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So let’s get a few things out of the way: Saturday night’s loss isn’t the end of the world. The season isn’t over. We haven’t been relegated to the Hawaii bowl (yet), and we still have a decent shot at finishing pretty well in the conference. We’re still in somewhat of a 5-way tie for first place in the conference, and we have an entire six games left to play this season.
And hey, it could be worse, we could be Washington State fans.
With that said, Saturday night’s loss sucked.
It was unsettling to say in the least, to see Cal completely unravel in the 3rd quarter after going into the half with a ten-point lead. There were plenty of issues to get to, as most media outlets probably will do this upcoming week, but here are just a few that stuck out to me.
Quarterbacking Woes
I’m going to say it: I wasn’t really happy with either quarterback last night.
Nate didn’t do anything to reverse the notion that he just doesn’t play very well in the second half of close games. Longshore was efficient and polished in the first half, going 16-25 for 172 yards with two brilliantly thrown touchdown passes. In the second half, he went 2-12 for 46 yards and an interception return for a TD.
Oh, and anyone else think the pick-six looked JUST like the one from two years ago, just seen from the other side of the field?
Coming off the bench, Riley showed good mobility in the pocket (the play in which he shook two Arizona defenders before completing a strike to his receiver was darn impressive). But even despite the fact that he came in cold, Riley also made plenty of poor decisions and continued to overshoot his receivers. Riley went 7-19 for 97 yards and an INT.
So the QB controversy continues, but for all the wrong reasons. While I wasn’t truly pleased with the QB play last night, I don’t think it’s the real reason while Cal lost either. Up until the pick-six, I thought Nate played quite well, and I think Riley might have seen better results if he hadn’t been asked to resurrect a 15 point comeback in the fourth quarter.
Not to mention that our wide receivers had a tough day, dropping numerous passes, and I don’t think Offensive Coordinator Frank Cignetti did as good of a job as he could have in adapting to Arizona’s blitzing defense.
Surprise!
("Surprise!")It wasn’t even the emergence of Arizona RB Keola Antolin, the 5’8, 180-pound frosh running back who ran all over the field for 149 yards and three TDs. Although it was a surprise, as I found myself googling his name during the game.
No, the biggest surprise of the night was how much our defense struggled on Saturday night. For all of the leaps of improvement Cal had made on defense this year, particular our run defense, Saturday night’s performance just might have been a giant step backward.
The eeriest aspect of the game was how much last night’s defense looked a bit like the 2007 team—the second half version.
Don’t get me wrong: I think Cal’s defense played hard, and for this reason I’m convinced we’re not going to see a repeat of last year’s second half slide. I don’t believe the issue was a lack of trust or motivation. Cal just got beat defensively.
Cal’s defenders were pushed around up front, and were consistently picked up by Arizona blockers, allowing for huge holes for Antolin to run through.
Saturday night also featured the shoddiest tackling I had seen by Cal in quite some time. The Bears consistently allowed Arizona players like Gronkowksi and Antolin to run over them and slip through for extra yards on the ground, or into the endzone. Blech.
While I thought the defense had turned it around in the second quarter, forcing Arizona to a series of three-and-outs to end the half, they completely fell apart in the 3rd quarter, giving up 21 points including a perfectly thrown TD pass from Tuitama to Mike Thomas—over Syd’Quan Thompson. Admit it, you know things were going straight to hell when that happened.
Bright Spots
Yes, beleaguered Cal fans, there were some bright spots in the game. Verran Tucker coming on to the scene with 4 catches, 68 yards and a TD was nice to see. It had my friend saying, “I like this guy. He’s long, get him in the game more.” True.
It was also nice to see Jahvid Best bounce back from his elbow injury with 107 yards including an impressive 67 yard touchdown run in the second quarter. The dive into the endzone might have unnecessary though, and I’m not surprised if it was one of the reasons Best had to sit out most of the second half after admitting that he was hurting.
Finally, Giorgio Tavecchio impressed me a bit last night. Most of his kickoffs were inside the ten (hey we’ll take it), and despite missing a 50-yard field goal just slight right, he showed good accuracy and the leg to boot to reassure the coaches that he’s got the goods to be counted on in the future. Keep in mind, the kid is a walk-on soccer player who joined the team just a few days before the season opener.
Terrible Announcers
“Again you’ve got to question some of his decision making”
-Lincoln Kennedy commenting about Nate Longshore…for the fourth time.
I’m not going to spend too much time on this, but man did most of us have to put up with some terrible play calling and announcing. I intentionally tuned into the FSN broadcast because of the better broadcast quality (albeit not full HD), and because I couldn’t stand Greg Papa’s pronunciation of “Cal” (“KALE”) during the Colorado State game over at CSN.
But like Cal’s defense, I was not prepared for what about to come my way on FSN. Some of the poorest broadcasting I’ve heard in quite some time, and Lincoln Kennedy’s bashing of Longshore in the first half was a bit odd. I can certainly understand those quotes coming in the second half, but in the first half? When Nate goes 16-25 for 172 yards and 2 TDs?
And the announcers chuckling about the fat lady singing with 8 minutes to go in the game was just a little frustrating. Just a bit.
Oh and the “Haha, the kicker is Italian, let’s try and make stereotypical and offensive jokes about Italian words and names that rhyme with Tavecchio” bit was moronic. Ya’ll should be ashamed. Poo poo to you both.
“I’m sick to my stomach.”
-Alex Mack
Well said, Alex. The loss hurts. Not for the absence of the ranking, or the fact that Cal no longer controls its destiny in the conference race. It also doesn’t challenge my belief from the beginning of the season that this team would see its share of struggles on its way to a rebuilding year. An 8-4 season would still be a successful one in my mind.
No, what hurts is that the Arizona game all but erased most of the positive momentum Cal had built in the first half of the season. What hurts is that the loss brought back haunting shades of previous losses such as to Arizona State from last year, or the debacle that was the ’06 Arizona mess.
But unlike in that game, there were no flukey calls, no acts of divine intervention from the Wildcats Gods. This time there were no built-in excuses about humidity or time zones as there were in the Maryland game. No “what-ifs” about healthy quarterbacks or “if-only-Riley-had-played” scenarios. No excuses. Cal just got beat.
And that’s what hurts the most.
6 comments:
thanks for the post, very insightful =] and you are right, we still have a lot ahead of us, just gotta play like we want it more
The trend is not your friend when it comes to lack of half time adjustments. As was the case last year (and in part this year) in 2H of games, Bears looked too predictable on offense and defense looked confused. In the second half, Arizona defense put its SS in the box often and Cal offense had no answer. When Follett said after the game that Arizona offense ran formations and plays not seen before, the D Coordinator must adjust. Either his adjustments failed or players failed to execute. Neither outcome speaks well for the future. Tedford, Gregory and players seem to produce well early, but come up short down the stretch. The trend is not your friend.
barf
While there certainly some questionable coaching calls (particularly on offense), most of defensive deficiencies on Saturday were due to a lack of execution. While not having a safety back on some of those plays hurt, the poor tackling and missed gap assignments hurt more.
Wow. What a letdown on so many facets. Worse, is we've seen this before, and many times. While I still strongly support Tedford, I would offer up the following complaints:
1) Why did we abandon our running game so quickly. Our line and backs are fantastic? We cowered and never returned.
2) What is wrong with screen passes and play actions?
3) What happened to Tedford's creative offenses and talented QBs?
4) After 4 years why can't Longshore learn to look off a receiver?
5) Why must we keep Longshore in through 3 quarters when he continually suffers in the 2nd half? At least sit him down 1-2 series to think about his efforts. But late in the 3rd we see him sit back and start side arming the ball into traffic.
Overall, we have become incredibly predictable and, dare I say it...fearful. The last innovative play I've seen was the first play of the season (too bad it was incomplete).
I have a great respect for our coach and players, and I am gaining respect [finally] for Coach Gregory with the 3-4 this year. Cignetti - not so much. He's not a "great" mind, just a good one. And, special teams are still atrocious (short of Anger, of course).
Frankly, I think these players deserve better efforts from our coaching staff - I believe the talent is there but the coaching is getting stale, predictable, and has lost its fun and excitement.
C'mon guys, you're better than this. Worse is that we know it.
Lucky, I’ll address this issue further later in the week, but the primary reason we got away from the run in the second half was that Arizona was constantly stacking the box, and not only getting pressure on our QBs, but also shutting down the run. Taking out the huge 67 yarder, the Wildcats held Best to just 2.67 yards a carry. This coupled with a fatigued Jahvid Best, and Cal falling behind by 15 points in the third quarter really forced Cal’s hand when it came to running the ball.
As for the lack of “innovative” playcalling, I honestly don’t think that’s Tedford or Cignetti’s style. I think Cal fans expected Tedford to consistently run gadget plays after he had run a number of them his first few years. One has to consider though, that Tedford had to rely on a number of these plays earlier on, because of the gap in talent he had compared to other conference teams. Those gadget plays were a part of evening the playing field so to speak.
Now that he has the talent, he would rather focus on perfecting and executing the fundamentals: tackling, gap assignments, being physical upfront, and playing disciplined, turnover-free ball. And after watching Saturday’s game, you can argue that these are going to win football games, not relying halfback tosses.
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