Maybe I’m a sunshine pumper but I think this team is far better than last year.
Mistakes were made. Missed tackles, alignment issues on defense, and the disaster that were the two 4th quarter drives…. But expect mistakes in a first game with a new HC, new DC, and new OC. UCLA is also a good team and we were right there until the bad snap from our backup center. The scoreboard was ugly but Cal damn near pulled this out. Dont be surprised if we go into the big game at 8-2.
My concern is we had a fair number of returnees on the O & D lines, and neither were functional P4 units. And other than a few glimpses, both units were pretty much manhandled tonight.
Hopefully UCLA is in fact good, and we should play better with more reps, but I didn’t see a markedly better Cal team tonight.
That said, with Cal guys Lyons/RR/Tosh in the lead, I am much more optimistic that this ship is on the way to being righted.
I was at Memorial for the game and our OL and DL were not very good and just consistently getting pushed around. Our WRs looked slow, with little separation.
That said, I’m optimistic. I’d rather have a slow start and build towards a strong middle season and even stronger finish.
I still owe you on our bet and I haven’t forgotten. Just been a crazy last 8 months with work, family, and life. I’m also trying to step back a bit from the internet and sports and just focus on other things. But like Al Pacino in Godfather Part 3: “just when I thought I was out, Cal pulls me right back in”
JKS often had no time to throw and our WRs looked slow and seemed to struggle for separation. Tackling was terrible. Hopefully we improve quickly and I’m still optimistic on this season but the OL and DL need to get better very quickly
After a bunch of life and work since the last time I saw my golden bears play, I was just happy to watch them on the field again. Things rarely magically change overnight. No surprise how JKS played - good and bad. Obviously work to be done on both sides and hopefully we see progress but at least it was an entertaining diversion for a few hours.
I'm thankful I witnessed Cal's last run at greatness back with Tedford but so much has changed with the sport and world. I've traded in my expectations with Cal for more dependable things. Life is too short to be bummed about things out of your control. Oh and I can lead my College Football 27 Cal team to glory, that's on me :)
-Was Wilcox calling the plays? Way too many runs up the middle. I was struggling to figure out why, then as the game progressed, it was apparent:
-Our offense just isn’t in sync yet. Pro style offenses take time to even become somewhat competent. The throws were too late allowing the UCLA D time to either block or intercept the pass.
-The O line just didn’t give the min protection for JKS to get set and make the throws that we know he can make.
-Our WRs weren’t getting consistent separation and the routes seemed confused
That said, I’m ok (kind of) for it to take time to gel. We have 3 great opportunities with ok teams to get better. They’re almost must wins for a successful season (8+ wins). I’d be more than happy going 3-1 for the first four games.
-Shocked at so many missed tackles on D. There is no excuse Tosh, former D coordinator for Oregon. Also, good things happened when we got aggressive on D.
-Some bad Coaching decisions, the worst being going for it on 4 and 3 at midfield. We had momentum and the D was playing better. We could have pinned them down and forced a mistake. Instead we botched the down and they turned the field on us, forcing us into a mistake.
-The crowd was pumped but for some reason, it seemed that the UCLA players were more hyped throughout the game than ours.
So, the UCLA Coach who brought all his good players, coaches and system that made the playoffs last year was better than our new coaches, system and significant amount of new players. I think that trumps any home field advantage.
Agreed. Was disappointed in Purcell that series. Felt he was flat outplayed, especially on the target in the EZ.
Also, Strong has an NFL body, but felt there were a couple balls a physical WR who figures to play next year on Sundays needs to come down with, including the INT. To cave down the stretch in 4Q like that before a sold-out home crowd was…concerning.
Atmosphere and Memorial was great. Lots of positive energy.
Poor OL play really limited our offense, especially in the passing game. Running game was chugging along and grinding, should have stuck with it longer. As the OL seemed to be better at run blocking.
Felt like we could have stuck with it on the 3rd and 3 at midfield, especially when we were committed to going for it in 4th down.
I’m not sold on this WR group, they don’t seem to have much speed, from my seats at Memorial, I didn’t see them get much separation but it is hard to tell because the OL was so bad at pass protection that JKS had to get the ball out quickly.
Defense was a major let down for me tonight. DL got pushed around by the UCLA OL all game. Terrible tacking at all 3 levels and poor angles. No one in defense stood out in a positive way tonight.
Lot to fix but I’m optimistic. I’ll take a slow start to the season if we can continue to improve and have a strong middle and end of the season.
This was all about scheming around bad lines. Iamaleava had all day unless Cal blitzed while our O-line struggled in pass pro. So Cal moved the pocket and relied on JKS to navigate toward one side with receivers who apparently haven’t gelled yet. Underwhelmed by Strong’s hands today, maybe he’s still adjusting to the lefty’s spin
A bunch of things went wrong but this team seemed mentally tough. They need to tackle better and give JKS better protection, but we as fans also need to not give up on them. It is time for us to have the toughness we expect from our team.
I hear you, but when players are making hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions to play in an “amateur” league, expectations ensue.
They put $22 million into this team. If we don’t see an ROI on the investment made to the team, why should we support? They should put a good product on the field for the fana to support.
Feel bad for the boys, their ass was handed to them today. Sadly, in the usual ways: OL/DL. Our OL remains bad, simply said. There were a few moments of success but when it mattered we caved. Until further notice this season is: as JKS goes, so goes Cal. Tonight he had 2 ints, which is almost a third of last year's total.
Fucla had our number on soooo many plays. To see more defensive players at the point of attack, as the play developed, than offensive players would lead one to believe in conspiracy theories. Way too many plays up the middle with our porous OL. Dropped passes from our highly touted WRs...Tackling? Tackling? we don't need no stinking tackling? Although the targeting call was pure bs.
Jimmy: Tosh will probably figure out a way to right the ship but why is it that every time Cal sells out Mememorial because there is promise on the horizon, they find a way to lose? That fourth quarter was absolutely brutal to watch. I litterally turned around to leave a Cal watch party and FUCLA scored their final touchdown. Where was the fucking defense? Tosh has a lot of work to do.
Justbear: If we can win the rest of our games until Clemson, then maybe the fans will show up like they did tonight. Also, Clemson got whupped by LSU so that offers me some hope.
I made the comment to @heyalumnigo while walking up to the stadium tonight that regardless of how tonight went, and given the uncertainty around Chesney’s program it was anybody’s guess, I feel so much better about the Cal program given the changes.
This game was a bummer given that they had 4Q momentum and then completely folded, with what, 4 straight TO’s (2 by downs) to close it out? Still think we’ll be better, but saw a lot of sloppiness tonight. And UCLA was just better - better coached, faster, more physical.
Wanna emphasize better coached. They looked like they were playing their third game and we looked like we didnt have time to get ready for our first game. Frequent confusion on the field, and a few bizarre coaching decisions.
Every player who played a snap on defense should be embarrassed to look at themselves in the mirror. I have never watch a defense at any level give that little effort. every single player on defense seemed very complacent. Giving up almost 9 yards a carry will lead to very little winning. Defense has some real soul searching to do and they better do it fast.
Two teams playing their first game with new head coaches and a ton of new personnel. One HC coming off a CFP berth and a winning resume as HC at several stops and the other playing his first game as HC. Game played out about as you would expect in this context.
Hopeful that Tosh and the boys learn from this loss. Was encouraged by the second half adjustments including D and run game which were clicking until that first JKS pick. Things pretty much fell Apart from there.
Cal associates the Joe Roth uniforms with two epic wins over U$c in the 1970s under Mike White, but when it comes to wearing those same uni combos against UCLA, Cal has never beaten the Bruins:
The first should/could have been caught and the 2nd he was rushed (as he was almost all night) and someone wasn't where they were supposed to be or he just confused color combos/didn't see the guy. His throws were good (except maybe that one) particularly considering he looked like Fernando Mendoza in a Cal uniform (running for his life and taking hits he shouldn't be required to take).
Maybe I’m a sunshine pumper but I think this team is far better than last year.
Mistakes were made. Missed tackles, alignment issues on defense, and the disaster that were the two 4th quarter drives…. But expect mistakes in a first game with a new HC, new DC, and new OC. UCLA is also a good team and we were right there until the bad snap from our backup center. The scoreboard was ugly but Cal damn near pulled this out. Dont be surprised if we go into the big game at 8-2.
My concern is we had a fair number of returnees on the O & D lines, and neither were functional P4 units. And other than a few glimpses, both units were pretty much manhandled tonight.
Hopefully UCLA is in fact good, and we should play better with more reps, but I didn’t see a markedly better Cal team tonight.
That said, with Cal guys Lyons/RR/Tosh in the lead, I am much more optimistic that this ship is on the way to being righted.
I was at Memorial for the game and our OL and DL were not very good and just consistently getting pushed around. Our WRs looked slow, with little separation.
That said, I’m optimistic. I’d rather have a slow start and build towards a strong middle season and even stronger finish.
Agreed.
Have much more confidence in things moving forward now.
Be a whole lot different if this effort was the kickoff of season 10 of JW.
I still owe you on our bet and I haven’t forgotten. Just been a crazy last 8 months with work, family, and life. I’m also trying to step back a bit from the internet and sports and just focus on other things. But like Al Pacino in Godfather Part 3: “just when I thought I was out, Cal pulls me right back in”
All good. No worries on the bet - look forward to meeting up eventually and putting faces with handles!
I am def in much better shape mentally after this game than if circumstances were different.
Ucla looked better than I had imagined. and Cal looked way way worse than I could have imagined. Absolute disaster on OL and tackling on D.
Mohammed, Strong, Hendricks and JKS looked as good as advertised but we need OL to help.
JKS often had no time to throw and our WRs looked slow and seemed to struggle for separation. Tackling was terrible. Hopefully we improve quickly and I’m still optimistic on this season but the OL and DL need to get better very quickly
The WRs consistently lost battles. I’m a little concerned about journeyman Hilliard’s impact
After a bunch of life and work since the last time I saw my golden bears play, I was just happy to watch them on the field again. Things rarely magically change overnight. No surprise how JKS played - good and bad. Obviously work to be done on both sides and hopefully we see progress but at least it was an entertaining diversion for a few hours.
I'm thankful I witnessed Cal's last run at greatness back with Tedford but so much has changed with the sport and world. I've traded in my expectations with Cal for more dependable things. Life is too short to be bummed about things out of your control. Oh and I can lead my College Football 27 Cal team to glory, that's on me :)
You make a good point that I had completely forgotten. I am so happy to watch Cal Bears play for the first time in 8+ months.
Observations from the game:
-Was Wilcox calling the plays? Way too many runs up the middle. I was struggling to figure out why, then as the game progressed, it was apparent:
-Our offense just isn’t in sync yet. Pro style offenses take time to even become somewhat competent. The throws were too late allowing the UCLA D time to either block or intercept the pass.
-The O line just didn’t give the min protection for JKS to get set and make the throws that we know he can make.
-Our WRs weren’t getting consistent separation and the routes seemed confused
That said, I’m ok (kind of) for it to take time to gel. We have 3 great opportunities with ok teams to get better. They’re almost must wins for a successful season (8+ wins). I’d be more than happy going 3-1 for the first four games.
-Shocked at so many missed tackles on D. There is no excuse Tosh, former D coordinator for Oregon. Also, good things happened when we got aggressive on D.
-Some bad Coaching decisions, the worst being going for it on 4 and 3 at midfield. We had momentum and the D was playing better. We could have pinned them down and forced a mistake. Instead we botched the down and they turned the field on us, forcing us into a mistake.
-The crowd was pumped but for some reason, it seemed that the UCLA players were more hyped throughout the game than ours.
So, the UCLA Coach who brought all his good players, coaches and system that made the playoffs last year was better than our new coaches, system and significant amount of new players. I think that trumps any home field advantage.
Now be a goldfish Bears and get on with it!
Agreed on the UCLA players being loose and vibing with the music and energy. Cal was visibly tight on the sidelines
Purcell had a terrible red zone drive that backed into a FG
Dropped passes
Missed tackles
Missed run fits
Inconsistent line play
Multiple secondary facemask penalties
All of the above are fixable. The team doesn’t seem 100% gelled yet. I expect better performances week to week.
Agreed. Was disappointed in Purcell that series. Felt he was flat outplayed, especially on the target in the EZ.
Also, Strong has an NFL body, but felt there were a couple balls a physical WR who figures to play next year on Sundays needs to come down with, including the INT. To cave down the stretch in 4Q like that before a sold-out home crowd was…concerning.
I dunno…lot to unpack tonight.
Atmosphere and Memorial was great. Lots of positive energy.
Poor OL play really limited our offense, especially in the passing game. Running game was chugging along and grinding, should have stuck with it longer. As the OL seemed to be better at run blocking.
Felt like we could have stuck with it on the 3rd and 3 at midfield, especially when we were committed to going for it in 4th down.
I’m not sold on this WR group, they don’t seem to have much speed, from my seats at Memorial, I didn’t see them get much separation but it is hard to tell because the OL was so bad at pass protection that JKS had to get the ball out quickly.
Defense was a major let down for me tonight. DL got pushed around by the UCLA OL all game. Terrible tacking at all 3 levels and poor angles. No one in defense stood out in a positive way tonight.
Lot to fix but I’m optimistic. I’ll take a slow start to the season if we can continue to improve and have a strong middle and end of the season.
Can’t blame this loss on poor reffing, either. Refs seemed pretty even-handed with the penalty calls.
This was all about scheming around bad lines. Iamaleava had all day unless Cal blitzed while our O-line struggled in pass pro. So Cal moved the pocket and relied on JKS to navigate toward one side with receivers who apparently haven’t gelled yet. Underwhelmed by Strong’s hands today, maybe he’s still adjusting to the lefty’s spin
A bunch of things went wrong but this team seemed mentally tough. They need to tackle better and give JKS better protection, but we as fans also need to not give up on them. It is time for us to have the toughness we expect from our team.
I hear you, but when players are making hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions to play in an “amateur” league, expectations ensue.
They put $22 million into this team. If we don’t see an ROI on the investment made to the team, why should we support? They should put a good product on the field for the fana to support.
Feel bad for the boys, their ass was handed to them today. Sadly, in the usual ways: OL/DL. Our OL remains bad, simply said. There were a few moments of success but when it mattered we caved. Until further notice this season is: as JKS goes, so goes Cal. Tonight he had 2 ints, which is almost a third of last year's total.
Fucla had our number on soooo many plays. To see more defensive players at the point of attack, as the play developed, than offensive players would lead one to believe in conspiracy theories. Way too many plays up the middle with our porous OL. Dropped passes from our highly touted WRs...Tackling? Tackling? we don't need no stinking tackling? Although the targeting call was pure bs.
So much work to do, so lil time.
Thanks Jesse.
UCLA looks solid.
We’ll learn a lot about this Cal team next week.
Disappointing effort tonight tho. Real disappointing actually.
Jimmy: Tosh will probably figure out a way to right the ship but why is it that every time Cal sells out Mememorial because there is promise on the horizon, they find a way to lose? That fourth quarter was absolutely brutal to watch. I litterally turned around to leave a Cal watch party and FUCLA scored their final touchdown. Where was the fucking defense? Tosh has a lot of work to do.
Yeah that's the sad part. We will continue to watch but the fans that showed up today will not. Clemson game will be half empty.
Justbear: If we can win the rest of our games until Clemson, then maybe the fans will show up like they did tonight. Also, Clemson got whupped by LSU so that offers me some hope.
I hope so. But we are so good at letting our fans down when they finally show up.
Football gods, why do you hate us so?
I made the comment to @heyalumnigo while walking up to the stadium tonight that regardless of how tonight went, and given the uncertainty around Chesney’s program it was anybody’s guess, I feel so much better about the Cal program given the changes.
This game was a bummer given that they had 4Q momentum and then completely folded, with what, 4 straight TO’s (2 by downs) to close it out? Still think we’ll be better, but saw a lot of sloppiness tonight. And UCLA was just better - better coached, faster, more physical.
7-5 is still my prediction.
Wanna emphasize better coached. They looked like they were playing their third game and we looked like we didnt have time to get ready for our first game. Frequent confusion on the field, and a few bizarre coaching decisions.
This. The effort their offense played with in getting to full speed was on another level in comparison
And it’s multiple levels of first time coaching positions.
UCLA looked much faster than us on the perimeter. .
Every player who played a snap on defense should be embarrassed to look at themselves in the mirror. I have never watch a defense at any level give that little effort. every single player on defense seemed very complacent. Giving up almost 9 yards a carry will lead to very little winning. Defense has some real soul searching to do and they better do it fast.
This is a reach
Two teams playing their first game with new head coaches and a ton of new personnel. One HC coming off a CFP berth and a winning resume as HC at several stops and the other playing his first game as HC. Game played out about as you would expect in this context.
Hopeful that Tosh and the boys learn from this loss. Was encouraged by the second half adjustments including D and run game which were clicking until that first JKS pick. Things pretty much fell Apart from there.
Cal associates the Joe Roth uniforms with two epic wins over U$c in the 1970s under Mike White, but when it comes to wearing those same uni combos against UCLA, Cal has never beaten the Bruins:
1972 49-13 loss
1974 28-3 loss
1976 35-19 loss
2018 37-7 loss
2022 35-28 loss
2026 (tonight) 45-24 loss
We should stick to the gold jersey blue pants combo against UCLA. Our record should be pretty good.
What a terrible game.
Botched snap and illegal formation killed em in 4th quarter with game tied 24-24.
Ummm…how about JKS picks on two consecutive possessions in 4Q?
The first should/could have been caught and the 2nd he was rushed (as he was almost all night) and someone wasn't where they were supposed to be or he just confused color combos/didn't see the guy. His throws were good (except maybe that one) particularly considering he looked like Fernando Mendoza in a Cal uniform (running for his life and taking hits he shouldn't be required to take).