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.
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.
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.
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.
"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?
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.
We won.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
...But...did you live?
"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.
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?