Evans Hall: Yes, I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink After You

At this point only country music can describe the feelings that come from watching Cal football

I really like indie country music, none of that stadium country schlock that Nashville makes mind you, like Bo Burnham once mockingly said:

I walk and talk like a field hand
But the boots I'm wearing cost three grand
I write songs about riding tractors
From the comfort of a private jet

We’re talking Prine, Isbell, Childers, Moreland, and Simpson. In his humorous piece on being broken up with Prine bemoans that the pain he is feeling from his former love is causing him to drink to forget her, to the point where the bar oughta name a drink after her.

Looks like I had my fill
Guess I better pay my bill
When I started out, I only meant to have a few

I think the DC Game watch spot oughta name a drink after Cal Football.

If It Takes a Lifetime - Jason Isbell

Man is a product of
All the people that he ever loved
And it don't make a difference how it ended up
If I loved you once my friend
I can do it all over again
If it takes a lifetime

Here is the thing about Cal football, we aren’t fans of this team because we’re going for the Natty. We’re a fan of this team because of the friends we have and get to see each Saturday. Heck, we can fall in and out of love in the team but if we have loved the team before, we can do it again.

Here we can see that the team we love is kinda still there, the defense despite it’s struggles and pains is still slightly above average in play-by-play level on defense. And this is a defense we’re all down on. Offense, well they’re that friend we know has trouble but love nonetheless because they are like us and we are like them in a way.

This is where the tragedy of that friend comes into play, the fact that the offense just refuses to be above the level of serviceable early in the game is the achilles heel of the team. Being 6th is great when it is the # of Nobel prizes by a university in the world but it is terrible when it comes to the fact that we’re 6th worst offense in Q1 of a game. This puts the defense in unfavorable game scripts where the opposing offense has their entire game plan open for them while the slow start limits the Cal playbook late in the game.

This shows up in the offensive early down play where we have a net 0 EPA/PPA on first downs causing the whole offense to be already off schedule coming into 2nd/3rd downs where it just gets harder to play. Another note is the defense on 3rd downs being just average, likewise on 2nd downs.

We have solidly put ourselves on the low-end of the mediocre pack with each drive feeling being laborious and the lack of explosive plays plaguing the team.

Purgatory - Tyler Childers

Do you reckon he lets Free Will
Boys mope around in purgatory

I know that Hell
Is just as real as I am surely breathin’
But I’ve heard tale
Of a middle ground, I think will work for me

Cal football offense and defense are in Purgatory. Good thing we have a healthy Catholic student population at Berkeley to pray for us cause boy I can’t imagine where we’d be if we were a baptist school oh boy.

Oregon made a point to devour the Cal run game and force Cal to throw the ball. Besides a couple of SNAFUs here and there and the late surge by Kai Millner there isn’t much to write home about. None of the 1st down rushes gained a 1st down Cal failed to convert a handful of 3rd and short via the passing game despite being 2/2 on the ground… still baffles me we insist on passing the ball on 3rd and <5.

The Cal defense didn’t cover itself wth laurels this game, especially with Oregon’s passing game taking it to Cal in the passing game on 2nd down where only 3 of their 10 2nd down passing attempts were non-conversions. Tack on a slew of 1st down conversions in the passing game that are in line with Oregon’s seasonal performance. There isn’t much the Cal defense did in the grand scheme of things that changed what Oregon has been doing all year (sans interceptions).

Here we can see the painful Cal offense, especially on 1st down rushing were we’d oscillate around the 0 mark with the passing game faltering on 3rd downs and being just meh on 2nd.

EPA/PPA data confirm the purgatory the Cal defense was during the game, not really affecting Oregon’s general performance sans the 2 4th down stops.

3:59am - John Moreland

So try to be patient, try to understand
I'm a child, trying to do the work of a man
My pockets are empty, I don't own a thing
But I'd take a diamond from the sky and put it in your ring

3:59am is one of those songs that is about someone trying to figure out what is wrong with them. The wish to just be ok, to be right and good is strong. Being conscious of one’s struggles, especially in the throes of youth.

The Cal team is composed of young men capable of self-reflection. I think they know where they are failing at what are some of the cardinal flaws in their performance both on the field and as coaches.

The most obvious flaw is the fact that 1st down play-calling is causing the offense to be off-schedule almost immediately.

Despite being middle of the pack in # of first downs we’re itching up the list on the # of 2nd and especially 3rd downs attempted. This again means that our high averages aren’t due to low volumes but also due to poor execution on early downs.

You Can Have The Crown - Sturgill Simpson

Oh, I've been spendin' all my nights on the internet
Looking for a clue but ain't found one yet
Just a bunch of Mopars, guitars and other stuff I can't buy

Cal fans have a lingering feeling that the Cal defense of 2022 doesn’t measure up to the defenses of yore. Like Sturgill I have been pondering on the internet trying to figure out what the problem is with the defense and I think I cracked it.

The Cal defense of 2022 feels worse as well due to the fact that we’re allowing high level of 2nd down passing plays to convert 1st downs. With damn near half of 2nd and 4-8 being converted for first downs with 3rd and long being convertable in higher rates than in the past.

Dancing on the precipice of being average the defense continues to dance near the line of being good. We’re forcing teams to run a lot of plays per game in order to score on us.