A beat reporter has to ask some tuff questions this week when Spav shows up for his weekly presser. The first question should be: Why all the attempts to run it up the middle, especially on first downs? This question should be followed up with a plethora of follow-ups. The last question should be: Was this the worst game you have ever called?
I put this loss 95% on Spav. He just wasn't prepared and had no answers. Hell even UMass had more offensive yards than Cal.
I'm still confused why we didn't try to run outside the tackles every now and again. The playcalling became really predictable really fast, which is not what I expected after such a masterful game script against North Texas. Hats off to Auburn's defense. Those guys were our equal and didn't miss many tackles on Saturday.
As much as everyone hated those runs up the middle, if Cal had just ran it three times up the middle a couple of times when we were in FG range, we might have won.
Jackson taking a 9 yard sack in the red zone turned a 33 yard FG attempt into a 42 yard attempt, which we missed. Make that FG and our last offensive possession we are playing for a FG to win and don’t need a TD.
Add to optimistic take: This was just the second game for Spav's offense, and essentially the first for Jackson, and definitely the first against a tough D. They have a much better idea now about the strengths and limitations of the players, and can plan accordingly. It's reasonable to assume that there will be significant improvements going forward.
The interesting thing is that we are atop the conference in rushing offense and no. 13 in the land. Oregon State is 14th. Ott is sixth in the nation and the PAC 12 leader in rushing. So we should keep running the ball. Not sure about the constant runs up the middle all night, maybe the coaches thought we could impose our will. Maybe off tackle or perimeter attempts would have worked better, who knows.
It appeared that Stredick was hitting the right holes and going through them with purpose. He was the "hot hand" and should have gotten more snaps. Either way the play calling sucked.
Tedford had his flaws, and did his own undoing, but when he was on… his teams were a marvel. Showed my son, who has only known suffering, the beat down of Tennessee at memorial (you know, the proper way to show southerners our hospitality). All the boys came to play. (C’mon: our D played well this weekend, but back then they were lights out.). And memorial was rocking. Spoiled us, for sure
For a bit of good news, Cal ranks amongst the national leaders in many defensive statistics. For example, we are second to Oregon State in the conference in total defense (227.5 yards per game) while they are at 227 yards per game. Also we have yet to yield a rushing TD. But clearly we need a reboot in the other two key areas...
Yes, the Cal offense/special teams squandered many opportunities, but in a low scoring game, the officials mistakes are magnified. In the replay era, officials are taught to allow a close play to continue and not to blow the whistle. All that can be cleaned up by review. But because the whistle blew, the ball was dead, and Cal suffered a net loss of 4 points. On the field goal, I guess the no-hold holding call is the sibling of the no-offside offside call in South Bend. Ridiculous. With that 3 points, Cal could have at least attempted a field goal late in the 4th, instead of throwing to the end zone.
Every close call was initially ruled against Cal. Two or three of them were overturned. The Cal fumble was ruled "call stands," so if the runner had been ruled down by contact, that call would have stood as well. This is the second year in a row that Cal lost a game in large part based on bone-head officiating by the opponent's conference officials.
I think this was always going to be a Cal offense that needed to grow throughout the season, and we knew the first few games would involve a lot of learning. Maybe some of us (myself included) just got overly optimistic with the UNT game and thought that high-scoring affair meant we had already gotten farther ahead than was the truth.
The last two games have involved the highest-scoring performance AND the lowest-scoring performance by Spav as a Cal OC (and yesterday tied a 26-10 home loss vs. Auburn in 2015 for fourth-lowest in his time as an OC at any school, with the other bad losses all at Texas A&M in 2014-15). It'll likely be a roller coaster of a year, with a bit more stability near the tail end of the season (when November features Oregon, WSU, Stanford & UCLA)
Think we may steal some nobody will expect (I’m lookin at you, udub) but we may also lose some we shouldn’t. A bowl would be progress, even if not the instant gratification kind, and then we can go romp on the acc
It's clearly gotta be Jackson over Finley, as someone has to take the cap off the offense. His only interceptions were on desperation throws where he had no choice but to chuck it and pray.
Go back a look at the tape of Spav's first run at OC at Cal in 2016 and you see a confident Davis Webb with solid footwork and able to complete check downs with relative ease. Webb had TEN 300-year passing games that season. What we saw Saturday night was entirely different and explains why Cal was trying to run up the gut every other play
I mean, Sam Jackson had one season of high school ball playing quarterback and left TCU because he realized he was not good enough to crack the two-deep. His footwork is terrible, and he has not shown so far he is an elite runner. Look up and down the conference and you see that Cal is likely 11th or last in the conference in quarterback ability. That adds up to three or four wins for the season. The Pac 12 is simply too good to allow for Cal to prevail in defensive struggles like it did in 2018 and 2019.
I agree. Jackson's mechanics are horrid. I cringe each time he goes back to pass and close my eyes when he throws it. It is literally a crap shoot when he passes. Finley is the clear starter, IMO.
I've observed both of their work this year, I'm confident Finley gives us a better chance at winning.
And I attended several fall practices, Jackson's mechanics aren't very good. For christ sake he doesn't even know what a pocket is and he's been in college ball for 3+ years. Go ahead and start Jackson but expect 2 turnovers per game, either INTs or fumbles...oh, and he may get crunched on a run.
Didn’t turn the ball over against a terrible north Texas defense. Finley did. The only pics he threw vs auburn were a Hail Mary and last ditch effort on a collapsed pocket on 4th and 13. We need someone who can extend plays. Finley is a good pocket passer but our o line is still a work in progress so he’s not the best option.
To my eyes, Jackson looks like a huge work in progress. I wonder if there is enough time to coach him out of some of the bad habits he showed Saturday night. Unfortunately, he is the only transfer portal guy in the conference who came in with no meaningful college experience. That's Cal's special problem, though. Years of offensive ineptitude kept proven guys like Ward, Nix and De laura from even sniffing at going to Berkeley. And you can't blame Kai Milner for bolting when he got so few snaps in a dreadful 2022 season. His stats were pretty good Saturday against a ranked FCS team.
I wonder if Jackson would normally run more often but was constrained by his shoulder injury? The stats show that he had 5 carries, but I think a few of those were avoiding sacks more than real runs? If Jackson is the starter now, does anyone think it might be a good idea to give Finley a couple of series per game - as a change the D has to deal with, and to keep him ready ..?
I love the idea, but it will not happen. Look at how few snaps Milner got last year even after Cal was hopelessly out of games. The only time that Milner played last year was when Plummer was too injured to go in the second half of Oregon game. The fact that Milner threw two touchdowns during his short time in there apparently meant nothing to Wilcox.
Might be right. But saw more against NT than most of last year. Did Wilcox bottle up Spav this week? Hopeful that desperation is the mother of innovation.
I just feel like Charlie Brown: stunned, lying on my back after Lucy has pulled the ball away for the millionth time. I kept having hope that this time it would be different, but here I am flat on my back again. I’ve been here so many times over the decades. I’ll pick myself back up and know that things should improve and take some solace in the fact that Stanford is not looking so great at the moment. The Bear will not quit!
Lucy was a bitch. We should have won that game. We didn't. I was so pissed at all of it, except the defense. I just can't understand why that level of excellent play is not shared by the offense. It's always the same thing. We left right after the final interception. I thought it would be better. It isn't. I will go to all the home games, bring friends and family, and then, at 70, wrap up this trips to the home games tradition. Go Cal and Go Bears!
Grizzel needs more snaps at WR, he is a match up nightmare. Spav has to use TE's over the middle (if Jackson can even see the middle over his OL) or some slot receivers. The middle of the field has to be exploited. And it seems that whomever is the OC, Cal sucks at bubble screens. So much to fix on offense atm.
Stredick had 8 carries for 24 yards. Ott had 20 carries for 78 yards. Very pedestrian. It was pretty clear, though, that Auburn was stacking the box and daring Cal to throw. That's going to be the strategy the rest of the season to stop Cal's offense without a deep passing threat (Davis, 8 YPC, Grizell 7 YPC, Hunter, 4 YPC). When Cal had those great offenses in 1974 and 75, Wesley Walker averaged 25 yards per catch. Just stunning compared to what we are seeing now.
regarding the first missed field goal: I was in the end zone and it was close to being blocked. I couldn't see the height, but from a one dimensional view, I think it would have been OK if it went down the middle, but blocked if it were toward the left post.
Do kickers actually try to kick around potential blocks? Seems like their job is to kick it down the middle and trust the blockers to do their job.
Once I had some space from the frustration, I did stop and wonder if Cal and Auburn were literally the absolute worst matchups for each other which resulted in both teams making each other’s offenses look terrible and the vintage 1980s SEC score. Functional special teams obviously tilts that game in our favor, which is unfortunate, but bottom line, I don’t think Auburn expected their offense to be stellar, but they still expected it to be functional. Our defense made them look putrid.
Hope so. Or they’re actually putrid and we’re not as good as we looked, which is a scary thought for both teams. Think we’re better than we looked on o and special teams (I know: we can’t look worse, but still), but fear we may not be as dominant as we looked on D.
Thanks for a well reasoned and introspective take on the game. I have some optimism based on the defensive performance also. As well, I think Cal has a chance to upset one of the Pac12 heavies on its schedule. For example, Utah (ranked in the polls near Oregon), was fortunate to escape Waco with a win, being largely unable to move the ball on offense until the final seven minutes. They are beatable, esp. if Rising remains sidelined.
I don't know if there are any awards for sports writing blogs, but Nick Kranz deserves a nomination. Your recent work has been excellent. Thank you.
Makes a good podcast too
A beat reporter has to ask some tuff questions this week when Spav shows up for his weekly presser. The first question should be: Why all the attempts to run it up the middle, especially on first downs? This question should be followed up with a plethora of follow-ups. The last question should be: Was this the worst game you have ever called?
I put this loss 95% on Spav. He just wasn't prepared and had no answers. Hell even UMass had more offensive yards than Cal.
I'm still confused why we didn't try to run outside the tackles every now and again. The playcalling became really predictable really fast, which is not what I expected after such a masterful game script against North Texas. Hats off to Auburn's defense. Those guys were our equal and didn't miss many tackles on Saturday.
Or...if we are going to use the run play option, maybe don't hand it off almost every damned time!
They read our plays and had the edges covered.
Plus, we're still not so good at screens.
They read our plays because 75% of those were running up the middle.
Yea eah, but every run to the edge saw a capable OLB plugging the hole.
As much as everyone hated those runs up the middle, if Cal had just ran it three times up the middle a couple of times when we were in FG range, we might have won.
Jackson taking a 9 yard sack in the red zone turned a 33 yard FG attempt into a 42 yard attempt, which we missed. Make that FG and our last offensive possession we are playing for a FG to win and don’t need a TD.
Add to optimistic take: This was just the second game for Spav's offense, and essentially the first for Jackson, and definitely the first against a tough D. They have a much better idea now about the strengths and limitations of the players, and can plan accordingly. It's reasonable to assume that there will be significant improvements going forward.
The interesting thing is that we are atop the conference in rushing offense and no. 13 in the land. Oregon State is 14th. Ott is sixth in the nation and the PAC 12 leader in rushing. So we should keep running the ball. Not sure about the constant runs up the middle all night, maybe the coaches thought we could impose our will. Maybe off tackle or perimeter attempts would have worked better, who knows.
It appeared that Stredick was hitting the right holes and going through them with purpose. He was the "hot hand" and should have gotten more snaps. Either way the play calling sucked.
Dumb move to bench Ifanse too. He is the one that is best suited to what they were trying to do!
Yeah, was it just because he fumbled? And maybe didn't really fumble anyway?
Tedford had that rule - you fumble, you sit. I like it in principle, but it's tough to accept when it might have an impact on the outcome.
Tedford had his flaws, and did his own undoing, but when he was on… his teams were a marvel. Showed my son, who has only known suffering, the beat down of Tennessee at memorial (you know, the proper way to show southerners our hospitality). All the boys came to play. (C’mon: our D played well this weekend, but back then they were lights out.). And memorial was rocking. Spoiled us, for sure
I am pretty sure. About 95%+ of the offense plays and defense line-ups are the OC and DC respectively.
For a bit of good news, Cal ranks amongst the national leaders in many defensive statistics. For example, we are second to Oregon State in the conference in total defense (227.5 yards per game) while they are at 227 yards per game. Also we have yet to yield a rushing TD. But clearly we need a reboot in the other two key areas...
Yes, the Cal offense/special teams squandered many opportunities, but in a low scoring game, the officials mistakes are magnified. In the replay era, officials are taught to allow a close play to continue and not to blow the whistle. All that can be cleaned up by review. But because the whistle blew, the ball was dead, and Cal suffered a net loss of 4 points. On the field goal, I guess the no-hold holding call is the sibling of the no-offside offside call in South Bend. Ridiculous. With that 3 points, Cal could have at least attempted a field goal late in the 4th, instead of throwing to the end zone.
Every close call was initially ruled against Cal. Two or three of them were overturned. The Cal fumble was ruled "call stands," so if the runner had been ruled down by contact, that call would have stood as well. This is the second year in a row that Cal lost a game in large part based on bone-head officiating by the opponent's conference officials.
10 points
8 possessions crossed the 50
5 possessions inside the 30
3 missed FGs
.
.
.
.
10 points
I think this was always going to be a Cal offense that needed to grow throughout the season, and we knew the first few games would involve a lot of learning. Maybe some of us (myself included) just got overly optimistic with the UNT game and thought that high-scoring affair meant we had already gotten farther ahead than was the truth.
The last two games have involved the highest-scoring performance AND the lowest-scoring performance by Spav as a Cal OC (and yesterday tied a 26-10 home loss vs. Auburn in 2015 for fourth-lowest in his time as an OC at any school, with the other bad losses all at Texas A&M in 2014-15). It'll likely be a roller coaster of a year, with a bit more stability near the tail end of the season (when November features Oregon, WSU, Stanford & UCLA)
Think we may steal some nobody will expect (I’m lookin at you, udub) but we may also lose some we shouldn’t. A bowl would be progress, even if not the instant gratification kind, and then we can go romp on the acc
Looks like Duke could be trouble, after all these years. 😉
It's clearly gotta be Jackson over Finley, as someone has to take the cap off the offense. His only interceptions were on desperation throws where he had no choice but to chuck it and pray.
Go back a look at the tape of Spav's first run at OC at Cal in 2016 and you see a confident Davis Webb with solid footwork and able to complete check downs with relative ease. Webb had TEN 300-year passing games that season. What we saw Saturday night was entirely different and explains why Cal was trying to run up the gut every other play
I mean, Sam Jackson had one season of high school ball playing quarterback and left TCU because he realized he was not good enough to crack the two-deep. His footwork is terrible, and he has not shown so far he is an elite runner. Look up and down the conference and you see that Cal is likely 11th or last in the conference in quarterback ability. That adds up to three or four wins for the season. The Pac 12 is simply too good to allow for Cal to prevail in defensive struggles like it did in 2018 and 2019.
I agree. Jackson's mechanics are horrid. I cringe each time he goes back to pass and close my eyes when he throws it. It is literally a crap shoot when he passes. Finley is the clear starter, IMO.
What game were you watching? Jackson was the better passer on Saturday
I've observed both of their work this year, I'm confident Finley gives us a better chance at winning.
And I attended several fall practices, Jackson's mechanics aren't very good. For christ sake he doesn't even know what a pocket is and he's been in college ball for 3+ years. Go ahead and start Jackson but expect 2 turnovers per game, either INTs or fumbles...oh, and he may get crunched on a run.
Didn’t turn the ball over against a terrible north Texas defense. Finley did. The only pics he threw vs auburn were a Hail Mary and last ditch effort on a collapsed pocket on 4th and 13. We need someone who can extend plays. Finley is a good pocket passer but our o line is still a work in progress so he’s not the best option.
This. I can't believe anyone is holding those interceptions against Jackson. Those were desperation throws dictated by the game situation.
To my eyes, Jackson looks like a huge work in progress. I wonder if there is enough time to coach him out of some of the bad habits he showed Saturday night. Unfortunately, he is the only transfer portal guy in the conference who came in with no meaningful college experience. That's Cal's special problem, though. Years of offensive ineptitude kept proven guys like Ward, Nix and De laura from even sniffing at going to Berkeley. And you can't blame Kai Milner for bolting when he got so few snaps in a dreadful 2022 season. His stats were pretty good Saturday against a ranked FCS team.
I wonder if Jackson would normally run more often but was constrained by his shoulder injury? The stats show that he had 5 carries, but I think a few of those were avoiding sacks more than real runs? If Jackson is the starter now, does anyone think it might be a good idea to give Finley a couple of series per game - as a change the D has to deal with, and to keep him ready ..?
I love the idea, but it will not happen. Look at how few snaps Milner got last year even after Cal was hopelessly out of games. The only time that Milner played last year was when Plummer was too injured to go in the second half of Oregon game. The fact that Milner threw two touchdowns during his short time in there apparently meant nothing to Wilcox.
Might be right. But saw more against NT than most of last year. Did Wilcox bottle up Spav this week? Hopeful that desperation is the mother of innovation.
I just feel like Charlie Brown: stunned, lying on my back after Lucy has pulled the ball away for the millionth time. I kept having hope that this time it would be different, but here I am flat on my back again. I’ve been here so many times over the decades. I’ll pick myself back up and know that things should improve and take some solace in the fact that Stanford is not looking so great at the moment. The Bear will not quit!
Nice work Nick, very good summation.
Lucy was a bitch. We should have won that game. We didn't. I was so pissed at all of it, except the defense. I just can't understand why that level of excellent play is not shared by the offense. It's always the same thing. We left right after the final interception. I thought it would be better. It isn't. I will go to all the home games, bring friends and family, and then, at 70, wrap up this trips to the home games tradition. Go Cal and Go Bears!
I can't bring myself to say much, but this was my thought walking away from the stadium. I'm so much a Charlie Brown with this team!
Well said. Definitely finding the silver lining in this cloud, without pumping sunshine.
Our defense is our saving grace.
Luckhurst was nearly perfect last year IIRC. Not sure what's happened.
Our QBs have not hit their ceilings- I hope. Excellent WR corps did not get their big plays this game.
Ott and our other RBs are awesome, but, please, no more hurdling.
Hopefully we get this fixed and we're back to chugging hopium.
Grizzel needs more snaps at WR, he is a match up nightmare. Spav has to use TE's over the middle (if Jackson can even see the middle over his OL) or some slot receivers. The middle of the field has to be exploited. And it seems that whomever is the OC, Cal sucks at bubble screens. So much to fix on offense atm.
Yes, the offense and ST to-do list is a full time week’s worth of work.
Luckhurst needs some serious drilling.
Stredick had 8 carries for 24 yards. Ott had 20 carries for 78 yards. Very pedestrian. It was pretty clear, though, that Auburn was stacking the box and daring Cal to throw. That's going to be the strategy the rest of the season to stop Cal's offense without a deep passing threat (Davis, 8 YPC, Grizell 7 YPC, Hunter, 4 YPC). When Cal had those great offenses in 1974 and 75, Wesley Walker averaged 25 yards per catch. Just stunning compared to what we are seeing now.
Yes, under pressure and with high talent DBs, our pass game stalled.
Yeah that is a good point - there DBs were skitz
regarding the first missed field goal: I was in the end zone and it was close to being blocked. I couldn't see the height, but from a one dimensional view, I think it would have been OK if it went down the middle, but blocked if it were toward the left post.
Do kickers actually try to kick around potential blocks? Seems like their job is to kick it down the middle and trust the blockers to do their job.
Just watching on TV, that's my impression, he got spooked and cheated right.
He's new to this. I think he'll be terrific, once he settles, but until he's more reliable, we need something.
Once I had some space from the frustration, I did stop and wonder if Cal and Auburn were literally the absolute worst matchups for each other which resulted in both teams making each other’s offenses look terrible and the vintage 1980s SEC score. Functional special teams obviously tilts that game in our favor, which is unfortunate, but bottom line, I don’t think Auburn expected their offense to be stellar, but they still expected it to be functional. Our defense made them look putrid.
Hope so. Or they’re actually putrid and we’re not as good as we looked, which is a scary thought for both teams. Think we’re better than we looked on o and special teams (I know: we can’t look worse, but still), but fear we may not be as dominant as we looked on D.
Thanks for a well reasoned and introspective take on the game. I have some optimism based on the defensive performance also. As well, I think Cal has a chance to upset one of the Pac12 heavies on its schedule. For example, Utah (ranked in the polls near Oregon), was fortunate to escape Waco with a win, being largely unable to move the ball on offense until the final seven minutes. They are beatable, esp. if Rising remains sidelined.