60 Comments
Oct 16, 2021Liked by Rick Chen

Game was closer than expected. Defense played well. Offense moved the ball well at times and did it’s typical 2nd quarter disappearing act. It was nice to see CBrooks get some early and meaningful carries.

Hopefully we finally get a Pac 12 win next weekend at home but I think we are going to be in for a close game.

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Oct 16, 2021Liked by Rick Chen

For all it's flaws the defense has kept us in every game this year. If the offense had matched preseason expectations we would be a good team.

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Well each unit has taken turns letting us down. Defense and special teams did not play well at TCU and cost us the game. I would also say that WSU let their foot off the gas once it was clear our offense was bottled up and wasn’t a threat.

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The only game we arguably should have lost was Wazzu. The rest of the games were close and down to the wire. The frustrating thing is that we could easily be 4-2 and in contention for the north crown. I'm feeling that the good fortune we had in these close games (2018, 2019) was partly due to luck, whereas lady luck is no longer smiling on us.

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There is a lot of truth to this. The Bears overachieved the past few years and now fate is catching up.

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I hear ya, paulie, but not sure overachieved is the right word. I mean, with a few exceptions during his tenure, the team Wilcox has thrown out there is solid but unspectacular and lacks athleticism, explosiveness, and big plays on both sides of the ball. Special teams has been a mess throughout, unfortunately. But they usually play to the level of their competition, which means torturous games that always seem to be painfully close. It just seems tough to say that when they actually do make these plays and get a win, it's bc they overachieved...

The style of play Wilcox seems to want to play, especially with a QB like Garbers, lends itself to risk-averse games that turn on literally a couple of plays...sometimes the guys make the plays, other times they don't, with yesterday being the perfect example...not to pick on him, but Nikko is not gonna burn Oregon for a 60+ yarder, but you gotta be able to count on him to make the tough catch in the end zone to tie the game that he muffed...same thing with Chase - can't be missing guys that are wide open in busted coverages.

Even tho they're unexplosive, there are plays there to be made...someone needs to make them. Polk would've sure helped this year.

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I think we win next week. Still have an outside shot at 6-6 if the cards play out for us, but we'll need to beat 2 out of 3 amongst SC, Stanford, and OSU.

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No doubt we have an outside chance of 6-6 but we have no margin of error both in schedule and games. All of our games come down to one possession.

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Excuse me: 3 of 4 including UCLA, which might be the toughest match-up

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No I don't - see my comment below. Also, historically speaking Chip has Justin's number.

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Offensive penalties and zero points off of turnovers. Dismal. These are BIG reasons for our loss but it doesn't seem to be discussed.

It would be helpful if one of our beat writers could ask Wilcox, "What is the status on Hearns and when did he get injured (presumably during the bye week)?"

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Hearns was on sidelines and had pads on. I thought maybe since he's a true freshman they decided he's not ready for Oregon

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Announcers said he was injured. I doubt we keep our best CB out of the game because it's "oregun". btw ~ Gamble led the team in tackles, not want you wanna see.

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I see. Btw I thought Gamble played well. His PBU in the endzone where he turned his head around put up his hand reminded me of Syd'quan Thompson.

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I thought Gamble shows a lot of improvement.

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The OL is the main reason this season has been a failure. Craig is a flop, Cindric is JAG, and the fact that there's been six years of discourse on Daltoso is failure enough. Coleman is solid, but 1/5 guys on the line being "solid" is horrible in Year 5. Johnson looks like he can't break through, and Driscoll also looks like JAG. If Swinney/Lange both aren't starting next year, it's time to say adios to McClure. It's what we needed this year to even hit 6-6.

Every coach too needs to be hitting the portal ASAP. There's not a single position that can't get a talent upgrade. If we trot out a similar lineup to this year next year, even healthier, we won't be much better than 6-6.

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Strongly agree. Surprised at Garber’s accuracy improvement when he had time to throw (tho he still missed a few, too). Neither line is not where they need to be.

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I can forgive the DL. Johnson and McKenzie gone, and guys like Saunders and Roberts have flashed enough. Plus the great class coming in next year.

It's the OL that's horribly off at this point. Ugly. They should be ashamed at themselves for not getting better, or McClure should be ashamed for recruiting such bad players.

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I know many here can't stand him, but I think I was having more fun watching games when Sonny was our coach. I didn't feel the sense of doom, I felt that victory was possible.

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I am pro-Sonny, but he did not want to be here and had one foot out the door at all times.

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Colorado smothered Arizona 37-0. May not be the cake walk remedy for snakebit Cal.

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So Spencer Rattler will more than likely be hitting the transfer portal in the next week or so, we should try to get him.

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Go get him! Speaking of Spencer, I looked up where Spencer Brasch went, and he's at Cal Poly. He has Beau Baldwin, Nick Edwards, and James Montgomery on his coaching staff.

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What I wanted to point out was James Montgomery is coaching at Cal Poly.

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Sure. All Im saying is I was excited to see a familiar name. I hadn't followed how he was doing after Cal, but it's nice to see him climbing up the coaching ladder.

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Re:Leland's comment in the Other GameDay thread, I'm not a subscriber and I can't reply.

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author

We’re having some issues. We’ll talk to substack and work it out! Thanks for sticking it through with us

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If we lose to Arizona this season, we are going to have to Tucson Tarmac Wilcox.

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Lane Kiffin is still very much alive and coaching at Ole Miss.

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This isn't at all what he's referring to...

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In other news, I'm able to post here, although I wasn't able to post in Leland's redone football thread. Or the second half thread. Keep working on it guys! Thanks.

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Same...not able to post.

In unrelated news, Brenden Rice could torch our secondary next week if they blow coverages at the rate they did v Wazzu...

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Same

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I was happy to see some youngsters get playing time on defense. They looked more athletic and tackled better. Bimage needs to be on the field!

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Bimage is a legitimate ballplayer...no surprise he found himself at Texas originally.

This team misses Kuony immensely.

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yeah, Tattersal and Croteau are just not Pac12 caliber. I liked the players we saw. Bimage is a grad transfer though.

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he's a youngster to me! lol

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Very tough loss and one of the hardest to stomach in the Wilcox era because victory was so close. A moral victory probably, but that is hard to accept when you are 1-5. The kids played hard though in front of a national TV audience, so there's that. If we had been blown out the seat would probably be considerably hotter for Wilcox.

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After Wazzu game I had accepted the fact that this team is just bad and decided not to be mad at losses. But the way we played last night, this team is still capable to contend. It makes the record 1-5 even more unacceptable if that is the case. Just poor execution preventing us from winning games.

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Funny usually I agree with what you write, but this didn’t hurt at all for me. I knew if we scored a touchdown, we’d go for two and fail. Or miss the PAT kick. Or make the kick and lose in OT. I hate being a classic old blue negabear, and hate it even more when I’m right.

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I really hope LSU doesn’t try to poach Wilcox from us. Wilcox finally has things turned around and pointing in the right direction. It would be devastating to lose him now.

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Are you joking?

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No he's not lol

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Unfortunately, there were 3 or 4 occasions that Garber’s strange passing yips got us into trouble again. He doesn’t seem to be a “pressure player.” He played much better, though. Made some good decisions, had a couple good runs, but I still am dumbfounded on why we have yet to see another QB in the game at all.

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Actually Garbers does very well in the two minute drill type of situations. It's just that this season and last we can't execute at the end of drives, to wit:

2020 - Stanford, blocked PAT

2020 - Freak tipped interception at the goal line - OSU

2021 - TCU, fumble at the goal line

2021 - Washington, missed FG on the last play, fumble in the end zone

2021 - Oregon, 1st and goal at the 2 yard line, can't score

That's five last minute drives where we marched down the field and failed to score in the red zone or had a special teams failure.

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"I'll have what he's having."

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Agree up until the tosh point. All the rumors coming out of bama were that he was in over his head as d coordinator. The guys an ace recruiter and a d line coach, I think that’s the extent of it. The tosh ship sailed long ago. Now riverboat Ron, that intrigues me. Massive pipe dream that will never happen but good god if we could somehow get Rivera with Troy Taylor as OC. I’d never ask for anything in life ever again.

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Troy Taylor as HC is more our speed. Let's face it, Cal is not a good job right now...it's been irrelevant for the last decade.

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Absolutely, he’s not leaving to be a coordinator again. If Wilcox goes, he should get a serious look at our head coaching opening. I’ve been impressed with what he’s built at sac state.

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That is of course if we can’t somehow miraculously lure Rivera.

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I’ve been actively and guiltily rooting against the WFT so that they’ll fire RR and we can get him.

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Let's go from Oregon trio to Cal trio of Ron Rivera, Troy Taylor and Hardy Nickerson Sr, + Richard Rodgers at ST coordinator.

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Hmm, I can't see Tosh coming back to the college game for a little while at least

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You missed the point

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Tosh and Ron Rivera

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Up to the Cal game he had a total of one sack. ONE. No doubt he is good but the problem is not an unbeatable opponent, it’s an ineffective offensive line.

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Agreed. He was mostly lined up against Daltoso which was sort of a mismatch. Then they moved him out in space so he could wreak havoc. Pretty darn impressive. But Chase' shovel pass while he was going down was a thing of beauty.

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