Searching For The Positives In A Haystack Of Negativity
by ragnarok on Sep 28, 2009 12:00 PM PDT
in California Golden Bears Football
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PrintI've had a lot of negative thoughts regarding the Cal Bears since Saturday's 42-3 debacle in Autzen Stadium. My guess is, so has everyone else with at least a slight rooting interest in our Bears. It would be only too easy to start listing off the things that went wrong on Saturday, but I'm not going to do that. Frankly, I don't see the point. I don't want to go back and watch the game again, and I'll leave it to the players and coaches to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Moreover, pointing out mistakes is like finding corn in Iowa -- it's an exhaustive effort that, frankly, isn't even that interesting.
Nothing?! We didn't hit anything?!? This zapper must be broken; we should get a new one. - Image via i154.photobucket.com
So, instead, I'll list whatever positives I can identify from last weekend's game. Because I'm a positive person. And five days from now, we get USC in our house. I'm not ready to give up on this year yet; there plenty of season left to play, and the Pac-10 title still VERY much up-for-grabs.
- First off, it's only one loss. A disenheartening, bubble-bursting loss, perhaps, but still just one mark in the loss column. I can't think of many people who thought the Bears would run through the Pac-10 unscathed, and I certainly didn't count myself among them. Moreover, the loss didn't come against USC, who still looks vulnerable, and the Bears get the Trojans at home this year. Perhaps this loss came at the perfect time -- resetting the focus for the Bears while allowing USC to relax some heading up to Berkeley.
- The kicking game looked a lot better than it has all season. Vince D'Amato only kicked off twice, but one went in the end zone, and while the other only made it to the 9, it was well covered, and the Ducks would have started inside their 25 had they not fumbled it away instead. And that 47-yard field goal D'Amato nailed looked good! I haven't seen that out of the Bears much in years. The 43-yarder that missed didn't miss wide by much, and the form and distance looked good.
- The Riley-Best fumbled snap was the offense's first -- and so far, only -- turnover of the season. Riley still hasn't thrown an interception yet this year, although he got lucky again this week when an Oregon defensive back dropped a pass thrown right at him.
- Excepting the fumble and a bizarrely terrible 5-yard punt from Bryan Anger, the Bears left the Ducks with mediocre-at-best field position all day, forcing them to drive most of the length of the field to score. 7 of their first 9 possessions began inside their own 30.
Our throwback unis are totally way more awesome than Oregon's. - Image via www.joeroth12.com
- No punches thrown. No flared tempers, no embarrassing clips of bad behaviour shown endlessly on SportsCenter. The personal foul on Verran Tucker was disappointing, however, negating the pass interference call he drew, and leaving the Bears on the Oregon 29 instead of the 14. They were only down 8 at that point, and even if Cal still doesn't score a touchdown, perhaps D'Amato nails a 28-yard field goal instead of missing a 43-yarder, and the Bears get a bit of momentum only down 11-6.
- No major injuries that I'm aware of. At least we have our health.
- The defense wasn't completely awful. Yes, giving up 42 points is bad, but they were given literally no help from the offense. They did manage to stop the Oregon offense from time to time, but not quite consistently enough. Using the success rate formula I talked about a few weeks ago, we find that Oregon was successful on less than half of the plays they ran (42 of 86), which isn't great, but isn't terrible. Allowing Oregon to twice convert 4th and 4 sure didn't help. The defense managed to get Oregon into plenty of 2nd- and 3rd- and long situations; they just couldn't hold them there. I counted 28 plays that the Ducks ran from 2nd and 6 or longer, 3rd and 6 or longer, or 4th down. Of those, the Ducks picked up the first down 15 times, twice drew the Bears offsides to get into a short-yardage situation, and once fumbled, but managed to force the recoverer, Cal's Josh Hill, to fumble himself, resulting in a 16-yard gain for the Ducks. Overall, I counted 33 of 84 non-field goal plays by the Ducks that gained 2 yards or fewer, including 11 that lost yardage. The Bears were in the Ducks' backfield pretty often, but far too often they gave it up on the very next play, often missing a tackle that allowed a medium gain to turn into a big one.
In no way to I mean to suggest that the defense was acceptable on Saturday. However, I do feel that they were only a few plays from being able to keep the score respectable well into the second half, which is more than I can say for the offense.
- We don't have to play any more games in Autzen Stadium this year. I anticipate the Rose Bowl will be much quieter when we play UCLA in a few weeks.
- At least I didn't waste my money and my weekend making the trek to Eugene. I'm sorry to all who did. Perhaps you should expense your trip and get Tedford to write you a refund check.
- Those first three games of the season still happened; they weren't flukes. Jahvid Best is still killer in space, our defense still has the ability to make big plays, and Riley-to-Tucker or Jones still has game-changing potential. I don't know everything that went wrong in Oregon, but I'm strongly convinced that Saturday's performance was as bad as it gets, and in no way a representative example of what to expect going forward. The Bears may not beat down many Pac-10 opponents as soundly as they put away Maryland, but I don't expect them to ever again this year to be as non-competitive at they were in Oregon.
- Finally, for some historical perspective, I'd like to recall the 1999 season, in which the Pac-10 featured a number of good teams, but no great ones. That year, Stanfurd began the season by losing 69-17 at Texas, yet managed to pick themselves up afterwards, eventually earning a Rose Bowl berth. How many of you remembered that? How many Stanfurd fans even remember that? One blowout loss does not define a season.
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well, okay but....
…..Tucker dropping a ball that could have gotten things rolling nicely in the other direction and then yapping in the end zone drawing a foul was embarrassing. I’m truly embarrassed for him. I’m not a fan of yapping much, but I understand it is part of the game. Can we yap after we have accomplished something, though?
by ohsooso on Sep 28, 2009 12:16 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
...and fixed.
Yeah, my comment was supposed to be about Tucker. Take the penalty and walk away, dude. Terrible momentum-buster.
Stupid ESPN play-by-play log had the penalty attributed to Marvin Jones. The error has been corrected.
So, basically, you gotta Go Bears!
Ref’s even called Jones and his number.
by CaliforniaCMB on Sep 28, 2009 1:06 PM PDT up reply actions
Love the optimism Rags, nothing is to come of us just looking at that painful defeat and try and pick apart what went wrong. Looking on the bright side, even though Saturday will hurt for a long time, it will heal rather quickly if we pull it together for USC.
In communist Russia, Sanchez declares YOU!
Of course one loss doesn’t end the season – even it if is a 42-3 whooping – and how the Bears come out against SC will give us a glimpse as to whether the team has completely quit. I’d like to think that like Oregon after BSU and SC after UW, Cal can show the sort of spine to put this behind them and move on.
Oh, and what a courageous effort by you to try and find some positives from this game because those are as rare as coelocanths. But you were definitely reaching here:
The defense wasn’t completely awful.
I disagree. The defense looked worse than awful. They turned Masoli into a weird hybrid of Joe Montana, John Elway, and Joe Namath. And apparently they completely forgot that Oregon would actually field 11 players on the offense, since it was clear nobody was covering Dickson. Even worse, they looked slow. S.L.O.W. Applying your “success rate” template is a nice way of using statistics to salve an open wound, but it is also very misleading (in this case). Too many Oregon receivers were open at every time, and even if Cal managed to place the Ducks in the occasional 2nd or 3rd and long, it didn’t matter as they were able to convert at will – especially when passing. I’m convinced if they were facing a 4th and 73 from their own 5 they’d have been able to score a touchdown.
As much as people are looking at the OL or Ludwig’s playcalling, this loss is on Gregory and the entire defense. Quite possibly the worst defensive game in the last 15 years.
Hopefully, though, this is a hard lesson learned.
On ATQ I'm known as JSoCal Oski
It's spelled J-etc
Vereen's Kickoff Returns
Another positive point was that Shane had kickoff returns to the 49, 44 and 32—our best offensive weapon of the day. Why not allow him to run the ball out of the end zone to help get something going? At least the front of the end zone.
LOL
- At least I didn’t waste my money and my weekend making the trek to Eugene. I’m sorry to all who did. Perhaps you should expense your trip and get Tedford to write you a refund check.
“On the bright side, at least I didn’t go.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happens in California makes the world go round.
Also I think you missed the biggest positive about the entire game up to this point:
It’s Over.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happens in California makes the world go round.
by Spazzy Mcgee on Sep 28, 2009 1:02 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Major Injury Report...
…my heart is broken.
by CaliforniaCMB on Sep 28, 2009 1:07 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs
Motivation for next year!
We have all the more motivation to beat the Ducks next year at home. Chip Kelly taking a timeout with 12 seconds left in the half while Cal is trying to run the clock out? Passing for TDs well after the game is decided? Good ammunition for next year.
Our Band Is Better
This was my first trip to Eugene, so I had never seen the Oregon band before. They were okay. They weren’t offensive like Stanfurd or U$C, but they lacked any zip or snap, or whatever you want to call it. They didn’t really march so much as amble around aimlessly. And they appear to have only a single school song, which they play a couple of times a game, and then forget about.
Seems like I’ve spent the last 30 years saying, “But we have a really good band . . . .”
by CalBear81 on Sep 28, 2009 2:24 PM PDT reply actions 3 recs
Cal Band sounded great. I was disappointed in how our band sounded Saturday. And yes, we only have one fight song. Very different from Cal Band.
It's spelled "T-A-K-O-T-U-E-S-D-A-Y-S-!-!-!."
I support inroywetrust in his support of The VD Special in his support of me supporting Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.
All things considered, I think I would be willing to suffer through a disappointing band performance in exchange for the kind of performance your football team put on.
well yeah.
It's spelled "T-A-K-O-T-U-E-S-D-A-Y-S-!-!-!."
I support inroywetrust in his support of The VD Special in his support of me supporting Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.
- The defense wasn't completely awful.
As much as people are looking at the OL or Ludwig’s playcalling, this loss is on Gregory and the entire defense. Quite possibly the worst defensive game in the last 15 years.
SoCal Oski is 100% correct, rag. We sat in that end zone section of Autzen with the rest of the dedicated Kool-Aid drinkers, and knew our trust in Bob Gregory would prevail, and we knew he would return in the second half with adjustments. We were all confident Gregory would snap out of whatever he had been smoking in his plan to attack a Zone Read Offense with a Soft Zone Defense……and come out now in man-to-man, with corner and safety blitzes. But, no. And, Masoli kept playing sand-lot football, waiting for anyone in the flat to split a zone.
I haven’t reviewed the game….no thanks. Being there at Autzen was enough pain for one week. But I can tell you, Masoli had more time in the 2nd half to decide what to do. No Blitzes,,,,,except for the one…i think it was Bishop, just as Masoli lofted the ball up over the middle to his jumping TE who evaded tackles and ran into the end zone.
This was Gregory’s fault,, then, Ted’s, then, the new OL line coach. But, lemme ask u, rag…..when did you ever see a Tedford team that didn’t adjust at half time?
My applauds to you for trying to steer us off our pity pot…but, for now, and, particularly for those of us who walked the green mile back to the awaiting buses at Autzen, we will express our angst with as many negative hyperboles as we can think of. I may never organize a Cal road trip again. If you want to know who made the trip, look in the stands next Saturday, as the team runs onto the turf. All those not standing and cheering are probably those same fans who got earfuls of “over-rated” BEFORE the more cutting jeers on the way out..
Bear danger
"Running away can activate the bear's hunting instincts and lead to it perceiving the human as prey. Finally, if a bear does attack, the usual advice is to curl into a [[fetal position]] so as to shield vital organs and appear non-threatening."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yeesh. Avi told me before I published this that I’d get nailed on this point.
Look, all I’m saying is that as bad as the defense was, it was (at least the run defense was) only bad in spurts. The offense, on the other hand…ouch. Last year’s Sun Bowl notwithstanding, 3 points ain’t gonna win you ballgames, and those 3 points were basically handed to the Bears. Do you realize the offense didn’t have a single drive all day where they gained more than 2 first downs? How awful is that?
So, basically, you gotta Go Bears!
And another positive
It became a whole lot easier to pick up a couple of tickets for the USC game for my friends yesterday.
Point Plankn!
Other blogs?
Is it ok to plug another blog thread here? My buddy and I put up a Cal-Oregon liveblogging piece (our commentary of the game as it was happening). We like to think that it is funny, but it got more and more difficult to be funny as the game proceeded. Since I’m new here I won’t plug it unless I get the go ahead.
I’m not in charge here, Avinash is, and may his reign remain supreme and total in it’s unwavering majesty, but usually any and all links linked to any and all things that have anything or everything to do with Cal football are totally kosher.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happens in California makes the world go round.
by Spazzy Mcgee on Sep 28, 2009 3:51 PM PDT up reply actions
It’s fine, although I’d suggest doing it in a fanshot unless it’s completely relevant to the post. A fanpost would be okay too, if you have some analysis to offer of your liveblog.
Email: bearsnecessities@gmail.com
by Avinash Kunnath on Sep 28, 2009 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions
I am the President Emperor Warlord Of The Sun and I’ll tell you the general guidelines:
1. If its a basic link, drop it into the DBD (Daily Bear Dump) for links et al. Or put it in a fanshot.
2. If you have some original thought to add, feel free to make your own fanpost.
The Tyrant Boy-King Is Returning!
www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com
You’re currently on trial. You have no power at all.
Email: bearsnecessities@gmail.com
by Avinash Kunnath on Sep 28, 2009 3:55 PM PDT up reply actions
How awful is that?
Yeesh. Avi told me before I published this that I’d get nailed on this point
I just wrote another comment, on the “What’s the Worst” post, where CalBear81 lists a number of terrible losses. ( Stanfurd ’90 was my most miserable experience, till now).
But, in the end, I explained, through all those, I was never this high on Cal Kool Aid. So, the fall was farther, and the concrete harder.
Again, I give you thanks, rags, for finding a door we can try to open. Old Blues, as I mentioned to CalBear81, witness great losses, and still buy season tickets. This loss is part of being a Golden Bear. Our University is like no other in the world, and I will always be proud of the large tatoo on my right shoulder.
Bear danger
"Running away can activate the bear's hunting instincts and lead to it perceiving the human as prey. Finally, if a bear does attack, the usual advice is to curl into a [[fetal position]] so as to shield vital organs and appear non-threatening."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dodger fan
your flame is moot.
It's spelled "T-A-K-O-T-U-E-S-D-A-Y-S-!-!-!."
I support inroywetrust in his support of The VD Special in his support of me supporting Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.
No,…..and it’s not your mother , either…wait a sec,….lemme look again.
Bear danger
"Running away can activate the bear's hunting instincts and lead to it perceiving the human as prey. Finally, if a bear does attack, the usual advice is to curl into a [[fetal position]] so as to shield vital organs and appear non-threatening."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And yet another positive
It’s better to lose early in the season rather than later. If the team can address what they need to and win, this game will be a distant memory at season’s end.
Point Plankn!
Another + ....They cant beat us on our home turf
At least we have more recently dominated the series against Oregon… Especially in Strawberry Canyon, So at work, where I have 4 OU graduates for coworkers, I was able to say, that at least we’ve beaten them in Autzen before… and they still havent even come close in Berkeley… lol.
by dingosean on Sep 28, 2009 9:53 PM PDT reply actions
Watch the OU talk around your co-workers
It’s UO. OU’s Oklahoma.
It's spelled "T-A-K-O-T-U-E-S-D-A-Y-S-!-!-!."
I support inroywetrust in his support of The VD Special in his support of me supporting Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.
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Golden Bears Football Schedule
| Fresno St. | Sat 09/03 | W 36 - 21 |
@
Colorado
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Sat 09/10 | W 36 - 33 |
| Presbyterian | Sat 09/17 | W 63 - 12 |
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@
Washington
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Sat 09/24 | L 23 - 31 |
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@
Oregon
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Thu 10/06 | L 15 - 43 |
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USC
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Thu 10/13 | L 9 - 30 |
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Utah
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Sat 10/22 | W 34 - 10 |
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@
UCLA
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Sat 10/29 | L 14 - 31 |
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Washington St.
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Sat 11/05 | W 30 - 7 |
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Oregon St.
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Sat 11/12 | W 23 - 6 |
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@
Stanford
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Sat 11/19 | L 28 - 31 |
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@
Arizona St.
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Fri 11/25 | W 47 - 38 |
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@
Texas
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Wed 12/28 | L 10 - 21 |
Pacific-12 Conference Standings
(updated 1.2.2012 at 11:12 PM PST)
| North | Conf | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
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Oregon Ducks
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8 | 1 | 12 | 2 |
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Stanford Cardinal
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8 | 1 | 11 | 2 |
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Washington Huskies
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5 | 4 | 7 | 6 |
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California Golden Bears
|
4 | 5 | 7 | 6 |
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Oregon St. Beavers
|
3 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
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Washington St. Cougars
|
2 | 7 | 4 | 8 |
| South | Conf | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
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USC Trojans
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7 | 2 | 10 | 2 |
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UCLA Bruins
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5 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
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Utah Utes
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4 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
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Arizona St. Sun Devils
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4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
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Arizona Wildcats
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2 | 7 | 4 | 8 |
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Colorado Buffaloes
|
2 | 7 | 3 | 10 |
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