Insta-Recap & Rate the Game: California Drops the Ball at Washington in Overtime, 24-31
Golden Bears outgained the Huskies in yards, but turnovers cost them the game
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Locked in another close game against the Washington Huskies (2-1, 1-0 Pac-12), the California Golden Bears (1-3, 0-1 Pac-12) lost 24-31 in overtime, dropping the ball and its chances at their first Pac-12 Conference victory.
Washington defensive back Cameron Williams forced a fumble at its 1-yard line in overtime, denying California running back Damien Moore the touchdown and chance to force a second overtime period.
California outgained Washington throughout the game in yards 457 to 326, but costly penalties and three turnovers cost the visiting team its desired result.
Golden Bears quarterback Chase Garbers threw two interceptions and gave the game away, despite a record night passing.
I passionately disagree with the author's assertion that Garbers' threw the game away. This loss is not entirely on him. He had a few mistakes but he also made many good plays to counter balance the mistakes. Furthermore, every other unit had as many or more mistakes. The penalties, the blown coverages, the first half lack of pressure, the botched special teams, and the continued infatuation to go for the home run on third and short are all equally as important as Garbers' mistkes.
We have more talent this year than we had during our last full season two years ago. We are bigger and stronger and we have super seniors, so why are we not winning more games than two years ago. IMHO we are making mistakes that start at the fundamental levels. That goes back to coaching. What has changed in the last two years? I'll only list the ones that I think are of importance. Musgrave took over at OC for Beau Baldwin. I think we can all say now that Musgrave is an improvement. Our DC Tim DeRuyter exited last year and Peter Sirmon was elevated to the job. I think we lost a lot when DeRuyter left. Our DB Coach in 2019 was the highly regarded Gerald Alexander. This year it is first year coach Tre Watson. I think the difference in coaching experience has shown itself. Our O-line coach in 2019 was the highly regarded Steve Greatwood. Now it is Angus McClure. I think Greatwood produced better results with less talent and depth. Geep Chryst took over Tight End coaching from Marques Tuiasosopo and I think Chryst has been an improvement. Charlie Ragle has been the ST coach and I think that our ST's have not been good the entire time he has been in that job. They have been ok to bad, but never consistently good. Here are some observations that I think all of you have probably seen for yourself: 1. Our defense is nowhere near as physical as it has been in the past. We used to swarm and pound people, and even our DB's were physical. Our current LB's are soft. We aren't hitting on tackles, we are arm tackling. That's about as fundamental as it gets. We have been 'out-physicaled' in every game we have played. Our heralded secondary and supposedly defensive strength has had blown coverages WAY too many times. Our pass rush has been almost non-existent (until the 2nd half of the UW game). On the other side of the ball we have been schizophrenic on offense, running the ball effectively at times and passing the ball well at other times, but we seem to have a problem doing both well in any game. I am not impressed with how our o-line maintains their run blocking and we really need some more nasty up there (Mettauer and Coleman have nasty, and unfortunately they need to learn to control it better). And lastly, we are making way to many mental mistakes to win. Penalties at key times are drive killers. Having so many false starts is inexcusable. Taking selfish personal fouls is a reason for temporary benching in my view. These mistakes are all the result of poor coaching. Well coached teams don't make these mistakes over and over every week. I have some ideas for solutions that I will list. I'll start by saying on defense the coaches need to identify a physical leader who will set an example with his play. Kunaszyk and Weaver were those guys in the past. We don't have one right now and we need to find him. Next...I like Coach Wilcox and I think he was a great choice as a hire. He fits well with CAL and he has tons of integrity. I want him to be successful. This is his first HC job and he has not learned that it takes a bit of ruthlessness that a CEO must have to build a successful business. CEO's hold their people accountable. In football every player gets graded on film from practice and games. Game performance grades are the ultimate determinant of playing time. Assistant coaches cannot be exempt from this process. Coach Wilcox needs to hold his assistants accountable. After he reviews film every week he needs to let his coaches know what he sees and what he expects in terms of improvement. If necessary he needs to guide them, and his patience can only be limited. At this point his patience should be gone, based on our results and how erratically we have played. Loyalty to your assistants is a good thing, but only if it helps win games. If your assistant coaches are not getting the job done, the entire team suffers. If the team doesn't win, the HC loses his job. With no contract extension in place and a terrible season so far, Coach Wilcox's future options are not looking good. He will have 2022 to turn this ship around. Even with changes in the assistant coaching staff, this will be difficult, because kids will need to learn the changes in a short period of time. Coach Wilcox needs to think of one thing: what can he do to better the team. If it means unloading assistant coaches for better replacements, then he needs to put his loyalty aside and bring in assistant coaches who can get it done. Otherwise he won't be here after 2022 (maybe after this year) and we'll be starting from scratch again.