Washington State Recap 2010

A little late, I know, but a recap is a recap, right? And a win is a win. There might have been some hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth at the Bears allowing one of the worst teams in the country to hang around all game before pulling one out in the Pallouse 20-13. And yes, the win was far from pretty. In fact, the Bears did nearly everything a team could do to get upset (turnovers, special team gaffes, stalled drives), but still showed some grit to battle out a win and notch their first W on the road.

A few thoughts:

Mansion Does OK
The stat line wasn’t very impressive (12-24 for 171 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTS). One is more entitled to scoff given the competition (one of the worst pass defenses in the nation). But actually watching the game progress, I actually liked what I saw out of Mansion. He didn’t seem too wide-eyed in his first start, and was throwing the ball with authority. Like most first starts, there was some good and bad.


The Bad.
The two interceptions were either bad reads, or bad throws. Either way, they were bad. The second interception looks more and more like it was a case of miscommunication with him and Vereen on his option route, but the ball ended up in about the worst possible place for the receiver.

Another concern was Mansion’s accuracy, particularly over the middle. He seemed to sail the ball a bit, but there weren’t too many that were completely out of reach for the receiver, just a few that were about half a foot too high for a leaping WR. Having Mansion settle down with his footwork should hopefully shore that up.

The Good.
In looking at the positives, again, I liked that his passes had some zip. They showed good arm strength, but more importantly some confidence in that he knew where he was going, didn’t overthink a bit, and just let it rip. Sometimes the balls were out of reach, but a few other times they were right where you wanted them.

Also, Mansion throws a really nice deep ball. Not quite Kevin Riley-pre 2009-esque, but looked pretty similar to some of Longshore’s best deep throws. The kid’s got a nice arm.

It was a bit refreshing too to see Mansion on the QB keepers. It’s still a debate as to whether his two long runs were on actual zone reads, or if he planned on tucking it in pre-snap, but regardless, he showed some legs on his two runs. He takes a little to accelerate, but I think Mansion has gotten a lot faster from his high school days once he picks up a head of steam.

Finally, one of the most encouraging aspects of Mansion’s game, which also carries over from his Oregon State performance, is that he seemed to play better as the game went on. Mansion started the game 5 of 13 for just 70 yards in the first half, but went 7 for 11 in the second half for 101 yards. More specifically, he was 6 of 9 for 74 yards and no picks in the fourth quarter. Again, I don’t think his play was all that terrible in the first quarter, just a bit erratic. He looked a lot sharper in the second half though.

Last point on Mansion, it was nice to see the coaches having confidence with him in regards to the playcalling. On one instance in the first half, with the Bears backed up close to their own endzone, they called for a passing play on first down. That rarely happens with this offense. He ended up sailing the ball, nearly killing Calvin in the process, but he ended up keeping the ball on the next play for a nice gain on the ground. It shows the coaches’ confidence with Mansion, or at the very least, that they feel comfortable enough with him in there that they want to take a shot in instilling some confidence in him.

At the end of the day, Mansion didn’t quite wow you, but he at least showed enough to make you think that there could be a real solid QB in there down the line.

Defense Saves the Day
It seems like every complimentary point about the Bears will be prefaced with a statement about how bad WSU is. But before we starting brushing off all highlights, let’s at least point out that WSU had been much improved on offense this season. Sure, they had no running game, but they were the 5th best passing offense in the conference, averaging nearly 260 yards per game. And they had hung up a fair number of points against some decent competition (23 on Oregon, 28 on the ‘Furd). So these guys were far from being a joke on offense.

With that in mind, you have to like how the Bears held the Cougars to just 92 yards, on just 9 of 25 passing attempts. Sure, they got hurt on the ground a bit, giving up 102 yards, but it seemed to be far more by design that they were willing to give up some gains on the ground to avoid getting scorched in the air.

The Bears seemed to play plenty of man defense, pressing the WSU receivers aggressively enough that Tuel had to wait a bit for them to come out of their routes. This gave the Bears’ defensive line enough time to pressure Tuel without having to commit more than four rushers. It worked out well enough, with the Bears racking up a whopping six sacks on an outmatched WSU offensive line.

Defensive Ends Lead the Defensive Line
Again, the defensive line had one of their more dominant performances of the season, with the Bears using 3 DE sets of Jordan, Owusu and Guyton. Derrick Hill was out, and Payne still appears to be banged up, so Tipoti got his fair share of playing time when they subbed in a NT. The Bears usually sent just 3 or 4, with Kendricks or Mohammed often being the rush backer, and abused the Cougars offensive line.

There were a couple of frustrating moments in which they got in the backfield, only to see Tuel squirt out and either throw the ball away or gain a few yards on the ground. I think that speaks to Tuel’s athleticism a bit in the pocket, but it also seemed like the rushers were more intent on a homerun hit on the WSU quarterback as opposed to trying to wrap up cleanly. At least from what I saw.

Kudos to Cameron Jordan, who should have won Pac-10 defensive player of the week honors with his career high 12 tackle, 1.5 sacks, 3 TFLs and 1 FF is a ridiculous stat line. Guyton also impressed with his 2.5 sacks.

I highly doubt the d-line has another performance like they did on Saturday, so it’s good to enjoy a six pack sack day when it happens.

Special Team Struggles
I felt like special teams had been showing some chinks in their armor the last few weeks, and their regression led to their worst performance of the season.

It was a number of mental errors and a lack of focus that led to some gaffes. The Bears gave up a 33 yard punt return (with about 4 whiffed tackles) to set up a Washington State field goal at the end of the half. Brian Schwenke was caught napping at got bulldozed on Cal’s blocked extra point which could have been disastrous had the Cougars been able to drive down the field late. Tavecchio also continued to struggle with field goals, missing a 37 yarder.

It’s one thing to have special teams mistakes. It’s another to have them in a game as close as this was.

The only bright spots appeared to be decent coverage on kickoffs and Anger’s nice day of 4 punts inside the 20 yard line for a 47.3 yard average. Oh and Tavecchio had two touchbacks! Two!

Offensive Line Does Ok
Which is concerning. Yes, they gave up 3 sacks. But one was on due to miscommunication, and another was when Vereen was out of position due to a play action and missed a blitzing corner. And yes, the Bears rushed for 212 yards, but quite frankly, the Bears should have flat out dominated the Cougars on the ground. It’s frustrating to see how mediocre this offensive line looks against a defensive unit that has been simply bad against the run. One of the worst in the nation in fact.

That’s not to say that the Bears o-line was terrible. Far from it. It’s just a bit headshaking to see them be just marginally ok when they faced obviously weaker competition. It provides some context as to why the Bears offense has looked shellshocked against stronger defenses.

I do like the personnel change of inserting MSG back into the starting line however. The left guard spot suits him a lot better than tackle, and he looks a lot smoother when pulling than he did in trying to react to a first stop from quick defensive ends.

I wish we had a bit more depth at the tackle spots however.

Secondary Looked Solid
It was a bit difficult to gauge given some of WSU’s dropped passes and the pressure Cal was getting on Tuel. But Jared Kardstetter and Marquess Wilson are a good WR duo. Holding them to just 57 combined yards is something to hang your hat on. Darian Hagan showed some real nice coverage on what could have been two touchdown passes, and I continue to understand why Tedford stated that Steve Williams is one of the best cover corners we’ve had at Cal. I don’t agree fully yet, but you definitely see how that might be the case sooner than later.

Wide Receiver Drops Need to Stop
Seriously. Please? For Mansion?

For Me?

Play of the Season
Jeremy Ross’ conversion on 3rd and 20, with the assist of his teammates might have been the play of the season. With the Bears leading by just 1 point with 8 minutes left in the game, the Cougars looked like the verge of seizing the momentum with a defensive stop. The crowd looked ready for the ensuing punt and go ahead score.

The Bears decided to play it safe and called a bubble screen to Jeremy Ross. The play looked to be dead upon catch, but a devasting pancake from Brian Schwenke opened up a lane for Ross. A defender closed on Ross, ready to end the nonsense, but boom! Ross Hurdle in full effect. Yet Ross was eventually wrapped up, short 9 yards of the first down, only to have his teammates bowl into the pile. The legs kept moving, and the Bears ended up with the first down.

Unreal stuff. It’s hard to say until the end of the season what play defined our year, but if the Bears end on any kind of high night, it’s likely we’ll look at that moment as the reason we didn’t fall to the Cougars.

Looking Ahead
Oregon. Bleh. I’ll talk about it more in my Keys to the Game, but what else can you say? The Ducks look unstoppable right now, and the Bears eeked out a win over one of the worst teams of the season. It’s not the best position prior to a matchup with the number one team.

Or is it?

It probably isn’t. Oh well. Play like your hair is on fire gentlemen. Go Bears.