What's crazy is if you look at the stats we killed these guys every place but the scoreboard (they did outrush us but 150 of their total rushing yards came on two plays). We beat ourselves today; the effort was there but big brainfarts and stupid penalties hurt us bad. Both are on the group coach or the position coach. We have smart teachable kids.
I agree. We dominated in time of possession, Dancy was somewhat effective. I still think Garbers would have pulled it out with less than 30 seconds on the clock as he has done several times before if not for the deflection.
I just hope there are no more covid cases resulting in a cancellation of the Big Game. It looks like we will have to go with that same group of frosh and sophomores on the O-line as quarantining will keep the normal starters out for 15 days.
Was mulling over my loss reaction. Very familiar with the Beaver syndrome. Aside from feeling let down, I have the lingering annoyance that's it OSU. Rarely an easy game for us and too many losses in the recent years for my taste.
OL played a great game and I think the staff has some tape now to get some new faces on a unit that hasn't performed well for 3 years. On that pass to Polk with about a 1:15 left, the OL picked up the blitz and did a great job; Garbers needed to step up into the pocket and make that pass to the wide open Polk!! Really a poor pass by Chase.
D played great save 2 plays (long runs by Jefferson) but our ILB play has had a YUGE dropoff as expected. DL did their job and deserve a lot of credit.
Special teams, welp 2 YUGE plays called back and a blocked punt whoops. That was a great play by that OSU player on the block.
All in all, not a bad performance and we have some new talent that should be getting a lot more PT, especially on the OL.
But no such thing as a moral victory and to win in the PAC12 you have to bring your A game, even against OSU.
Go Bears!!
btw, fUCLA looked pretty good against the Ducks even though they had to start their 2nd string QB. Seems like there are a lot of good young QBs in the conference this year and atm I would rate Chase at the bottom of the conference.
Cal is among the teams that were returning the most talent and yet it seems like they have regressed so much. It always feels like coaching is so underwhelming. And Wilcox can clearly coach, but it’s his position coaches and coordinators that seem to kill us every time.
Without the stupid deflection we win the game, period. Hats off to the young on-line that stepped up big time. Special teams are a huge problem though.
I’m not convinced Musgrave will be a down grade. He has been so far but it’s a new system with limited reps. That said, he needs to learn how to call plays because that was atrocious.
Leave it to Cal to go with a re-tread career-NFL coordinator, who runs a vanilla pro-style O, when the country is going with wide-open, imaginative offenses.
Not only a retread, he was unemployed in 2019, meaning he had no more tread on his tires. No NFL or CFB team hired him to be a part of their coaching staff in 2019. We basically got him out of the free section on Craigslist.
As for Wilcox, losing two years in a row to a rebuilding Oregon State team is concerning. Corona virus or not, outside of Oregon States RB they are not very good and playing on the road this season means they do not have home field advantage. We lost at home last season and basically lost a neutral field game to Oregon State this season.
Wilcox doesn’t have the luxury of winning his 3 OOC and has skipped straight to the middle of the season losing streak.
I guess I still feel like this whole season, all across the country, is nothing but a trivial shadow of real football. No team is as good as they appear, none as bad. Too many COVID issues. In a normal season the playing field is even enough that we are willing to say the wins and losses are on the players and coaches. But this year, is it on Wilcox that he lost 4 lineman today? On Musgrave he got half the time to train his players? On Garbers he got half the time to practice? We are not all in the same COVID boat. Some teams have played more games, and had fewer players missing, so it is comparing Apples and Oranges. So, I wish Cal had won just because, but I don't read anything into us losing because...
"We are not all in the same COVID boat. Some teams have played more games, and had fewer players missing, so it is comparing Apples and Oranges"
The teams are never the same any year. Some teams have more of better athletes than others. Some teams have better coaches. Some teams have better training facility. That said, I think we are all in the same Covid boat.
Those normal differences we all know are just part of the normal landscape, and teams and schools have every opportunity to try their best to control the variables as they choose. This year, with COVID, is it fair that Utah is playing their first game today? No, no it's not. Is it fair that UCLA had to have a backup qb start due to COVID only and not injury? No. COVID is a randomness that is extra or additional to the normal randomness of injury and such. My point is this. It is far from a year where we can apply anything like the same measures to judge quality.
I think special teams are showing more promise this year than in recent years. Mostly that is a factor of better recruiting to allow for depth and getting your better players on special teams.
But as others have stated, Ragle is here more so for his recruiting than his coaching.
We lost for a lot of reasons and not just special teams.
Poor red zone by the offense.
Two picks by Garbers.
Getting stopped on 4th down in the red zone rather settling for a FG.
If we kick the FG in the first half we could have been down 1 with a 1:05 to go and at the OSU 10. We could have ran the ball 3 times and kicked a FG to win the game 33-31.
Yeah no doubt the special teams play has eroded over the years (though we might have something with Longhetto). If we can upgrade on Ragle fine, but I actually liked the recruiting he's been doing in AZ...but again the key is upgrade.
Well I have two takeaways, first is on defense. I miss DeRuyter calling defensive plays. Previously it seemed like DeRuyter always knew exactly what play the offense was going to call, and countered with the right blitz call and adjustments. We always had guys in the right place, and the defense played fast and aggressively.
On offense, it feels like Baldwin left his "multiple" playbook behind, and Musgrave picked it up and decided to use it. At the beginning of the game, we had 21 personnel, Dancy was repeatedly getting first downs, we locked the box and we were also winning the resulting 1-on-1 matchups with Crawford and Polk. And then....I don't even know what that was....did we even line up the same way and run the same play twice in a row? Oh, except for the red zone....heavy set, Garbers rolls right and looks for the fade in the corner. We ran that play seventeen times....we did get one touchdown though (after like three penalties) so I'm sure we'll keep seeing it over and over and over for the rest of the season.
I agree that the defensive positioning was OK but not great. We did hold Gebbia to 155 yards passing so that was a positive. But we allowed too many short fields.
Everything needs to be better. MANY plays stood out to me...here's a couple...
There was a clear blown assignment on D, in the 3rd Q I believe, where the OSU RB ran a wheel route and the ILB went with him, along with a corner. This left the TE wide open in the middle of the field for an easy big play. That is probably not on Sirmon, as it's unlikely he drew up coverage to double the RB on the wheel & leave the TE, who despite the Bears seeming belief to the contrary IS an eligible receiver, wide open. The Cal player needs to execute.
4th Q...On yet another predictable run up the middle, Dancy was stopped in the backfield well short of a crucial 3rd and 2 (?)...Remigio completely missed the block. The announcers mentioned the O-Line needs to communicate, admittedly tougher to do with the OL mess we had yesterday. Still, the player needs to execute.
There's SOOO many issues right now, and rare is the season in the last 60+ years where Cal can just show up and win. We're not a program that can play mistake-laden football in all 3 facets and still beat a D-1 foe. Garbers is not a QB that can put a team on his back and win...that final pick was AWFUL - Chase has played too many games to make THAT throw in THAT situation.
That said, while every team has had to deal with COVID-issues, Cal has been hit especially hard. This looks a whole lot like a team that's definitely got some talent and some heart, but just needs more practice reps together with a new OC and, for all intents and purposes, a new DC as well. Spring practice was cut short, fall camp was canceled, and the Bears practices have been a complete mess. More than many others, this team just needs practice reps...it shows.
I guess my point is, I have never thought that trying to be "multiple" was a good thing. Find out what you're really, really good at, and then do that. I think that a lot of coordinators try and get too cute and outsmart themselves. Just get the ball to your best players, in whatever system fits them best.
I'll give it to Dykes, he sure understood that. They were going to line up in a single back offense, run the few routes that they had perfected, and throw the ball 100 times a game. If you tried to flood the field with bodies to stop them, then, they'd hand the ball off. Not saying everyone should run that offense, but he had a plan and stuck to it. I remember the Nebraska teams in the 80's, they'd get the biggest lineman they could find, a punishing fullback, and a monster tight end. They would run the veer to the right on every single play, and nobody could stop them.
Sometimes, simple and predictable can be a good thing.
Finished up my report card. I gave special teams a zero I think. Bad punting with line drive kicks, two stupid penalties, and a 52 yard field goal. I still think we will beat Furd though. One question I came up is how the axe will be handled if the RC is not present.
This was better than week 1 but not by much. Let's win the BIg Game next week please!
It’s on Friday right? We will see if it is even played.
I hate this team sometimes.
usually only on game days.
What's crazy is if you look at the stats we killed these guys every place but the scoreboard (they did outrush us but 150 of their total rushing yards came on two plays). We beat ourselves today; the effort was there but big brainfarts and stupid penalties hurt us bad. Both are on the group coach or the position coach. We have smart teachable kids.
I agree. We dominated in time of possession, Dancy was somewhat effective. I still think Garbers would have pulled it out with less than 30 seconds on the clock as he has done several times before if not for the deflection.
I just hope there are no more covid cases resulting in a cancellation of the Big Game. It looks like we will have to go with that same group of frosh and sophomores on the O-line as quarantining will keep the normal starters out for 15 days.
Yep and that’s why it felt like we should have been up 14 with 6 minutes to play.
Was mulling over my loss reaction. Very familiar with the Beaver syndrome. Aside from feeling let down, I have the lingering annoyance that's it OSU. Rarely an easy game for us and too many losses in the recent years for my taste.
OL played a great game and I think the staff has some tape now to get some new faces on a unit that hasn't performed well for 3 years. On that pass to Polk with about a 1:15 left, the OL picked up the blitz and did a great job; Garbers needed to step up into the pocket and make that pass to the wide open Polk!! Really a poor pass by Chase.
D played great save 2 plays (long runs by Jefferson) but our ILB play has had a YUGE dropoff as expected. DL did their job and deserve a lot of credit.
Special teams, welp 2 YUGE plays called back and a blocked punt whoops. That was a great play by that OSU player on the block.
All in all, not a bad performance and we have some new talent that should be getting a lot more PT, especially on the OL.
But no such thing as a moral victory and to win in the PAC12 you have to bring your A game, even against OSU.
Go Bears!!
btw, fUCLA looked pretty good against the Ducks even though they had to start their 2nd string QB. Seems like there are a lot of good young QBs in the conference this year and atm I would rate Chase at the bottom of the conference.
UCLA looked pretty good even with a back-up QB. They probably would have beaten Oregon if DTR had played.
When you say that about Garbers, do you mean just based on our 2 games, or given last year as well?
Cal is among the teams that were returning the most talent and yet it seems like they have regressed so much. It always feels like coaching is so underwhelming. And Wilcox can clearly coach, but it’s his position coaches and coordinators that seem to kill us every time.
It hurts to see.
Without the stupid deflection we win the game, period. Hats off to the young on-line that stepped up big time. Special teams are a huge problem though.
O - line. Dumb autocorrect
Musgrave and Sirmon are just terrible. Sirmon is DC and ILB coach. ILB play is the worst on the team this year.
Beau Baldwin: Winning 2020.
I think Baldwin has free time until his season starts in 2021. Should we bring him back?
Wilcox managed to downgrade at his coordinator positions.
I’m not convinced Musgrave will be a down grade. He has been so far but it’s a new system with limited reps. That said, he needs to learn how to call plays because that was atrocious.
Bubble screens are shown by data analysis to be one of the least effective plays on offense regardless of personnel.
Leave it to Cal to go with a re-tread career-NFL coordinator, who runs a vanilla pro-style O, when the country is going with wide-open, imaginative offenses.
Not only a retread, he was unemployed in 2019, meaning he had no more tread on his tires. No NFL or CFB team hired him to be a part of their coaching staff in 2019. We basically got him out of the free section on Craigslist.
As for Wilcox, losing two years in a row to a rebuilding Oregon State team is concerning. Corona virus or not, outside of Oregon States RB they are not very good and playing on the road this season means they do not have home field advantage. We lost at home last season and basically lost a neutral field game to Oregon State this season.
Wilcox doesn’t have the luxury of winning his 3 OOC and has skipped straight to the middle of the season losing streak.
I give him a pass last year. Modster was atrocious.
I guess I still feel like this whole season, all across the country, is nothing but a trivial shadow of real football. No team is as good as they appear, none as bad. Too many COVID issues. In a normal season the playing field is even enough that we are willing to say the wins and losses are on the players and coaches. But this year, is it on Wilcox that he lost 4 lineman today? On Musgrave he got half the time to train his players? On Garbers he got half the time to practice? We are not all in the same COVID boat. Some teams have played more games, and had fewer players missing, so it is comparing Apples and Oranges. So, I wish Cal had won just because, but I don't read anything into us losing because...
"We are not all in the same COVID boat. Some teams have played more games, and had fewer players missing, so it is comparing Apples and Oranges"
The teams are never the same any year. Some teams have more of better athletes than others. Some teams have better coaches. Some teams have better training facility. That said, I think we are all in the same Covid boat.
Those normal differences we all know are just part of the normal landscape, and teams and schools have every opportunity to try their best to control the variables as they choose. This year, with COVID, is it fair that Utah is playing their first game today? No, no it's not. Is it fair that UCLA had to have a backup qb start due to COVID only and not injury? No. COVID is a randomness that is extra or additional to the normal randomness of injury and such. My point is this. It is far from a year where we can apply anything like the same measures to judge quality.
How do you say we suck in Cal bears?
You see....football
"football"
Cal bears.
We need to move on from Ragle. Our special teams have slowly regressed every year under his leadership.
I think special teams are showing more promise this year than in recent years. Mostly that is a factor of better recruiting to allow for depth and getting your better players on special teams.
But as others have stated, Ragle is here more so for his recruiting than his coaching.
They definitely cost them this game...but hey, at least we can get 3* guys from AZ now.
But what about all those vaunted AZ recruits???
He’s gotten 3 four star recruits in his entire career. All committed to UA.
Get me a guy who can coach and can build relationships in the Bay.
Correct me if I'm wrong but did he bring in Brett Johnson?
He did indeed recruit Brett Johnson who was a monster today. But remember, we still lost bc special teams was a disaster.
We lost for a lot of reasons and not just special teams.
Poor red zone by the offense.
Two picks by Garbers.
Getting stopped on 4th down in the red zone rather settling for a FG.
If we kick the FG in the first half we could have been down 1 with a 1:05 to go and at the OSU 10. We could have ran the ball 3 times and kicked a FG to win the game 33-31.
True dat, our red zone offense has been very weak this season.
Yeah no doubt the special teams play has eroded over the years (though we might have something with Longhetto). If we can upgrade on Ragle fine, but I actually liked the recruiting he's been doing in AZ...but again the key is upgrade.
I think we keep him for his recruiting ability and not coaching.
Ragle and Tui are just there to be our recruiters. Tui has been better since he's moved to TE coach from QB coach. Ragle not so much.
I agree on those assessments. Tui seems to be doing much better since he was moved back to being a TE coach.
Line drive, returnable kicks, plus the block. welp
normally i'd be beside myself, but i already wrote this season off and it was an entertaining game, for what its worth
Very entertaining, to be honest. Just always want the win.
It was entertaining until the last few minutes. I feel so awful right now.
Well I have two takeaways, first is on defense. I miss DeRuyter calling defensive plays. Previously it seemed like DeRuyter always knew exactly what play the offense was going to call, and countered with the right blitz call and adjustments. We always had guys in the right place, and the defense played fast and aggressively.
On offense, it feels like Baldwin left his "multiple" playbook behind, and Musgrave picked it up and decided to use it. At the beginning of the game, we had 21 personnel, Dancy was repeatedly getting first downs, we locked the box and we were also winning the resulting 1-on-1 matchups with Crawford and Polk. And then....I don't even know what that was....did we even line up the same way and run the same play twice in a row? Oh, except for the red zone....heavy set, Garbers rolls right and looks for the fade in the corner. We ran that play seventeen times....we did get one touchdown though (after like three penalties) so I'm sure we'll keep seeing it over and over and over for the rest of the season.
I agree that the defensive positioning was OK but not great. We did hold Gebbia to 155 yards passing so that was a positive. But we allowed too many short fields.
Everything needs to be better. MANY plays stood out to me...here's a couple...
There was a clear blown assignment on D, in the 3rd Q I believe, where the OSU RB ran a wheel route and the ILB went with him, along with a corner. This left the TE wide open in the middle of the field for an easy big play. That is probably not on Sirmon, as it's unlikely he drew up coverage to double the RB on the wheel & leave the TE, who despite the Bears seeming belief to the contrary IS an eligible receiver, wide open. The Cal player needs to execute.
4th Q...On yet another predictable run up the middle, Dancy was stopped in the backfield well short of a crucial 3rd and 2 (?)...Remigio completely missed the block. The announcers mentioned the O-Line needs to communicate, admittedly tougher to do with the OL mess we had yesterday. Still, the player needs to execute.
There's SOOO many issues right now, and rare is the season in the last 60+ years where Cal can just show up and win. We're not a program that can play mistake-laden football in all 3 facets and still beat a D-1 foe. Garbers is not a QB that can put a team on his back and win...that final pick was AWFUL - Chase has played too many games to make THAT throw in THAT situation.
That said, while every team has had to deal with COVID-issues, Cal has been hit especially hard. This looks a whole lot like a team that's definitely got some talent and some heart, but just needs more practice reps together with a new OC and, for all intents and purposes, a new DC as well. Spring practice was cut short, fall camp was canceled, and the Bears practices have been a complete mess. More than many others, this team just needs practice reps...it shows.
They still should've beaten Oregon State though.
I guess my point is, I have never thought that trying to be "multiple" was a good thing. Find out what you're really, really good at, and then do that. I think that a lot of coordinators try and get too cute and outsmart themselves. Just get the ball to your best players, in whatever system fits them best.
I'll give it to Dykes, he sure understood that. They were going to line up in a single back offense, run the few routes that they had perfected, and throw the ball 100 times a game. If you tried to flood the field with bodies to stop them, then, they'd hand the ball off. Not saying everyone should run that offense, but he had a plan and stuck to it. I remember the Nebraska teams in the 80's, they'd get the biggest lineman they could find, a punishing fullback, and a monster tight end. They would run the veer to the right on every single play, and nobody could stop them.
Sometimes, simple and predictable can be a good thing.
Finished up my report card. I gave special teams a zero I think. Bad punting with line drive kicks, two stupid penalties, and a 52 yard field goal. I still think we will beat Furd though. One question I came up is how the axe will be handled if the RC is not present.
Oh, and I forgot the blocked punt. That was another minus.
Question: I remember reading somewhere that this year didn't count to eligibility. Is that true?