As I’ve been reflecting on the game yesterday, a few things have come to mind that I saw earlier in the season that I didn’t see yesterday:

• Maynard running the ball: While there were a few running plays, it doesn’t feel as frequent as in past games. When he did run, it was just a simple read-option (which weren’t working very well and he mostly handed off) and nothing very complex, which brings me to point #2…
• Fewer trick plays: In the first couple games we were treated to a number of deception or trick plays that were successful, the most obvious being the pass-back to Maynard for a big gain against Colorado. Many of these plays were designed to get Maynard running the ball in the open field (linking us back to point #1) and I just didn’t see any attempt to do that against Washington.
• Changing the tempo: This is the one that was the genesis of this post. Remember when against Fresno State when Cal would occasionally turn a play really quickly, sometimes stringing two or three of those together? That was awesome. Where has that gone? Cal’s tempo was vanilla and slow, letting the defense prepare for each play. The team would do well to find some of that creative rhythm again.
• Screen passes: This doesn’t as much go back to earlier in the season as it does to the Tedford of old… whatever happened to Cal’s screen passes? I know they’ve been a disaster in the last couple seasons so many of us are glad to see them go, but it seems to me it’s an effective play if coached up correctly and used at the appropriate times. There felt like there were a few moments against UW that they would have been valuable.

Now in fairness, I saw some things yesterday I hadn’t seen before. Sofele was showing more determination and ability to bounce off tacklers. He had a pretty good game actually until the Bears sorta gave up on the run (perhaps a little too early?). I saw a defense that had completely solved it’s screen pass problems. So it’s not that the team didn’t do anything interesting or new. But at the same time, it feels like a few new wrinkles the team had added this year, the QB runs, more focus on trickery, particularly to get our superstars the ball in the open field, and changes in tempo that kept the defense off balance, have been lost.

I hope the team remembers those things and reincorporates them later in the season.

For some reason this didn’t at all occur to me but I saw it elsewhere (a comment on an SFGate article) and it rang so true I had to post on it:

Why wasn’t CJ Anderson at RB on that final goal line stand? He’s the running back one wants in that situation. It would have made any bluff of running inside a lot more credible even if we didn’t give it to him and heck, did the coaching staff remember the hit he delivered to get into the endzone earlier in the game? Maybe that play should have been called again, yes?

We liveblogged, then we died. And so did Cal. Replay the horror after the jump. (more…)

The blue and gold flags flew at AT&T Park today.

And the California banner was by the Coke bottle.

More photos after the jump.

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So it turns out the wifi at AT&T park works. But typing on my iPhone is not conductive to live blogging.

Anyway, GORGEOUS day here. Could not have picked better weather.

Cal is wearing blue over gold. The best look.

Band note: The random song in the opening show was, appropriately enough, “San Francisco.”

Early in the second quarter the separation of church and state is four touchdowns.

The PA system here is great, in general. But today it’s a disaster. At Memorial I could blame the old system, but here there’s no excuse. I can’t hear the announcer but the guy on the field sounds fine. Whoever is in charge, you are doing it wrong. Fix this.

I finally got around to re-watching the game last night. Here are my thoughts from that:

• It’s worth noting that Hansen seemed to have more trouble throwing on the run. While they didn’t use it extensively, Colorado did do some rollouts to keep the pressure off of Hansen. However, it generally didn’t work out very well for them, because of his inability to be accurate while throwing on the run. I also stand by my previous statement that Hansen really didn’t have that good of a game. If Luck was playing for Colorado, Cal would have been crushed with all the open guys that Hansen missed, even when he wasn’t on the run.
• Richardson obviously was key later in the game, but he also had 3 key catches on the 1st drive of the game. In addition he had a long reception on the 2nd drive, just after Maynard’s interception, that got Colorado down to the Cal 25. (As an FYI, that catch and a screen for 15 yards was all it took for Colorado to get the field goal, as the Bears stopped it right there. As for Richardson, there’s no doubt he played a very physical game. He was a powerful combination of a big possession receiver and speed.
• Maybe it’s just because I’ve got an aging memory, but I didn’t remember that Maynard’s interception was in between Colorado’s first two drives. Cal had been moving the ball well before that poor decision. But instead of stealing the momentum from Colorado by taking it all the way down the field, it allowed Colorado to get right back into their rhythm that they had established on the 1st drive.
• Of course everyone remembers the booth review later in the game where the Bears got robbed, but there was another one on the first drive where they didn’t overturn the receiver being out of bounds that in my mind the Colorado receiver was clearly out of bounds. The key being he didn’t have reception until very late, not that he didn’t drag a toe. We didn’t get a very favorable game from the replay booth.
• HA! I didn’t remember the “Colorado revenge weekend against the Bay Area” puff piece by the sideline reporter. Colorado lost to Cal and the Raiders handled Denver. So much for the “revenge” 🙂
• Jeez the refs were bad/confused in this game. It’s not so much that they made bad calls, OK, there were a couple bad ones, but it just took them a lot of talking to make the right decision. Pass interference at the spot of the foul -> nope only 15 yards, etc.
• After watching the blocked extra point, I’ll take back my criticism of Tavecchio on that. He got the ball up pretty quick. The key to the block was a defender getting through the A-gap, somewhere you just CAN’T afford to let someone through. So when you’ve got a guy 4 yards in the back field and it goes off the top of hit arms 7 feet in the air, Tavecchio got his ball up enough. Seeing as how one of the two blocks at Fresno State was a combo low-kick, too much penetration problem, that means only one of the 3 misses was fully Tavecchio’s fault. The bigger issue seems to be blocking by the long snapper and the guards (the other blocked kick penetration was up the middle as well).
• The attempted halfback pass by Sofele that ended up being a “sack”, was a rare bad play call for the game. Tedford seems to have a weak spot for seeing that trick pass plays don’t work inside the redzone. There’s just not enough field for the receivers to get the sort of separation needed for someone who doesn’t have quarterback level accuracy to be able to make what needs to be an easy pass to a wide open receiver. That just doesn’t happen on a short field.
• The screen passes in my mind are one of the most distressing things about the game. I can tell you right now that our next few opponents are going to be trying screens a lot until we prove conclusively that we can stop them. What was so distressing was just how inept the Bear defense was in sniffing them out. They were out of position. They got suckered into over pursuing to the QB. And finally their pursuit to the ball after the pass was less than stellar. We haven’t seen a lot of screens lately in the Pac-10. Perhaps they’re coming back and we’ll see more of them in the new Pac-12 thanks to our new members seeing an opportunity.
• Colorado had 3 TD’s but none of them were from inside the redzone. The closest was from 37 yards out. In fact, Colorado only had 3 trips into the redzone resulting in 2 field-goals. If the Bears had managed to prevent the long pass plays, this game may never have been close. I had a fair amount of confidence going into OT because, even though I didn’t have the numbers in my head, I felt the Bears had been doing better in the redzone. My only concern was if it got into a dual of field-goal kickers, which luckily it never did.
• Miller’s touchdown in the 3rd quarter was SUCH a thing of beauty. The way he carried that defender into the endzone was very impressive. I think it also made a statement about playing physically. Colorado had scored their first touchdown and was starting to dominate more in the trenches. Miller said “Not while I’m out here” to conceding the physical battle to Colorado.
• Richardson’s first long TD was pretty frustrating because two defenders should have had him. Josh Hill who was covering him took a really bad angle on him and then DJ Campbell looked a little lackadaisical in his coming up to tackle him. Richardson accelerated away, and it was all over from then. By contrast, the 2nd TD was man coverage situation where Richardson just had a speed advantage over Marc Anthony.
• Another note about those two TD’s… the Bears had a 3-and-out in between the two possessions, which didn’t give the defense much time on the bench to make any adjustments. Not so on the drive that followed where the Bears drove 80 yards, taking 5 minutes off the clock. That gave the defense lots of time to catch their breath and to make the needed adjustments.
• Really, except for the first couple drives of the game, the only real Colorado drive was the final field-goal drive that tied the game. Everything else were big plays. Having re-watched it, I was less impressed with Colorado’s performance. Don’t get me wrong, a big play offense can be quite impressive, but in this case, it didn’t seem like Colorado really had that much that was special that got them the big play ability. It makes me really worried about the Cal defense. There’s only so much I can blame on altitude.
• In the 4th quarter the Bears whiffed on a number of potential sacks. It wasn’t that the Bears weren’t getting pressure in the 4th quarter, but that Hansen was a bit elusive and poor angles by the Bears D-Linemen.
• Talk about divergent overtime possessions. Colorado had strong runs on both their first two plays inside the tackles. Things looked really good for the Buffs. But the Bears stiffened at that point. By way of contrast, the Bears managed to get themselves in 1st and 30. Things couldn’t have looked more bleak.
• That 32 yard pass from Maynard to Allen, it was nearly a touchdown pass. If Allen could have accelerated away just a little quicker, he would have been in. As it was, he was tackled from behind just a moment before getting into the endzone.
• Call me a naysayer for the “brotherly connection” being really meaningful. Allen’s a good wide receiver. Maynard’s a fine QB and a gunslinger. But to think that he wouldn’t have thrown the same ball to win the game to Marvin Jones if that’s what had been dialed up… I just don’t buy it. There’s been very little in my mind that has suggested that Maynard is over-emphasizing Allen. Nevertheless, a great way to finish the game.

(I didn’t get a chance to re-watch the game yesterday like I normally do. I’ll put that post up as soon as I get that chance (probably Tuesday night), to be part II)

Wow… what a game. I’m still parsing in my mind everything that happened. A few thoughts:

• What would last year’s team record be?: I’ve tried to figure out in my mind what last year’s team would have done against Fresno State and this Colorado team. Did they have something on defense that this year’s team didn’t and they would have handled ‘the Breakthrough in Boulder’ better and not needed the heroics of this year? Or do they struggle just as much and lose? Looking at the other game, do they lose to Fresno State, giving up the ghost early on a mistake like Maynard’s? Obviously it’s speculation, but there’s an argument for everything from 2-0 like this year to 0-2 and anything in between. At this point I lean towards 1-1, the loss coming in Boulder both because this is not last year’s Colorado team and the altitude would have affected last year’s team just as much.
• Don’t forget the altitude!: I feel like a broken record on this one… but make sure you judge everything in the light of the altitude. There was no doubt looking at the team, in particular their faces, that they were affected by the thin air. And when you’re playing in pain and winded, certain things break down. You don’t recover from over-pursuing as easily (screen plays). You’re just not as fast (the two big receptions by Richardson). You struggle with the little things (the dropped passes). It’s harder to keep your intensity up (lack of pressure on Hansen and the difficulty of players getting off blocks). It’s harder to get the ball up in the air (extra points)… HA!… just checking that you were paying attention. There’s no excuse for Tavecchio. Back to the serious point, does that mean we can ignore all those issues? Absolutely not. But it does mitigate SOME of the issues. Don’t be surprised if some of them look like anomalies in a few weeks and others look to be the plague of the team. My guesses, anomalies: long pass plays, screen plays, difficulty getting off blocks. Plagues: pressure on QB, dropped balls, and God help me, extra points.
• The altitude and playing with heart: The altitude issues are what make me particularly impressed with the heart of this team. Despite the pain, despite the gasping for air, this team kept giving it everything they had. They kept at it and had the confidence that they could make the adjustments to slow down Colorado and to get back over the top. Looking back at the Tedford era I can only think of a few games that matched the heart of this one, and they’re all a long time ago: 2003 USC, 2004 USC (yes, a loss, but they played with heart), 2005 Oregon (another loss), 2003 Insight bowl, maybe the 2006 Washington game, although we were in such a funk early and should have easily won, it’s hard to compare. Point being, this ranks right up with the best heart games of the last decade. Definitely in the top-5.
• Can we get a coach to work extra hard with CJ on blocking assignments?: As much as I’m still a defender of Isi, we need CJ Anderson in a big way and we need him to be able to be in on passing plays (so we’re not tipping our hat when we bring him in). Can we clone coach M and give one to CJ for the week? Anderson is going to be a great addition and I can’t wait, I’m just not that patient, for him to slowly absorb the playbook and his blocking assignments. I’m not sure why Debo is not coming along, but I’ve still never seen anything in him that makes me think he has the inside power game that Anderson does.

More thoughts coming later.

It was like a Dickens novel. Except with fewer coincidences. Want to relive the pain? Our liveblog transcript is after the jump… and don’t forget to join us here for every road game!

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Obviously every win is a good game on some level, but what I saw this weekend gives me a lot of hope, with a number of caveats.

Overall Commentary

• Changes in tempo: One of the things I really liked about the offense was the changes in tempo that kept the defense off balance. While there was nothing of the speed of Oregon, there were definitely some times that Cal did a pretty quick turn around. Then they’d vary the pace after getting set and snapping the ball. Sometimes it would be rocket fast, to the degree it would catch me off guard, and other times it would be slower. I think that sort of diversity in pace throughout the game can do nothing but good. Not only does it keep the team ready to play just about any pace when they need to, but the defense has trouble getting into a rhythm and sometimes is caught quite off guard.
• Play call changes: Another new wrinkle in the pre-snap activities was the sometime used post-lineup play-call change. I don’t know what the system is for when they use it, but I like that it’s not an every-down thing. It’ll be interesting to see the frequency this is used and in what scenarios it is used. In this game, it wasn’t used a whole lot, but it’s an intriguing addition.
• Field position: The Bears really didn’t get very good field position in this game. Most of that was due to the special teams. The kickoffs for the Bears were short and the Bulldogs punting was pretty good. But it was very nice to see the Bears for the most part not let it affect their success, driving the long field for touchdowns.
• Rugby Punts: Having read the post-game quotes, it’s clear that Tedford and his staff see rugby punts as a way to avoid the punts being blocked. Well, sorry, I think they stink. It’s COMPLETELY wasting the talent of Anger. Let. Him. Kick. The. Ball. Maybe the story is that Cal doesn’t have a lot of confidence in it’s punting team and their ability to block the rushers. But again, it’s a waste of a great punting talent.
• Early rust: While watching the game live, it sure felt like there was early rust but the Bears settled down. However, now having re-watched on video, the Bears got into a funk after those first 3 touchdown drives. And there were plenty of different mistakes. Everything from Maynard missing some passes, a couple of dropped balls to penalties. Obviously the 1st game jitters don’t go away just because they’ve scored a few touchdowns, but I don’t think it was as much early rust as it seemed at first. We may be in for some inconsistency for at least a few weeks. (As long as it’s resolved by the UW game, we should be OK.)
• Penalties: When I re-watched the game, one thing I was looking for was any consistency in the penalties. Same type of penalty, same players, etc. Other than the false starts, there was no consistency as to what the penalty was. And the penalties were spread around the whole team (in particular the whole offensive line).

Individual player commentary

• Tavecchio: Georgio is a great kid, so I hate to be critical, but talk about a guy who plateaued when it looked like he had so much upside potential. His kickoffs are worse this year than last and the hiccups on the extra points was pretty troublesome. Perhaps Tavecchio just had first game jitters, but something tells me that this game was a sign that the inconsistency that has plagued him to date will not be going away.
• Sofele: Sofele on the other hand, very much impressed. He’s running really hard and he’s hitting the hole with authority. A power guy he’ll never be, so if the offensive line breaks down don’t expect him to go all beast-mode, but he’s more than just a scat-back now. He’s going to do just fine this year. If I have one concern, it’s ball security. He had a number of plays where the ball came loose, although many of them were not counted a fumbles for a number of reasons. Nevertheless, it’s still concerning. One fumble cost the Bears 5 points, bulldog touchdown instead of a safety. I have a feeling Ron Gould will be running a bunch of extra ball security drills this week with his punching bag on a stick.
• Galas: I won’t be breaking down the offensive line play, so I don’t have a good sense of how Galas blocked overall, but his snaps leave a lot to be desired. The above mentioned fumble by Sofele that should have been a safety, was going to be a safety because of his horrible snap. There were plenty of other bad snaps that Maynard bailed Galas out of.
• Maynard: I definitely feel after a re-watch that his inconsistency was more prevalent throughout the game than I thought after being their live. It wasn’t just the first few plays. He was really streaky. He’d have a few good drives, then he’d get in a bit of a funk for a few drives. What can’t be denied is that his talent means he’s a TON more likely than Mansion in particular at converting on tough downs. There’s no doubt there’s talent there. But people forget that’s what we said about Riley at first. And while I’m not as negative on Riley as some, we ought to be a bit more cautious. I think part of it was that Mansion set the bar SOOO low, we’re ready to take inconsistent play, particularly when it’s wrapped in a warm blanket of LOTS of potential.
• Marvin Jones: Marvin has arrived. He’s playing great ball. He did have a couple of odd drops, but he also had some great catches. His ability to make people miss. His speed. There’s lots to feel good about with him. I’m expecting big things from him as long as we continue to have reasonable quarterback play.
• Keenan Allen: Allen has improved a great deal from last year. Now he’s got some experience to go along with his raw talent. And boy did he show it on a number of catches on Saturday. Between Jones and Allen, we’ve got a GREAT pair of receivers.

Individual play/drive commentary

• Interception to start the game: Just based on the play, it’s hard to know who’s fault the interception was. It looked like Maynard was throwing the ball like it was a slant and Jones ran a stop or a quick come-backer. Did one of them get confused or forget? Did Maynard call the wrong play in the huddle? Was it a read play that one of them read wrong? Lot’s of possibilities. However, when hearing the commentary from both Maynard and Tedford after the game, it appears it was Maynard’s fault. Whether it was an off-target throw or a mis-read on what the play was is less clear.
• 3rd and 3 on 2nd drive: Tedford showed a lot of confidence in Maynard to let him throw the ball on 3rd and 3, particularly after that early pick. But Maynard sure delivered on that 23 yard pass. While it had more air under it than necessary, it was still a good pass that only Allen was going to be able to catch.
• First blocked extra point: Watching the video, the penetration up the middle wasn’t that good and the leap from the defense wasn’t that high. That looked more like Tavecchio didn’t get the loft he should have.
• Sofele’s 39 yard touchdown run: What a great play all the way around. The blocking was good and Sofele hit the hole with authority and exploded through it. Good downfield blocking by the wide receivers (Allen in particular).
• Second blocked extra point: This one seemed to be a combo of the two. The penetration was much more troublesome, but there’s no doubt that Tavecchio kicked it pretty low.
• Maynard to Allen in “double coverage”: While it was a crucially important 3rd down conversion, the lob over the top to Allen in double coverage that Allen did a great job of bringing in, was kinda over-blown from a double-coverage standpoint. Allen had gotten behind the coverage and if Maynard had laid it out where he was supposed to, it could have been a TD catch. So Maynard wasn’t throwing into double coverage. It became double coverage when Maynard slightly under-threw it and Allen had to slow down and then go up and get it. Great athleticism from Allen, and a good decision if a slightly off throw by Maynard.
• Maynard slings it to Jones: Two plays later Maynard showed his arm-strength in slinging the ball way down field to Jones. What I find interesting about those sorts of throws is that Maynard has an instinctive ability to know where it’s safe to throw. It wasn’t the most accurate throw ever (although it can be forgiven for how he was scrambling), but he threw it where he knew Jones could go get it and then Jones shed the tackle for the touchdown.
• DJ Campbell realing in the receiver: I’ll overlook for a moment how badly the coverage was blown on the play, but DJ Campbell showed off his speed in an impressive way, realing in the reciever. An important note: After penalties and a sack, Fresno State missed the long field-goal, so Campbell’s effort didn’t just save 4, it saved 7.
• Maynard hits Schwarts in the helmet on an attempted screen: This was another example of some inconsistency by Maynard. To some degree it’s because Maynard has a bit of a low release, but still, I’m sure he’s completely capable of getting a ball over the head of the tackle.
• Clock not running at end of half: According to my watch, the play where the clock didn’t run was a 14-15 second play (the commentators said 13 seconds). I guess either way it would have been one play for Fresno, but seriously, is that the correct referee procedure for when the clock doesn’t run? We have a replay booth that is supposed to be looking at every play. Couldn’t they figure it out for us?
• Maynard read-option for 48 yards: While I’ve always thought the frequency with which Oregon runs the read-option is a weakness (it’s not like it’s some magic play that can’t be defended), it is a nice wrinkle to add to the arsenal, particularly when you’ve got a QB who can run like Maynard. What I find particularly impressive about the read-option as run by Maynard is that the handoff deception is VERY good. That’s something that previous Oregon QB’s had that Thomas does not. Maynard’s got that little magic in his release that’s very deceptive.
• Jones’ spin move gets him into the endzone: What a great route run by Jones and then a good, timely delivery by Maynard. What I find impressive about the Jones spin move is how quickly he can get back up to full speed after it. Some players take a while to get their feet back underneath them after a spin move. Not so with Jones. He’s off to the races before the guy who whiffed hits the ground.
• Maynard throws it away after scrambling backwards 20 yards: This play confirmed what Tedford has been saying all along. Maynard gets it. He knows there are times to just throw it away and life to play another day. He did it even though it was 3rd down and the Bears had to punt. It was a wise move.
• Cecil Whiteside strips the ball and Guyton runs it in for a TD: For the most part I was a bit under impressed with the pressure the Bears were getting on Carr on passing plays (although it got better as the game wore on), but this play was top notch across the board. Not only did Whiteside get there quickly to knock the ball out as Carr pulled back to throw it (from where I was in the stands, I though for sure the arm was coming forward, but the video clearly shows otherwise), but there was pressure from all over. Add the awareness to find the ball after the fumble quickly and then to scoop and score, was quite impressive.
• Allen’s botched punt return: Although he got away with it when the ball bounced sharply away from him as he dived to catch it, that near-miss is not going to help Allen’s campaign to be the punt returner.
• Maynard misses a wide open Deboskie: Another example of the inconsistency was the missed easy TD from Maynard to Deboskie, where he slightly overthrew him. I suspect Maynard was expecting more speed out there, but still, you’ve got to make that throw and get the easy TD. There wasn’t anyone with in 20 yards of Deboskie.

I keep hearing over and over how “Nevada destroyed Cal”. And I do mean over and over. It doesn’t seem to matter which media outlet is covering it, that’s the stated result of the game.

Why am I bringing it up now?

Well, Ted Miller’s annual review of the Bears season, that focuses on that game, that’s why. Going further, when Ted Miller remembers that the Bears were driving for a go-ahead score when Riley threw a pick-6 in the 3rd quarter, you’d think he wouldn’t mention in the SAME STINKING VIDEO that the game was “a shellacking.”

The Nevada game was a shootout that found the Bears on the losing end, getting more desperate as the game wore on. In fact, starting in the 2nd quarter, Nevada and Cal merely traded scores, Cal coming up short with a field goal and Nevada getting the last score.

It bears repeating… this was not “a shellacking”.

Ken’s not making it to Berkeley, and if you’re finding yourself likewise far away, join him here Saturday (late) afternoon for a liveblog. I hear Cal’s playing a highly ranked opponent.

Will the Bears finally win one on the road? (in 2008, their only road victory was WSU) Will Mansion play well? We’ll hash it out here live at 1 PM.

(I caught most of the game from a Chili’s (in the bar area) in between a wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, so that’s why I wasn’t online but have thoughts now…)

The Bears played their worst half of football all season at the most critical moment yesterday. Receivers couldn’t catch, blockers couldn’t block, Vereen didn’t stand a chance, and Riley threw interceptions whenever the rest of the offense finally did something right. The defense also didn’t stand a chance the way the offense kept giving the ball back but also turned in a weak performance with lots of over-committing and generally desperate looking play.

And that’s what I noticed about the team as a whole, they looked desperate. They looked like the 2005 Bears with Ayoob under center playing the best team in the country, like they knew the only way they’d win was by getting lucky for 90% of the plays for all 60 minutes. They lacked the confidence that they were a real contender and USC was nothing to be scared of.

And I’m not sure why other than some generic claim to “leadership problems”.

Leadership problems show up at two times:

1. In tight games
2. On the road

The good news is that Cal has a softer back-end schedule, particularly when considering the home games. They only play two teams on the road: WSU and Oregon State. Unless something significant changes, I’m writing off the OSU game as a loss at this point. However, I think the Bears can go to the frozen potato patch and beat WSU. So it all comes down to how they can do at home. ASU is very beatable, as is Washington. We beat those three, ASU, UW and WSU, and we’re bowl eligible. A Big Game win, something I still think the Bears have a better than 50% shot at with the game at home, and the Bears are 7-5. Pull off the miracle at home, where the Bears CLEARLY are a different team than the one that went to the LA Coliseum, and beat Oregon, and we’re 8-4.

Personally, I’m thinking 7-5.

We tried to do a Liveblog. Ken was smart – he didn’t show up. Some of you did. Then Cal gave up 42 points in one half. We gave up. Go do something more productive with your life. We’ll figure out what it all means, later.

Want to see what we said about the game while it was going on. It’s all there after the jump. But whatever you do, don’t mention the score. (more…)

6:52 Jason Snell: Hi everyone. Jason reporting to you live from my house.

6:52 Jason Snell: Are you ready for some inappropriately timed football??

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A little late, but my thoughts based on re-watching the game on TV:

• Sofele fumbling the kickoff… that’s not something that’s going to keep him on the return team. If there’s one thing Tedford hates more than anything else, it’s not holding onto the football.
• On the Bears first drive I count 5 plays, 3 rushing and 2 passing, where the offensive line didn’t do their jobs. They were often bailed out by great running and a clutch scramble by Riley, but in the end, they were the cause of the drive stalling.
• Ross’s first punt return was a beauty. He doesn’t have the “magic” that DeSean had, but he does seems to be even better than DeSean at getting some yards instead of going for the home run (which sometimes ends up gaining nothing).
• Riley’s first TD pass (to Vereen) was really a clutch throw. It was 3rd and 5 at the 13, not an easy spot to convert.
• I guess we know why Marc Anthony is a DB and not a WR. How could he drop that interception? I thought for sure he had it, but it went right through his hands.
• Riley’s two incompletions back to back from the CU 39 on 3rd/4th and 2, really hurt. Tedford wants the flexibility to use either the pass or run on short down situations to keep the defense honest, but when Riley can’t make the “automatic” throws like that, it forces Tedford to stick to the over-predictable run game in those situations.
• Of course there’s no better way to get the momentum from a failed 4th down conversion than two sacks and a resulting fumble recovery. Price used great technique to get leverage on the tackle and around the corner en route to the sack.
• I’ve got the distinct feeling that Cal uses the QB keeper more early in the season than late in the season. I felt like a fair amount in Sept. of both 2008 and 2009 Riley got a number of QB run plays but as the season progressed we saw less and less. Here again we’ve got a designed QB run in September. Will we see it more this season?
• The pass to Jones for the TD was a beautifully designed play. It gave a lot for Colorado to cover all on one side of the field and also gave Riley an easy throw.
• Man were the Cal rushing schemes working well early in the game. Kendricks and Price should have been required to take out a long-term lease in the backfield. When they didn’t sack the QB, they were forcing interceptions. Unbelievably promising play.
• The Bears 3rd touchdown drive was definitely their best drive of the game. They marched the majority of the field and everything was working. Riley was back on his throwing game. The offensive line was opening good holes for Vereen. That’s the offense that Tedford wants.
• You know what’s interesting is that both in the UCD game and now the 1st half of this game is that we’re seeing surprisingly few 3 WR sets. This is much more the traditional Tedford offense. Lot’s of offset-I. Lot’s of 2 TE. Ever since 2006 when Tedford brought in Dunbar, the Bears have emphasized a lot of 3 WR sets and it seems like it’s on its way out.
• As much as it didn’t result in points after the penalties and the missed field goal, Colorado’s drive in the 2nd quarter was good enough that had they played like that for the rest of the game, they could have make a game of it. But I think the fact that they failed to score really hurt them, momentum wise.
• Kendricks is the defender that I didn’t appreciate how much he was a part of the defensive effort. He did great. Good to see him making the jump to the next level.
• If the inability to get points killed the CU heart, the end of half INT for a touchdown put their hearts on a pike.
• Looking at the couple good drives that Colorado had, the Cal defense was playing a lot more passive than in the 1st half. Even still, they were barely getting their first downs.
• The second half of CU’s long drive was almost entirely on the back of QB runs. How could the defense be so caught off guard that it would be a designed QB run on 4th and goal from the 3? I saw that coming from a mile away.
• Anger’s back-to-back punts on the procedure penalty were things of beauty. It’s nice to see him get this sort of consistency, even when he has a reason to be frustrated by a penalty negating his great punt. He just did it again.
• It didn’t occur to me until now that the Bears didn’t score in the 3rd quarter. Those two time-eating drives by CU kept the Bears offense off the field and the offense was in a bit of a funk.
• While the defender fell down on Jones’ long reception, the reason he fell down was because of Jones’ speed. He just accelerated away from the DB and the DB tripped in his desperation to keep up once the ball was in the air.
• Another somewhat overlooked stat so far… Riley’s interception count: ZERO
• Steve Williams had a pretty good game at corner. He’s getting a fair amount of playing time for a young guy. I see a lot of promise at corner.
• On the reverse to Jones, if Fisher had just a little bit faster 40 time, that would have been a touchdown, but you just can’t expect the linemen to be able to sprint out in front of a speed WR like Jones.
• Really nice play action pass to Sofele for a touchdown. Very well executed.
• No matter how many times I see the catch and fumble that went straight into Hagan’s hands… it sure doesn’t look like a fumble. I looks like the WR threw it to Hagan like it was a lateral or something. Of course it wasn’t, it was punched out, but it sure looks like it.

Overall, it was a dominating performance, and if anything, it was even more so from a re-review as the areas that concerned me didn’t look as bad on film.

Thoughts based on re watching the game on TV:

• Wow, 10k+ from UC Davis at the game. I thought it was a pretty big number. Do they get that many at a normal home game?
• The more I learn about defensive schemes the less I think the numbers (i.e. 3-4, 3-3-5, etc.) matter. Last year Gregory usually put 5 on the line, albeit two of them were “linebackers”. This year Pendergast is putting 4 on the line. So what defines the “linebacker” or the “linemen”. Their size? Whether they’re in a 3-point stance? What defines a “secondary” person? Of course there are answers to these questions, but my point is not that these questions can’t be answered, but just that it’s never as simple as “we run a 3-4.”
• So many of Cal’s players looked more muscular this fall. Ross. Vereen. Sofele. Hagan. That’s probably a good sign.
• That early fumble by Riley (and as it seems, there was some shared blame there), really isn’t something to be too worried about. It was just once, not exactly what Florida had. It’s getting the kinks like this worked out that is the reason coaches like to schedule someone like UC Davis first, not Tennessee or Michigan State.
• I love that the UC Davis victory over Stanford is still newsworthy. I wonder if the size of the crowd for UC Davis in part was because people wanted to be there in case they got another upset.
• When UC Davis punted from the Cal side of the field, I knew that there was going to be no upset. FCS coaches who play for the upset don’t punt from the opponent 40. That trend played out all day. We didn’t see lots of trickery or the coaches having them play 120% early to try and make something happen. Instead they played for a “quality loss”.
• Keenan Allen, what a great first catch. I like that it was a play designed purposefully just to get the ball in his hands and let him show his stuff.
• That first touchdown to Vereen, great execution by the Bears, but also it was one of the few cases were UC Davis lost the coverage on someone. I overall was pretty impressed with UC Davis on both sides of the ball (for an FCS team) as far as their discipline and precision.
• It was interesting to see both teams going for the “wide gap” punt formation. It feels flawed to me but more and more teams are going to it. I didn’t keep track, but it didn’t feel like Cal did it every time, but UC Davis did.
• Riley’s pass to Jones for the Bear’s 2nd TD, was a great read by Riley. There were two linebackers for UC Davis who if they were turned around would have been trouble to intercept the ball, but Riley recognized that they were retreating and had their backs to the ball. That’s the difference between a zone defense which tends to have players looking back at the ball and man defenses which often get defenders turned around. Riley recognized the difference and made the right read.
• Part of the reason Ross had such good returns is that their punter was out kicking their coverage. That’s not to take anything away from Ross, but it does make his job a little easier to find those gaps. That 1/2 second to look at the defenders coming at him after catching the ball is huge.
• These announcers crack me up. “True freshman, true touchdown”!?! And then our very own Polowski referring to Jackson and the 2007 Tennessee game in comparison to Allen’s TD? That was a punt return. What Keenan Allen’s pass-attempt turned rushing touchdown was far more like was Marshawn’s 2006 near-touchdown against UW. Same progression, same play, same side of the field, same running route. The only difference was that the Beast ended up 1-yard short. Allen had more speed and got all the way to the endzone. A great play.
• Not to be outdone, Jones had his amazing catch on the next Cal drive. Looking at the slow-motion, Jones got a bit more separation from the DB just before the catch, but still, it took great concentration on Jones’ part to catch that and make sure he got his hands up and cradle the ball, despite being fouled repeatedly while the ball was in the air. Great hands.
• I still don’t get why Tedford went for it on 4th and 12 from the Aggie 31. That was a perfect opportunity to test the long range field goal ability of the Bears. 4th and 4 or less, I can see, it’s also a good opportunity to test the 4th down offense, but for such a low percentage distance and such a good distance to test (48 yard field goal), ti seems like an odd choice to me.
• That rollout pattern to Eric Stevens sure reminded me of days of old with his older brother. Sure he was a tight end, but the fundamentals of the play are the same. I don’t remember his bro ever leaping over anyone though (more like bowling over). That’s the luxury of having J-Ross on the team.
• After all my picking on Browner in the podcast, I should concede that he did get the team’s first sack of the game. He did a good job forcing himself around the corner and getting the angle on the tackle so that he couldn’t get leverage without holding.
• It’s interesting that on Keenan Allen’s big runs that he has a tendency to cut across the diagonal lanes. A lot of players don’t see those, but Allen seems to love them, at least from this first look.
• I think that Riley telegraphs his passes to the TE more than his other routes. I don’t know how to explain it but I can sense that it’s the throw about to happen right after Riley comes out of his drop. Maybe it’s like he stands up straight because he knows he’s got to have a high release point to get it over the line and down to his TE.
• Vereen sure got two easy TD’s at the end of the 1st half. The second one was a more impressive run where he showed off his ability to keep on his feet after getting tripped up, but neither of them were exactly difficult scenarios.
• Tedford hates, hates, hates being interviewed. He knows it is part of his job so he doesn’t avoid doing it, but you can tell it’s his least favorite thing about being a head coach. I will go to my grave remembering the smile he had every Tuesday after practice when he walked by the cadre of reporters knowing he didn’t have to answer our questions that evening. It might be because I remember that face that every time I see him interviewed as halftime starts I mentally insert him saying “why do I have to answer this shmuck” during his fairly long pause between the question being asked and his answer.
• Most impressive halftime stat: 0/7 on allowed 3rd down conversions. Although the 3 rushing yards allowed is pretty good too. I think that only one 1st down was allowed at all in the 1st half and that was the first play of the game. There’s no doubt that the defense was executing well. The offense, well, they did fine. A few rhythm problems and minor mistakes, but as I said with the fumble, that’s what this game is for, to work out those kinks. Since I didn’t see much repetition of any particular problem, the handful of mistakes, most of which were the cause of the few stalled drives, don’t bother me.
• Allen’s next big run, his 2nd TD, also making use of the diagonal lane across the field.
• That foul on Allen for excessive celebration was weak. I didn’t see it live due to my own celebration, but all he did was go up to the crowd and slap some hands. Then he go mobbed and went back to the bench. How’s that a personal foul?
• And all it took in addition to the penalty on the kickoff was one first down for the Aggies to get in field goal range and end the shutout attempt.
• There was a visible drop-off after Riley came out midway through the 3rd quarter. With both Vereen and Riley out, as well as some O-Line substitutions, the 2nd string didn’t do as well as the first.
• Yarnway did pretty well on his first series in, doing a good job of hitting the holes right as they opened up.
• It was interesting to see Cal run the fullback crash run on 2nd and 1 in the redzone. That used to be a hallmark of the Tedford offense on short yardage plays, but it has fallen from favor. I wonder if we’ll see more of it this year.
• As I mentioned in the podcast, Sweeney’s scrambling is entertaining, and the scramble for the touchdown was a particularly entertaining set of moves dodging a number of UC Davis defenders, but it’s not the sort of thing that really suggests he’s a good QB unless he can match it with a good passing game. Yesterday he didn’t show a lot of passing prowess. I guess he was 6 for 8, which is good, but for only 29 yards.
• The stat line only shows 2 fumbles for the Bears, but there were a number of other mishandlings that bordered on a fumble. That’s one area that makes me a little nervous. I hope the Bears are holding onto the ball a little better in the coming weeks.
• This is a good example of why I re-watch the games. It was not clear to me that the reason Mansion came in was that Sweeney got his bell rung when I was at the stadium. Of course by that point in the game, it was a pretty lazy affair, so I think if I had been paying more attention I would have noticed, but I didn’t. That’s yet another reason why his excessive running is not a good thing.

Overall, you can’t argue when your defense only give up 81 yards and four 1st downs. That’s a pretty good defensive performance against anyone. The offense has some big play potential again in Keenan Allen and overall looked to have pretty good rhythm, particularly the 1st string.

Go Bears!

Expect both the On The Road Home podcast and a re-watch/full review of the game later today. In the mean time, my initial AM thoughts:

• Stinking Washington! Here I spend all summer talking about how everyone is over-rating them and they’re not going to do well, probably not even be bowl eligible, but somehow I still talked myself into picking them over BYU in the Pick’Em league (mostly because I think BYU is even MORE over-rated with their new QB and all) and UW goes there and lays an egg. UW, you have been banished from further consideration! (That’ll teach ’em 🙂 )
• Stinking Oregon State! Now we’re going to spend ALL season listening to why TCU should not only get into a BCS game (potentially taking a spot from a Pac-10 team) but also why they should go to the national title game, which they ABSOLUTELY should not. OSU, you’re going to lay an egg vs. Boise St. too, huh? Why is it that you don’t actually play up to your potential until October? Do you have fall practices in Corvallis? Luckily I was smart enough to know about the OSU non-conf bust, so they didn’t hurt me there, but COME ON! You make the Pac-10 look bad every year. It’s time to represent.
• As for Cal, it’s quite clear we need to start working on a cheer specifically for Keenan Allen. He was capital ‘A’ Awesome!
• The secondary look a lot better yesterday, particularly Chris Conte, everyone’s favorite kicking boy. Apparently he’s belonged at strong safety the whole time, because he looked much more at home there than he ever did at cornerback.
• While the overall defensive play didn’t particularly excite me (still not much pressure on the QB), I did feel like everyone knew their assignments and things ran fairly smoothly. Nice to see when a new scheme comes in.
• The other area that didn’t really excite me was O-line play.
• Does UC Davis get that many fans at a home game?
• Did J-Ross give leaping lessons during summer practices? Did anyone other than Stevens show up? I sure hope so.
• Now I know why Sofele is #2 on the depth chart and why DeBo is no where to be found.

More to come…