Does anyone know why Cal didn't opt for taking a safety by running the ball out of the northwest corner of the end zone, killing 5 to 12 seconds and free kicking from the 20 vs. the -5? Even if it killed 3 seconds, the net gain would have been 25 yards with a pressure free kick. It worked, but seemed like a "better" play call would have been the safety option. Or am I missing something (entirely possible, although I am undefeated from my seat in Memorial Stadium :) )
This will, sadly, will be Cal football till Wilcox gets a top notch, creative, exciting, offensive coordinator. Mediocre coordinators combined with mid-level talent lead to inconsistent, lackluster, frustrating results. If Cal gets very lucky and is invited to join the Big 10, Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana will rejoice because the league will have a new doormat. To compete, as his first step, Wilcox will need to add an offensive wunderkind to pair up things with his solid, but undermanned defenses. Knowlton (sp?), the empty suit, will have to be replaced by a dynamic athletics director and the administration will have to get it's head out of its southern parts and commit to football as being a critical component of a university's essence. Otherwise, in a few years Cal will end up in the Greater Central Valley Conference playing the likes of Chico State, Sac State, Sonoma State, and UC Davis and parking will no longer be a problem at Memorial Stadium.
There are two big takeaways from the game. One is very obvious: Ott needs to get WAY more touches. He's our best RB and it's not even close. Moore and Brooks are not on the same level as Ott, and when they get forced into the game they are complete momentum killers.
The other less obvious takeaway: Braxton Croteau is simply not it. He needs to be benched asap. In 98% of the plays he gets easily blocked out and removed from the play, sometimes by a tackle but sometimes he's even completely manhandled by a skinny tight end. And on the very rare occassion he isn't blocked, like when he came free at the QB up the middle, he whiffs the tackle and let's the QB scramble for 12 and a first down. The ONLY play he happened to make came pretty much on accident when he was blocked out of the play completely, but the rb happened to run right at him and even then he still almost missed the tackle. The guy offers nothing aside from being one of those "over the pile" guys who run to a tackle after it's been made and pretend like they were almost in on it. He's basically another Evan Tattersal...and now Tattersal is a 3rd stringer on UCD. I hate to trounce on a kid, but this guy has no business getting any further playing time. The reason why they get the edge? He's set's the edge and fails every time. When he's in it's like we are playing 10-11 football. Bench him and play a real play maker like Myles Jernigan.
The timing between Plummer and the WRs seems off. Either they have to wait for the ball instead of catching it in stride, or they slow down to look for the ball instead of keeping up their speed, and it flies past them. They were better vs UNLV, but need to improve way more by Saturday.
As for Musgrave, IMO he is trying to impose his offense on the players instead of matching an offense to their abilities/talents.
So in fairness to the staff, we've also seen it before that this team looks blah against the early-season cupcakes and then later becomes bizarrely competitive against the better conference foes. I suspect we'll see something similar again.
But that also means we're likely in line for another 5 to 7 win season, which is not a step forward.
I am a UNLV fan, and just happened to stumble across this article and thread. The one thing that the author and all the fan posts failed to mention, is that this year UNLV is actually a much better team than they used to be. This will only be evident by the end of the season, but UNLV in the past 2 years has recruited and developed better talent than they had in the past. I would say this UNLV team is probably on par with where Boise State was roughly 5 years ago. Cal fans are naturally surprised that their team struggled with UNLV, but by the end of the season, I think it will make a lot more sense. No one would have been surprised by Boise State of 5 years ago coming into Cal and putting up a good fight, possibly leaving with a win.
A coaching decision I didn't see mentioned: the missed 43 yard FG near the end of the game on 4th and 2. It may have been the conservative move but I think it was the right choice. 43 yards is reasonably makeable and it would have put us up two scores. The miss is frustrating but it happens.
I was very happy with the decision to go for it on 4th and 2 early in the game. It ended up being the game winning move, since it led to a touchdown and Cal won by 6. Pretty sure that move wouldn’t have been made in earlier Wilcox iterations.
Lack of a special-teams coordinator could end up as a HUGE, potentially season-wrecking issue if they don’t get better organized. Multiple breakdowns as pointed out by Nick.
Jaydyn Ott against Davis had the most yards in a debut since Keenan Allen and then touched the ball 9 times less against UNLV. He's responsible for 60% of our TDs this year, is averaging 3 yards/carry more than our next best back, and yet he's not on the field when the game is on the line. Unless this is some injury situation that is not being disclosed, my only conclusion is that this offensive coaching staff hates the fans and anything remotely resembling exciting football. WTAF.
Does anyone know why Cal didn't opt for taking a safety by running the ball out of the northwest corner of the end zone, killing 5 to 12 seconds and free kicking from the 20 vs. the -5? Even if it killed 3 seconds, the net gain would have been 25 yards with a pressure free kick. It worked, but seemed like a "better" play call would have been the safety option. Or am I missing something (entirely possible, although I am undefeated from my seat in Memorial Stadium :) )
This will, sadly, will be Cal football till Wilcox gets a top notch, creative, exciting, offensive coordinator. Mediocre coordinators combined with mid-level talent lead to inconsistent, lackluster, frustrating results. If Cal gets very lucky and is invited to join the Big 10, Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana will rejoice because the league will have a new doormat. To compete, as his first step, Wilcox will need to add an offensive wunderkind to pair up things with his solid, but undermanned defenses. Knowlton (sp?), the empty suit, will have to be replaced by a dynamic athletics director and the administration will have to get it's head out of its southern parts and commit to football as being a critical component of a university's essence. Otherwise, in a few years Cal will end up in the Greater Central Valley Conference playing the likes of Chico State, Sac State, Sonoma State, and UC Davis and parking will no longer be a problem at Memorial Stadium.
Ott wins freshman of the week again. First repeat week winner since 2010 when the award commenced
If it seems like a broken record - it probably is.
There are two big takeaways from the game. One is very obvious: Ott needs to get WAY more touches. He's our best RB and it's not even close. Moore and Brooks are not on the same level as Ott, and when they get forced into the game they are complete momentum killers.
The other less obvious takeaway: Braxton Croteau is simply not it. He needs to be benched asap. In 98% of the plays he gets easily blocked out and removed from the play, sometimes by a tackle but sometimes he's even completely manhandled by a skinny tight end. And on the very rare occassion he isn't blocked, like when he came free at the QB up the middle, he whiffs the tackle and let's the QB scramble for 12 and a first down. The ONLY play he happened to make came pretty much on accident when he was blocked out of the play completely, but the rb happened to run right at him and even then he still almost missed the tackle. The guy offers nothing aside from being one of those "over the pile" guys who run to a tackle after it's been made and pretend like they were almost in on it. He's basically another Evan Tattersal...and now Tattersal is a 3rd stringer on UCD. I hate to trounce on a kid, but this guy has no business getting any further playing time. The reason why they get the edge? He's set's the edge and fails every time. When he's in it's like we are playing 10-11 football. Bench him and play a real play maker like Myles Jernigan.
The timing between Plummer and the WRs seems off. Either they have to wait for the ball instead of catching it in stride, or they slow down to look for the ball instead of keeping up their speed, and it flies past them. They were better vs UNLV, but need to improve way more by Saturday.
As for Musgrave, IMO he is trying to impose his offense on the players instead of matching an offense to their abilities/talents.
So in fairness to the staff, we've also seen it before that this team looks blah against the early-season cupcakes and then later becomes bizarrely competitive against the better conference foes. I suspect we'll see something similar again.
But that also means we're likely in line for another 5 to 7 win season, which is not a step forward.
Ott was definitely under used, especially in the 4th.
I am a UNLV fan, and just happened to stumble across this article and thread. The one thing that the author and all the fan posts failed to mention, is that this year UNLV is actually a much better team than they used to be. This will only be evident by the end of the season, but UNLV in the past 2 years has recruited and developed better talent than they had in the past. I would say this UNLV team is probably on par with where Boise State was roughly 5 years ago. Cal fans are naturally surprised that their team struggled with UNLV, but by the end of the season, I think it will make a lot more sense. No one would have been surprised by Boise State of 5 years ago coming into Cal and putting up a good fight, possibly leaving with a win.
A cogent analysis.
A coaching decision I didn't see mentioned: the missed 43 yard FG near the end of the game on 4th and 2. It may have been the conservative move but I think it was the right choice. 43 yards is reasonably makeable and it would have put us up two scores. The miss is frustrating but it happens.
I was very happy with the decision to go for it on 4th and 2 early in the game. It ended up being the game winning move, since it led to a touchdown and Cal won by 6. Pretty sure that move wouldn’t have been made in earlier Wilcox iterations.
Lack of a special-teams coordinator could end up as a HUGE, potentially season-wrecking issue if they don’t get better organized. Multiple breakdowns as pointed out by Nick.
Jaydyn Ott against Davis had the most yards in a debut since Keenan Allen and then touched the ball 9 times less against UNLV. He's responsible for 60% of our TDs this year, is averaging 3 yards/carry more than our next best back, and yet he's not on the field when the game is on the line. Unless this is some injury situation that is not being disclosed, my only conclusion is that this offensive coaching staff hates the fans and anything remotely resembling exciting football. WTAF.