Yes. And I am one of the people thinking that Coach Wilcox is doing a good job with our team. Heck, we lost to a number 8 team by 1 point. I know it hurts after being up at one time by 25 points, but Cam Ward is the best QB in the country.
I see this game as a game of two halves. We dominated the first. They dominated the second. Ott went out injured. I think Sessions was out as well. Reimer was replaced by Swinney, which I think was overdue. (I love Reimer's nasty and aggressiveness, but it gets him beat when he is not patient in pass pro). Miami was able to pressure Mendoza with 3 or 4 down linemen in the 2nd half, which meant he could not burn them. It also means our O-line is still a weakness. Mendoza did not have time to get passes out. He was hurried, pressured and sacked way to much. A look at team comparison stats tells an interesting story:
The big tell was that we only ran 49 plays to their 86. This means we were relying on big plays and you can only get away with that for a while. It means our offense could not put together sustained drives to keep our defense off the field. And that means our defense was worn out in the 4th quarter. You could see that when we just shut down with our 3 and 4 man rush not putting pressure on Cam Ward in the 4th quarter. Other than the broken containment where Cam scored on that 25 yard scamper the big thing that stand out to me was the big play to Restrepo. I have to watch it again, but a coverage breakdown to allow a 77 yard play with 2 minutes left in the game is just unforgivable. I know at least one of our back up DB's was in the game at safety.
This was a game that would have tilted our way with one more third down stop or one more third down conversion by us. While I see progress in our quality of play, it is meaningless when the only real grade is a W.
Our offense has a long way to go and the biggest need on our offense is stud quality O-linemen. If you get a solid group, then your running backs wil be able to run and your QB will be able to pass.
Wilcox is going to need to replace a lot of talent on defense after this season, but he cannot forget about o-line. He has to figure out a way to get some big athletic bodies, even if our NIL has to out bid competition for them.
On a closing thought, I don't see Ott going in the draft this year. Not gonna happen. If not will he return while we have O-Line problems or will he go someplace where some road graders can pave an open lane for him? His future draft number is going to depend on his play next season, which will be his last. If he doesn't see the chance to do it at CAL then he'll go where he think he can. The payday for a future NFL career is a lot bigger than a one year NIL deal at CAL or anywhere else. He will go play where he has the best chance to showcase his talent.
As much as I love Ott, given a finite NIL budget it seems like OLine must be more of a priority. I hope we can do both: retain Ott if he decides to play 1 more year and add Oline talent, but Ott without an OLine upgrade isn't the best use of $ or fair to Ott, who puts his body on the line every game.
I’m a surface level X’s and O’s guy, so these super zoomed in breakdowns are helpful. I was bashing my head against the wall trying to understand why things were working until they were not. This makes a lot more sense.
Ott was electric in the passing game, but far too indecisive at the line of scrimmage. Wilcox’s achilles has been the OL for at least a few years now. I thought the ascendence of Bloech might help address that, but it feels like we’re going backwards.
I disagree respectfully with your assessment. again this culture the way it is will never rise to win against a team or a hi pressure situation. how do we expect to get better n better if we tank like this over n over again???
It all comes down to how many plays we run on offense. We can't put the D under this type of pressure when they have run so many plays. I don't think this is a cultural issue, I think its a talent issue, specifically lack of talent on the O-Line. Wilcox has been building our depth and doing a good job of it, but he has a ways to go to get us in the same place as elite programs. And, I would actually argue our culture is one of guys who don't make frequent mistakes. We were up 25 points on Miami because they were the ones making mistakes, even with better talent across the team.
As I understand it Lineman on both sides are at a premium, with some 6 figure NIL deals on the table.
I must agree that much may not be Coach Wilcox's fault, but we also must recognize that he has had 8 years to flag these problems and seek the needed changes that have kept us from solving the issues. The core question to ask him, since an offer to such was the cause of the AD’s extension of Coach Wilcox’s contract, what would he have done differently at Oregon? If he says we can’t compare Cal to Oregon, then we need to ask what’s different that makes that statement so? Because you and I can remember a very different Oregon that was on the same ups and downs as Oregon State, both of whom were our cupcakes over some decades. So, do we need our own Uncle Phill(s) who are Cal alums or fans to whale up our finances? Because prior to Uncle Phill’s patronage, Oregon was a fellow Pac 8 school Athletic program, not the national contender that is today. I would want to hear Justin explain why we’re not at our potential and what was needed and not provided.
Like on I Love Lucy, we may love him, but he’s got a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
To me it seems like the offense was done like a tempo, which meant very little TOP. I don’t think our defense could have played better and, predictably, when ask to carry the weight of the whole second half, they broke.
As for Ott, yeah, I worry about that, him leaving. He’s become a high profile target and decoy and is not being used to his best effectiveness.
I will add that I’m proud that he does not sanction headhunting, like other coaches seem to do. Like, uh, last night, maybe.
In fairness to Wilcox he was building a solid team in a pre Transfer Portal environment and Covid hit us. Covid and the City of Berkeley fucked us. When we lost to lowly AZ that year because a third of our team could not travel (even though they were asymptomatic) and we started a third string QB, our recruiting died. Remember one of our top O-linemen transferred to Oklahoma because of the whole situation, and he started. Recruits had a real bad taste in their mouth about coming to Berkeley where the administration and city didn't care about football. Hard to recruit in that environment. But Wilcox kept at it. He slowly built the team and we have been getting better players and playing better football. We would have been blown off the field against Miami with last years team. Wilcox adapted to the Transfer Portal and has had successive top 20 portal classes meanwhile landing solid recruiting classes. I don't put much weight on high school recruits with the portal these days as I think half of them will move within two years if they aren't playing. The last thing that Wilcox has done is build our NIL program into a respectable recruiting tool. He's been doing all this while being a head coach. And remember, he turned down the job as head coach at Oregon to stay here. He's getting what he wants from the Admin and Alums, finally. And he's committed to building a great program. And he is a very good human being, the kind that represents CAL and our team very well. I honestly don't think there is another coach out there that would do what Wilcox has done to build a program because he has worked so hard at things that a normal HC doesn't get involved with. I'm 100% behind him. If we got rid of him who are we going to replace him with? Will they be as committed to CAL has he is? We certainly won't pay a coach $8m-$10m a year. And a coach who gets paid that kind of money wants someone else running the NIL and he wants big bucks, like $20m in the account. Everyone wants change without realizing what it requires. Justin is our guy and I hope he does not leave us. We need to get behind him so he doesn't have to worry about anything other than coaching.
Make sure you share your thoughts with Chancellor Lyons. Coach Wilcox needs advocates, because part of the problem is Cal fans don't want their foot ball to challenge them and it's super easy to blame their coach. I remember the grief Theder got, even though the cupboard was near empty when he took over.
I'm afraid had we simply been blown out, as we may have last year, people would be less angry with him. Coach Wilcox may be a victim of his own success.
I think we'll end up 8-4 even with the futility on the offensive line. We'll probably lose on the road to Pitt and SMU, but I think we can take NC St, Oregon St, Cuse, and Furd at home and Wake on the road. None of those five are very good.
Pitt’s going to score. Syracuse is going to score. SMU is going to score. Wilcox does not win tough conference games…we know this. There’s 8 years of data that shows this. We’ll be in every game, sure…but will we execute well enough to win. Doubtful…the team was up for the #8 team in the country on ESPN after a BYE. We still blew it.
This game plan was nice in spots, but the O still has way too many lapses to be confident in this team to win a road game against a decent opponent.
The first series where we went backwards, coupled with the back-to-back 3 and outs to sandwich the half, were absolutely huge. Miami was on the ropes - a better team buries them. We’re not that.
This teams ceiling is 8 wins and its floor should be 6. I think the wildcard factor is East coast travel and possibly losing to Wake Forest because of an East coast travel and an early start time.
That’s the one I’ve got circled on the Wilcox Watch…6-6 is where it allegedly gets dicey for his job status. Unfortunately, he doesn’t beat good conference foes on the road, so Pitt and SMU are most assuredly L’s. You have to beat NC State…you have to beat Stanford.
So v. Oregon State, v. Syracuse, @ Wake are the swing games, IMO. If we play 3 clean games where we can execute in the RZ, we probably win all 3. But what are the chances of that?
Wake is a winnable road game…probably the only roadie they have a decent shot at winning. If they play like they did at Auburn, or v. Miami, they can come out with a W.
That's simply not true. This team is not built well on the offensive side because the OL can't open holes with any consistency and can't protect the QB. Also, Mendoza isn't a terribly accurate QB. He does, however, have more courage than most.
The defense played with brilliance at times, but I wonder about the playcalling that allows a team that had misfired at critical moments to come back from 25 points down in the 3rd quarter and eke out a win in the last minute.
At one point last night, I was very unhappy that we had played so poorly against FSU. Later, I realized that it was Miami who had played particularly poorly against Cal. Cal was simply the team it always had been.
Yes, it’s entirely possible that they started flat-footed, drunk with pride, until they woke and had a come-to-Jesus moment.
I also must wonder if high profile players, such as Ward, enjoy appearing uber-casual, because that’s just so cool. Like part of swagger. “No worries, we’ll beat these Bears, man.” Like stating flat, on purpose.
I'll continue to support the team regardless of outcome. I hope Ott can get actually back to full health and look forward to the remainder of the schedule which won't be up against O and D lines like Miami's, and won't face anymore game changing QBs like Ward. Go Bears!
My version of this epiphany came in the early 90s when I took a friend from Boston to a game. He commented that our fans (including me, i guess) seemed to expect to lose instead of expecting to win. More than expect: we believed we would lose. I have tried ever since then to believe in my heart of hearts that we would prevail and to scream/cheer accordingly. It ain’t always easy.
The difference that you’re failing to grasp is Texas doesn’t extend their coaches when they shit the bed for 8 straight years.
They hire a better coach.
Sing all you want but until this clown is gone and we hire a non Nike u clown who actually knows how to lead young human beings and not play prevent defense with a lead all you’re going to be doing is singing to players and feeling like a turd every week.
Cal's OL was not good enough. Negative plays and a sad rushing attack led to a time of possession much too low for the defense to have the chance to stop Miami's offense.
Time of possession, especially in the 2nd half, was killer. The box score shows 37 minutes Miami to 23 minutes Cal. So many plays where the coverage had to play for 5-10 seconds of effort while Ward scrambled..those add up and it looked like the D was beyond gassed at the end. Also, you cannot convince me Ott is even close to healthy with the number of touches he had (7 carries + 3 receptions), and only 7 rushing attempts for 2 yards. I was hoping we could use a larger back, like Calloway, to get some more bruising gains that would sustain drives and eat clock.
Came home. Took a Xanax. Slept for a loooong time. Woke up to see the sun came up again and I once again escaped dying from cal football.
I hate to say it, but if we learn from this it will still be progress. It’s a terrible shame because we did so well at gameday and then packed the stadium—louder than I have ever heard it.
Cal's O line consisted of a patchwork of players who are 1st, 2nd, stringers and "others". It was obvious from the 1st running play called that they were really overmatched. This is why we couldn't put together any time consuming marches. This meant that our D was on the field most of the game and became very tired. We scored very fast and the scores were a result of long pass and run outcomes. Pappy Waldorf (this shows how old I am) once said that good running backs are a dime a dozen but good lineman are hard to find.
This one hurt, and I can’t shake the feeling that it might be a tipping point for me. I went to sleep a couple hours ago and now I’m up for the ride to OAK to go back home. The end of the game felt pre-ordained, inevitable, helpless. We have seen this show before. The fanbase SHOWED UP - loud, in numbers, totally ready to help carry the team. I usually feel better in the morning, but not this morning.
Cal Fam. I know this is painful. But most of the Cal pundits had us losing two out of three last games. (Which we did.) We just played beyond expectation, which both says a lot about this team and stings a wee bit more knowing we shoulda coulda woulda... Should they have won both games? Yes. But let’s keep perspective. We are not a 10 win team. But we could still be a 7-8 win team. Let’s keep supporting our boys and not let this loss get us down. (I am half pumping myself up.) I’m not sure if yall heard, but I recall Wilcox saying we don’t want to be on a rollercoaster, we wanna be on a rocket ship. So much for that sentiment. 🤷♂️. Go bears!
Without a doubt my worse feeling coming out of a game in Memorial since the Riley OSU game. Targeting call was of course BS, but we were playing not to lose for the whole 4th quarter. I truly believe we would have found a way to hand them back the ball and lose regardless of the outcome of that call. The program's just quite not there yet unfortunately, even if the appetite for it is. But we showed out yesterday and made a statement about what the potential is for the overall energy and interest around this program when it gets regularly watered and cared for. A lot was accomplished this week despite the letdown. I think we engendered a lot of good will from the national college football community, even if they are all saying "typiCal" at the same time. That's a big difference from the indifference and even animosity we have experienced in the years since Tedford. Yesterday was my favorite day of football on campus in eons despite it also being one of the worst meltdowns (and most poorly timed ones) I've had to witness in person.
But we showed out yesterday and made a statement about what the potential is for the overall energy and interest around this program when it gets regularly watered and cared for.
Well, we experienced that 20 years ago in the early years of Tedford era, and that was a continued success for a few years. We are going so backwards.
I wouldn’t disagree. I’m old enough to have experienced that with the Snyder and Tedford eras. But it’s also true that locally and nationally interest has waned as Cal football and Cal basketball have been deprioritized by the University. I’m merely suggesting we reminded folks of what that looks like, and for a new generation that had zero exposure to those Tedford years.
But we have had moments like this with Wilcox and instead of getting a momentum creating win, we suffer a momentum killing loss.
Auburn 2023
ASU 2019
UCLA 2018
And last night are the ones I can name off the top of my head. Those were all games where fans came out to support the team and we were rewarded with gut punching losses.
No doubt. Did I say we haven’t had others? Few know that more than me, who has dedicated unlimited unrequited psychological energies to this program for four decades.
No, I’m just saying that while we haven’t had Tedford type of success or stadium experiences, we have experienced it in spurts for this new generation, it just hasn’t been sustained and every time we have a big game at Memorial with lots of interest, we tend to lose those games. Win last night and I am sure the stadium would be mostly full for the remainder of home games, now with that loss, I am not so sure.
I've been critical of JW since he was announced as HC. But this one is on the jimmy's and the joe's. It wasn't effort or heart, but a talent deficit. The Canes 4* & 5* Big Uglies beat our 3* guys over and over again. Their DL was in our backfield before Ott coudl touch the ball. Our WR had more rushing yards than our RBs. Nando was under seige all night as our tackles were pushed back into his face. Miami made adjustments at halftime to pick up our blitz, allowing Cam Ward to complete long 3rd downs (which we've been giving up al year). We bring pressure, and that means man coverage, where better athletes will win the 50:50 balls.
Even so, it was winnable until a RB goes 70 yards on a simple check down crossing pattern. (Against pressure, and man coverage.) D was gassed. Uluave had 12 tackles in the first half, only 3 in the second. I'm sure Christobal was screaming at half time for someone on the OL to ' block that guy' .
The D was gassed by mid 4th as Cal offense couldn’t buy them much time off. Inexcusable loss to not figure out to protect a 25 point lead, but Wilcox isn’t going anywhere
Fully agree with this. The differential in number of plays and time of possession are the real story here. When the pick six happened the first thing that came to mind was that we just gave the offense some more rest, while keeping the D on the field against a high pace offense. And I think it was during that field goal drive, multiple players ran out of bounds to avoid contact. It may have been the end of the third/start of fourth quarter, but a smart coach would have told the offense to keep the ball in bounds at that point in the game. Running off 20-30 seconds 3-4 times in that drive would have made the difference.
You watched the ‘prevent’ non defense. Philosophy not to let the opponent beat you deep on one play. Instead, give up huge chunks in front of you. Don’t pressure the passer, just make him complete short throws and keep the play in front of you.
Supposedly if we lost we were going to be on the ACC network but I guess execs at the mouse were entertained enough to keep us on the main channel. Also Pitt is only favored by 2.5 points.
After last night's horror movie ending I'm glad to offer up some 👍 good news.
Cal has been competitive in all of its games and Pitt is undefeated so I can see why we made it on ESPN. It’s a good storyline game that should be competitive and could be a potential upset.
I will say this, being in ACC has been great for TV exposure as we have been on ESPN or ESPN2 and at good time slots for 5 of our 6 games.
Oh man honestly this is a new low for me. Hard to swallow even after sleep. I was planning on traveling to be at the NCSU game if the game is in the afternoon (will be the first time since the pandemic) but I feel much less motivated to book the trip after the game.
I know Rogers had one pass maybe, but what the heck was Bloesch thinking? Why go away from what worked in the first 3 quarters? Maybe Wilcox told him to run, but you can't keep going 3 and out and expect the defense to stop each time.
Even when we scored, our scoring drives were very short due to big plays.
I think what happened in the 2nd half is that Miami decided to bring pressure on Mendoza all the time. They clogged running lanes and got after Fernando. We collapsed under the pressure because we had no uncovered safety valves to go to. That's an offensive adjustment that wasn't made.
Hey everyone
I know it was a tough loss
We should have won this and the last game too
But we can beat anybody. We just got to continue to progress.
Year is far from over and we are on schedule to win 8 or 9 games. Please let’s stay level and continue to support our Golden Bears.
Yes. And I am one of the people thinking that Coach Wilcox is doing a good job with our team. Heck, we lost to a number 8 team by 1 point. I know it hurts after being up at one time by 25 points, but Cam Ward is the best QB in the country.
I see this game as a game of two halves. We dominated the first. They dominated the second. Ott went out injured. I think Sessions was out as well. Reimer was replaced by Swinney, which I think was overdue. (I love Reimer's nasty and aggressiveness, but it gets him beat when he is not patient in pass pro). Miami was able to pressure Mendoza with 3 or 4 down linemen in the 2nd half, which meant he could not burn them. It also means our O-line is still a weakness. Mendoza did not have time to get passes out. He was hurried, pressured and sacked way to much. A look at team comparison stats tells an interesting story:
https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/miami-(fl)-hurricanes-california-golden-bears-202410050059/?section=teamcomparison
The big tell was that we only ran 49 plays to their 86. This means we were relying on big plays and you can only get away with that for a while. It means our offense could not put together sustained drives to keep our defense off the field. And that means our defense was worn out in the 4th quarter. You could see that when we just shut down with our 3 and 4 man rush not putting pressure on Cam Ward in the 4th quarter. Other than the broken containment where Cam scored on that 25 yard scamper the big thing that stand out to me was the big play to Restrepo. I have to watch it again, but a coverage breakdown to allow a 77 yard play with 2 minutes left in the game is just unforgivable. I know at least one of our back up DB's was in the game at safety.
This was a game that would have tilted our way with one more third down stop or one more third down conversion by us. While I see progress in our quality of play, it is meaningless when the only real grade is a W.
Our offense has a long way to go and the biggest need on our offense is stud quality O-linemen. If you get a solid group, then your running backs wil be able to run and your QB will be able to pass.
Wilcox is going to need to replace a lot of talent on defense after this season, but he cannot forget about o-line. He has to figure out a way to get some big athletic bodies, even if our NIL has to out bid competition for them.
On a closing thought, I don't see Ott going in the draft this year. Not gonna happen. If not will he return while we have O-Line problems or will he go someplace where some road graders can pave an open lane for him? His future draft number is going to depend on his play next season, which will be his last. If he doesn't see the chance to do it at CAL then he'll go where he think he can. The payday for a future NFL career is a lot bigger than a one year NIL deal at CAL or anywhere else. He will go play where he has the best chance to showcase his talent.
As much as I love Ott, given a finite NIL budget it seems like OLine must be more of a priority. I hope we can do both: retain Ott if he decides to play 1 more year and add Oline talent, but Ott without an OLine upgrade isn't the best use of $ or fair to Ott, who puts his body on the line every game.
Bingo
I’m a surface level X’s and O’s guy, so these super zoomed in breakdowns are helpful. I was bashing my head against the wall trying to understand why things were working until they were not. This makes a lot more sense.
Ott was electric in the passing game, but far too indecisive at the line of scrimmage. Wilcox’s achilles has been the OL for at least a few years now. I thought the ascendence of Bloech might help address that, but it feels like we’re going backwards.
I disagree respectfully with your assessment. again this culture the way it is will never rise to win against a team or a hi pressure situation. how do we expect to get better n better if we tank like this over n over again???
It all comes down to how many plays we run on offense. We can't put the D under this type of pressure when they have run so many plays. I don't think this is a cultural issue, I think its a talent issue, specifically lack of talent on the O-Line. Wilcox has been building our depth and doing a good job of it, but he has a ways to go to get us in the same place as elite programs. And, I would actually argue our culture is one of guys who don't make frequent mistakes. We were up 25 points on Miami because they were the ones making mistakes, even with better talent across the team.
Well said.
As I understand it Lineman on both sides are at a premium, with some 6 figure NIL deals on the table.
I must agree that much may not be Coach Wilcox's fault, but we also must recognize that he has had 8 years to flag these problems and seek the needed changes that have kept us from solving the issues. The core question to ask him, since an offer to such was the cause of the AD’s extension of Coach Wilcox’s contract, what would he have done differently at Oregon? If he says we can’t compare Cal to Oregon, then we need to ask what’s different that makes that statement so? Because you and I can remember a very different Oregon that was on the same ups and downs as Oregon State, both of whom were our cupcakes over some decades. So, do we need our own Uncle Phill(s) who are Cal alums or fans to whale up our finances? Because prior to Uncle Phill’s patronage, Oregon was a fellow Pac 8 school Athletic program, not the national contender that is today. I would want to hear Justin explain why we’re not at our potential and what was needed and not provided.
Like on I Love Lucy, we may love him, but he’s got a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
To me it seems like the offense was done like a tempo, which meant very little TOP. I don’t think our defense could have played better and, predictably, when ask to carry the weight of the whole second half, they broke.
As for Ott, yeah, I worry about that, him leaving. He’s become a high profile target and decoy and is not being used to his best effectiveness.
I will add that I’m proud that he does not sanction headhunting, like other coaches seem to do. Like, uh, last night, maybe.
In fairness to Wilcox he was building a solid team in a pre Transfer Portal environment and Covid hit us. Covid and the City of Berkeley fucked us. When we lost to lowly AZ that year because a third of our team could not travel (even though they were asymptomatic) and we started a third string QB, our recruiting died. Remember one of our top O-linemen transferred to Oklahoma because of the whole situation, and he started. Recruits had a real bad taste in their mouth about coming to Berkeley where the administration and city didn't care about football. Hard to recruit in that environment. But Wilcox kept at it. He slowly built the team and we have been getting better players and playing better football. We would have been blown off the field against Miami with last years team. Wilcox adapted to the Transfer Portal and has had successive top 20 portal classes meanwhile landing solid recruiting classes. I don't put much weight on high school recruits with the portal these days as I think half of them will move within two years if they aren't playing. The last thing that Wilcox has done is build our NIL program into a respectable recruiting tool. He's been doing all this while being a head coach. And remember, he turned down the job as head coach at Oregon to stay here. He's getting what he wants from the Admin and Alums, finally. And he's committed to building a great program. And he is a very good human being, the kind that represents CAL and our team very well. I honestly don't think there is another coach out there that would do what Wilcox has done to build a program because he has worked so hard at things that a normal HC doesn't get involved with. I'm 100% behind him. If we got rid of him who are we going to replace him with? Will they be as committed to CAL has he is? We certainly won't pay a coach $8m-$10m a year. And a coach who gets paid that kind of money wants someone else running the NIL and he wants big bucks, like $20m in the account. Everyone wants change without realizing what it requires. Justin is our guy and I hope he does not leave us. We need to get behind him so he doesn't have to worry about anything other than coaching.
Make sure you share your thoughts with Chancellor Lyons. Coach Wilcox needs advocates, because part of the problem is Cal fans don't want their foot ball to challenge them and it's super easy to blame their coach. I remember the grief Theder got, even though the cupboard was near empty when he took over.
I'm afraid had we simply been blown out, as we may have last year, people would be less angry with him. Coach Wilcox may be a victim of his own success.
💯
We can beat anybody but we won't because we have a coaching staff that loves to play prevent and are more scared not to lose than try to win
I remember Wilcox going for a two pointer to close a game, AZ?, missed, and everyone crucified him for “not knowing what he’s doing”.
I think we'll end up 8-4 even with the futility on the offensive line. We'll probably lose on the road to Pitt and SMU, but I think we can take NC St, Oregon St, Cuse, and Furd at home and Wake on the road. None of those five are very good.
I agree that we should end up 8-4 but I doubt we will. If we go 6-6, Wilcox should be fired.
Cuse has a QB and offense that can light up our defense the way Miami just did.
7-5 feels about right, Golden.
Pitt’s going to score. Syracuse is going to score. SMU is going to score. Wilcox does not win tough conference games…we know this. There’s 8 years of data that shows this. We’ll be in every game, sure…but will we execute well enough to win. Doubtful…the team was up for the #8 team in the country on ESPN after a BYE. We still blew it.
This game plan was nice in spots, but the O still has way too many lapses to be confident in this team to win a road game against a decent opponent.
The first series where we went backwards, coupled with the back-to-back 3 and outs to sandwich the half, were absolutely huge. Miami was on the ropes - a better team buries them. We’re not that.
This teams ceiling is 8 wins and its floor should be 6. I think the wildcard factor is East coast travel and possibly losing to Wake Forest because of an East coast travel and an early start time.
That’s the one I’ve got circled on the Wilcox Watch…6-6 is where it allegedly gets dicey for his job status. Unfortunately, he doesn’t beat good conference foes on the road, so Pitt and SMU are most assuredly L’s. You have to beat NC State…you have to beat Stanford.
So v. Oregon State, v. Syracuse, @ Wake are the swing games, IMO. If we play 3 clean games where we can execute in the RZ, we probably win all 3. But what are the chances of that?
Wake is a winnable road game…probably the only roadie they have a decent shot at winning. If they play like they did at Auburn, or v. Miami, they can come out with a W.
To me, the Wake game feels like a classic Wilcox road loss to a bad conference opponent. Similar to how we lost to Buffalo and Arizona on the road.
Cuse does throw well, but they're weaker all around than Miami, who we could have and should have beaten.
That's simply not true. This team is not built well on the offensive side because the OL can't open holes with any consistency and can't protect the QB. Also, Mendoza isn't a terribly accurate QB. He does, however, have more courage than most.
The defense played with brilliance at times, but I wonder about the playcalling that allows a team that had misfired at critical moments to come back from 25 points down in the 3rd quarter and eke out a win in the last minute.
At one point last night, I was very unhappy that we had played so poorly against FSU. Later, I realized that it was Miami who had played particularly poorly against Cal. Cal was simply the team it always had been.
Yes, it’s entirely possible that they started flat-footed, drunk with pride, until they woke and had a come-to-Jesus moment.
I also must wonder if high profile players, such as Ward, enjoy appearing uber-casual, because that’s just so cool. Like part of swagger. “No worries, we’ll beat these Bears, man.” Like stating flat, on purpose.
I'll continue to support the team regardless of outcome. I hope Ott can get actually back to full health and look forward to the remainder of the schedule which won't be up against O and D lines like Miami's, and won't face anymore game changing QBs like Ward. Go Bears!
Teams don’t win 8 or 9 games with our offensive line. They just don’t.
And with our Coach.
On the back of this tough loss, I wanted to share a testimonial:
I was at the game in Texas in Austin in 2015 when TX missed an extra point in a game that TX frankly should have won. So we eked out a narrow victory.
As I was deliriously celebrating, I saw TX fans gather to sing to their players. Instead of boos, it was serenades
And then it occurred to me that a winning culture is relentless, whether in victory or in defeat.
From then on, that memory started to marinate in me until now. So I will now choose to be supportive of our sturdy golden bears
Of course we should criticize and analyze. That’s what we do. But underneath it all, love for the university that we are so proud of
My version of this epiphany came in the early 90s when I took a friend from Boston to a game. He commented that our fans (including me, i guess) seemed to expect to lose instead of expecting to win. More than expect: we believed we would lose. I have tried ever since then to believe in my heart of hearts that we would prevail and to scream/cheer accordingly. It ain’t always easy.
That’s because we lose more than we win, especially the last 8 years with Wilcox. He has had 2 winning seasons.
Berkeley people can be very logical and play the odds to spare the anguish.
Yet still we watch and cheer, again and again. Something’s wrong with us - very, very wrong with us!
Bear will not quit the Bear will not die.
“Not quite”—that does describe last night’s game.
Go Bears!
Thanks...got plenty of legal help.
The difference that you’re failing to grasp is Texas doesn’t extend their coaches when they shit the bed for 8 straight years.
They hire a better coach.
Sing all you want but until this clown is gone and we hire a non Nike u clown who actually knows how to lead young human beings and not play prevent defense with a lead all you’re going to be doing is singing to players and feeling like a turd every week.
Fire Wilcox now!
I hear you. Let it out man. We are here to listen. We feel what you feel.
1000x this.
All the buildup, GameDay, Daniel making that kick, our fan base - never seen the stadium that packed and loud, the lead we had, this one hurts alot.
That’s it in a nutshell. None of the other famous fails started with pre-dawn perfection and built so beautifully and for so long. And then.
Cal's OL was not good enough. Negative plays and a sad rushing attack led to a time of possession much too low for the defense to have the chance to stop Miami's offense.
Time of possession, especially in the 2nd half, was killer. The box score shows 37 minutes Miami to 23 minutes Cal. So many plays where the coverage had to play for 5-10 seconds of effort while Ward scrambled..those add up and it looked like the D was beyond gassed at the end. Also, you cannot convince me Ott is even close to healthy with the number of touches he had (7 carries + 3 receptions), and only 7 rushing attempts for 2 yards. I was hoping we could use a larger back, like Calloway, to get some more bruising gains that would sustain drives and eat clock.
Props to the players for playing their hearts out. Proved we can take on anyone.
Came home. Took a Xanax. Slept for a loooong time. Woke up to see the sun came up again and I once again escaped dying from cal football.
I hate to say it, but if we learn from this it will still be progress. It’s a terrible shame because we did so well at gameday and then packed the stadium—louder than I have ever heard it.
The bear will not quit. The bear will not die.
Cal's O line consisted of a patchwork of players who are 1st, 2nd, stringers and "others". It was obvious from the 1st running play called that they were really overmatched. This is why we couldn't put together any time consuming marches. This meant that our D was on the field most of the game and became very tired. We scored very fast and the scores were a result of long pass and run outcomes. Pappy Waldorf (this shows how old I am) once said that good running backs are a dime a dozen but good lineman are hard to find.
This one hurt, and I can’t shake the feeling that it might be a tipping point for me. I went to sleep a couple hours ago and now I’m up for the ride to OAK to go back home. The end of the game felt pre-ordained, inevitable, helpless. We have seen this show before. The fanbase SHOWED UP - loud, in numbers, totally ready to help carry the team. I usually feel better in the morning, but not this morning.
Cal Fam. I know this is painful. But most of the Cal pundits had us losing two out of three last games. (Which we did.) We just played beyond expectation, which both says a lot about this team and stings a wee bit more knowing we shoulda coulda woulda... Should they have won both games? Yes. But let’s keep perspective. We are not a 10 win team. But we could still be a 7-8 win team. Let’s keep supporting our boys and not let this loss get us down. (I am half pumping myself up.) I’m not sure if yall heard, but I recall Wilcox saying we don’t want to be on a rollercoaster, we wanna be on a rocket ship. So much for that sentiment. 🤷♂️. Go bears!
Without a doubt my worse feeling coming out of a game in Memorial since the Riley OSU game. Targeting call was of course BS, but we were playing not to lose for the whole 4th quarter. I truly believe we would have found a way to hand them back the ball and lose regardless of the outcome of that call. The program's just quite not there yet unfortunately, even if the appetite for it is. But we showed out yesterday and made a statement about what the potential is for the overall energy and interest around this program when it gets regularly watered and cared for. A lot was accomplished this week despite the letdown. I think we engendered a lot of good will from the national college football community, even if they are all saying "typiCal" at the same time. That's a big difference from the indifference and even animosity we have experienced in the years since Tedford. Yesterday was my favorite day of football on campus in eons despite it also being one of the worst meltdowns (and most poorly timed ones) I've had to witness in person.
But we showed out yesterday and made a statement about what the potential is for the overall energy and interest around this program when it gets regularly watered and cared for.
Well, we experienced that 20 years ago in the early years of Tedford era, and that was a continued success for a few years. We are going so backwards.
I wouldn’t disagree. I’m old enough to have experienced that with the Snyder and Tedford eras. But it’s also true that locally and nationally interest has waned as Cal football and Cal basketball have been deprioritized by the University. I’m merely suggesting we reminded folks of what that looks like, and for a new generation that had zero exposure to those Tedford years.
But we have had moments like this with Wilcox and instead of getting a momentum creating win, we suffer a momentum killing loss.
Auburn 2023
ASU 2019
UCLA 2018
And last night are the ones I can name off the top of my head. Those were all games where fans came out to support the team and we were rewarded with gut punching losses.
No doubt. Did I say we haven’t had others? Few know that more than me, who has dedicated unlimited unrequited psychological energies to this program for four decades.
No, I’m just saying that while we haven’t had Tedford type of success or stadium experiences, we have experienced it in spurts for this new generation, it just hasn’t been sustained and every time we have a big game at Memorial with lots of interest, we tend to lose those games. Win last night and I am sure the stadium would be mostly full for the remainder of home games, now with that loss, I am not so sure.
Well said, the $C loss last year felt similarly miserable
I've been critical of JW since he was announced as HC. But this one is on the jimmy's and the joe's. It wasn't effort or heart, but a talent deficit. The Canes 4* & 5* Big Uglies beat our 3* guys over and over again. Their DL was in our backfield before Ott coudl touch the ball. Our WR had more rushing yards than our RBs. Nando was under seige all night as our tackles were pushed back into his face. Miami made adjustments at halftime to pick up our blitz, allowing Cam Ward to complete long 3rd downs (which we've been giving up al year). We bring pressure, and that means man coverage, where better athletes will win the 50:50 balls.
Even so, it was winnable until a RB goes 70 yards on a simple check down crossing pattern. (Against pressure, and man coverage.) D was gassed. Uluave had 12 tackles in the first half, only 3 in the second. I'm sure Christobal was screaming at half time for someone on the OL to ' block that guy' .
“You merely adopted the disappointment. I was born into it. Molded by it” — veteran Cal sickos to young fans after the game
I might say, as I brand them with a hot iron of the Script Cal:
“Remember this feeling, postulant, for, now, you are one with Oski and the Big C.”
Miami scored 3 TDs in the final ten minutes of the 4th quarter. It truly felt like I was watching an Andy Buh defense again.
The D was gassed by mid 4th as Cal offense couldn’t buy them much time off. Inexcusable loss to not figure out to protect a 25 point lead, but Wilcox isn’t going anywhere
Fully agree with this. The differential in number of plays and time of possession are the real story here. When the pick six happened the first thing that came to mind was that we just gave the offense some more rest, while keeping the D on the field against a high pace offense. And I think it was during that field goal drive, multiple players ran out of bounds to avoid contact. It may have been the end of the third/start of fourth quarter, but a smart coach would have told the offense to keep the ball in bounds at that point in the game. Running off 20-30 seconds 3-4 times in that drive would have made the difference.
You watched the ‘prevent’ non defense. Philosophy not to let the opponent beat you deep on one play. Instead, give up huge chunks in front of you. Don’t pressure the passer, just make him complete short throws and keep the play in front of you.
It was displayed perfectly last night.
Why did the Bears stop sacking Ward?
Prevent.
Why did the Bears lose?
Prevent.
We stopped sacking Ward because our defense was on the field for 86 plays and were tired.
A quarter of our offensive possessions were quick 3 and outs, with two of them going backwards.
.
It’s great when you can mix the incompetence of the prevent defense with busted coverages that allow 70 yard gains. What a disaster.
There are no words.
Those kind of breakdowns have become common with Wilcox coached teams, unfortunately.
When we’re losing games despite the O scoring 30, safe to say this is as far as this coaching staff can take us.
Is it far enough? 6-6 is on the table…
Just way too easy.
Pitt game will be on ESPN at 12:30.
Supposedly if we lost we were going to be on the ACC network but I guess execs at the mouse were entertained enough to keep us on the main channel. Also Pitt is only favored by 2.5 points.
After last night's horror movie ending I'm glad to offer up some 👍 good news.
Cal has been competitive in all of its games and Pitt is undefeated so I can see why we made it on ESPN. It’s a good storyline game that should be competitive and could be a potential upset.
I will say this, being in ACC has been great for TV exposure as we have been on ESPN or ESPN2 and at good time slots for 5 of our 6 games.
Oh man honestly this is a new low for me. Hard to swallow even after sleep. I was planning on traveling to be at the NCSU game if the game is in the afternoon (will be the first time since the pandemic) but I feel much less motivated to book the trip after the game.
Zero pass yards in the 4th Q? Wow
I know Rogers had one pass maybe, but what the heck was Bloesch thinking? Why go away from what worked in the first 3 quarters? Maybe Wilcox told him to run, but you can't keep going 3 and out and expect the defense to stop each time.
Even when we scored, our scoring drives were very short due to big plays.
Bloesch, I am guessing, was told to go vanilla or had been out schemed in the second half.
I think what happened in the 2nd half is that Miami decided to bring pressure on Mendoza all the time. They clogged running lanes and got after Fernando. We collapsed under the pressure because we had no uncovered safety valves to go to. That's an offensive adjustment that wasn't made.