Cal-UCLA Report Card

Another week, another crushing victory over the baby Bruins.  Overall, fans were very impressed with Cal this week.  However, there were still a few spots of concern.  Some people expressed those concerns by stomping their feet and holding their breath.  Others were inspired by great plays in describing their frustrations:

Secret Asian Man - In "Waiting for Godot," two guys spend the entire play waiting for Godot, but Godot never arrives. I have been a Riley defender and have generally been waiting for "Good Riley." I am no longer confident that "Good Riley" will arrive in any meaningful way. If I were to grade the receivers, it would be an incomplete because there just wasn't much pass offense. Vereen was the leading receiver for the game.

After the jump, more thoughts on the Cal game from you, the readers of CGB, the most important part of this site.  GO BEARS!

 

Category	Mean Score	Standard Deviation
Pass Offense	.429	.211
Rush Offense	.921	.063
Pass Defense	.833	.094
Rush Defense	.943	.081
Special Teams	.544	.188
Coaching	.804	.110
Overall	.793	.107
Win likelihood vs. USC	.584 (+.233)	.193

Berkelium97:  Except for Riley and the special teams, voters were generally quite pleased with the game against UCLA.  The defense enjoyed the highest marks it has seen all season after shutting down UCLA's pistol offense.  As usual, the lower ratings generally had wider ranges of scores (indicated by the larger standard deviation).  The low standard deviation for the higher scores indicate that voters were uniform in their praise.

Apparently we're much more confident against USC than we were at the start of the season--people's predictions of a Cal victory rose by 23%!  The dominant Cal defense and questionable USC defense have given Cal fans some optimism heading into the Coliseum, where Cal hasn't scored a TD since 2006.

 

Now for everyone's favorite part of this post, it's time to hand out some awards!

For the second week in a row, we only have one editor's choice award.  We're giving out the "Haters gonna hate" award to, well, someone named "haters gonna hate."  He (she?) gave out 0s in every category--even the defense!  Included with this award is a ticket to the 2010 Playa Haters' Ball.  He'll be a shoo-in for "Hater of the Year."

Next up we awards for people who actually put some thought into their ballots!  As always we have the Super Critics, whose report cards had the lowest total scores, and Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers, whose report cards had the highest total scores.

  

Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers	Net Score, Percentage
1. Swamphunter	5.99, 85.6%
2. First and 10	5.95, 85.0%
3. TrumanHugh	5.90, 84.3%
4. CalJeff	5.90, 84.3%
5. jali	5.85, 83.6%

Super Critics	Net Score, Percentage
1. geez	4.5, 64.3%
2. royrules22	4.55, 65.0%
3.Jgoldenbear	4.6, 65.7%
4. Bama Bear	4.7, 67.1%
5.bearbacker	4.72, 67.4%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Super Critics gave low scores to defense and special teams while the Sunshine Pumpers pumped sunshine in pretty much every category.

CGB HIVEMIND	Overall Deviation
1. beson	.055
2. Oaklandish Bear	.060
3. California Pete	.065
4. petalumabear	.073
5. Sactownbear	.074

Last but not least we have CGB HIVEMIND awards to those whose votes most closely matched the average votes from all submissions.

 

 

 

 

Now let's look at how you all felt about the game in words instead of numbers.

Gameday

via calbearsonline.com

 

CalBear2007 - Watched it with Bruin friends, in their baby-blue & gold media room (complete with UCLA fatheads, clocks, rugs, coasters, posters and couch cushions!). I was the only one enjoying the day, which made it all the more delightfu

bearbacker - I was at the CACNE rooftop event in Boston. A tad chilly but the bears performance warmed me up :)

petalumabear - I enjoyed the day and the game. Was quite pleased when the fUCLA band was done and the Cal band took over... It was fun walking campus, meeting friends @ The Faculty Club for a pre-game lunch for my son and brew for me... Beautiful day weather wise... Really pleased to see the Rugby players passing out their info cards and engaging folks on campus to aid their efforts ... .they truly represent their school, their program and themselves with tremendous dignity and poise.

Willis Chong - Mic men still suck, have too much respect for the announcer and the other team's huddle and didn't start the cheers until they finished. (Why?) Fortunately, the crowd seemed to ignore the mic guys half way through the game. That and the stadium was still loud when we were up by 4 TDs. Now that's home field advantage.

I'm surprised there wasn't more key jangling when the UCLA band was on the field...

ososdeoro - No wonder the athletic department is running deficits. They only charge $5 for lemonade. And once again the band's pregame show was cut short. That has to stop.

jali - Desean Jackson visiting was cool. Too bad we didn't give him that much of a cheer. Hopefully, any issues he and the coaching staff might have had have been resolved. I think he'd be a big promoter of the team and would help recruiting a ton.

geez - I hate the ISP-ing of the gameday.Hear my rant.
The PA guy should have been gone years ago.Can't stand him.The douche starts me
off in a bad mood.Complete utterly moronic vocabulary for a sporting event
Un-muzzle the Band
Un_muzzle the Band...etc.
The Mic Men are as unimaginative as the offensive coaches."Make some noise.OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhh

CalJeff - Auntie took the 4-year-old for the day, the 2-year-old was napping, And the wife was in bed taking a nap. I had a fridge full of Hoegaarden, my Cal "Tha 1" Blue Football Jersey, my DVR (so I didn't miss any Keenan Allen moves), my 52-inch flatscreen, HD in full force.....ACK! A perfect gameday setup ruined by Petros Papadakis' voice. More ESPN, less FoxSports/PrimeTicket, please.

mydaughtergoestocal - nice and sunny day...great crowd.

yorzepol - Getting up at 4:30 in the morning to watch football is no fun; unless you watch the Bears beat fUCLA, then it's pretty awesome.

SoCalOski - My day started with me wearing my trusty and somewhat beaten-up Cal tee and taking my two dogs for a walk along the streets of Santa Monica around 9AM.

After enduring a series of jeers from random Ucla fans during the walk (some good natured, others quite filled with invective), I settled in with a couple of other Old Blues at home to watch the game. Keeping us company was The Most Interesting Man In The World - or at least his beer

SeanCosby87 - Woke up. hungover. turned the game on. cracked open some rolling rock. Here I am. Stoked we won, in cloudy Ashland, Oregon.

Awesome day so far eh.

California Pete - Thanks to those greedy bastards at Fox, and those stubborn bastards at Dish Network, I had to turn to those inglorious basterds that illegally stream copyrighted material over the Internets. Thanks, outlaws!! Now it's time to drink some homebrew, maybe light up a cigar, an celebrate another Bear thrashing of the Bruins; that never gets old.

 

 

 

Pass Offense

via calbearsonline.com

 

Willis Chong - Part of it was the game plan. I don't think Kevin could get into a rhythm if most of the plays went to the running game. But then were also easy throws that Kevin had to rush because he kept getting sacked. I think the two passes I'm satisfied with are the playaction 30+ yd pass to Shane Vereen and that TD pass to Keenan Allen.

On a separate note, in the 4th quarter, after Marvin Jones' TD, why wasn't Sweeney in? Did Riley really need more practice?

geez - What pass offense.It's very offensive.It's so unimaginative.
Do we have a tight end? Do we have crossing routes?
Is there a QB who can throw the a catchable ball to someone?
Who recruits and offers these guys and then fails to coach 'em up?
Everyone of them in the last few years has regressed.
Who designs and calls this crap?

abaddon - Not sure what was going on. When we dropped back to pass and the pass protection was decent (which did happen at least some of the time) Riley never threw downfield. It looked like great coverage although it was impossible to tell on TV.

Riley was hit or miss improvising, as usual. One bad pass that should have been picked (although it might have been tipped) but mostly took care of the ball.

JO @ UCSD-  Riley continues to consistently be terrible, he overthrew open receivers all day then decided to mix it up and underthrew vareen on a screen. I feel bad for Jones, Allen, and Ross, they run good routes and beat their defenders then Riley missed horribly.

Quinn peaks - Remember last year when teams just loaded the box on us?
That's gonna come back... and it wont be pretty.

HydroTech - How ironic it is. Riley got booed when he was announced at the start of the game as the starting QB. Remember the days when everyone hated Longshore and proclaimed Riley to be the next Aaron Rodgers and everyone loved him?

 

 

 

Run Offense

via calbearsonline.com

 

ben - The O-line did an impressive job, and Shane and Isi were even more impressive, taking advantage of the holes when they were there, and making something out of nothing when they were not. I really enjoyed the HB dive play with the fake WR end-around. When the WR's (Allen or Ross's) number was actually called, the change-up was generally quite effective. On the day, if you take out the sacks, Cal had only one rushing play go for negative yards. The wildcat with Isi and the quick-snap plays were two other new coaching wrinkles that I liked.

SeanCrosby87 - VEREEEEEEEEEEEEEN

beastmode 2.0? I think so. He was all over.

Hell, even Sofele was on his game the whole time.

California PEte - Even by Tedfordian standards, that was a great effort today. When all is said and done, Shane Vereen just might be the best all-around running back in Cal history. It's as if he's a video-game combination of the best features of all the guys that came before: the breakaway speed of Best, the balance of Forsett, the BeastMode of Lynch, the endurance of Arrington, the leadership of Igber, the heart and versatility of Echemandu. Especially if he's close to earning his degree, as a fourth-year junior, I'm afraid he'll be entering the NFL draft at season's end. But were he stay healthy and return for his senior years, he'd rewrite the record books.

CalJeff - Shane Vereen's 2nd touchdown where he bounced outside and willed himself into the endzone should be his #1 NFL recruiting highlight. Just a tough, tough runner who gets the job done. Isi Sofele really showed up, too. Nice looks from Sofele in the Wildcat...it almost looked like WE had the "gimmick" offense on some of those option-like running plays...and they WORKED! Nice results from the reverses, too. This run game looked unstoppable!

MV Bear  - Liked the 1st appearance of the Wild Bear; I thought Isi did a nice job of mixing up the runs rather than Vereen's off-tackle runs 90% of the time last year.

 

 

 

Pass Defense

via calbearsonline.com

 

TrumanHugh - We've got to work on not giving up the big pass, especially with Barkley, Threet and Katz looming.

Bama Bear - Incredible job getting to Prince to make him rush his throws and not giving him time to find targets. The few times he did get the ball out the secondary did a great job defending. I was really impressed with them, especially with the corner and safety blitzes.

ben - Did anyone else notice that nearly every UCLA passing route was an out route? I don't think Prince completed a pass that was not an out route or a RB dump off. I feel like Cal could have sat on those routes for some turnovers. However, there is certainly something to be said for "keeping everything in front of you," and UCLA had less than 100 yards passing, so it's hard to complain.

 

CalJeff- The pass defense covered their assignments well and didn't let the UCLA receivers get any RAC on the few balls they caught. Prince and his receivers didn't look like they ever got any rhythm - probably because we got a good rush on him (4 sacks at least, if I recall). Nice to see the unit not have any missed tackles or blown coverages.

jali - Good. Hard to tell how much was UCLA incompetence though. Hagan with 2 sacks (I think). When's the last time a DB, especially a CB, has had 2 sacks for us?

Spazzy McGee - Hagan is starting to look really good, but he needs to take it easy sometimes. Often times he's so close to PI, you just know it will be called at some point, legit or not

 

DBallIsLoose - Great push, delayed attacks, UCLA had very little time to throw and when they did, the secondary was there to prevent any yards after the catch. Aside from a couple of poor tackles, the secondary did well today. When Hagan gets two sacks and an INT, its a good day

 

 

 

Run Defense

via calbearsonline.com

 

 

ben -Superb. Great penetration, disruption, and tackling by the D-line made it a tough day for one of the nation's leading rushing teams. Three cheers for Pendergast for his preparation these two weeks. I look forward to someone breaking down the zone-read plays. I got the impression that Prince nearly always elected to hand-off, but unlike the Nevada game, the HB was regularly bottled

BTown85 - PEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNDDERRRRRRRRRRRGAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!

Nice game, gents. Nice game. It really helps that Prince running the cap gun offense is no Kapernick with a pistol.

yorzepol - Damn! That was some stout D. I was very impressed with our performance. I had a feeling the fUCLA "pistol" was overrated, but I didn't realize how much until today

alpha1906 - It was like going to the Playboy mansion, getting hug after hug from naked women who all want you naked in the grotto, stat.

CalJeff - **Clearly** the reason why we won this game. We completely took away their best/only hope of winning this game. Linebackers played phenomenally and stayed "home" well to stop all of UCLA's looks. The extra week and the previous experience defending the Pistol was obvious. Pendergast again looked like HE was dictating to the offense, instead of letting an offense dictate to our defense...which I REALLY like.

jali - Great. Admittedly, UCLA's pistol is nowhere near as good as Nevada's but still impressive. Unless I was mistaken, I feel like they moved Browner off the weakside where he was being read by Nevada. Kendricks is a beast. Great at shedding blocks.

First And Ten - Am I the only one who wants a second chance against Nevada? A clinic in shutting down the pistol.

 

 

 

Special Teams

via calbearsonline.com

 

bearbacker-  Ross looks cool but is trying to do far too much. The fumble was just waiting to happen. Hopefully it happened when we were way up. Our kicking still sucks, Georgio is too inconsistent. We will be mediocre which will come to kill us in close games and in clutch situations. Week 5 prediction: USC 27 Cal 26 when Georgio missed a 30 yr field goal to go ahead on the last play of the game.

ben - I have to single out UCLA's Josh Smith (kickoff return) and Jeff Locke (punter) for outstanding efforts on Saturday. Maybe Cal's kickoff coverage could have been better, but Smith has certainly got some wheels. Locke was the equal of Anger as well (both were outstanding), averaging 48 yards per punt to Anger's 50. Both sent off some boomers that were wow-inducing. Aaron Ross is starting to add some questionable decision-making to his usually solid punt returns. Also, I think his propensity for hurdling makes for some flashy highlights, but his safety is a concern. Some gunner is going to watch film, see the tendency, and take his legs out mid-flight with potentially unfortunate result

California Pete - That. was. not. good. Anger was his usual self, but Giorgio missed again, kick coverage was weak, Ross fumbled, and a roughing the kicker was effectively a turnover. As we saw in Tucson, if the offense is going to sputter--as I expect it will most games--the only way to convert solid defense into wins is with equally solid special teams.

Secret Asian Man - Tavecchio, despite the missed field goal has been impressing me all season. However, kickoff and punt coverage needs to improve, UCLA had good field position too many times. If the defense didn't do their job, it might have been a long day b

DBallIsLoose - Ross still doesn't seem like the right guy to be returning punts. He's such a good guy, that its hard for me to say it but I'd prefer to try Sofele or Allen returning punts next week. Ross still looks like he has lead shoes, except for that running play. And he's making poor decisions when to catch the ball (inside the 10) and taking his eyes off it. Ross, think less about hurdling and more about catching the ball.

Poor Giorgio, clanked another one off the bar. I'd rather have seen the coach let him try another instead of calling for a passing play on 4th and 5. I mean, its more fun to see Giorgio clank one off the bar than to see Riley clank one off the turf 2 yards in front of his receiver.

Willis Chong-  Ross looks lost when he's catching punts. It looked like he never lined up any of the catches correctly. And MY GOD, IF 4 GUYS ARE BARRELING TOWARDS YOU, CALL FAIR CATCH.

Giorgio needs to have a psych eval after missing another FG. He's going to dream of uprights.

 

 

Coaching

via calbearsonline.com

 

Willis Chong - Conservative for the most part. The important thing was that they went with what worked. Unfortunately, that made the offense very one dimensional and will be a problem when we face better teams.

Defensively, we could get pressure which forced some poor throws. It's nice to get some sacks and get Prince out of the game. (Okay, I think it was more of a garbage time move, but still!)

ST needs to practice. Can we have Sofele start catching punts too? How about Allen? How is the kickoff coverage going to be when go up against DeSean-like speed?

SoCalOski - The coaches did what they are supposed to do: put the players in a position to win the game.

C-Pen was a wizard today. He took the game to Newhizel and Chow and made them look like stupid. Offensively, the game plan put up 35, so it did the job. Only a couple of mental errors.

alpha1906 - It was like watching your grandfather carve the turkey. His hand may be shaky, but he gets the job done.

SwampHunter - Pendergast for President.
*insert picture of Pendergast as General Patton here*

Starting to get worried and/or let down with Ludwig though. Our Offense needs more "oomph."

JO @ UCSD - Play calling was much improved, esp. on offense - finding ways to get the receivers involved without forcing Riley to try something moderately challenging (like completing an 8 yard pass to an open receiver). Pendergast has his guys well-prepared and the corner blitzes were money all day.

iVinishe - I like that our defense obviously did something different/more effectively/whatever it took not to lose to UCLA like we did to Nevada.

calgrizzlybear - what happend in the second half ludwig y didnt u keep doin what u did ... in the first half .. keep the bear claw on the gas...we should have scored 3 or 4 touches no salt on ucla .. but we need the reps .. need the consistancy( riley )

minical - Pendergast is a genius

beson - I'm glad to see us utterly dominate UCLA's pistol offense. I felt the coaches called overall a very good game. I was not that concerned that we weren't throwing it down field because at 6 yards a carry, why?

 

 

Overall

via calbearsonline.com

 

Bama Bear - It was a good performance against a mediocre team, but I fear that as we progress against better teams it will need to be a more complete effort. Could have used a little more aggression in the second half, but overall I was pleased.

beson - I'm starting to really think that we have a kickass defense. As a Cal fan, I know that only means that my heart will hurt that much more when it gets ripped out of my chest.

SwampHunter - Any win against the SoCal schools is a good win!
Holding a run offense that put up 264 yards on Texas two weeks before to only 25 is a damn good achievement.

CalJeff - I am kind of shocked at how well we just totally nullified UCLA's running game. Since they're so one-dimensional, it looked like Pendergast and company wanted to make UCLA's Prince beat them and that just wasn't going to happen. Our running game showed up and theirs didn't....the scoreboard tells the rest of the story. A great win to give us PAC-10 momentum and confidence leading into the U$C game next week.

joshiemac - A fun game to watch at Memorial. Total domination. Great pressure on the QB all day. Our defense will keep up in a lot of games this year. At this point, we just have to hope that Riley doesn't make any mistakes.