Washington State Recap

There’s no other way to really sugarcoat it.

This team is a mess right now. And while a lot of our issues are self-inflicted, you have to recognize that a lot of our issues are the result of some majorly bad luck.

But in any case, the result is still a bad football team. Cal has dropped nine straight games to FBS opponents going back to last season, which is the longest streak in the nation. Though many of those opponents were quality opponents, you know the program has reached its nadir when it gets blown out by Washington State at home 44-22.

It’s not difficult to understand how this Cal team lost the game. A young team devastated by injuries. 5 turnovers and 11 penalties. Missed tackles. Red zone struggles. It’s been the same story for most of the season.

But actually watching it happen was brutal.

There are a few big (but painful) stories here, so let’s get to them.

Injuries
So this is worth addressing. I hate the excuse game of complaining that injuries are the reason a team is struggling.

But the sheer number of injuries sustained by this team is unbelievable.

Cal lost both Jalen Jefferson, Stefan McClure, Joel Willis on Saturday to go along with Chris Adcock who’s out for the season from an ACL injury sustained on Wednesday.

We’re at a point where 8 of the 11 projected starters from the Spring are out, and most of them are likely out for the season. Simply incredible.

It’s hard to really get into full out rant mode when you’re having to play with 8 new starters. Even beyond that, a lot of key reserves are out as well. Our starting secondary is down to our 3rd string CB, a walk on, a true freshman playing a new position, and a junior.

So while I don’t try to wallow in the whole, “Woe is me” injury talk, how much can you really be rip into players and coaches when you’re dealing with players who are simply haven’t played or are physically outmatched out there? We seriously are at a point where you can’t even yell out, “Why is he still in the game?” because the answer sadly is, “Because there’s no one left.”

Turnovers Sink Bears
The Bears coughed the ball over five times compared to WSU’s lone interception, but the most painful ones were clearly the first two.

The Bears fumbled on twice inside their own five yard line, the first of which was a Daniel Lasco fumble on an awkward exchange, and the second was Brendan Bigelow’s fumble after he failed to punch it in on three straight attempts from a yard out of the endzone.

Dykes couldn’t have said it any better than he did during his press conference, you can’t win many ball games doing that.

Red Zone Woes/Running Game
But beyond just the turnovers, Cal continues to be awful inside the redzone, and a lot of it has to do with Cal’s anemic running game. At this point it’s an identity for the Bears—they simply are not a good running football team.

Playcalling in the red zone is difficult as it is, but it becomes twice as difficult when you can’t run the ball. I’ve already examined the issues before, and it’s no surprise that the problems begin with the o-line, and continue with the inability by any of Cal’s backs at this point to be a consistent running threat. They’re struggling to find running lanes, but more frustratingly, are having a difficult time finishing runs. They’re not running around or through defenders. And given what we’ve seen from Cal’s backs the past decade, we’re in a ridiculously unfamiliar place.

A quick word on Brendan Bigelow. It doesn’t take a sports therapist to know that this guy is emotionally battered right now. He’s nowhere close to the back that we’ve seen in bursts from him last year, and his fumble problems right now are just compounding the woes. Bigelow wears his emotions on his sleeves, and all it takes is one look at him to know that he isn’t right.

It’s tough because the only thing that can help him is continued encouragement and more touches, but it’s tough to play a back that can’t hold onto the ball.

Makeshift Offensive Line Struggles
Cal’s offensive line had one of their rougher performances during the season. The Bears are already down two starters in Chris Adcock and Matt Cochran, but Cal’s most glaring problems were when WSU sent just three pass rushers. These perplexing gaffes have come up quite often this season.

One the first sack, Freddie Tagaloa and Steven Moore barely got a hand on their respective defensive ends. On the second, Alejandro Crosthwaite couldn’t pull in time to block out his defender.

The offensive line as a whole was under duress given the heat that WSU was sending at Goff. Throw in a few penalties that negated a few big plays, and that about sums up the afternoon for the Bears line in a nutshell.

Secondary Struggles
Cal’s secondary is a battered patchwork unit of players desperately looking for answers. Cal allowed a one-hipped Connor Halliday to throw for a whopping 521 yards, 3 TDs and just 1 pick. We know that Cal had their hands full against WSU’s air raid, but very few in their worst nightmares could have envisioned Halliday going for over half a thousand yards.

At the safety positions, I thought both Cameron Walker and Michael Lowe had some pretty good games. Walker made some nice plays on the ball and with the exception of a play when he didn’t wrap up on the receiver, allowing the WSU receiver to run untouched afterwards for a long TD. Lowe also notched the first Cal interception in forever, but then followed it up with an inexplicable decision to flip into the endzone, despite his knee clearly touching the field on the return. But I feel slightly better about these positions than I do at the cornerback spots.

First off, Cal had to play with a gimpy Kam Jackson who didn’t make it through the game, and Stefan McClure looks like he might be out for a little while after getting up gimpy. On top of all that, Joel Willis had to be carted off the field after a kickoff return in which the returnman never actually returned the ball. Just process that for a second.

Then there was Isaac Lapite. Poor, poor Isaac Lapite.

I’m not even mad. It became clear that the walk on DB was busting his tail off, but he just looked way over his head out there. Lapite was getting burned for long TDs, drawing all sorts of pass interference penalties, and capped off his torturous afternoon by getting simply thrown down by a Coug receiver for a TD. I very rarely, if ever rip on players in posts, and it’d be ridiculous to start now. It’s really the instance of a player trying his best but looking simply outmatched against Pac-12 receivers. You can’t knock a guy for that, but just hope there’re some other defenders ready to step up.

Speaking of which, I thought Adrian Lee looked okay in his most significant minutes in his time as a Bear. There were clearly a few technical issues here and there, but he showed nice grit, making two key plays with two breakups in Cal’s territory to limit the Cougars to just a FG.

The only silver lining here is that Cal’s secondary will at least be pretty seasoned by the time the season ends. They may continue to get torched, but at least we’ll head into next season with nearly every cornerback on the team having started at least one game.

Perplexed by Lack of Pressure
I said in my keys to the game that Cal had to send pressure at Connor Halliday. He’s a completely different passer when he gets a hand in his face and feels pressure in the pocket. But yesterday, you could count the number of blitzes on one hand. And the very first blitz of the game led to an interception directly into the hands of Michael Lowe.

I understand given the speed at which the ball gets out on top of the number of receivers in Leach’s offense that you can’t afford to send the house, but the lack of pressure was truly perplexing and frustrating. Cal had their hands full as it was, but dug their own hole by giving Halliday free time and space to shred up Cal’s battered defense.

Special Teams Returns
Special Teams returned to being the most solid unit on the field for the Bears. D’Amato continues to play like one of the best kickers in the nation, while Cole Leininger also continues his very solid sophomore campaign.

In addition, the Bears limited Washington State to a 16.3 average on kickoff returns and just 5.3 yards on their punt returns.

It’s still early, but I’m still hoping that last week’s special teams performance against Oregon was more of an anomaly than a sign of more breakdowns to come.

Final Bright Spots
Really it was just Jared Goff and Chris Harper on Offense. I actually don’t think it was Jared Goff’s best game this season, but it was a nice bounceback after the debacle at Oregon. Goff broke Pat Barnes’ single game record by throwing for 504 yards, 2 TDs and an interception. The good feelings around the record is nullified a bit by Cal’s poor running attack and lack of points, but it’s still amazing that a true freshman has become the first player in Cal history to throw for over 400 yards three times in a game.

Goff still throws the ball up for grabs a bit when pressured. Goff launched another ball into double coverage for the third interception of this type this season. Again, Goff is the least of our worries right now, but a quarterback can’t continually make the same mistakes, so that’s a little concerning.

Finally, you can’t say enough about Chris Harper’s performance yesterday. Harper hauled in 14 passes for 216 yards and a score. We all knew Chris Harper was good, but yesterday was the first time I thought, “This guy could be really, REALLY good.” It’s been exciting to watch.

Moving Forward
I know it sounds like I’m venting, but a lot of my frustration is that I really believed that each week, the team was buying in little by little. That regardless of the outcomes of the games, the team was slowly making progress into becoming a better team. I was willing to accept the idea that this season would be a rebuilding one if it meant that the team that played in Week 13 would be markedly better than the team that played during Week 1.

Right now, that looks like very difficult scenario to imagine. In all but a few categories, it looks like the team is not only getting unhealthier but also regressing in many regards.

I don’t know what else to say. With the injuries and lack of confidence right now, I don’t see it getting much better any time soon. I’m absolutely going to keep supporting this team, and continue to believe that the team is depositing money into their proverbial bank. Admittedly, it’s a tough proposition, but hey we’re Bears fans. We’ve seen worse.

I think. Read the rest of the post and comments here >>

Washington State Keys to the Game

Heading into the season, many Cal fans including yours truly penciled this game as a win for the Bears. Four brutal games into the season, and now the Bears find themselves as slight home underdogs against Mike Leach's WSU Cougars.

Words don't describe how big of a game this is for the Bears. Beyond just needing to get back into the win column, the Bears need something good for them in the worst possible way. A win over the Cougars isn't going to make their season, but it's not difficult to see a loss breaking it. For the first time in weeks, the Bears face off a manageable opponent, albeit an improved team in the Cougs, and a loss would all but crush the team's already bruised confidence.

The Bears need some validation that the work they've been putting in and the tough lessons learned during blowout losses to highly ranked teams were not all for naught.

Again, Cal needs this win, and they need it bad.

Let's get to a couple of quick keys to the game.

Pass Rush Needs to Come Alive
Cal's lack of pass rushing has been supremely disappointing this season. Through four games, the Bears have netted just 4 sacks, and just one in the past two games.

Part of it has been the inability by Cal's pass rushers to get in the backfield, but part of it has also been scheme. Cal's gameplanned for mobile quarterbacks in all of their games this season, and for the first time they face a WSU QB in Connor Halliday who isn't going to be used a designed runner.

That's going to allow the Bears to get a bit more aggressive and creative in their pass rushing schemes, and if there were ever a week to being implementing those wrinkles in Cal's defense, this is it.

Not be forewarned, WSU doesn't give up a boat load of sacks. Their offense, much like Dykes and Franklin's offense is designed to get the ball out quickly, and opposing pass rushers rarely have the time to get to the quarterback before the pass is already out.

Instead of looking for sacks, Cal needs to be looking for disruption. I've been watching Connor Halliday for seemingly forever, and while he's a strong-armed gunslinger, he can be pressured into making more mistakes than almost any other QB in the conference. While Halliday is second in the conference in passing yards, he's ranked last in interceptions with 9 on the season. He's the type who can give your 4 TDs and 4 INTs in the same game.

When opposing defenses bring pressure, and he finds a pass rusher bearing down on him, Halliday has a tendency to throw mechanics to the wayside, often throwing errant passes off of his back foot. The Bears need to bank on Halliday's penchant for brainfarts by bringing the heat. It doesn't always have to be in the form of blitzes, but Cal's got to begin getting creative in the ways they bring the heat, by disguising their pressure, whether it's in the form of delays, stunts or twists. This is not the time to send four straight on. We've seen that, and it hasn't worked then, and it's not going to work now.

Stretch the Field Vertically
At first glance, Washington State's pass defense has been hugely impressive statistically. The Cougars are ranked 11th in the nation, giving up just 159 yards per game. Those are fantastic numbers.

Then you look at the passing offenses they've faced, and suddenly things don't look that impressive anymore. Check out these passing offense rankings: Auburn (92nd), USC (100th), Souther Utah (FCS), Idaho (69th), Stanford (79th). In other words, the Cougars have benefited statistically from facing some of the worst passing offenses in the country, and when they played against a mediocre passing offense in Stanford, they were torched for 322 passing yards.

Stats may lie, but your eyes don't. After watching the WSU Stanford game, WSU's biggest vulnerability in their secondary is their ability to give up big plays. Their safeties can be overly aggressive, which leads to their cornerbacks often being left alone on an island. That presents an issue when those corners are matched up against speedy wide receivers.

That sounds like a juicy matchup if Cal can utilize Bryce Treggs and Kenny Lawler at the outside receiver positions, and Chris Harper getting some nice matchups against nickelbacks and linebackers at his new inside receiver position. Cal's got the speed to do some work against the Cougs' D. They just need to take advantage of it.

Defense Has to Shed Blocks Quicker
The Air Raid offense is designed to space out defenders and get the ball out into space quickly. Philosophically, it's very much like what Cal's offense is designed to do. One of the biggest difference is that instead of running the ball equally, Leach prefers to get the ball out to his receivers quickly to his backs and receivers swing passes.

And like we saw last week, if Cal's defenders can't shed blocks on those quick swings, the Cougars are going to eat Cal's secondary alive. Dykes has been saying that Cal's secondary has been getting better and better each day of practice this week, with a lot of it having to do with finally being able to play the same players consistently throughout the entire week of practice. Let's hope so, because Cal needs its secondary to be physical and technically sound in getting to the ball.

Outlook
I'll say it again: the Bears desperately need this win. You gotta think that they know this all too well. I see Jared Goff getting back into a rhythm, and though Cal's D will give up some big plays, I think they play with a bit more aggression and confidence this week, forcing enough WSU mistakes to squeak out an ugly win.

If Cal loses this one, expect the wheels to being really falling off. Let's hope desperation does some big things.

Prediction:
Cal 27
WSU 24
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Oregon Recap

Sorry for the short break from blogging. My wife and I actually welcomed Baby BearwithFangs into the world this past weekend so we were a bit tied up with things. In fact, I was actually able to catch the first three quarters of the game while I was coaching my wife through her contractions.

It's a good thing I had the birth of my first son to help me forget about the debacle that was Saturday's 55-16 loss against the Ducks. It's always nice to have perspective

I mean, what can I say? It was an absolutely demoralizing game from beginning to end. The Bears rolled into Autzen Stadium ready to shock the world, only to play a game in some of the worst conditions I've ever seen for a football game. I mean, I was there when the Bears played the Ducks in a rain soaked Memorial Stadium back in 2008, but this looked like a completely different beast.

The Bears seemed like they couldn't get a grip, both literally and figuratively. While the defense struggled to keep up with the Ducks' skill players in space, the offense seemed absolutely unprepared for the weather conditions, coughing the ball up in its own territory on its first four possessions to start the game.

From there, the Bears would again fail to make it a game after falling behind by 41-0 in the first half.

This is going to be a shorter post since I'm already over it and ready to move on to Washington State, but let's get to the big points.

Missed Opportunities
From the early get go, it looked like Cal was poised to get their asses handed to them, but the big story had to be Cal's turnovers early on and their inability to capitalize on Oregon's mistakes. The Ducks had a difficult time handling the ball in the rainy conditions as well, but Cal failed to recover any of their fumbles until they were already down by 27 points.

Cal seemed allergic to the football, as Goff, Bigelow, Muhammad and Goff again took turns fumbling the ball. It's hard to imagine a sloppier or more nightmarish of a start to the game.

I completely get the weather. I do. It looked awful. Like, they should call off the game kind of awful.

But you simply can't turn the ball over four times on your first four possessions in your own territory and expect to have a chance in hell to win the game. After the Ducks scored on 3 of their first 4 posessions, it was pretty much all she wrote.

Defense..A little bit better, but still a mess
Wait, what?

Call me crazy, but I don't think the defense looked all that awful throughout the whole game on Saturday. I mean given how bad we've looked to start off the season, along with how good the Ducks have looked on offense, I honestly think we weren't that awful. Bad? Yes. But not nearly as bad as we've been the past few weeks. And I get that the Ducks called off the dogs when they could have full well have kept the gas on the pedal. And I also fully understand that the weather affected them almost as much as they affected us (though not even close).

But a lot of my thinking that the D wasn't THAT bad had to do with the fact that we were actually pretty stout in defending the A and B gaps in the trenches. Anything outside of the hashmarks were a complete disaster, but we were pretty good at taking away their inside running game. The Bears were absolutely abused whenever the ball carrier bounce the ball outside whether it was on the zone read or on WR screens however.

It comes back to the same issues:

1) Linebackers and safeties still slow to react.
The lack of seasoned veterans at the safety position was none more apparent than on Saturday. There were way too many times when Cal's backers and safeties were simply out of position and confused. I've liked the physical play of Demariay Drew this season, but he was tricked time and time again against the zone read. I don't think it's a coincidence that Cameron Walker saw increased snaps at his safety position on Saturday. I do think that Michael Lowe did pretty well in coverage though, and defended a few passes nicely. 2) Inability to shed blocks.
It's been really disconcerting to see how much Cal's defenders have struggled to shed blocks. Cal's DBs were abused on WR screens all day. On top of that, there were some plays where Cal's DBs were still being blocked 15-20 yards down field 4 or 5 seconds after the ball had been snapped. An inability to shed a block for that length of time is simply mind boggling to me.

Cal's linebackers and defensive ends didn't fare much better, though they had the task of shaking off offensive linemen. Still, they were just absolutely stonewalled leaving the wide part of the fields absolutely unmanned and free for Ducks backs and Marcus Mariota to play with.

3) Poor Tackling in space.
This falls back to effort and coaching, but Cal's players continue to take poor angles and struggle wrapping up in one-on-one battles in the open field. They do a pretty decent job of gang tackling on inside runs (and this wasn't the case early in the season), but they're still struggling in space.

Zach Kline Makes Debut
After Goff looked visibly shaken and unable to hold onto the football, Zach Kline got his first collegiate snaps under some of the worst conditions anyone could ask for. Down by a boatload against the 2nd ranked team under some of the worst conditions I've seen in a college football game.

He clearly gave the offense a bit of a spark when he entered the game, moving the offense down the field until some miscommunication with his intended receiver Drake Whitehurst led to an endzone interception. By the way, I could be way off here, but it looked like that interception was on Whitehurst. He struggled to shed the block from the DB, and when he figured the play was done, he seemed all too casual about giving up on the play and drifting inside without considering that the play was still very much alive.

Overall, I thought Kline looked alright. He obviously doesn't seem the field as well as Goff does right now, and is a tick slower in going through his progressions, though I don't see it as a night and day difference. But I liked the way he worked the pocket, and did a pretty good job of stepping up into his throws, even when facing a decent pass rush.

It's also important to consider the circumstances and environment when evaluating QB play that night. I think Marcus Mariota is tremendous, and even he struggled throwing the football on Saturday. Kline didn't show the same type of zip and accuracy on his deep throws, and he's admitted that he had to alter his throwing motion to ensure he didn't turn over the football under the wed conditions.

In all, while I don't think Kline did anything to win the starting job, I thought he did well enough in the conditions to give the coaches something to think about. Keep in mind, I think Goff has been very solid as a true freshman, but he's far from being in any position not to be pushed for the starting spot. I said that I thought the battle between Kline and Goff would continue through the season, and I think we're seeing that now. I think Goff still emerges as the starter, but I'm all for whatever will lead to better QB play from both players.

Special Teams back to being "Special"
I didn't have a chance to write up a report card with high marks for Cal's special teams last week and it's a good thing, as I would have looked absolutely foolish doing so.

That's a bit unfair. I will say that Cal's special teams have been very solid throughout the season. That's why it was amazing to see such poor play on coverage, allowing Oregon's Bralon Addison to return not one, but two punts returns for scores. That's only the fourth time in conference history such a thing has happened.

I'm not going to say much else because it was that embarrassing.

Oh, and we missed an extra point. Sigh.

Moving Forward
I decided halfway through the second quarter that I was done with the game. This is the last I'll think about it. There is little to glean from this game other than that we are absolutely awful in typhoon weather. Everything else we saw falls in line with what we've seen from the last few weeks. Our defense is likely going to be one of the worst defenses in the country this season until we learn to shed blocks and trust defensive reads. Our offense is going to run into issues until it finds a consistent running game and one of our QBs continues to grow. Our special teams can't take anything for granted because they're one bad angle away from being embarrassed on Sports Center.

Let's move on to Washington State. Please. For the sake of everyone involves.

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Quarter 1 Report Card: Defense

We continue handing out 1st quarter grades just as the Bears get ready to start conference play.

Anyone could tell you the defense's marks during Cal's non-conference slate aren't good. They're the kind of grades that have Cal's head coaches and fanbase throwing up their hands and shaking their heads.

Well no use prolonging this any further, let's get onto it.

Defensive Line: D
For the second year in a row, Cal's heralded defensive line has been a massive disappointment. You can really look at the issues at defensive tackle and defensive end in separate categories simply because the sources of the issues are a bit different, though the symptoms appear to be idential.

In the interior, starters Deandre Coleman and Villiami Moala were expected to do amazing things in their Cal careers. Consensus 4 and 5 star players respectively by numerous scouting sources, both players had the high school resume and sheer physical tools to develop into dominant interior linemen at both the collegiate and professional levels.

Their play so far has been underwhelming.

While both are active and physically impressive players, neither have been able to put it together to become disruptive tackles for the Bears. They rarely force double teams, and though they keep their blockers engaged, have shown little presence in the backfield. They've shown a decent job of pushing back blockers, and have been decent in clogging up running lanes, but have almost nothing to show for it statistically. The two have combined for just two tackles for a loss all season with no sacks.

At the defensive end position, Cal's had to scramble a bit due to health. Cal fans eagerly awaited to see Chris McCain and Brennan Scarlett man the DE positions and wreak havoc in the backfield. McCain has played in just 1.5 games and Scarlett has yet to see the field altogether.

McCain has failed to shed his reputation as an "at times disruptive player, but unable to put it altogether consistently." He still struggles to shed blocks and contain edges, and for all his pass rushing abilities, has failed to notch a single sack, let alone a tackle for a loss.

With McCain and Scarlett's injuries, the result has been former walkon Dan Camporeale and JUCO transfer Kyle Kragen manning the ends, and though both have shown a few glimpses of competent play, both have been nearly invisible in games and on stat sheets. Their issues are a bit different. There have been moments where they've been in position to make the play, only to simply get beat--either by a lack of speed to get there in time to make a play, or an inability to shed a blocker.

Now, I have a very strong suspicion that the defensive line is coached to be gap sound and maintain clear tackle lanes for the linebackers, but there's also a good chance that it just looks this way simply because the defensive line simply looks like it stays in place play after play. The line hasn't been disruptive, nor has it really taken away blockers for anyone. They've just kind of been...there.

Cal's worst defenses in years past have been characterized by poor line play, and it's no different here. Coach Buh has sent very little in terms of pressure and blitzing this season, but the players have still struggled to generate any type of pocket disruption or pressure even when sending four. It's been at the least perplexing and often maddening.

Linebackers: F
I didn't realize how poor linebacker play had been until I went back and rewatched the games during the bye week. I initially thought that poor play in the trenches and blown assignments by the secondary were all to blame for Cal's awful play on defense.

But the linebacking play made me sit up at times.

For the most parts, Cal's linebackers look absolutely confused out there. The fact that sophomore Jalen Jefferson with his career 7 starts heading into the season, is the most veteran linebacker on the field has made itself ridiculous evident.

Cal's LBs have consistently been out of place, whether it's struggling to read the zone option or recognizing pass plays in time.

But what's been most frustrating is that when they do manage to recognize the play, they're absolutely getting manhandled by blockers. They're really getting taken out of the play all too easily. Part of that is an inability to shed blocks, though a lot of it has to do with their lack of experience in seeing plays develop and knowing where the blockers are going to be coming from ahead of time. By the time they know it's a stretch run for example, they show little ability to weave through blockers, often being pancaked or taken out of the picture entirely.

Also, I can't even really talk about their pass rushing abilities, because Coach Buh has dialed up so few blitz packages this season.

Now, I don't think our backers are bad. I actually think they're quite talented. I just think they're young and it simply is taking them awhile to get caught up to the speed of collegiate play.

Missing Nick Forbes and Nathan Broussard has been really critical. I think we expected a bit too much out of Jalen Jefferson (who made just his 10th start of his young career), Khairi Fortt (who's coming off a year of injury and rehab), Michael Barton and Hardy Nickerson (both redshirt freshmen). I don't know. I knew there would be growing pains with a young linebacking corps, but I didn't think it'd be this bad.

Secondary: D-
Here's what we know about the secondary:

1) Kameron Jackson is our best corner by far, and it isn't close. In fact, Cal's inability to find a solid corner on the other (left) side of the field has all but destroyed the confidence of Cal's secondary.

Stefan McClure has been up and down in his return his shredded ACL injury, and when the coaches have shifted him over to the nickel position in those packages, walkon Isaac Lapite has been picked on mightily by opposing passing attacks. Scratch that, Portland State picked on McClure when he manned that side of the field as well.

Like I said, Jackson is solid, though he isn't a finished product by any means. But a competent and confident corner looks like an all-conference player on this team right now.

2) Missing Avery Sebastian might have been the biggest injury blow to this defense. I'm not saying Sebastian was necessarily the best player of this defense, but the lack of his presence is most felt right now.

Consider this, Sebastian had 12 tackles before going down this season. What's the big deal? He had those tackles in the first half against Northwestern. Along with an interception.

Once Michael Lowe missed time, we found we were down to Alex Logan and redshirt freshman Demariay Drew. Logan, God bless him, has looked just lost at times, while physically outmatched at others. Drew has looked decent filling in for Sebastian, but has had his share of missed tackles and blown assignments (see Ohio State).

Things got so bad that true freshman Cameron Walker made the switch from CB to safety just 4 days before the Ohio State game, while Joel Willis who had been converted from DB to WR, converted back to DB early on in the season.

The good news is that Walker and Willis actually looked like they had some potential out there. There are some technical things they can improve upon, but I found myself shrugging and saying, "Not bad, not bad at all," during the Ohio State game.

Michael Lowe should be healthy and returning soon, and though he hasn't been a star playmaker for the Bears, we absolutely need anyone with experience right now manning the backfield.

3) This secondary is going to just have to ride the pain train this year. Unless Cal finds a pass rush, they're going to have their hands full against opposing offenses. So far the result has been one of the worst passing defenses in the country. The Bears are currently ranked 11th in yards per game allowed at (294.3) and 109th in opposing QB ratings.

In other words, opposing QBs look like Heisman contenders against us.

Overall Defense Grade (not an average): F I hate doing this because no part of it feels good, but there's no way to sugarcoat it. After 3 games, the Bears might just have the worst defense in the country.

Cal is 120th in scoring defense, surrendering 42 points per game. The only teams to give up more? Idaho, Buffalo, FIU, and New Mexico State. Even UNLV is giving up fewer points than us. UNLV PEOPLE.

Scarier numbers: Cal's giving up 556.3 yards per game. Only Buffalo and New Mexico State have been worse in the country in this category.

I'm not going to even bring up the strength of schedule excuse, because one look at Cal's performance in these games and you know your argument is shot.

So who's the blame? I'm going to save some of my thoughts for a later post on defensive coordinator Andy Buh, because I think he merits a separate post.

I will say that I don't think it's entirely a schematic issue. On most big plays I've seen the Bears give up, it hasn't really been a matter of bad scheme. Players are for the most part in position to make plays. They simply aren't.

And that leads me to the next point. I'm not blaming the players, but you can't deny that they are getting abused out there. They look lost, confused, are reacting way too late, and seemingly forgetting their instincts and technique out there.

That ultimately falls on coaching. The coaches need to do a better job of improving their technique, and need to do a better job of preparing them of their assignments. For Cal to be genuinely surprised by Portland State's lack of the zone read is not an excuse that can fly. You can't get outcoached by an FCS squad. Not when you make half a million dollars a year.

With all that said about the lack of player execution, the Bears are not going to survive in this league if they can't generate a pass rush. I've been appalled by the lack of blitzes this year, and I'm not even saying you have to get blitz happy like Clancy Pendergast. But it looks as if the Bears just send 3-4 on 90% of the plays. Sure they may feint blitzes presnap, but opposing offenses can toy with defenses when they know they're only going to need to fend off 4 pass rushers, who by the way, are struggling to do anything anyway.

Anyway, I can sum it up with, "We suck, and barring amazing coaching in the near future or miraculous recoveries, are going to continue to suck." Am I going to be cheering and rooting for such progress? Absolutely. But the first three games make me think more along the lines of, "Let's just try to suck a little less."

Gawd, please get better Cal defense. Please.

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1st Quarter Report Card: Offense

Holy moly, we're already a quarter into the college football season! Well, technically we're only 3 weeks into a 13 week season, but the Bears have already played a fourth of their games, so I'm marking this as the end of the first grading period.

Heading into the season, I had probably more interest and curiosity about this team than I've had about a Cal squad in a long, long time. I simply didn't know what we were going to get.

And after three games, a few things are obvious: this is a young football team that's learning on the go. For whatever expectations you had about this team, you can't deny that a lot of these players are playing their most extended, significant minutes in their young careers. The result has been a 1-2 start: including a (mostly) close loss to 18th ranked Northwestern, a way too-tight win over FCS Portland State, and a "was not close at all, then kinda close for a little bit, before being a not so close again" loss to 4th ranked Ohio State.

We'll get to defense later, only because I can't stomach writing that out today). Let's start with the offense.

Quarterback: B+
This is a difficult to evaluate since you can't ignore the fact that we're talking about a true freshman here. In this regard, I find myself sometimes being too lenient on him, and sometimes perhaps giving him more credit than he deserves. The whole, "But he's great for a freshman!" type of deal.

But looking back Jared Goff's play, you can't help but not be impressed with his him, true freshman or not. By the end of the Northwestern game, it was easy to see what made Sonny Dykes and Tony Franklin name Goff the starter over two upperclassmen.

Goff has shown all the qualities you'd want in a quarterback running their type of offense: he's been (mostly) smart with the football, has shown good to great accuracy, decent pocket awareness, and has a quick release.

On top of that, he's been seemingly unflappable. He's gone up against some of the top defenses in the country in his first three games, and has shown an ability to bounce back from mistakes and turnovers. Granted, he hasn't played in any away games yet, but I've still yet to get a sense that he's ever truly been rattled.

The result has been the true freshman leading the nation in passing yards. In just three games, Goff has thrown for 1301 yards, completing 61.1% of his passes for 7 TDs and 4 interceptions.

I'm trying to evaluate his quarterback play objectively, and for the most part, it's clear he's the least of our concerns. Areas for improvement? You want to see him read the defenses a bit better. Two of his interceptions this season have come on misfires on deep vertical routes to Chris Harper. Both times, he's failed to take into account the safety playing deep on those plays.

Ywant to see Goff continue to improve in reading coverage both presnap and during plays. It's been encouraging to see him go through his progressions and pull the ball down when nothing's there, and already, he's seeing the field a lot faster than Cal's previous starting QBs. But that's not to say it can't get a whole lot better.

Secondly, he could be a bit smarter with the ball. Though 2 of Goff's interceptions haven't been on him, there have been more than a handful of interceptions this season that have been thrown right into the hands of stone-clawed defenders. His interception number could easily be as much or more than his TD total.

Runningback: C-
This is probably the most disappointing unit on offense right now, thought not necessarily the worst. I had really high hopes for Cal's backfield this season, only to be underwhelmed thus far.

Through 3 games, not a single rusher has reached the century mark in a game, and Cal's backfield has combined for just 356 yards (119 ypg), which is good for 99th in the country. On top of that, we've had just 2 rushing TDs by a runningback this season.

Naturally, the offensive line play has been a big factor which we'll get to in a bit, but the runningbacks are not without fault here.

And you can't have this conversation without mentioning Brendan Bigelow's disappointing start to the season. Bigelow started this season with a bang, ripping off huge yardage on the first drive against Northwestern. Since then? He's been incredibly underwhelming. We've failed to see the type of burst and open field vision that we had hoped for from Bigelow, who last season looked simply unstoppable at times in his limited role.

Bigelow is currently averaging less than 4 yards a carry right now and has failed to reach the endzone at all this season. Again, has the o-line been a factor? Of course. But his vision and ability to break through arm tackles simply isn't there right now.

True freshman Khalfani Muhammad has at times, looked superb for a true freshman, and I'll go as far to say that he's had spurts where he's been the best runningback in the rotation. He runs much harder than I thought he would, and has had a few times in which he's shown his world class speed. He's still learning on the job however, and replays will show multiple instances in which he could have broken off much longer runs had he just made a different decision here and there on certain plays.

Daniel Lasco has been the question mark, as he missed out against Portland State completely. He didn't come into the Ohio State game until much later when the score was already decided. Still he looked great against the Buckeyes, and ended up leading the Bears in rushing and scored the only rushing TD by a runningback.

At this point, I've got to think that Lasco might deserve first snaps as he's likely our best RB to hit the holes in between tackles. I think the Bears are going to continue to find ways to get Bigelow into space, and become a bigger factor in the passing game, as he simply isn't getting it done on the ground in the trenches right now. And keep plugging Muhammad in as this kid's getting better and better with each game.

Offensive Line: C
This grade might seem a bit surprising given that the unit has already surrendered a whopping 12 sacks on the season and is only averaging 118.67 yards per game on the ground.

But after watching game tape and focusing on offensive line play, it honestly isn't as bad as some are making it out to be. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that the offensive line play has steadily improved over the last three games.

Go back and watch the tape against OSU. We're not witnessing a complete breakdown by the offensive line. It's usually one missed block here and there. The sack on Goff which led to the fumble was LT Freddie Tagaloa simply not getting wide enough against the speed pass rusher. Negative rushing plays were the result of a pulling guard not quite getting to their gap in time to completely block out a defender. We're talking about individual players making mistakes and whiffing on specific plays.

Now I know it'll appear as if the pocket is collapsing constantly on Goff. But remember Cal's vertical blocking scheme, which they've used more so this year than they did at Louisiana Tech because of sheer amount of passing they've been doing early on in the season. The offensive line is meant to backpedal quickly, and are counting on a quick release and smart pocket work by their quarterback. For the most part, Goff has been extraordinary in this, but there have been a few times when Goff has held on to the ball a second or two longer than he should.

The point is, while I think o-line hasn't been fantastic, I have noticed a steady increase in their play. When you've got a line starting two freshmen two sophomores, and a junior making a position change, you're going to see some growing pains early on. But I feel ever so slightly less anxious about this unit today than I did at the beginning of the season.

Wide Receiver: A-
Cal's wide receiving corps is easily the best unit on offense, and might be the most talented, deepest unit on the entire team.

The #BearRaid offense, combined with competency at quarterback and fantastic talent at the receiver position has led to some of the best receiving numbers in...well perhaps ever. As it stands, Cal's on pace of crushing every receiving record by the end of the season.

It starts with what might be the best receiving duo in the country in X receiver Bryce Treggs and Z receiver Chris Harper. In just three games, they've caught a combined 49 passes for 644 yards and 4 TDs.

For some context, last year Keenan Allen didn't top the 300 yard receiving mark until the 5th game of the season. Both Treggs and Harper have done it in just 3. Well 2 and a half games for Harper actually.

But it doesn't stop there. The Bears have been fortunate to have considerable depth and health at both the Y and H receiver positions in Jackson Bouza and Richard Rodgers, who have contributed a combined 214 yards and 2 TDs themselves.

And the depth at the receiver position has made itself evident, with Maurice Harris, Kenny Lawler, Darius Powe, Stephen Anderson and James Grisom all taking turns making critical and at times, highlight grabs.

So the production at the receiver position has been nothing short of fantastic.

Areas of improvement? The clear answer is downfield blocking. Cal's receivers have struggled to maintain blocks long enough for Cal's backs to break open long runs, but I've seen a lot of improvement in just the past two games. Short of Richard Rodgers, Cal hasn't had a physically dominant receiver as a blocker this year, but again, the season is still young.

Also, Cal's had a few critical drops early in the season, most notably one that was returned for a defensive score against Northwestern. But there have been a few other drops, especially in the endzone, that could have given the Bears some additional, and much needed points. I do think this is also getting better, as I think I only counted one drop against Ohio State, but I could be wrong.

Again, like quarterback, you can't complain too much about the play at wide receiver. I've been really pleased with the corps. A few more downfield blocks and more consistency might result in one of the best receiving units in the country.

Overall Offense Grade (not an average): B
Yes, the issues are apparent. The Bears are on track of having their weakest rushing output in years, and they've continued to struggle in the redzone. For all the hoopla about Cal's BearRaid offense, we're still only averaging 33.7 points per game. That's good, but far from being mind-blowingly good.

However, according to Football Scoop, we're on track to having the fastest offense in the history of college football. Their research shows that we're averaging a staggering 95 snaps per game (94.66 actually), averaging 6 yards per play. Of course, a lot could change between now and the end of the season, but so far the results are promising.

I mean, take all the factors into account. So far, the Bears have faced off against the #18 and #4 teams in the country in Northwestern and Ohio State respectively, and have still put up over 30 points in each of those games. They're doing this in their first three games in a brand new system, with three new starters on the offensive line, and oh yeah, a true freshman quarterback.

While everything isn't perfect now, I can't see how you wouldn't be at the very least optimistic about the future.

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