Glory & Gaffe: A Tale of One Play

The throw was to the same side of the field. Longshore’s weakside. Maynard’s strongside. You can see Longshore had to shift himself from right to left, making the quick out a little slower than he’d have probably liked to get it to DeSean. Verner was spying Longshore most of the way and broke to the ball well in time.Maynard would’ve been better able to complete the out in time if he had chosen to, although he decided to go to the flag.

Pretty sure Tedford wishes he designed that play to the right side of the formation for Nate, even if there was limited real estate with the ball placed on the right hashmark. Longshore could’ve gotten that ball out quicker and the pick six might never have happened and we’d have won the rest of our games and Oski could’ve bought himself a bus full of candy..

1 – Longshore
We all know how bad Longshore was in the 4th Quarter, especially in 2007. He was a player who had a tendency to quit emotionally if we were down and out by the last 15 Minutes of the game (I chalk that all up to him being injured against Oregon, when he came back he was not the same at all).

While both situations were clutch situations, the one in ’07 had more on the line. We were still ranked in the top 15 after our faceplant against the Beavers a week before (dammit Riley!) so we needed to bounce back against the Bruins in order to try and retain it. As shown, Longshore croaked and we would lose.

Four years later, we have Maynard, a QB who has shown that he is mentally tough and does not crack under pressure (see last week). While the situation is nowhere near as dire (our second drive of the game as opposed to the closing minutes of the 4th Quarter) Maynard still made the proper read and nailed his brother for a first down on a long 3rd and forever.

2 – Pistol Formation
The pistol, in my view, is a cross between the standard one and two back sets and the shotgun. While not much in technical terms, it gives option quarterbacks more open field between himself and the o-line to make reads, not only to the receivers and backs but also to himself should the play be an option read run/pass. This formation could have (not entirely sure as I have not seen an actual view from Maynard’s perspective) given Maynard a clearer view of his receivers and managed to see that Allen was open.

In 2007, you can clearly see that Longshore was pretty much in the thick of things with the o-line and the backs around him. This may have clouded Longshore’s read to find the best (if any) open receiver and then ended up throwing the INT instead. Factor in his post-traumatic stress disorder I mentioned from above and it would all fall apart after that.

3 – WR route
It appears to me that the 2011 route for Allen was a longer route. He goes from the Cal 40 to a little past the Fresno 40. The 2007 play appears to have the post route go from the UCLA 30 to just a little over the UCLA 20. That’s about ten yards a shorter route for 2007. While it does appear to be the same play (albeit from the pistol) the WR post route appears to either have been lengthened, or Allen ran a deeper route on purpose because he knew he was in man coverage and had confidence that he could beat the CB on the route.

4 – Left side vs Right side
Like what Avi said, Maynard is a southpaw, Longshore was not. Throwing to the weak side is never as comfortable as throwing to the dominant/strong side. This is also a contributing factor.

Another 2007 vs 2011 tidbit: remember who our OC was in 2007? He’s who our OC/OL coach is today, returning from his last stint in 2007. I wouldn’t be surprised if Coach M kept that playbook of his around and just tuned some plays around that he had when he last used it. That big silly playcard of Tedford’s is back too if you re-watch the two games.

The Longshore pick burns me in a particularly painful way. I was at the Rose Bowl, sitting with a pretty large contingent of Cal fans in the endzone toward which Cal was driving (on a side note, Cal totally represented that day. One uclol fan even mentioned in bitterness how there were at least as many Cal fans present as uclol-ers that day). The drive was filling us with a lot of joy, as we watched the team progress toward us. We were certain that we’d come out with a win, capping a really perfect day.

Then, the pick.

It happened in slow motion, I swear. Of course, that’s just because Longshore was injured and his regular speed by that point was slo-mo. But as the play developed, we saw D-Jax gain some separation, and saw that he had a potentialluy clear lane to the endzone. Verner was a few yards away, and there was no way he could match speed with Jackson.

Then something weird happened. Jackson sort of stopped his route and stood there, arms up, waiting for the ball.

Longshore hobbled in slo-mo to our right (his left), planted himself in an awkward, off-balance position where he was leaning backwards, and heaved the ugliest throw of the day. I swear even the ball was moving in slo-mo. Jackson couldn’t do anything but wait for it. Verner, seeing the slo-mo, reacted and just snatched the ball, and our hopes.

Forget about it, Jake. It’s Cal.

Sadly, this isn’t the only endzone view of disaster I witnessed. Tuan. Van. Le,

I’ll never sit in an endzone for a Cal game again. I swear.

Special thanks to Chicagoaubear and TouchedTheAxeIn82, as well as everyone else who helps create, uploads, and seeds torrents of Cal games. Without your efforts, I couldn’t do these types of analysis posts.

Thanks, Hydro, for another great post. And thanks to Chcagoaubear and TouchedTheAxeIn82 for being awesome, too!!! Yay!

1) This play looked familiar in 2007 because we saw it in 2006 against Arizona… well maybe not the same exact play, but the same soul crushing late in the game PIC 6 across the field throw by Nate (maybe it was the same play, anyone know?). I knew at the time that one would cost us the Rose Bowl… and it did.

2) what was also so soul crushing about the UCLA pic 6 was the possession was started by Best’s 50+ yard kick-off return to get the ball in such great field possession. We started the possession at the UCLA 35. All we needed was 6 or 7 yards and for the QB to just not screw up. You think that influenced Tedford’s decision making at any point down the line?

I remember that day well. Vanderbilt beat South Carolina, which was ranked #6 in the country, and Tennessee got curb-stomped by Alabama that day, but nevertheless my whole day was RUINED by that pick. I went home, climbed into bed, and suffered a six month bout of mental trauma that was only fixed with the application of huge qualities of brown likker and a pilgrimage to Punxsutawney to see the groundhog.

Great, now I hate everything again. Thanks for nothing.

i feel like you just kicked me in the nuts, but then picked me up off the ground and bought me some ice cream.

i’m waiting for you to knock the ice cream out of my hand now.

You are the evil shimmering blue porch light of a million volts that draws unsuspecting Cal fans like moths to incinerate their hopes and dreams on the charged gridiron of past defeats.

Oh, and good post, by the way.

Can’t believe this sh*t’s free.

…from the Rose Bowl in 2007 being one of the most miserable of my life. There is a time in most Cal football seasons when a Cal fan realizes he/she has invested too much in the team and will only be disappointed, but this was just so much worse than normal. From ~#1 to out of the rankings (correct?) in two weeks. Glory (Oregon 07) and Gaffe (OSU, UCLA 07).