We did not test the sidelines as much as I'd have liked to see. Every time Riley rolled out toward the sidelines he got a first down, and on the first play in the second half Tucker sprinted out for 50 yards on a throw right in the middle of the zone. So Oregon's going to kill us going outside? Let's do it too! Far too late an adaptation by Ludwig.

*Hydro indicated in his Minnesota postgame thoughts that Ludwig had created a whole set of new looks for the offense and there are plenty more blocking schemes in place that give defenses more looks to guard against. While all these new looks are neat and can throw good teams off balance, the fact is throwing in these new wrinkles forces your offense to depend even more on execution. As you can probably guess, no wrinkles and looks in the offense could've saved Cal from themselve on Saturday.

*It begs the question: Was Aliotti a step ahead the entire way? It might've felt that way in the end, but through the middle of the game I'd say Ludwig beat himself more than Aliotti did. The Bears played very conservatively trying to use their blocking to open it up, and we stubbornly kept on trying these long developing plays when it was clear the Cal O-line was off their game. Whether Aliotti knew about Ludwig's tendencies is up for debate, but it's safe to say the Oregon's front seven was masterful at confusing and taking apart Cal's blockers.

*I'd have liked to see more dumpoffs to Best (who we didn't screen or swing to once), or quick slants inside and hitches outside, anything to get the ball out of the pocket as quickly as possible. That Riley was still backing up into throwing routes like he had the New York Giants O-line in front of him reeks of obstinance by the coaching staff. When your O-line isn't playing well, adapt to the situation and make the best of it.

*That being said, I can't really lay the hammer down on Ludwig. The offensive line put up a FAIL, and even if he'd adapted and adjusted properly to the situation, that probably only changes the scoring margin from 39 to 19 or 25.

In either case, Marshall's got a lot of work to do before one of the best defenses in the country comes calling on Saturday. You could argue how much crowd noise, or getting confused by audibles, or just not being able to react to the Oregon defensive gameplan factored in, but the O-line did not execute, and Riley, Best, and Vereen paid the price. A performance like this against USC, and our offense is going to do something it's never done in the Tedford era--get shut out.

Possibly coming later: What's with the defensive meltdown? We'll see if I feel up to it.