(Written by kencraw)

Here’s my thoughts on the game:

• One thing that I didn’t see mentioned in any of the various analysis out there was how much better the kickoff coverage was. Larson was getting the ball down deep with good hang time and the coverage team was both getting down field quickly and closing down the holes. I don’t think WSU got past the 30 on a single kickoff, which is a huge improvement over past weeks where it seemed every runback was getting up to the 30 and about 1 out of every 3 was getting far too close to midfield.
• The first 3rd down for WSU really worried me because it reminded me so much of the OSU and UCLA games. After stuffing the offense on both 1st and 2nd down, on 3rd down the Bear defense falls back into coverage and gives up a surprisingly easy 10-15 yard completion. Luckily that trended didn’t hold in big part because of the pressure the defense was able to get on the QB.
• While watching the TV coverage I heard for the first time that their punter does that roll-out option punt all the time… and I thought it was just something to keep the ball away from DeSean. After watching him for most of the game I began to wonder why more teams don’t roll the ball down the field more often. There’s no hope of a runback and it’s not hard to get 40+ yards on it.
• Contining in the trend of things I saw early that was troubling was Forsett getting tackled in the backfield on the first play for the Bears.
• The wide receiver screens didn’t work very well for the Bears against WSU. The good news is that they always got positive yardage, unlike some of the previous games. I mean, let’s be honest, a 3-4 yard quick-out is more reliable than an inside run these days.
• The first drive for the Bears is indicative of the change in play-calling in the redzone. Outside the redzone: 8 completion on 9 attempts for 56 yards. 4 Rushes for 11 yards. Inside the redzone: 4 rushes and no passes for 13 yards. The most frustrating to me was the QB sneak on 2nd down. That’s the most predictable play in the play-book, 2nd and 1 from the 1 yard line… you can count on a QB sneak 4 out of 5 times. I even called this one to my peers sitting with me ahead of time. Nevertheless, in this instance the Bears were able to score on 3rd and goal with a sweep run play: 7-0
• Another thing that was improved in this game was the defensive back timing on hitting the recievers. DeCoud and Hicks were particularly good at it with DeCoud breaking up a deep pass in the 1st quarter and Hicks creating that interception late in the 2nd quarter.
• That interception by Longshore is another one that is just terrifying. Is it really his ankle? He seemed healthy for the vast majority of the game. The only thing is that he didn’t seem to step into that throw. Was that just poor form or not wanting to put weight on a sore ankle? Tough to call but it’s critical that Cal find a way to get the ball down-field to keep defenses honest and that’ll mean that Longshore is going to have to get some touch on the deep ball no what the cause of the failure.
• The defense though stepped up again and forced a 3-and-out. A very strong effort and at a very important time, right after the interception. Turned what could have been a momentum turning drive into a meaningless turnover.
• What did Tedford call after the interception? 4 run plays in a row. Unlike at other points in the game, Forsett was able to get big chunks of yards for 2 first downs.
• Interestingly though, although Cal went back to the air after the quarter break, when Cal did run later in the drive, Forsett wasn’t able to get the yards of his first 4. Was that the defense adjusting to a renewed run emphasis by Cal? Whatever the cause, Tedford made the necessary adjustments to go back to the air and continue the drive.
• An intersting note is that both of the big errant throws were to Hawkins and on the 2nd throw Hawkins did an awesome job of making the transition to being the defender and preventing the interception.
• But now comes the baffling part… the redzone. After great balance for the first part of the drive (7 passes, 7 rushes), Cal then runs 5 consecutive run plays in the redzone, finishing with the option. With Longshore!?! That’s 9 plays in the redzone on two drives and ALL of them were rushing plays. Just baffling. At least the field-goal was good: 10-0.
• I was surprised just how many errant throws Brink had. I’ve seen him a number of times now and every time but this time he was very good and was what kept WSU in games where they were completely out-manned. This time he had a number of opportunities to get WSU back in the game and his throws were off the mark.
• Despite the fact that Cal’s last two possession of the 1st half were both 3 and out, I felt like there was balance there and generally good opportunities to move the ball. Of course the last possession was really hindered by that stupid 15 yard personal foul penalty. That was the only “stupid” penalty for the Bears all day thankfully, but it was stupid enough that it stalled the drive. Without the penalty it would have been 2nd and 1 after a great run by Best. After the dead-ball penalty, it was 2nd and 16.
• Not to be forgotten, got to repeat how great the hit Hicks made to knock that ball out for the interception. That interception was key. That was WSU’s only significant drive of the 1st half and if the ball was caught it would have been 1st and goal if not a TD outright. A 10-0 lead is a big difference than 10-7.
• In the 2nd half, I was pretty happy that the Bears got the 1st possession. What a great opportunity to put the game away, right? Well it would have been if Longshore hadn’t treated the snapped football like a greased watermelon. I hate to continue to pile on, but what a way to throw away the opportunity to really distance themselves.
• Of course WSU was able to score their first points, a field-goal that came on the short 34 yard drive that required a 4th down conversion to complete: 10-3
• On Cal’s next drive, they continued to mix it up… but what happens when they get in the redzone? HA! Fooled you!!! This time it was 1 rush and 1 pass, so we can’t harp on the play-calling. But we can harp on Hawkins dropping an easy completion that would have kept the drive alive. While it’s not the same failure mode, it’s still another redzone appearance that ended in less than a TD. The Bears were 1 for 4 in touchdowns in the redzone (the fumble on the 1 yard line yet to come) and 75% for points. That’s got to be 50% plus touchdowns and 90% points to be successful. To be fair, this is the one that it’s understandable that they didn’t get the TD, but the overall point remains: 13-3
• While the previous penalty against Cal was a stupid one, the next one was a bogus one. That was a horrible pass interference call against Syd’Quan. If anything it should have been offensive pass interference for pushing off.
• But you got to give the defense credit. Even though they’d been back on the field a fair amount in the late 3rd quarter with the 3 and out bracketting two WSU drives, they managed to step it up in WSU’s first redzone appearance and hold them to a field-goal: 13-6
• The next Cal drive they managed to get back to the balance to get the ball down close to the redzone. I found it interesting that on both 2nd and 3rd and 3 from 21 yard line Cal took two shots towards the endzone. The 2nd was complete although DeSean didn’t manage to get the ball into the endzone. But what do the Bears do once in the redzone? Two consecutive rushes up the middle from the 1 yard line. To make matters worse, Forsett fumbled the ball on the 2nd attempt. Nevertheless we’ve got a total of 13 plays in the redzone and 12 of them were rushing plays.
• I don’t know what to make of that long pass play WSU converted mid-4th quarter. On the one hand, Hicks did have a beat on the interception if he had just stepped forward and bit. On the other hand, that’s the risk of not going for the hit/tackle instead: a long pass completion. Thanfully DeCoud was able to catch up to the reciever and prevent the touchdown allowing the defense to re-group and hold WSU to a field-goal: 13-9.
• Going back to the field-goal, I was really surprised WSU went for the field-goal. After they’d shown no ability to consistently put up yards until that long pass play, don’t you have to go for it and accept the risk of the big momentum swing that comes based on how the 4th down play would turn out?
• Longshore was stepping into his passes better late in the game. Tedford never called a play that had Longshore passing deep to test that throwing motion, but qualitatively it seemed like Longshore got more comfortable as the game wore on. Hopefully that trend will continue.
• FINALLY Forsett broke a run open. Of course the key to the running game is not the ability to break out the long runs (really it’s to get 4-5 yards each attempt and grind things out) but it is nice when the running game can add to the quick strike ability of the team: 20-9
• While the first big WSU pass play is somewhat excusable, the 2nd is pretty bad. You can’t let up on your coverage because it looks like Cal might get a sack/safety. Let the linemen do their job and you do yours. Speaking of which, I had thought it was Syd who missed the coverage and I said so in my podcast. It was instead Hicks.
• And it was Hicks who blew the coverage on the eventual TD. Let’s not forget that the long pass play didn’t even get WSU down into the redzone, only to the Cal 33. After that Cal was mostly able to hold WSU where they were minus a 4th down conversion that setup the 18 yard TD pass that never should have happened: 20-15
• After thoroughly reviewing the 2-point conversion I think that it was a marginal call and one that the booth shouldn’t have overturned. The reciever was darned lucky he landed on top of the defender for the rollover. But even that said, I think his butt was down before the ball crossed the plane. The key was the angle from the endzone. The view down the line didn’t give a good view of whether his knee or butt hit down first and when that was. Also complicating matters was that the goal line goes out of view right as his butt touches the ground by synthesizing the two views. Nevertheless my extrapolation of those moments suggest that his butt was down mid his attempt to reach over the goal line and before the ball actually crossed the plane:20-17
• Thankfully Cal recovered the onside kick with a perfectly executed reception using a few of the recievers as blockers for Hawkins who caught the ball.

Overall, I think that this Cal team is just some play-calling in the redzone tweaks and an ankle healing (or said differently, the current/former ankle injury no longer affecting Longshore’s throwing motion and touch) from getting back to the team that beat Oregon. Whether those things will happen before the USC game is anyone’s guess, but I very much believe the team is capable of beating USC with a strong performance.