Evans Hall: Fate Stay/Cal Football

Or where Piotr shows the range of his hobbies

First, we discussed the realm of surrealism where the introspection of self and relation with the reality and over-reality of the world explained Cal football’s madness, then I touched on how the dour sincerity of country music can be used to describe different phases of Cal football.

Note: I highly recommend playing/reading theFate Stay/Night VN or watching the two covered routes.

This week we’re delving into anime and visual novels, specifically Fate Stay/Night. Why? Because Cal football is so bad I need to tap into my favorite hobby to motivate me to write about 3-7 Cal football. Indeed Shirou Emiya, college football teams do lose when they are terrible.

Fate Stay/Night is a visual novel turned anime that spawned a 6 billion dollar franchise and a mobile game that is one of the most profitable ones Sony has. But at it’s core it is a story about heroism, duty, and reconciling with one’s ideals in a world that tries to deny you.

Fate Of Moving Backwards

Fate route is the first route in the FSN novel where the protagonist is faced with realizing his dream and the obstacles he has to deal with in the long run.

In the case of Cal football, the obstacle was set up by neglecting the OL and the playcalling did not adjust to the new reality of the OL play.

We can see here that the Cal offense is one of the most prolific ones in getting negative yards in the run game. Woof. I mean look at the 2nd down-rushing game where 12% of the runs go for < 0 yards. Furthermore, we have a terrible propensity of getting negative yards on 3rd down in either pass or run game. Getting 0 yards on early downs also dooms the offense.

Overall, on 3rd down, we’re 8th worst in the nation in % of plays that go backward on both passing and rushing attempts. Usually, you want to go in the positive direction on 3rd downs…

Unlimited Depressing Statistics Works

Unlimited Blade Works is the storyline where the main character has to face with the inherent conflict of his dream: the logical conclusion of his dream to save everyone around him. He finds that the dream he carries is still wonderful, however flawed it maybe.

In the case of Cal this game is the logical conclusion of the offensive failures. Unable to take advantage of the median Oregon State defensive allowances on 2nd down Cal is faced with the fact that a median Cal defensive performance will lead to a massive loss. And in this case this flawed offense is not pretty at all.

Only 2 rushes went for a 1st down, and only 3 passes on 2nd/3rd downs went for a 1st down. That’s the game. Oregon State wasn’t as good of a defense as it seemed on Saturday especially on 2nd downs where there were chances on 2nd < 10 to gain yards, but we didn’t. Furthermore, the 3rd down passing left a lot to be desired.

Oregon State didn’t do anything that the Cal defense didn’t allow all year long. That’s the depressing part where the 3rd down defense was unable to hold up, with the Oregon State offense only facing 1 3rd and long look all game.

This game tanked Cal’s points allowed per play underwater. With the offense not doing itself any favors were officially in the bad offense sub-mid defense territory.

This is also reflected in our increasing inability of the defense to stop the bleeding once the offense becomes 1 dimensional. At least we’re in familiarc company of Tim DeRuyter at Texas Tech.

Heaven’s Feel of Sadness

Heaven’s Feel is the saddest of all of the routes in the Fate Stay/Night Saga, the main character is faced with the reality where his dream comes into conflict with the people he loves. Will he sacrifice the people closest to him in order to pursue his dream or will he choose those he loves?

In the case of Cal we have lived in a world where all the bad ends are.

None of these statistics need comment. We’re a painful offense that can’t move the ball because we find ourselves extremely behind the 8 ball on 3rd downs.

That’s it, this is our end final end of the 2022 Cal football story. We’re a flawed offense that put so much pressure on the defense that it finally broke, the reason the offense is so flawed is that the OL failed to be average, or even below average. It was atrocious and it fell into the depths of hell just like Sakura and rest of the world at the bad end of Heaven’s Feel.