Well, normally at this point I'd say that the film always looks different than the game. But I think I can say after watching that game, even before going back and watching the film, that our O-Line was absolutely fucking terrible. And it's not because we don't have the horses or the athletic ability to get the job done. It's because time after time our guys made the wrong block, missed the adjustment, or got caught thinking instead of reacting. That's all on Coach McClure. I'm sorry to say that but it is. If our kids are unprepared it's on their coaches. UNLV's O-Line was heads and tails better than ours. What does that tell you? After last year and from what I saw today, we need something serious with respect to changes in O-line coaching. There is no excuse for how we played today against UNLV. If we play this way for the rest of the season we are in trouble. Sorry, that's just how I see it.
This is surely all to lure Notre Dame into overconfidence, right? To limit tape on Ott, draw the Irish into attacking the right side of the O-Line, and then punish their arrogance, right? We wouldn't shut down that hard for the sixth consecutive year, right?
I'm glad Kai Millner is safe on the sidelines and not getting traumatized by endless sacks.
It's a shame people can't enjoy a Cal football victory, especially given how relatively we few we've gotten over the last six decades. I understanding that there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over how we won, but personally I'm saving it for a day or two and savoring an afternoon well-spent at Memorial Stadium among friends. Palms of Victory.
Having low expectations for your team and simply enjoying any technical victory no matter the level of competition is part of the systemic issue surrounding the program. Welcome to being a fan of a mid-major team. We're a good-not-great Mountain West team at this point in year 6 of the Wilcox era. I guess it's something we must inevitably accept and move on with, but some still refuse that kind of resignation.
So, kudos to people like Justbear for having higher standards and not taking part in the complacency or apathy. These people are the unsung heroes if this program is to ever improve again.
You dont pity heroes for their emotional sacrifice, while the rest of us blissfully bank on history and tradition and enjoy the few and fleeting victories that come, you thank them!
We most definitely did not win the second half. I mean it was an exciting game and I was yelling my head off, but the fact that it was exciting means games later in the season will not be fun.
I’ve watched enough decades of piss poor Cal football that I’m allowed to not entirely enjoy a squeezed out victory over lesser competition. I know perfectly well what that means.
The defense was heroic in the second half. So many big stands.
Really enjoying all of the playmakers we've accrued offensively. Was fun seeing Anderson get involved, Sturdivant was huge on third downs, Hunter looks solid. Been a while since we had such a plethora of weapons. It's too bad Garbers had to play out his final two seasons amidst COVID weirdness because I would've loved to see him lead this group (he could also help keep plays alive better with this severely limited offensive line).
On the other hand, it's painful to watch this running-back-by-committee routine when its clear that Ott is our best offensive player. The gap between him and Brooks/Moore is pretty massive.
The fact that DeCarlos Brooks, and NOT the guy that had so clearly been the BEST player on your entire frigging team through the first 2 weeks, was our RB when a 1st down would put the game on ice is all I need to see from the 2022 coaching staff to know this team isn’t going anywhere substantive...which is no huge surprise, after all, as to much of the administration and fan base, winning is an ancillary benefit.
But when you don’t have your best players out there with the game on the line, it shows either incompetence or ineptitude, neither of which are good.
Jayden Ott should be getting as many touches as possible, and to hear Wilcox say that they decided to “spread the running game around” is a baffling example of buffoonery.
Sure, golden, agree to an extent - you don’t want to run him into the ground in his one season in Berkeley before he heads to SC...but OTOH, he’s so clearly the best back.
Brooks & Moore rushed a combined 16 times for 48 yards (<3.5 ypc). If Cal continues to do RB by committee despite having a talent like Jaydn Ott, then someone should be fired.
Don't want to see Ott in an SC in uniform next season. Supposedly Moore lost weight and was reputedly much faster. I don't really understand what the problem is.
Exactly my thoughts. Was just talking with Newellbany about this…it really makes me lose confidence in the coaching staff and the things they hope to accomplish with this program when you hear JW try and justify why the most electrifying player on the roster wasn’t even on the field with the game on the line.
My 7 year-old niece knows Ott is passing the eye test.
Absolutely…in an era where players can transfer with impunity, I think there is a very good chance he’s gone even if they give him 25+ touches per game. Who wants to lose carries to guys averaging half your YPC?
As a coaching staff, why TF you aren’t getting the ball in your best players hands as often as you can is puzzling. From his first carry last week, dude’s by far been the best player on their team...
Ott is the perfect example of why you need 4 star players. This whole concept of building a program by developing overlooked 3 stars is either a myth, or Wilcox doesnt have the chops to do it. You need playmakers, it's just part of the game now. If we dont retain and get more players like this, we continue as a .500 program for as long as the fans and administration are content with it.
Exactly! Watching Ott make plays and gain yardage with the OL struggling - if you’re not getting this guy as many touches as you can what are we even doing here.
It's a myth. Utah is basically at the ends of where you can go with 3* talent -- losing to a mediocre Florida team that just has them completely trashed in roster depth.
Jimmy: You have got a point as to why we weren't running the ball more. Maybe it was because the O-line was having trouble opening up running lanes. Whatever it was, we definitely need to get the problem fixed by next week.
Well, Brooks and Moore need holes. Ott, OTOH, is electric, and displays a patience and maturity in his running well beyond his years...reminds me of LeVeon Bell. He went 7 for 52, making people miss and gaining yards despite the O-line struggling.
And the entire country saw that he’s by far the best player on this Cal team with the ball in his hands. The fact that Aristotle had Brooks & his paltry 2.2 ypc in there at the end is troubling on so many levels.
Did Ott pick up a minor injury? I couldn't watch the game, but I was puzzled why we didn't run him more when he seems to be our most effective back so far.
I looked at the film last night and here are my comments.
I watched every offensive play, multiple times, re-reviewing plays at every o-line position. As usual, the tape was not as bad as the game. I need to hold back on my first impressions. My judgement is still out on Angus, but I'm not as down on him as I was yesterday and I will explain why as I go through this review. (I should have written al this down as aI watched the tape, so if my memory is off a bit, I apologize)
There were a number of things that stood out. The first is a topic that Wilcox talks about: you cannot regularly put yourself in a third and long position and expect to consistently succeed. We did this to ourselves and often times it was because of a bad pass or read by Plummer. There were several occasions where he had an open man and missed passes that he usually makes. When he gets the ball out quick he has a higher success rate. (Stating the obvious).
One observation is that in the gun formation Plummer is only 5 yards back at the snap and tends to drop an additional step or two, but getting to 7 or 8 yards deep doesn't happen on every pass play. Why is this important? Because he needs room to step up into the pocket. If he is further back as a target then speed rushers adjust to that target and when he steps up it makes it easier for his tackles to stay with their blocks. Second, in our pass pro system our middle three give ground immediately (too much ground I think). If Plummer doesn't get back far enough then he leaves himself very little room to step up AND it gives the inside rushers an easier path the the QB. Plummer owns a big part in the pressure he is getting.
On a couple of sacks there was an outside speed rusher who came from our strong side. One was up on the line and the other looked like a corner or safety blitz. Plummer never seemed to see these guys until it was too late.
Also, if Plummer is allowed to audible, then he really made some bad run game reads when he should have changed the play at the line. There were several times when we ran power to the weak side (left side) and the strong side guard and tackle pulled to the left when a defensive end was lined up outside the tackle. That defensive end made the tackle behind the line of scrimmage coming untouched and hitting our RB before they even made a read. When looking at the defensive alignment, there was no way this play was going to work. Plummer should have seen it, then made the adjustment. I have noticed that Plummer has a weakness when it comes to being aware of where the outside threats are located. If he is aware of them, he doesn't seem to account for them.
When it came to giving up sacks the vast majority came from our strong side: Spencer Lovell, Brayden Rhome/TJ Sessions. Both Rhome and Sessions seem to have problems with speedy and athletic rushers. Sessions looked like he was a little more comfortable and its probably because of his athleticism. I think in time he will get better with reps of the technique needed, but this will be an ongoing problem until we coach our guys up.
Spencer Lovell is a BIG man. And he does a great job run blocking and pass blocking when there are no 'passing lanes' around him. If an opening presents itself and he is just a little out of position, he gets beat like a drum. There were at least three sacks against UNLV that happened when a defender just blew by Lovell. This is a weak spot and I think UNLV exploited it later in the game. They would send their defensive end on an outside route to the QB and our tackle took the bait and stepped out to engage the rusher, creating a lane between our tackle's inside and Lovell's outside. Every time I saw this happen, Lovell got burned. There are a couple of things we can adjust to make sure this doesn't continue to happen: the first one is that the tackle should not go outside to engage the outside rusher, he should step in and back, thereby taking away the passing lane on Lovell's outside and effectively putting himself at the intersection between the outside rusher and the QB. From this position the tackle can make his next adjustments on the outside rusher. But the rule is, do not go after them, be patient, put yourself between them and the QB and let them come to you (eventually). I don't recall if our OT at the time was Sessions or Rhome, but I would imagine it was Sessions because he is new and still learning our system.
Our run blocking was fairly good, except on the 'powers' (or whatever they call them) where we had backside guys pull and leave a d-end untouched. It seemed that the opposite side d-ends made the play every time. We need to fix whatever the problem is on this play. Also, there were some blocking schemes that seemed really odd to me. I don't know the names of the plays that were called, but when I see an alignment where one of our o-lineman has a long step for a reach block when the next guy over has an easy block on that defender, and their jobs could easily switch where the guy with the longer block adjusts to pick up the second level player. There were just some weird schemes to me. These should have been picked up and adjusted during the game. Three observations from our run game: 1. UNLV's d-linemen played off the ball which forced us to make long steps to get to them and allowed them time to read and react. It also creates natural gaps for the defense to exploit, especially ILB's. 2 . Our big bodies do a good job getting contact and setting up blocks correctly with that initial contact. 3. But we are missing two things: finish and real nastiness. There were so many times when our O-linemen owned the UNLV opponent and just stopped blocking. I want to see feet moving and defenders getting drilled into the ground. In fairness, the d-linemen for UNLV were BIG. I only see nasty from two of our O-Liners: Cindo and Driscoll. They have it. Our other guys need to find it.
Run game part deux: we play a different game when Jayden Ott is in. He sees things that the other guys don't see. His speed allows him to do things that our other RB's can't do. I am sad to say it, but Moore can't get yards unless the conditions are perfect. Brooks appears to do a better job of finding a crack and getting four or five yards, but every time Ott touches the ball he is a threat to break it long. I now recognize that when Moore and Brooks are in the game, our run game will not be nearly as effective as when Ott is in the game. I hope the coaches come to this conclusion. Sometimes, as much as you like an older player who has paid his dues, you have to play the younger better player for the team's sake.
Screens and receiver blocking. Jermaine Terry has a lot to learn about run blocking. Plain and simple, he was terrible and every time he was in on rub blocking he got beat, badly. Likewise in our screen game, our outside blocking by receivers was terrible. If we don't fix this then we should stop running screens. And on our run plays when we had receivers as additional blockers on our line, they were worthless. Fundamentally, blocking is about attacking someone and taking them out. If you won't hit anyone when you are supposed to be blocking then you should not be in the game.
Closing thoughts. When I watched the film what was very apparent is that our mistakes all seemed to come at critical times. Plummer needs to complete some easy passes, make better reads on the run game and outside rushing threats. As to our O-Line we actually played pretty well, except for bad plays at critical times that ended drives, and some of those forced errors were not because of bad blocking, but because of poor schemes.. Our strong side needs a lot of work in pass pro. And I want to see our guys destroying d-lineman, not sumo wrestling. All of this can be corrected by watching film and coaching in practice. That being said, we need to do a lot better job of making successful blocking adjustments during the game. McClure is in my hotseat.
Thanks Rugbear for the cogent analysis. It sounds like there might be some fixes for what went wrong and I hope some adjustments can be made by Saturday.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for seeing and describing in such great detail, what the heck was happening on the line and in the game yesterday. So much of the second half especially was just plain hard to watch and accept. Yes, play Ott as much as possible. The line and the team is better overall when he is in the game. Significantly better, so keep him in there as much as possible. I don't know after these first two games if the screens and pass plays to the flats can be fixed. The blocking isn't really there. It's weird. If one of those plays have ever worked, I missed it. As you say, gotta hit to block, hopefully the receivers will learn that. I am going to watch the game again so I can get up to speed on the reads. Those 3rd and long downs happened much too often. OK, so anyway, we won, and screaming like a crazy person for the last ten minutes of the game was kinda fun. The frustrating thing is we seem so close to being much better, with the talent and speed of the team, but can't quite get there consistently. Thank goodness for the defense. But it shouldn't be like that, the offense just has to be better.
Thanks, but they have a lot of years of combined experience and I'm sure they know the fixes...just hope they can implement them. Remember, hindsight is way easier and watching film to correct issues is easier than game time adjustments. And, it's considered a big no-no to try and contact coaches about this stuff. They'll either succeed or it's the law of the jungle. Only the best survive.
He's in my hotseat. He should have seen how UNVL d-liners were lining up off the ball and creating gaps, which completely changes the run game (Musgrave should have seen this as well). I would have switched from reads to quick hitting plays and exploited the gaps the defense gave us before they had time to make reads. Second, he had to see how those 'powers' were not working and make adjustments for that. And lastly, he should have talked to our strong side tackle and implored him not to go after the defender, but to be patient. These are in game fixes that were not done. Now he has to coach these kids up. In fairness there will always be mistakes and some sacks every game, but you can't allow your strong side guard to give up three sacks. I want to see big improvement next week. My worry is that the drills that are required to build fundamental habits need to be done just about every day in practice, and it's a bit late to start.
UNLV only bested Cal on rushing, which was 103 yds (3.3ypc) for UNLV and 92 yds (2.9ypc) for Cal, sacks (4 v 3), and TFL (8 v 6). We were even on turnovers (1 int each). Otherwise we had more total yards, more passing yards, higher passing %, more YPA, more first downs, did much better on 3rd & 4th down conversions, and won the time of possession.
We won the game and that’s all that matters. But the redzone play and the offensive line are serious issues.
Edit: we also were the superior team and talent won out. If these teams had equal rosters we lose 10/10 times. That is the concern going into ND and conference.
Hi Haas, respectfully, I don't think this is the case at all. He has a sheet with plays on it for different down and distance situations that they have practiced during the week. And they can run them out of different formations. There is no OC (or DC) that can make perfect play calls all the time, it's just impossible. But that's why on offense you have audibles. Please also understand that when I do my evaluations, they reach to the point of perfection. That is never going to happen. We got the W. That's all that counts. The rest we can learn from and get better. But, even if we strive for perfection, its really hard to get there...ask Nick Saban. ;-)
We can build on this and will hopefully be a better team for it. It is just a concerning trend that our offense consistently dissipates after the first two to three drives. As you point out, it could be execution or we simply have not successfully made adjustments to counter what the defense is doing.
Fire Angus, fire Musgrave. Replace Wilcox after this season.
Terrible game all around. This team either regressed from week 1 to 2 or they couldn’t handle the step up in competition from FCS to MWC team.
Either way, this team looks like a 5-7 or 6-6 team this year. At which case, I really hope Wikcox is fired as he will prove that he is a completely average coach that is better suited for the MWC or a DC at a P5 school.
Musgrave is fine. Our O-line is the problem. If Wilcox wants to win he needs to be ruthless in his assessment and make the changes needed to get on track. We have the size and talent on our o-line. The fact that they played like shit is because they weren't prepared. That goes back to coaching; McClure.
Bob, with all due respect, just because Wilcox is a defensive coach doesn't preclude us having a great offense. Look at BAMA or Georgia. Both Saban and Kirby Smart are defensive coaches and they have great offenses. It's who you hire to be your coordinator and your assistants and in the end how well your players execute. If you have talent and they don't execute, then it's pretty easy to point a finger. In this case, I think Musgrave's play calling has been fine, especially for early season when we don't want to open up our play book for the world to see. I think we are having BIG problems with our O-Line when we shouldn't be. I'm pointing the finger at McClurre and maybe I should not be doing that. But clearly they are having big problems and JW needs to figure out what is going on and solve the problem or it will hurt his chances to win and keep his job.
There are Coaches like Sonny Dykes who do not seem to care much about defense, but then that's mentality is prevalent in the Big 12.
Last week when we got on track things went well. This week, fortunately, we started fast, and then our wheels fell off pretty quickly. In part, I think it's because UNLV made better adjustments faster than we did.
I think Troy Taylor is a helluva coach and if we ever lose Wilcox I would love to see TT's name in the hat for the HC position. But I hope JW continues to succeed and that our team gets better and better so we don't have to worry about that day.
Fair points and I won't debate you because I don't have evidence to prove otherwise, but I think I just wanted to make the point that it comes down to good coaching hires. I actually think Arroyo did a hell of a job today and in the short time he has been at UNLV. It's pretty clear his assistants were able to make in-game adjustments on both sides of the ball. Another Coach that I was impressed with last year was Jay Norvell at UNR and now at Colorado State, for the same reasons. Both of these schools are lesser schools but had well coached kids. In the end, it's all about coaching up the kids and making in game adjustments that work. Btw, I will watch the game film tomorrow. I did watch our highlight tape and our O-line looked damn good in those plays. But I want to go back and see where we broke down and how it went from good too bad too ugly..
Wilcox is basically on his second reboot of his offensive staff and likely needs a third. He has shown he can competently hire defensive staff but not offensive staff. He is the upside down of Sonny Dykes. We have a common opponent as TCU this year with Colorado so if we don’t beat Colorado as soundly as Dykes and TCU did then that is a problem.
Bob, you don’t need to be an expert to see the OL has been average to terrible the last two seasons. Just open your eyes and watch them give up 4 sacks to UNLV and multiple false starts.
"It's difficult to play football without an offensive OR a defensive line" - Nick (I was standing right in front of him.
Everything else looks in place for a decent to good football team - great offensive skill players. rangy linebackers and a good defensive backfield. Just missing those last two. . .GIANT pieces.
The lack of physical play by our offense is concerning. Every play looks like an emergency. When we run, it is entirely on the back to make a play, when we pass, Plummer is under pressure almost from the moment the ball is snapped... hard to see more than one or two conference wins.
Defense missed some tackles (especially in the backfield) but they obviously carried us to victory in the 2nd half. I can't say that they look like the best defense of the Wilcox era (as touted) yet, but they earned today's win.
For the offense, Jaydn Ott is a dazzling player with star potential. I'd love to see what he could do with a more consistent o-line. There was one play where he showed great patience waiting for a gap to open. Maybe I just had an unusually good angle but he looked like he saw the game in Matrix time.
I cringe every time I see Plummer run. Have we seen him slide yet or has he always just taken the hit?
My first thought after seeing Ott's first couple carries against UC Davis last week was "This guy is going to transfer next year." This kid deserves to play on a real D1 team whose ceiling is higher than 6 or 7 wins.
Well, normally at this point I'd say that the film always looks different than the game. But I think I can say after watching that game, even before going back and watching the film, that our O-Line was absolutely fucking terrible. And it's not because we don't have the horses or the athletic ability to get the job done. It's because time after time our guys made the wrong block, missed the adjustment, or got caught thinking instead of reacting. That's all on Coach McClure. I'm sorry to say that but it is. If our kids are unprepared it's on their coaches. UNLV's O-Line was heads and tails better than ours. What does that tell you? After last year and from what I saw today, we need something serious with respect to changes in O-line coaching. There is no excuse for how we played today against UNLV. If we play this way for the rest of the season we are in trouble. Sorry, that's just how I see it.
Fire McClure
We won.
The legacy of Justiin Wilcox...wins that feel like losses....
This is surely all to lure Notre Dame into overconfidence, right? To limit tape on Ott, draw the Irish into attacking the right side of the O-Line, and then punish their arrogance, right? We wouldn't shut down that hard for the sixth consecutive year, right?
I'm glad Kai Millner is safe on the sidelines and not getting traumatized by endless sacks.
Only problem is ND expertly countered that strategy by losing to Marshall. These coaches are playing chess not checkers now.
It's a shame people can't enjoy a Cal football victory, especially given how relatively we few we've gotten over the last six decades. I understanding that there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over how we won, but personally I'm saving it for a day or two and savoring an afternoon well-spent at Memorial Stadium among friends. Palms of Victory.
Honestly though, today's game was not enjoyable. It was fun in the first half but man what an awful game it was in the second half.
I feel sorry for you if you can't enjoy Cal winning a football game.
Having low expectations for your team and simply enjoying any technical victory no matter the level of competition is part of the systemic issue surrounding the program. Welcome to being a fan of a mid-major team. We're a good-not-great Mountain West team at this point in year 6 of the Wilcox era. I guess it's something we must inevitably accept and move on with, but some still refuse that kind of resignation.
So, kudos to people like Justbear for having higher standards and not taking part in the complacency or apathy. These people are the unsung heroes if this program is to ever improve again.
You dont pity heroes for their emotional sacrifice, while the rest of us blissfully bank on history and tradition and enjoy the few and fleeting victories that come, you thank them!
We most definitely did not win the second half. I mean it was an exciting game and I was yelling my head off, but the fact that it was exciting means games later in the season will not be fun.
I’ve watched enough decades of piss poor Cal football that I’m allowed to not entirely enjoy a squeezed out victory over lesser competition. I know perfectly well what that means.
Thanks for the recap, Rick!
The defense was heroic in the second half. So many big stands.
Really enjoying all of the playmakers we've accrued offensively. Was fun seeing Anderson get involved, Sturdivant was huge on third downs, Hunter looks solid. Been a while since we had such a plethora of weapons. It's too bad Garbers had to play out his final two seasons amidst COVID weirdness because I would've loved to see him lead this group (he could also help keep plays alive better with this severely limited offensive line).
On the other hand, it's painful to watch this running-back-by-committee routine when its clear that Ott is our best offensive player. The gap between him and Brooks/Moore is pretty massive.
The fact that DeCarlos Brooks, and NOT the guy that had so clearly been the BEST player on your entire frigging team through the first 2 weeks, was our RB when a 1st down would put the game on ice is all I need to see from the 2022 coaching staff to know this team isn’t going anywhere substantive...which is no huge surprise, after all, as to much of the administration and fan base, winning is an ancillary benefit.
But when you don’t have your best players out there with the game on the line, it shows either incompetence or ineptitude, neither of which are good.
Jayden Ott should be getting as many touches as possible, and to hear Wilcox say that they decided to “spread the running game around” is a baffling example of buffoonery.
The dilemma is they can't over use Ott or it will be a disaster. I'd try Stredick, Street, and Hayes over Moore and Brooks.
Sure, golden, agree to an extent - you don’t want to run him into the ground in his one season in Berkeley before he heads to SC...but OTOH, he’s so clearly the best back.
Brooks & Moore rushed a combined 16 times for 48 yards (<3.5 ypc). If Cal continues to do RB by committee despite having a talent like Jaydn Ott, then someone should be fired.
Agreed
Don't want to see Ott in an SC in uniform next season. Supposedly Moore lost weight and was reputedly much faster. I don't really understand what the problem is.
At this rate, they won't be able to use Ott because he'll transfer to UCLA after the year.
I know Wilcox doesn’t like to meddle but he should be strongly encouraging his OC and RB coach to play Ott.
When Wilcox says things like that, I just have even less confidence that he is head coach material at a P5 school.
Sure, spread the running game around when we are up by 20 but in a close game you want your best players on the field.
Exactly my thoughts. Was just talking with Newellbany about this…it really makes me lose confidence in the coaching staff and the things they hope to accomplish with this program when you hear JW try and justify why the most electrifying player on the roster wasn’t even on the field with the game on the line.
My 7 year-old niece knows Ott is passing the eye test.
Absolutely…in an era where players can transfer with impunity, I think there is a very good chance he’s gone even if they give him 25+ touches per game. Who wants to lose carries to guys averaging half your YPC?
As a coaching staff, why TF you aren’t getting the ball in your best players hands as often as you can is puzzling. From his first carry last week, dude’s by far been the best player on their team...
Ott is just playing one year in the minors before he transfers to the majors.
Ott is the perfect example of why you need 4 star players. This whole concept of building a program by developing overlooked 3 stars is either a myth, or Wilcox doesnt have the chops to do it. You need playmakers, it's just part of the game now. If we dont retain and get more players like this, we continue as a .500 program for as long as the fans and administration are content with it.
Exactly! Watching Ott make plays and gain yardage with the OL struggling - if you’re not getting this guy as many touches as you can what are we even doing here.
It's a myth. Utah is basically at the ends of where you can go with 3* talent -- losing to a mediocre Florida team that just has them completely trashed in roster depth.
Jimmy: You have got a point as to why we weren't running the ball more. Maybe it was because the O-line was having trouble opening up running lanes. Whatever it was, we definitely need to get the problem fixed by next week.
Well, Brooks and Moore need holes. Ott, OTOH, is electric, and displays a patience and maturity in his running well beyond his years...reminds me of LeVeon Bell. He went 7 for 52, making people miss and gaining yards despite the O-line struggling.
And the entire country saw that he’s by far the best player on this Cal team with the ball in his hands. The fact that Aristotle had Brooks & his paltry 2.2 ypc in there at the end is troubling on so many levels.
Exactly, all of this.
Did Ott pick up a minor injury? I couldn't watch the game, but I was puzzled why we didn't run him more when he seems to be our most effective back so far.
It’s really the only thing that makes sense - the alternative is just too disappointing.
I looked at the film last night and here are my comments.
I watched every offensive play, multiple times, re-reviewing plays at every o-line position. As usual, the tape was not as bad as the game. I need to hold back on my first impressions. My judgement is still out on Angus, but I'm not as down on him as I was yesterday and I will explain why as I go through this review. (I should have written al this down as aI watched the tape, so if my memory is off a bit, I apologize)
There were a number of things that stood out. The first is a topic that Wilcox talks about: you cannot regularly put yourself in a third and long position and expect to consistently succeed. We did this to ourselves and often times it was because of a bad pass or read by Plummer. There were several occasions where he had an open man and missed passes that he usually makes. When he gets the ball out quick he has a higher success rate. (Stating the obvious).
One observation is that in the gun formation Plummer is only 5 yards back at the snap and tends to drop an additional step or two, but getting to 7 or 8 yards deep doesn't happen on every pass play. Why is this important? Because he needs room to step up into the pocket. If he is further back as a target then speed rushers adjust to that target and when he steps up it makes it easier for his tackles to stay with their blocks. Second, in our pass pro system our middle three give ground immediately (too much ground I think). If Plummer doesn't get back far enough then he leaves himself very little room to step up AND it gives the inside rushers an easier path the the QB. Plummer owns a big part in the pressure he is getting.
On a couple of sacks there was an outside speed rusher who came from our strong side. One was up on the line and the other looked like a corner or safety blitz. Plummer never seemed to see these guys until it was too late.
Also, if Plummer is allowed to audible, then he really made some bad run game reads when he should have changed the play at the line. There were several times when we ran power to the weak side (left side) and the strong side guard and tackle pulled to the left when a defensive end was lined up outside the tackle. That defensive end made the tackle behind the line of scrimmage coming untouched and hitting our RB before they even made a read. When looking at the defensive alignment, there was no way this play was going to work. Plummer should have seen it, then made the adjustment. I have noticed that Plummer has a weakness when it comes to being aware of where the outside threats are located. If he is aware of them, he doesn't seem to account for them.
When it came to giving up sacks the vast majority came from our strong side: Spencer Lovell, Brayden Rhome/TJ Sessions. Both Rhome and Sessions seem to have problems with speedy and athletic rushers. Sessions looked like he was a little more comfortable and its probably because of his athleticism. I think in time he will get better with reps of the technique needed, but this will be an ongoing problem until we coach our guys up.
Spencer Lovell is a BIG man. And he does a great job run blocking and pass blocking when there are no 'passing lanes' around him. If an opening presents itself and he is just a little out of position, he gets beat like a drum. There were at least three sacks against UNLV that happened when a defender just blew by Lovell. This is a weak spot and I think UNLV exploited it later in the game. They would send their defensive end on an outside route to the QB and our tackle took the bait and stepped out to engage the rusher, creating a lane between our tackle's inside and Lovell's outside. Every time I saw this happen, Lovell got burned. There are a couple of things we can adjust to make sure this doesn't continue to happen: the first one is that the tackle should not go outside to engage the outside rusher, he should step in and back, thereby taking away the passing lane on Lovell's outside and effectively putting himself at the intersection between the outside rusher and the QB. From this position the tackle can make his next adjustments on the outside rusher. But the rule is, do not go after them, be patient, put yourself between them and the QB and let them come to you (eventually). I don't recall if our OT at the time was Sessions or Rhome, but I would imagine it was Sessions because he is new and still learning our system.
Our run blocking was fairly good, except on the 'powers' (or whatever they call them) where we had backside guys pull and leave a d-end untouched. It seemed that the opposite side d-ends made the play every time. We need to fix whatever the problem is on this play. Also, there were some blocking schemes that seemed really odd to me. I don't know the names of the plays that were called, but when I see an alignment where one of our o-lineman has a long step for a reach block when the next guy over has an easy block on that defender, and their jobs could easily switch where the guy with the longer block adjusts to pick up the second level player. There were just some weird schemes to me. These should have been picked up and adjusted during the game. Three observations from our run game: 1. UNLV's d-linemen played off the ball which forced us to make long steps to get to them and allowed them time to read and react. It also creates natural gaps for the defense to exploit, especially ILB's. 2 . Our big bodies do a good job getting contact and setting up blocks correctly with that initial contact. 3. But we are missing two things: finish and real nastiness. There were so many times when our O-linemen owned the UNLV opponent and just stopped blocking. I want to see feet moving and defenders getting drilled into the ground. In fairness, the d-linemen for UNLV were BIG. I only see nasty from two of our O-Liners: Cindo and Driscoll. They have it. Our other guys need to find it.
Run game part deux: we play a different game when Jayden Ott is in. He sees things that the other guys don't see. His speed allows him to do things that our other RB's can't do. I am sad to say it, but Moore can't get yards unless the conditions are perfect. Brooks appears to do a better job of finding a crack and getting four or five yards, but every time Ott touches the ball he is a threat to break it long. I now recognize that when Moore and Brooks are in the game, our run game will not be nearly as effective as when Ott is in the game. I hope the coaches come to this conclusion. Sometimes, as much as you like an older player who has paid his dues, you have to play the younger better player for the team's sake.
Screens and receiver blocking. Jermaine Terry has a lot to learn about run blocking. Plain and simple, he was terrible and every time he was in on rub blocking he got beat, badly. Likewise in our screen game, our outside blocking by receivers was terrible. If we don't fix this then we should stop running screens. And on our run plays when we had receivers as additional blockers on our line, they were worthless. Fundamentally, blocking is about attacking someone and taking them out. If you won't hit anyone when you are supposed to be blocking then you should not be in the game.
Closing thoughts. When I watched the film what was very apparent is that our mistakes all seemed to come at critical times. Plummer needs to complete some easy passes, make better reads on the run game and outside rushing threats. As to our O-Line we actually played pretty well, except for bad plays at critical times that ended drives, and some of those forced errors were not because of bad blocking, but because of poor schemes.. Our strong side needs a lot of work in pass pro. And I want to see our guys destroying d-lineman, not sumo wrestling. All of this can be corrected by watching film and coaching in practice. That being said, we need to do a lot better job of making successful blocking adjustments during the game. McClure is in my hotseat.
Thanks Rugbear for the cogent analysis. It sounds like there might be some fixes for what went wrong and I hope some adjustments can be made by Saturday.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for seeing and describing in such great detail, what the heck was happening on the line and in the game yesterday. So much of the second half especially was just plain hard to watch and accept. Yes, play Ott as much as possible. The line and the team is better overall when he is in the game. Significantly better, so keep him in there as much as possible. I don't know after these first two games if the screens and pass plays to the flats can be fixed. The blocking isn't really there. It's weird. If one of those plays have ever worked, I missed it. As you say, gotta hit to block, hopefully the receivers will learn that. I am going to watch the game again so I can get up to speed on the reads. Those 3rd and long downs happened much too often. OK, so anyway, we won, and screaming like a crazy person for the last ten minutes of the game was kinda fun. The frustrating thing is we seem so close to being much better, with the talent and speed of the team, but can't quite get there consistently. Thank goodness for the defense. But it shouldn't be like that, the offense just has to be better.
Thanks, but they have a lot of years of combined experience and I'm sure they know the fixes...just hope they can implement them. Remember, hindsight is way easier and watching film to correct issues is easier than game time adjustments. And, it's considered a big no-no to try and contact coaches about this stuff. They'll either succeed or it's the law of the jungle. Only the best survive.
He's in my hotseat. He should have seen how UNVL d-liners were lining up off the ball and creating gaps, which completely changes the run game (Musgrave should have seen this as well). I would have switched from reads to quick hitting plays and exploited the gaps the defense gave us before they had time to make reads. Second, he had to see how those 'powers' were not working and make adjustments for that. And lastly, he should have talked to our strong side tackle and implored him not to go after the defender, but to be patient. These are in game fixes that were not done. Now he has to coach these kids up. In fairness there will always be mistakes and some sacks every game, but you can't allow your strong side guard to give up three sacks. I want to see big improvement next week. My worry is that the drills that are required to build fundamental habits need to be done just about every day in practice, and it's a bit late to start.
Thanks Bob!
What is up with the O line? I really think they need a coaching change. Cal has had mediocre O-lines throughout Wilcox's tenure.
We’re seeing the signs of losing coach wood
This was a rare cal win where we were out prepared, out coached, and out played. We deserved to lose and somehow won.
Edit: but we won. Last year this is a loss. Sometimes you just need to win ugly and we got the job done.
We way outplayed them in first half. Got somewhat outplayed in second. It is a win. I’ll take it!
UNLV only bested Cal on rushing, which was 103 yds (3.3ypc) for UNLV and 92 yds (2.9ypc) for Cal, sacks (4 v 3), and TFL (8 v 6). We were even on turnovers (1 int each). Otherwise we had more total yards, more passing yards, higher passing %, more YPA, more first downs, did much better on 3rd & 4th down conversions, and won the time of possession.
We won the game and that’s all that matters. But the redzone play and the offensive line are serious issues.
Edit: we also were the superior team and talent won out. If these teams had equal rosters we lose 10/10 times. That is the concern going into ND and conference.
^Excellent!
That's also because UNLV didn't insist on benching their best RB to play experience -- they just played whoever gave them the best chance on winning.
Exactly, Arroyo and co coached circles around us yesterday.
UNLV definitely didn't outplay us - but we tried our best to make it close.
They absolutely did, we just had a more talented roster and talent won out.
This reminded me of the UNR game last year.
Been a theme with Musgrave. Once we run out of scripted plays we just sputter.
Hi Haas, respectfully, I don't think this is the case at all. He has a sheet with plays on it for different down and distance situations that they have practiced during the week. And they can run them out of different formations. There is no OC (or DC) that can make perfect play calls all the time, it's just impossible. But that's why on offense you have audibles. Please also understand that when I do my evaluations, they reach to the point of perfection. That is never going to happen. We got the W. That's all that counts. The rest we can learn from and get better. But, even if we strive for perfection, its really hard to get there...ask Nick Saban. ;-)
Very fair point and I don’t disagree at all.
We can build on this and will hopefully be a better team for it. It is just a concerning trend that our offense consistently dissipates after the first two to three drives. As you point out, it could be execution or we simply have not successfully made adjustments to counter what the defense is doing.
Could be worse…we could be Nebraska…
Fire Angus, fire Musgrave. Replace Wilcox after this season.
Terrible game all around. This team either regressed from week 1 to 2 or they couldn’t handle the step up in competition from FCS to MWC team.
Either way, this team looks like a 5-7 or 6-6 team this year. At which case, I really hope Wikcox is fired as he will prove that he is a completely average coach that is better suited for the MWC or a DC at a P5 school.
Musgrave is fine. Our O-line is the problem. If Wilcox wants to win he needs to be ruthless in his assessment and make the changes needed to get on track. We have the size and talent on our o-line. The fact that they played like shit is because they weren't prepared. That goes back to coaching; McClure.
Bob, with all due respect, just because Wilcox is a defensive coach doesn't preclude us having a great offense. Look at BAMA or Georgia. Both Saban and Kirby Smart are defensive coaches and they have great offenses. It's who you hire to be your coordinator and your assistants and in the end how well your players execute. If you have talent and they don't execute, then it's pretty easy to point a finger. In this case, I think Musgrave's play calling has been fine, especially for early season when we don't want to open up our play book for the world to see. I think we are having BIG problems with our O-Line when we shouldn't be. I'm pointing the finger at McClurre and maybe I should not be doing that. But clearly they are having big problems and JW needs to figure out what is going on and solve the problem or it will hurt his chances to win and keep his job.
There are Coaches like Sonny Dykes who do not seem to care much about defense, but then that's mentality is prevalent in the Big 12.
Last week when we got on track things went well. This week, fortunately, we started fast, and then our wheels fell off pretty quickly. In part, I think it's because UNLV made better adjustments faster than we did.
I think Troy Taylor is a helluva coach and if we ever lose Wilcox I would love to see TT's name in the hat for the HC position. But I hope JW continues to succeed and that our team gets better and better so we don't have to worry about that day.
Fair points and I won't debate you because I don't have evidence to prove otherwise, but I think I just wanted to make the point that it comes down to good coaching hires. I actually think Arroyo did a hell of a job today and in the short time he has been at UNLV. It's pretty clear his assistants were able to make in-game adjustments on both sides of the ball. Another Coach that I was impressed with last year was Jay Norvell at UNR and now at Colorado State, for the same reasons. Both of these schools are lesser schools but had well coached kids. In the end, it's all about coaching up the kids and making in game adjustments that work. Btw, I will watch the game film tomorrow. I did watch our highlight tape and our O-line looked damn good in those plays. But I want to go back and see where we broke down and how it went from good too bad too ugly..
Wilcox is basically on his second reboot of his offensive staff and likely needs a third. He has shown he can competently hire defensive staff but not offensive staff. He is the upside down of Sonny Dykes. We have a common opponent as TCU this year with Colorado so if we don’t beat Colorado as soundly as Dykes and TCU did then that is a problem.
Bob, you don’t need to be an expert to see the OL has been average to terrible the last two seasons. Just open your eyes and watch them give up 4 sacks to UNLV and multiple false starts.
It’s snaps
In football, they don't track how many minutes each player played.
"It's difficult to play football without an offensive OR a defensive line" - Nick (I was standing right in front of him.
Everything else looks in place for a decent to good football team - great offensive skill players. rangy linebackers and a good defensive backfield. Just missing those last two. . .GIANT pieces.
Wilcox should have that fixed by year 10, he just needs more time to fix it.
The lack of physical play by our offense is concerning. Every play looks like an emergency. When we run, it is entirely on the back to make a play, when we pass, Plummer is under pressure almost from the moment the ball is snapped... hard to see more than one or two conference wins.
After Notre Dame's loss, they'll be out for blood right?
Defense missed some tackles (especially in the backfield) but they obviously carried us to victory in the 2nd half. I can't say that they look like the best defense of the Wilcox era (as touted) yet, but they earned today's win.
For the offense, Jaydn Ott is a dazzling player with star potential. I'd love to see what he could do with a more consistent o-line. There was one play where he showed great patience waiting for a gap to open. Maybe I just had an unusually good angle but he looked like he saw the game in Matrix time.
I cringe every time I see Plummer run. Have we seen him slide yet or has he always just taken the hit?
My first thought after seeing Ott's first couple carries against UC Davis last week was "This guy is going to transfer next year." This kid deserves to play on a real D1 team whose ceiling is higher than 6 or 7 wins.
It's certainly a concern, especially how his recruitment went. Guess it's up to Cal to continue the recruitment process while he's enrolled.
I would think that involves giving him the football
Especially with an o-line that can't create gaps, I can't see how he isn't on top the depth chart. Dude can create.
O-line was glaringly bad. We are going to get run in South Bend next week without a shake up in the trenches.