Utah Recap

(AP Photo/George Nikitin)

In a much needed win, the Bears snapped a three-game losing streak and rolled the Utah Utes on Saturday at ATT Park to a score of 34-10.

Both teams had come into the game winless in the conference, with their respective season trajectories on the line. The winner would maintain course for bowl eligibility, while the the loser would have an uphill battle at salvaging their season.

Thanks to an inspired defensive effort, and a mostly mistake-free performance from Zach Maynard and the offense, the Bears recorded their first conference win in a somewhat surprising dominant fashion, forcing turnovers and stifling any offense attack from the Utes.

Let’s look at some of the specifics.


Defensive Dominance
The Bears’ defensive performance on Saturday can’t be ignored any way you look at it. Many may point to the fact that Utah’s offense is pretty putrid right now having lost their starting quarterback Jordan Wynn, as well as their starting tight end and leading receiver headed into the game. Still, Utah featured a solid offensive line and one of the leading rushers in the conference in John White IV.

Yet, the Bears absolutely shut down any offensive output from the Utes, holding Utah to just 58 yards of total offense heading into the fourth quarter. To that point, John White IV had managed just two yards on seven rushing attempts, while quarterback John Hays had thrown for just 61 yards, been sacked three times and had thrown two interceptions.

By the time the final seconds had rolled off the clock, the Utes would manage to score 10 points mostly against Cal’s reserves, with just 178 total yards. White finished with 39 rushing yards on 15 carries while Hays managed 148 passing yards, but threw for 3 interceptions (one returned by Josh Hill for a score) and was sacked four times.

It was sheer defensive dominance.

Look, I know that right now, Utah probably has the worst offense in the conference. You have to feel for Kyle Wittingham and the Utes in that they couldn’t anticipate the rash of key injuries on offense. Still, it’s still pretty impressive when you hold any FBS team to less than 60 total yards and 0 points heading into the fourth quarter.

Cal’s defense has slowly been putting it together, and defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast appears to have finally settled on his group of starters and his go-to sub packages. The defensive unit as a whole appears to be playing with much more cohesion and communication, and the front seven is doing a solid job of maintaining gap integrity and plugging up interior rushing lanes.

Most knew that it might take some time for the defense to really getting into the swing of things, with freshmen starting OLBs and new starters at other positions. While the Bears still have a few issues, if they continue to play the way they did on Saturday, they are easily one of the best defensive teams in the conference.

Maynard Bounces Back
Many wondered whether QB Zach Maynard could bounce back from his two worst performances of the season against Oregon and USC, in a must-win game against one of the better defenses in the conference.

Well it turns out Maynard didn’t need to be spectacular to answer such questions, instead he needed to simply settle down and and play mistake-free football. And that’s exactly what he did.

With the Bears’ coaching staff doing a much better job of utilizing Maynard’s skill set, Maynard had one of his best games in his Cal career, going 19-29 for 255 yards for a TD and rushing for another score and 36 yards.

Maynard isn’t ever going to be one of the most accurate quarterbacks, but his play is undeniably more crisp when he’s on the move, rolling out of the pocket and allowing his receivers to separate from defenders in man coverage. I thought the coaches did a great job in calling for more rollouts, without overdoing it and keeping Maynard as a legitimate threat in the pocket as well. But there’s not doubt about it, Maynard is a different quarterback when he’s moving around, and the offense becomes far more dangerous.

I also liked that there were more designed runs for Maynard, and he had his best day running the ball since the season opener against Fresno State. That zone read is becoming increasingly effective, and even though you did see a few instances in which Maynard made the wrong decision to keep the ball, he was smart in not trying to do too much to get out of a bad spot and minimized the loss of yardage.

You also saw a few more option pitch plays that had varying levels of success, but I like the variety I’m seeing in utilizing Maynard as a runner, and Isi Sofele has done a good job of making something out nothing in some of those situations.

All I ask is that Maynard slides a bit more. He looks like he’s going to explode every time he gets hit.

With the Bears defense playing as well as it is, the coaching staff needs to reiterate that Maynard simply needs not to press and manage the game in order for the Bears to be competitive in every game this year. Saturday was a very solid start.

Keenan Allen, No Surprises Here
Keenan Allen had his lowest receiving yard total of the season, catching 8 balls for 78 yards and a score, but the way he racked up those stats were no less impressive than some of his gaudy performances this year.

Allen showed why he’s emerging as one of the most balanced receivers in Cal history, showing freakish athleticism on a pass in which he leapt into the air, adjusted and one-handed a pass that was thrown well behind him. It’s the type of play I saw Calvin Johnson make with Georgia Tech a few years ago that made me go, “wow.” He also carried a cornerback on his back on a bubble screen for a score.

Allen may not have the breakaway speed that may make him the biggest deep threat, but he’s so insanely athletic that his play in nearly every other phase of the game shows why he might be a once in a generation type of talent.

Receiving Balance
Though no receiver topped 100 yards on Saturday, I was a huge fan of what I saw in the passing game. I’m a firm believer that the more weapons the a team can develop in the passing game, the more of a threat any one receiver is likely to be in any given game.

While Keenan Allen is still the unquestioned #1 receiver, Marvin Jones was his usual solid self, catching 5 passes for 69 yards. Jones quietly continues to have a very solid season that’s been lost a bit in the hubbub over Allen’s gaudy numbers.

What was even more encouraging was the emergence of Michael Calvin, who caught a career high 4 catches for 49 yards. While they’re far from great numbers, Calvin did just enough to emerge as a legitimate receiving threat to take some pressure off of Jones and Allen on the outside.

I’d love to see a similar type of distribution in catches continue, with perhaps a few more thrown in the direction of Cal’s tight ends.

Speaking of which...

Tight End Thoughts
I had all but given up on tight end production in the passing game until Saturday. However, there were a few things to make me think twice.

First, Anthony Miller still showed he could be a threat in the passing game catching a nice deep ball on a rollout by Maynard in which Maynard threw across his body towards the other end of the field. Had Miller’s legs not been tangled up with the defenders, he would have easily scored.

But you saw the tight ends used quite a bit in the passing game, with Miller and Ladner getting a decent amount of separation from defenders on dig routes or rolling out with Maynard. Maynard just happened to aim for his receivers who deeper downfield instead, which ended up usually being the right decision. However, the fact that they weren’t being left in primarily to block shows there are indeed some plans there for the tight ends in the passing game. In fact, in some spread sets, you even saw Miller off the line and lined up in the slot.

Finally, it appears like Spencer Ladner might have overtaken Spencer Hagan for the second tight end spot. I’m not sure if it was because Hagan got dinged up in the game, but you saw Ladner in quite a bit and he looked pretty good in the blocking game for someone who is coming off such a long rest from injury. Good to see.

Individual Defensive Performances
I continue to watch Stefan McClure’s development with such a watchful eye because I continue to be impressed with his play. Not because he’s been so spectacular. In fact, he had a bit of an up and down performance against the Utes. But he shows such good signs for a corner that you continue to be impressed that he’s just a true freshman.

McClure was picked on quite a bit and did give up gains on at least two deep balls from my recollection, but it’s not that the coverage wasn’t there. He was draped on his defender quite well, they were just nice plays by Hays and the Utah receiver to come down with the ball. And that’s what you like to see from a young corner. An understanding on passing downs, and the athleticism and skills to be in position to make the play, even if it’s not always made. His ability to jump routes and make plays on the ball will continue to develop, but I’m liking what I’m seeing from McClure.

It’s also worth noting that McClure had his first pick of his career after Dave Wilkerson absolutely crushed Hays for a shot put pass.

Speaking of Wilkerson, he had the best game of his young career, recording five tackles , 3 TFLs and 1.5 sacks. Wilkerson has been hobbled for much of the season, but like the rest of the defense, appears to be playing up to the potential that had coaches calling him unblockable off the edges in camp. I like the way the kid hits, and here’s hoping he develops into the type of pass rusher the Bears haven’t had since Zack Follett.

Finally, I think it’s worth noting Aaron Tipoti’s emergence at the nose tackle position. He’s really turned it on since the Oregon game, and in fact, I thought he was one of the best defensive players in the game. He doesn’t demand as many double teams in run defense as other gigantic nose tackles just yet, but he does a fine job in creating pressure in passing situations. He just causes nice disruption at the line of scrimmage.

Offensive Line Improving
While Cal’s offensive line is far from dominant (they still struggle a bit too much in short yardage situations for my tastes), I’m really liking the job that Coach Michalczik is doing with this o-line. The stats aren’t going to wow you, as they still give up the occasional sack and the rushing attack is still just decent at best, the Bears o-line just looks so much more consistent in most phases of the game.

While Utah’s offense was noticeably poor, this was a solid Utah defensive front seven. One of the best in the conference in my opinion. Still, the Bears managed a decent 129 yards on the ground and gave Maynard some pretty good time in the pocket. While some may be distracted by the two sack stat, watching the game, you never really got the sense that Maynard was under too much duress.

The line is still improving, but it’s still in much better shape than it was a year ago.

Special Teams
Special Teams continued to be a mixed bag, but had one of its better days on the season.

Giorgio Tavecchio had a nice day kicking the ball, averaging 62.7 yards on 7 kickoffs. In fact, one touchback went over the left field post for what would have been a homerun...if homeruns were kicked with footballs.

He was also 2 for 3 on the day on field goal attempts, though he was wide left on a 29 yard attempt. I’m not quite sure what happened there, as I thought it was blocked, but it might have just been poor contact with the ball from the get go.

All in all, Tavecchio still is one of the brighter spots on special teams along with Bryan Anger who averaged 46.2 yards per punt. The staff went to the rugby style punts later in the game, to...less productive results. Me no likey rugby punts.

Punt coverage was solid, and kickoff coverage was about the same until a few poor angles led to some big returns in the second half.

One point I haven’t touched too much on this year has been the poor blocking on punt and kickoff returns. It’s really been quite bad.

It seems that nearly every punt has the opposing team’s gunner running unimpeded towards Marvin Jones. On kickoff returns, Colemon Edmond and Brendon Bigelow literally have no shot, and are usually nailed inside the fifteen yard line. Not good.

Special Teams did some good things, but there are some areas that may simply not change this year. The Bears are going to have battle poor field position all year on opening kickoffs.

Looking Ahead
Overall, it was a solid performance for the Bears. There are still some concerns, and I didn’t even touch upon the penalty problem that plagues the Bears on Saturday.

But the Bears showed very well the type of team they could be this year: a defensively disruptive team that makes enough plays on offense when they minimize mistakes to win games.

The Bears passed their first test in a critical and very much winnable four game stretch that will define their season. Cal has found the formula for the Bears to be successful this year. They just need to play with the same level of focus to match their performance for the rest of this season.