Golden Nuggets: Tedford Addresses Concerns about Playcalling, Defense

by Berkelium97 on Sep 25, 2011 12:00 PM PDT in Golden Nuggets

Five red zone trips and 16 points to show for it. That, in a nutshell, is why the Bears lost. Not surprisingly, one of the major topics at the post-game press conference was the Bears' series of plays from first-and-goal.

Will you take me through the last few plays?

"We got down to the two there and we tried to punch it in a couple of times and actually tried to throw a pass and they stiffened up, and then (on the) last play tried to put it in the end zone for Keenan Allen. Just over thrown and didn't give him a chance to catch it."

How did you feel about settling for field goals?
"We had to settle for field goals. No doubt. You get to the red zone and you like to come home with touchdowns. We had some opportunities down there and it comes down to making plays. In tight games against good opponents in conference you have to come up with more touchdowns than field goals. We didn't today. And penalties, as far as letting them out of their territory, and penalties on special teams that pushed them deep even though we did a really nice job of getting back out of there, but we started a couple times. Those are things that come back to bite you."
...
How concerned are you about giving up big chunks of yards?

"Well very concerned. You have to give them a lot of credit number one. Keith Price does a really nice job of keeping things going with his legs and he has a lot of weapons out there. But you have to play better. You have to be able to corral him. We got him a couple of times, but he slipped away. You have to tackle him. You have to wrap him up. Same with the back, you have to wrap them up. So, they made great plays. They made more plays than we did. It was a great football game, but if you don't do the things you need to do, then that's what happens."

The fourth down play on the goal line, has that been good to you guys?
"We scored against Colorado and it was open again. We have just got to give Kennan Allen a chance to catch the ball. You give your best player a chance to go out and make a play in the end zone and so that was the reason for that."

After the jump the Bears are still on track for a bowl at AT&T and the women's volleyball team endures a tough pair of losses in LA.

Football

After coming back from nagging toe injuries in 2010, Jahvid Best is making a big impact on the Detroit Lions' offense.
SBN Bay Area recaps a game that look eerily similar to the Cal-Colorado game.
CalSportsDigest recaps the game.
Maynard takes responsibility for missing the final pass of the game.
Tedford reflects on the decision to run Sofele on the Bears' final trip to the end zone. He also talks about a more important issue: that five red zone trips left the Bears with only 16 points. If one or two more of those field goals had been converted to TDs, it would have been a completely different game.
JO reports from the post-game press box. While Pendergast is concerned about the defense, he says the issues stem more from execution than poor scheme or a personnel deficiency. Fun fact: the Maynard-to-Allen 90 TD pass was the longest in Cal history.
JO recaps the game. It sounds like the Bears will put some extra work into the defense during the bye week.
CalBears.com has a photo gallery from yesterday's game.
CalBears.com has more stats than you know what to do with, in case you're interested in perusing all the stats in which Cal outperformed Washington (though the one that counts, the scoreboard, was in favor UW).
Keenan Allen joined Marvin Jones as a member of the Biletnikoff Award watch list.
Keenan Allen earns one of Ted Miller's helmet stickers.
For the second week in a row Uncle Ted predicts a Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl for the Bears. I cannot wait until that bowl gets a new sponsor.

Volleyball

The Bears lost three competitive sets against no. 12 USC. I can't remember the last time they were swept...
After dropping the first two sets, the Bears dominated the third set but could not finish the comeback against no. 7 UCLA.

Swimming

The men's and women's teams worked together to capture all four co-ed relays at Cal Poly.

Golf

With a sixteen-stroke improvement during day two, the women's team climbed to ninth in the Mason Rudolph Fall Preview.

Tennis

The men's team notched three wins in day one play of the 2011 Land Rover Napa Valley Tennis Classic.

Field Hockey

The Bears' winning streak came to an end at the hands of no. 8 Stanford.

Soccer

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Comments

I am far more distraught at the women losing to the f-ing socal schools than the football team being impotent in the red zone.

Being an Old Blue means never accepting success.

by SoCal Oski on Sep 25, 2011 12:04 PM PDT reply actions

Being without Adrienne Gehan is huge. Cannot be overstated.

Keeping January 2 open. You know, just in case.
CaliforniaGoldenBlogs/Twitter/Facebook/Clothing Store

by Ohio Bear on Sep 25, 2011 1:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl...

I always had visions of Kraft dropping giant bowls of macaroni and cheese into some famine zone.

Lawrence Ross

by alpha1906 on Sep 25, 2011 7:45 PM PDT reply actions

yeah, yeah.

ack-A

by ak_A on Sep 25, 2011 8:07 PM PDT reply actions

How is this only gotten four comments? Is everyone in too much of a funk to bother? If so, it’s understandable. And I agree with SoCal Oski that the twin losses by v-ball are even more of a blow. I figured them for two to four losses the whole year. Yikes.
I would like to be the first to predict (okay maybe I’m not the first) that Cal will finally beat U$C in football this season. Just a feeling but $C sure hasn’t much inspired much fear so far.

"Dying is not so tough....A lot of people younger than me and older than me have to face up to this sort of thing. I'm nothing special. I'm Joe Roth, a student and a football player." - Joe Roth.

by Oski Disciple on Sep 25, 2011 9:09 PM PDT reply actions

SC didn't inspire much confidence last season

Or season before that.

After seeing our defensive performane against Colorado and UW. I am very concerned about Cals ability to stop their offense.

Throw in the fact we don’t exactly have a true home field advantage and chalk me up as very worried.

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 9:39 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

SC may not have inspired much fear so far, but neither has Cal. And, as is traditional Cal custom, USC always plays out of their minds against us. None of our games against them since Aaron Rodgers was here have even been close, either.

i'm here to clean your pool but i don't have a pool *bowchica bowow*

by ch0ster on Sep 25, 2011 9:57 PM PDT up reply actions

We have had some "close" games against SC

Since Rodgers, at least score wise. However, in those games we were never a real threat to win them. Our offense hasn’t really showed up or put up yards and points since Rodgers.

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:04 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Right you are. I should have clarified that that’s what I meant by not having any close games – that we were never a real threat to win any of them. Hell, I’m not even thinking about Cal being able to beat USC – at this point I’d just be happy to see them play a competitively close game against them for once during the post-Rodgers era

i'm here to clean your pool but i don't have a pool *bowchica bowow*

by ch0ster on Sep 25, 2011 10:14 PM PDT up reply actions

I completely agree that I would take a close

and competitive game where our offense actually moves the ball and scores meaningful TDs to give us a lead or keep us in the game.

That being said, I would also take a close and competitive game against Oregon State. Something we haven’t had since 2007.

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:26 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Negative revisionsim...

we were a threat in 2006, 2007 and 2008. We didn’t win, but to suggest we weren’t a threat to win those games is silly.

by fiatlux on Sep 26, 2011 7:36 AM PDT up reply actions

I forgot the monsoon loss of 07 as I have tried

To forget most of the last half of the 07 season. You are right that we were a threat in 07 and actually scored some meaningful TDs.

I will concede that we were close in 06 and 08 largely due to our stellar defense but our offense did not do much with the ball to give fans any real optimism that we would march down the field for a winning or tying TD, let alone FG.

by SDBear on Sep 26, 2011 11:12 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions

We’ve played close against ’SC until ’09.

In fact we used to say with pride we were the only ones who could play SC so close

In other words, Go Bears!

by royrules22 on Sep 26, 2011 4:26 PM PDT up reply actions

Keenan Allen leads the country in receiving yards through Week 4

if there’s any consolation from this weekend.

by Cali49a on Sep 25, 2011 9:23 PM PDT reply actions

We also broke Polks comsecutive 100 yard

game streak as well.

Our run defense has looked good so far this season.

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 9:42 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Okay, but I don’t know how much that will really matter as USC’s offense seems to consist of two players: Matt Barkley and Robert Woods.

by mrjpark on Sep 25, 2011 9:54 PM PDT up reply actions

Oh I didnt say it would help us beat SC

I have major doubts we do beat SC. I’m just trying to point out something positive about our defense.

I am fully expecting Tyler and the SC run game to have a great game along with Barkley and Woods.

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:01 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

WOW

He has more than Woods.
KA21 has 498 receiving yards so far in 2011. That is already more than his total of 490 from 2010.

by JustBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:21 PM PDT up reply actions

But if you take away his 90yd reception, he doesn’t have much.

In other words, Go Bears!

by royrules22 on Sep 26, 2011 4:27 PM PDT up reply actions

speaking of stats

Baylor QB Robert Griffin III has completed 85.4% of his passes for 962 yards, 13 TD, 0 INT, only 12 incompletions for QB rating of 236.2.
But Maynard has thrown more yards than Griffin, at 1073 yards.
And his 10-3 TD-INT ratio is better than expected. Just a thought.

by JustBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:31 PM PDT up reply actions

Not the first time a Cal quarterback has gotten off to a hot start.

We haven’t faced a pass defense with a pulse yet, the ride is liable to get a lot more bumpy.

"Let me tell you a story. I was a political prisoner for two years. The instant I was released I ran to McDonald's. I had a Big Mac and a Coke.

It was fantastic."
-Toyama Koichi, US Presidential candidate from Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGZqOkeYbB0

by AERose on Sep 25, 2011 10:34 PM PDT up reply actions

True but at least Maynard didn't throw a pick on Saturday

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:47 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Another positive from Saturday, Maynard

Didn’t throw an interception. I was very happy about that.

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:45 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Griffin is just a stud, in his career he has attempted

872 passes and only thrown 11 interceptions! That is amazing, he seems to take care of the ball well.

by SDBear on Sep 25, 2011 10:55 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

I'll drink to that and the immense pain his success must cause Texas fans

Odds are he would have ended up in Austin if they had recruited him as a quarterback, but they wanted him as a receiver so he was off to Waco. I guess it worked out well for all parties, since Texas handled Colt McCoy’s succession so smoothly, though!

"Let me tell you a story. I was a political prisoner for two years. The instant I was released I ran to McDonald's. I had a Big Mac and a Coke.

It was fantastic."
-Toyama Koichi, US Presidential candidate from Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGZqOkeYbB0

by AERose on Sep 25, 2011 11:44 PM PDT up reply actions

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Golden Bears Football Schedule

Fresno St.	Sat 09/03	W 36 - 21
@ Colorado The Ralphie Report	Sat 09/10	W 36 - 33
Presbyterian	Sat 09/17	W 63 - 12
@ Washington UW Dawg Pound	Sat 09/24	L 23 - 31
@ Oregon Addicted To Quack	Thu 10/06	L 15 - 43
USC Conquest Chronicles	Thu 10/13	L 9 - 30
Utah Block U	Sat 10/22	W 34 - 10
@ UCLA Bruins Nation	Sat 10/29	L 14 - 31
Washington St. CougCenter	Sat 11/05	W 30 - 7
Oregon St. Building The Dam	Sat 11/12	W 23 - 6
@ Stanford Rule Of Tree	Sat 11/19	L 28 - 31
@ Arizona St. House Of Sparky	Fri 11/25	W 47 - 38
@ Texas Burnt Orange Nation	Wed 12/28	L 10 - 21