Pac-12 Roundup: Week 9

Holy smokes I sucked it up this week. Went 2-4 this week. The only games I correctly predicted were Oregon and Stanford's wins and seriously, even a Stanford grad could have predicted those. So I present my Pac-12 Roundup without any level of pride. I've fallen to 42-23 on the season.

Washington 20 Oregon State 17
Washington showed some toughness after all. Though they were aided by Mike Riley's decision to go with QB Sean Mannion who was coming off knee surgery. The sophomore gunslinger tossed four interceptions as the Beavers offense struggled to get anything going. Cody Vaz came in only to drive the Beavers down the field and throw a TD toss on his first and only drive.

Do I smell a QB controversy brewing?

Washington gets their second win over a ranked team at home this season, which hopefully means they'll go and lay an egg against a lesser team the following week. And who do they play next? The Bears?

USC 36 Arizona 39
I wouldn't quite label it a "shocker" but the Wildcats certainly pulled off the upset and the win this 'Zona team needed in knocking off 9th ranked USC. USC's defense had been playing pretty well this season, but fell apart in the second half, giving up 26 points as the Trojans could only help but watch their national championship, and likely BCS bowl dreams wash down the drain. Honestly, do you see this Trojan team beating Oregon twice? Heck, I'm not sure they even beat Notre Dame.

It's shocking to think a team with such NFL talent will end up in Sun Bowl.

The more I watch Matt Barkley, the more I'm convinced this guy is closer to Jimmy Clausen than he is to Andrew Luck. The guy will have an NFL career sure, but I just don't see a can't miss NFL prospect here.

Conversely, I'm already drafting Marqise Lee for my 2014 NFL Fantasy Football League. Simply phenomenal. 16 catches for 345 yards and two scores. He's topped 1100 receiving yards just 8 games into the season. Just a man amongst boys out there.

Arizona State 43 UCLA 45
Both Arizona teams hosted some pretty entertaining games on Saturday, though Todd Graham's Sun Devil squad wasn't nearly as lucky. In a much higher scoring contest than anticipated, ASU's Taylor Kelly hit DJ Foster with a little more than minute left to go to put the Sun Devils up 43-42. It looked like a gut-wrenching loss for the Bruins only for Brett Hundley to drive the team into FG range. Ka'imi Fairbairn (no idea how that's pronounced) hit the 33 yard-game winner as time expired.

Suddenly the Pac-12 South is veeeerrrry interesting with USC, UCLA, and ASU all tried at 2 conference losses. Plus, USC still plays UCLA and ASU, so things are wide open in the South. Who you putting money on to get pounded by the Ducks in the conference championship game? #Pac-12North>>>>

Oregon 70 Colorado 14
So I'll admit, I only watched about 3 minutes of this game and watched Oregon score about 2 touchdowns in that time. I sneezed and the score ballooned to 42-0 in the first half. Needless to say I then changed the channel.

So forgive me if I don't have much else to say about this one. Oh except this, did anyone else watch DeAnthony Thomas' punt return? Sweet jeebus.


(Starts at the 0:40 mark)

Stanford 24 Washington State 17
What a snoozer until the last few minutes. Stanford put them up 24-10 after safety Ed Reynolds returned an interception off Jeff Tuel for a score. The Cougars then pulled it to within a score and converted a miraculous pass on 4th and 21 to give them the ball inside Stanford's 10 yard line with about 45 seconds to go. The end result? Typical Cougar drama.

Here are the next two plays according to the official box score:

1st and Goal at STAN 9 Jeff Tuel sacked by Usua Amanam for a loss of 9 yards to the Stanf 19, WASHINGTON ST penalty 0 yard Intentional Grounding accepted.
2nd and Goal at STAN 19 Jeff Tuel sacked by Henry Anderson for a loss of 9 yards to the Stanf 28.

Yep, an intentional grounding penalty and a sack to end the game. 'Cougin it!

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Utah Recap

I don't think there would have been much shame had the Bears gone out to Salt Lake City, competed hard and ended up losing a close one to the Utes like many had predicted. Despite Utah's record, they're not a terrible team. They've got a solid defense and one of the better coaches in college football. Not saying I would have been happy with the outcome, but I wouldn't see much shame in it.

But what transpired on Saturday was one of the more embarrassing performances in recent history, and that's saying something for the Bears. Don't let the final score fool you, the Bears were down 42-6 in the third quarter before falling eventually 49-27. This was a complete and utter breakdown in all three phases of the game.

Blowouts are troubling enough, but getting blown out to Utah is a whole other story. I'm struggling to find the adjective to accurately describe the Bears' game on Saturday. "Uneven" is too kind while "pathetic" is perhaps a bit insulting.

If I had to reach back into my SAT vocab list, I'd probably have to go with "moribund."

Webster's Dictionary defines "moribund" as:

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Cal showed all the signs of a team that's just done. Sure the coach and team will say in their press conference that they're not quitting, and I wouldn't expect them to. I'm not even saying the team has quit. But anyone who watched the game can't say this isn't a team that beat up team mentally and physically.

Let's get into the details. I mean what else do you have to do today, right?

Offense Self-Destructs
The offense was so tough to watch on Saturday. The Bears were undone by three turnovers. The first a Chris Harper fumble on screen pass that was recovered and returned for a score. The second an interception off a tipped pass to Keenan Allen. The third was a Maynard fumble after he had it knocked loose on a QB keeper. Maynard also had another fumble that he miraculously recovered for a POSITIVE gain.

The turnovers in and of themselves weren't really maddening though. It'd be frustrating to watch turnover after turnover if you were expecting great things only to have a turnover yank the rug out underneath you. No, what's really sad is that you could feel the turnovers coming a mile away. It was just that type of day for Cal's offense.

Cal's offensive line continued to struggle, giving up 3 sacks in the first quarter. They would only give up one more the rest of the game, but still struggled to buy Maynard consistent time in the pocket, and only look ok after Utah called off the dogs and showed some restraint in sending blitzes.

Though they outgained Utah's offense 441 to 344 in yardage, most of those yards came when the outcome was no longer in question. It was simply a sloppy, head-shaking performance.

Where's Bigelow
Remember those Where's Waldo books? That's how I feel watching Cal's offense, and much like I did once I got to the part of the book where Waldo's in Europe, I just throw the book down in disgust because he's NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.

Such is the perplexing underuse of Brendan Bigelow. I give up trying to figure this one out. No one's buying the "he doesn't know the playbook well enough" excuse anymore. I've never once clamored to see Bigelow as an every down back because he is indeed far behind both Isi Sofele and CJ Anderson in terms of pass protection. But it's evident to everyone and anyone that next to Keenan Allen, he's probably the best playmaker the Bears have and most certainly needs to get more than 3 touches a game.

This is a player who showed off another jaw-dropping 57 yard TD run on his FIRST CARRY! But that carry didn't come until the very last play of the third quarter. Bigelow finished with just two carries for 66 yards and a 6 yard catch. And anyone who watched the catch know that those 6 yards came out of absolutely nothing.

He's currently averaging 12.7 yards per carry and 13.8 yards per catch. Why the coaches refuse to get him more involved in the offense is beyond me. It'd be like ASU leaving DJ Foster on the sideline or the Ducks keeping DeAnthony Thomas on kickoff returns and on the stationary bicycle on the sidelines. Again, I'm done trying to crack this puzzle.

Defensive Worn Out
So I'm not going to make excuses for the defense, but it's worth noting that this entire defensive unit is incredibly banged up. The Bears were without 3 of their starting linebackers, and were also missing some key reserves at the defensive line, and lost starting CB Marc Anthony again in the middle of the game.

It also didn't help that Utah's average starting field position was from their own 33.5 yard line and that the defense was visibly worn out from Cal's offense being unable to sustain any drives in the first three quarters.

And it's most certainly worth noting that the defense only surrendered 4 of Utah's 7 touchdowns. So they certainly had the deck stacked against them. It's tough for very good defenses to hold teams under those circumstances.

Here's the problem. Cal doesn't have a very good defense right now. And it's tough to watch given how much promise and talent there is on this roster. But this defense showed all the signs of being beat up and sloppy.

The sloppiness was evident in the number of missed tackles which I couldn't begin to count. And they were costly missed tackles too, ones that sustained drives and kept them on the field.

It was seen in Josh Hill doing a dance after a pass breakup when the team was down 28-6. Oh, and the Utes went on to score on that drive. This is a guy who's a captain, and the leader of a defense. I know he's fired up to make a play, but it doesn't sit right that a defensive captain is acting jolly while his team is down 22 points. It seems to me it'd make more sense for the captain to grab a teammate who's doing that by the face mask and tell him to knock that off and get ready for the next play.

But more than just the sloppy play was the clear evidence that the Bears just got manhandled up front. There was no consistent pressure on Travis Wilson who managed just 156 yards through the air but helped Utah convert 8 of their 13 3rd down attempts.

I said in my Keys to the Game that Cal would certainly lose if they allowed 4 yards per carry. This was a Utah rushing attack that was averaging just 2.87 ypc on the year. Saturday? They gave up 4.2 ypc, and 4.7 ypc to both Jon White IV and Kelvin York respectively. Not terrible numbers, but against a one-dimensional offense like Utah's, that's an absolute back breaker.

Special Teams Breakdown
So as much as we hate on Cal special teams, they hadn't actually given up a kickoff return for a score since 2008.

They more than made up for it by allowing two 100 yard returns to Reggie Dunn. And this wasn't a case of Dunn simply being more athletic than the return team. It was rather some of the poorest angles from a coverage unit as I've seen in a while. Some players were simply lackadaisical out there. Falling asleep once on coverage is one thing, but letting it happen to you twice? TWICE?!

And that's all I got to say about that.

Allen-Record Setting
In an ironically quiet fashion, Keenan Allen eclipsed Geoff MacArthur's record and will finish his career as Cal's all time leading receiver in receptions. Hats off to him and it's been really fun to watch him play. I still have to say that Geoff MacArthur is my favorite Cal WR of all time (dude was a warrior), but there's no denying Allen's talent and ability. Congrats to him. I really wish I were happier about this, but it's hard when your team just got bitchsmacked in Utah.

Moving Forward
I'm still pulling for this team, but I must say they're making it increasingly difficult for me to have fun while doing so! I still want Cal to win every game and will continue to support the players who go out there and lay it out on the field. They do a hell of a lot more for this program than many faux-armchair quarterbacks sitting in the stands.

I already said last week I wouldn't continue to harp on any coaching changes in the middle of the season. It's repetitive, it's pointless right now and frankly, it doesn't make me feel any better.

Instead, our attention turns to a short week before the Bears facing Washington. It's a completely different type of seasons that fans had hoped for heading into this matchup, but it is what it is.

Play hard in the now and continue to build for the future. Go Bears.

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Cal Washington Tickets for Sale

No, this has nothing to do with tonight's game outcome. Believe it or not, I try to make every Cal game I can, despite the Bears' record.

I won't be able to make this Friday's game due to a scheduling conflict, so I'm pretty despondent to have to try and sell my tickets.

The tickets are in Section U, Row 33. You can refer to my writeup on acquiring my seats here for a seating map and Cal's virtual view from my seats.

They're actually pretty fantastic seats.

Use the "Contact Me" link on the bottom right side of my page to send me an email with questions or requests.

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Keys to the Game: Utah

(Travis Wilson likes long walks on the beach, 3-and-outs, and awkward smiles)

Nothing helps a team's psyche like facing a pushover team to take out one's frustrations after a disappointing, physically exhausting game against your rival.

Too bad the Bears are facing Utah. Despite the Utes' 2-5 record they still feature one of the more physically sound defenses in the conference. And the Bears play at Rice-Eccles stadium at night in front of a crowd known for being particularly hostile.

Ruh-roh.

But despite the disappointing feelings coming out of last week's loss, I still stated that a win at Utah is still within grasp. Cal isn't close to the team we had expected them to be before the season, but quite frankly neither are the Utes. The Utes' have shown offensive ineptitude due to a carousel at QB and an offensive line that has seen its share of struggles. The team has gone through a pretty brutal conference gauntlet, and has no wins to show for them. They're essentially playing for their season at this point, as a loss on Saturday would all but eliminate them from bowl contention.

In other words, they're pretty similar to Cal.

Let's get to the keys to the game.

Keep 'Em Under 3
Utah's offensive identity the past few years has been a running game that wears down opposing defenses and allows their quarterbacks to manage the game. They've been a physical team with the ability to go toe to toe with most teams in the trenches. Unfortunately for the Utes, that hasn't been the case this year with Utah averaging just 2.87 yards per carry and just 4 rushing touchdowns all year. That's good for just 113th in the nation.

Utah's offensive line is struggling right now to create running lanes for Jon White the 4th. After rushing for over 1500 yards and 15 TDs last year, he's managed less than a third of those numbers (413 yards) with just 1 rushing TD. He's averaging less than 3.79 yards per carry. Talk about a setback.

Utah's backup RB Kelvin York is faring a bit better at 5 yards per carry, but unless Utah's offensive gameplan radically changes this week, it should be more of the same on the ground.

White hasn't been completely healthy this year, but the overall rushing numbers are more likely the result of a consistently overmatched offensive line that is struggling against defenses that are stacking the box and daring Utah's underperforming QBs to beat them through the air.

The Bears have struggled against the run this year, but I'm liking our chances against Utah. This hasn't been a dominant rushing attack, and the Utes aren't well balanced enough on offense to keep opposing defenses honest. This is an offense that's likely to try and run the ball at least 35 to 40 times a game. Cal needs to get some of its swagger back in rushing defense and keep Utah to under 3 yards per carry on their 1st and 2nd down attempts. It'll help if Cal's offense can sustain some drives and keep their defense fresh, but plain and simple, if Cal's defense lets Utah start averaging 4 yards a carry, the Bears are screwed on D. Cal's got to play with good gap integrity, their linebackers need to play with their eyes and read blocking lanes, and finish tackles. Remember, keep 'em under 3.

Freeze Wilson
The Utes expect more from freshman QB Travis Wilson who is making just his third career start. Wilson's a big-bodied QB, who moves well for his 6'6 frame, but isn't as effective of a runner as the Utes would have hoped. And while he's compeleting over 60% of his passes, he's managed just 1 touchdown to three interceptions in his two starts. It doesn't help that his starting wide receivers haven't been able to consistently get open in tight coverage, which can be paralyzing for quarterbacks who still aren't used to speed of the college level. This isn't a knock on Wilson, but he simply doesn't have the experience yet to move quickly and decisively enough through his reads.

What's encouraging for the Utes though, is that Wilson has looked more and more decisive in each game. The fact still remains that the Bears are still facing a freshman quarterbacking make just his third career start. And as is the case when facing any new starting quarterback, the goal is to get as much pressure on him as possible. Every time.

It all starts with limiting yardage on first and second down like I mentioned before, but I'm confident the Bears pull out the win if they put the game on Wilson's arm. Utah's going to want to put Wilson in manageable passing situations and give him easy completions early on which shakes out to a lot of quick hitches, screens and outs.

The Bears need to jam Utah's receivers at the line of scrimmage and play with good enough coverage to take away those quickly early looks, and force Wilson to rush through his secondary and third reads. If the Bears can take away that first or second look, Wilson hasn't shown the patience or ability to create plays. Cal's defensive line has struggled to get consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks, but they've done a pretty job of at least being disruptive and can most certainly get in the backfield if the Bears don't allow immediate, short throws.

And for those of you keeping track at home, it's exactly the same type of scheme an opposing team would use on Zach Maynard.

Take Advantage of Our Athletes
Utah faces a stout defense with one of the better defensive lines we've faced all year. Of course by now, you've heard of sure-fire NFL 1st rounder Star Lotulelei who's been about as good of a defensive tackle as I've seen in a while. He doesn't post the gaudiest numbers with just 2 sacks, and 7 TFLs, but he's sure as heck disruptive. He's constantly blowing up lines and is frankly a player you design plays away from.

If the Bears employ a method of trying to run right into their defensive front, you're going to see more or less the same offensive issues you saw last week. Now keep in mind, Utah's defense isn't nearly as good as Stanford's, but these guys are no pushovers up front.

I've said all year that Utah's weakness on defense has been their lack of speed on the perimeter, and if you look at Cal's offensive skill players against Utah's defense, it certainly appears we have the advantage in terms of athleticism. The Bears have got to exploit this.

This doesn't mean Cal needs to live or die by the quick screens, but they do need to continue to find ways to get their playmakers in space on end arounds, stretches, and tosses. Get them into outside.

I'm not thrilled about the idea of placing the game on Zach Maynard's shoulders, but the Bears are going to be hardpressed running into Utah's manwall up front. Cal has a prime opportunity to exploit a Utah secondary that has struggled to make plays (just two inteceptions this year) and have shown to be torched by some competent passing attacks.

Outlook
I'm pretty beat up about this season, but not enough to think that we don't have a real shot on this one. Other than the USC game (and we always struggle against USC whether its on the road or not), I actually think we've handled road adversity pretty well this season.

I'm not too worried about the team looking wide-eyed, but I have my questions as to whether we can stop Travis Wilson from having his coming-out party and whether our offense can get back to utilizing its playmakers.

For as much as I wonder about Cal, I'm cautiously optimistic that the Bears can hold on in a close, defensive-mind (or offensivelly inept) low-scoring game.

Cal 20 Utah 14

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Pac-12 Week 9 Predictions

Longingly looking at other team's schedules that include an actual bye week. Sigh.

I'm 40-19 with my picks this season, but more importantly, I'm 8-2 over the last two weeks. AYOOB!

Colorado (1-5, 1-3) at No. 4 Oregon (7-0, 4-0)
Insert Colorado joke here. I mean what can you say about this one? Oregon's pissed that it fell in the BCS standings AFTER it dismantled a 5-1 ASU squad. Colorado is looking to do all it can to not be considered the conference's bottom feeder.

Don't expect much to change this week.

Oregon 63 Colorado 10

UCLA (5-2, 2-2) at Arizona State (5-2, 3-1)
Now this should be a fun one to watch. Two different spread attacks with solid defenses face off with the winner still in the race for the Pac-12 South title. I'm liking ASU a bit more, especially with the news that defensive lineman Will Sutton should be back. UCLA also hasn't been nearly as sharp on the road as they've been at home, which spells bad things with them playing in Tempe.

ASU 35 UCLA 24

No. 9 USC (6-1, 4-1) at Arizona (4-3, 1-3)
The Wildcats broke their three game losing streak with a dominant performance over Washington. This offense will be able to score on any team not named Oregon. The problem is their defense which will have its hands with the bevy of playmakers on the Trojan squad.

And I don't think enough people are realizing that USC's defense has quietly emerged as one of the best defenses in the country.

USC 38 Arizona 24

Washington State (2-5, 0-4) at No. 17 Stanford (5-2, 3-1)
Some people are suggesting that Washington State could give the Cardinal fits because their spread attack presents similar challenges that Stanford faced against Arizona. Not buying it. Arizona's offense is infinitely more potent than what Mike Leach's squad has going on right now, and the game is at Palo Alto in what's bound to be a raucous crowd of 8,000 or so.

Stanford 31 Washington State 13

No. 7 Oregon State (6-0, 4-0) at Washington (3-4, 1-3)
Bob Canzano from the Oregon Live calls Washington the "softest, least resilitent team in the conference." Ouch. It's just one man's opinion, but you'll have a hard time disputing it if the Huskies fall again to the seventh ranked Beavers. I don't think it won't be as easy as showing up, but OSU is firing on all cylinders right now and the Huskies are desperately looking for answers on offense other than having Keith Price running for his life before throwing a desperation throw.

Thinking Washington puts up a fight, but having a hard time seeing the Huskies pull out this one.

Oregon State 24 Washington 17
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