(Written by kencraw)

(I wrote this post Monday morning, but for some reason it didn’t post. Here it is now)

Sorry for the lack of game-day posts and the such. I was out of town this weekend. I got to watch the game last night and here are my thoughts:

• Sorry, that was NOT AN INTERCEPTION! I’m actually surprised there’s less wailing and gnashing of teeth over this one. There is absolutely no way to view the replay of that and conclude his foot was not out of bounds before he gained possession. Why do they even have a referee in the booth? Why not just put a magic 8 ball?
• Of similar import, was the lack of a spearing call on the 4th down conversion. I don’t care what the TV commentators say (“where is he supposed to hit him”), it doesn’t matter (as we’ve seen from calls in the past). Helmet to helmet against a receiver while he’s going down after catching the ball is a foul. That defender needs to lead with a shoulder. And if we get that foul, it’s 1st and 10 at the 24, not the 39, and Goff never throws the ball again, so no interception, and Cal probably wins.
• That said, and perhaps this is why there isn’t more complaining, Cal was very lucky to be in that game. All the bounces went their way. Just as I still think that Cal could have beat UW if the game was played again, I think if we play UCLA again, we still lose it most of the time. Cal was out-manned for the most part.
• The Cal offense needs to stop playing intimidated, in particular the play-calling. The pass routes that were working against CU, WSU and UA are still there, but for whatever reason the play-calling is going away from those sorts of plays. They need to be less concerned with a game-plan and more concerned with focusing on execution of the base offense.
• In contrast, the defense needs to actually make some adjustments. While I’m not horribly disappointed with their fairly simple schematic structure, we’re getting eaten alive by the same plays over and over. The WR screens were killing the Bears on Saturday. They need MORE game-planning and more variety to keep offenses on their toes.
• Back to the offense, I think Dykes needs to understand that we need to pass to open up the run game. Certain teams need to start with running to open up the pass, but Cal needs to do the opposite. He’s focusing/forcing the run game too often, too early. We should start with throwing the ball and then move towards running after the defense makes adjustments.
• To the balance end, nice to see Rubenzer throwing the ball. He needs to throw 30%+ of the time he’s in there to keep defenses honest (probably a little bit higher than that until defenses take him seriously).
• But I still like the heart of this team. This team is going to keep fighting through every game this season. I really believe that they *can* win any of the remaining games. I doubt they will win all of them, but I think Cal will win at least two more and calling which two to three it is, is a difficult task.
• I’m glad to hear that Trevor Davis appears to be fine.
• We need Brendon Scarlett back ASAP. Some of the defensive pieces are coming together, despite new injuries. But the one that there’s no replacing right now is Scarlett.

I’ll be going to this Friday’s game at Levi’s Stadium. Here’s hoping for the best!

(More posts to come this week)