I've always liked Philip Glass, avant garde music composer. His use of repetition in his composition always appealed to me.
I'm much less enjoying Philip Glass, choreographer for Cal away games. His use of repetition in his game composition does NOT appeal to me. I'm not the college football expert many of you take me for. Or even knowledgeable about basic aspects to college sports. Or math. But even I can figure out that losing by several touchdowns every time is the opposite of good.
But what is truly the opposite of good is what happened to Kevin Riley. Kevin Riley was always the victim of unfair expectations created from 4 quarters against somewhat subpar opponents several years ago. No matter how well he played (or did not play) he could not live up to the Jesus In Cleats 2.0 concept constructed in the mind of a fanbase seemingly more focused on flagellation than congratulation. I cannot understand how frustrating it must have been to live and play football in that complex iron maiden. I do not envy him for that.
Good luck to Kevin Riley for the rest of his life. And good luck to the Cal team for the next 4-5 games. GO BEARS!
Pass Offense
Category
Mean Score
Standard Deviation
.254
.208
Rush Offense
.206
.170
Pass Defense
.302
.189
Rush Defense
.202
.166
Special Teams
.427
.254
Coaching
.152
.142
Overall
.135
.135
Win likelihood @ WSU
.535 (-.350)
.215
Berkelium97: A pretty miserable bunch of scores for this loss. For the first time all season, passing was rated higher than the rushing game. Special teams enjoyed the highest marks of the week, but responses were most varied for that category.
Next week looks rough, as we have a 35% drop in win likelihood against the Cougs.
No editor's choice awards this week.
We do have our usual pair of awards: Super Critics, whose report cards had the lowest total scores, and Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers, whose report cards had the highest total scores. I took out all the report cards with 0s in every category (including win likelihood @ Wazzu).
|
Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers |
Net Score, Percentage |
| 1. mrjpark |
3.00, 42.9% |
| 2. Chispacita |
3.00, 42.9% |
| 3. Willis Chong |
2.82, 40.3% |
| 4. CoBears |
2.80, 40.0% |
| 5. jali |
2.80, 40.0% |
|
Super Critics |
Net Score, Percentage |
| 1. bluehenbear |
0.0, 0.00% |
| 2. beson |
0.16, 2.3% |
| 3. sactobear |
0.23, 3.3% |
| 4. Robocop |
0.50, 7.1% |
|
5. Spazzy McGee |
0.86, 12.3% |
CGB HIVEMIND
Overall Deviation
1. bayoak
.049
2. riley sucks
.060
3. 1988goldenbear
.082
4. hardtobeacalfan
.085
5. End the Torture
.085
Finally we have CGB HIVEMIND for those whose scores most accurately reflect the group scores.
Could this game possibly be as bad as the numbers suggest? (hint: yes) Let's see...
Gameday Experience
jali - I really want to stop watching away games. I'll probably keep watching anyway, but it's tough to keep watching a completely different team on TV than the one I see live at Memorial.
bluehenbear - Crapola from the first play from scrimmage. I've eaten fluffernutter sandwiches that are tougher than this team. Time to nut up and avoid a losing season.
When the opposing team advertises their plays in the paper days before the game is played and it takes the team by surprise, I think you're gonna lose...bayaok - Bummer. Game wasn't on dish so I went down to Raleigh's hoping for a competitive showing and got my hopes turned upside down.
mrjpark - I wasn't at the game, but I was at Raleigh's... and was bummed to hear a couple of guys cheering when Riley got injured. Have some class, folks.
sec119 - My friend makes gumbo like he was raised by alligators in Plaquemines Parish. And we set up a projector, opened a few bottles of very good wine ... and yeah, it would've been awesome, except for the game part.
JustBear - Worst officiated game ever. It was 10time more disappointing than the USC game, probably due to our plays called back every time we get something positive.
RedonkulousBear - The flags the refs were throwing matched our pants
Chispacita - The only think that would have made it worse would be if I were Kevin Riley's mother.
hardtobeacalfan - i must be a masochist because i watched the entire game. sigh.
TightwadPhil - I was watching at Raleigh's on Telegraph.....this game was such a damn disaster and so frustrating to watch I had to step out and go to Amoeba Records. Twice. I just paid my bill and walked out in the 3rd quarter. I've never done that. That game was a new low for Cal football.
Pass Offense
1988goldenbear - What the hell has happened to our O-line? No protection and no holes. Formula for all defensive coordinators: 8 or 9 in the box, rush 3, WIN.
Finally got an extended look at Mansion, and it appears obvious that the reason he never beat out Riley and only recently passed Sweeney was a talent gap. I will give him a bit of a pass (no pun intended) until he has adequate time to practice with the first team offense, and I sure hope he develops given that opportunity.
But if the O-line remains as crappy as it has been, it won't much mattermrjpark - Riley played like bad Riley. Mansion started out with the jitters, but collected himself and ended strong. While he wasn't great, this was his first meaningful game in his college career and he showed the he can place the ball where he wants with good speed and accuracy. What didn't help was our offensive line getting just absolutely overrun. If we want our quarterbacks to have any chance of excelling, the line NEEDS to improve
sec119 - Five million years of human evolution have given humans ample opportunity to develop a forward-bending knee, and we have collectively failed to rise to the challenge. All the more shocking, then, when we witness it happening. At any rate, with Riley gone, we had no chance in this game, and our prognosis for the rest of the season looks bleak. I do think that Brock throws a good ball, and that his errors were all mental. Therefore, there's hope for next season.
JustBear - Mansion started out worse than Riley, overthrowing Allen by 20 feet. But as the game went on, he picked up some short throws, and eventually long throws. Connecting with Calvin was very impressive on both parts, only that it didnt cout...
RedonkulousBear - The quarterback is simply the most valuable asset on the roster, we failed at getting any pass offense going at all because our offensive line once again systematically failed at protecting the quarterback. The few first downs we did get while Riley was getting first downs were negated by penalties from the offensive line. Our offensive line failed and Kevin Riley will most likely never play again this year. Thanks Steve Marshall and O-Line.
BearBacker - Brock Mansion!! Welcome bears to the post Kevin Riley era. Lets hope the Mansion is better than what Tedford and Co think of him. Or our already poor season is going to get worse. Sorry to state the obvious but our O line is terrible! Its affecting our entire game passing offense, rushing offense, fan sanity and even our defense has been put in awful positions because of poor protection
hardtobeacalfan - feel terrible for riley, but we would have lost big even if he weren't hurt because we couldn't protect him and probably would have had all of our nice passes called back on penalties anyway. did we also break shane vereen's streak of catching a pass every game?? darn you, osu!!!
Run Offense
Willis Chong - If we never get the passes off, how are we supposed to get our runs off? We're not going to get it via superior O-line play.
RedonkulousBear - Was it not that obvious? If the Beavs stack the box you CANNOT go up the gut period.
hardtobeacalfan - unfortunate that shane had some nice runs called back on penalties. i'm afraid shane won't reach 1000 yards at this rate
sec119 - O-line? Or olé-line
TightwadPhil - Terrible. Just like the other blow-outs (except Nevada).
Pass Defense
mrjpark - Katz' numbers may have been high, but a lot of his passes were dinks and dunks, sweeps and screens to Quizz. There really isn't much you can do about this without overpursuing and potentially giving up the bomb. I think our defensive backs could've played a little tighter, but overall they weren't really the problem today. I think more of our defensive woes came from having to be on the field for the whole game after all of our offense's 3 and outs.
Shajee R- total shit
JustBear - Katz had all day to throw, like it has been on all our road game. Even when all the receivers are covered, because Katz got all day, receivers come back, etc., and gets completions.
SoCalOski - Mom always told me if I can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all
hardtobeacalfan - we had some almost picks that could have helped us out. williams had a nice break up in the end zone. it's difficult to remember other good things that happened.
Run Defense
SoCalOski - Mom always told me if I can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all
RedonkulousBear - Simply put, we could not contain Katz or Quizz or their reverses with their wide receivers. The Beavers were luring our defense out of position and then attacking space once certain areas were clear.
Sactobear - a few of sacks in 35-7 loss, so what!
hardtobeacalfan - jacquizz just kept gashing us and falling forward for the first downs (even when he doesn't make it back to the line of scrimmage on 4th and 1).
mrjpark - We were more focused on the QB and kind of let Quizz go free now and then. And after he broke one, we'd remember we need to stop him and go back to focusing on him for a bit. Looked like we couldn't stop both the run and the pass on any given play, although our front seven did get more penetration in the second half
Special Teams
Willis Chong - We've had bad and good Bears, bad and good Riley, and now bad and good Anger. At least nothing got blocked this week. I think the one shining spot was Keenan Allen and his KO returns. With a KAKOR, we have a chance of starting beyond the 30.
At least with us never scoring on the road, we don't have to worry about Giorgio getting tired this year.JustBear - Last week Allen had 100 yards on kickoff return and won Pac10 Special Teams Player of Week. He got 106 today. He should win it this week again easily
SoCalOski - Mom always told me if I can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all
hardtobeacalfan - anger tends to shank puts when we are backed up near our endzone and would appreciate one of his long booming punts. but he did have a couple nice punts as well.
Coaching
TightwadPhil - Coaching? Cowardly. Lame. No sense of urgency. No emotion. No passion. No confidence in our superior athletes. No ability to fire up the team or save them from mental collapse. With the exception of Gould, and maybe Jenyk, our coaching staff is terrible. I have no faith in Tedford anymore. It's time to fire him.
Look at this trend of blow-outs: 2009: Oregon, U$C, OSU, UW, Utah 2010: Nevada, U$C, OSU, Oregon? Stanfraud? How many blow-out's will it take??!! It's not the athletes, it's the coaching.bluehenbear - Some heads need to roll. Time to throw out the playbook (er, laminated play card...didn't see Mike Riley holding one of those). Back to basics. Block and run; pitch and catch.
Jeff, Andy and Clancy: Chip is going to make you look very foolish in a couple weeks. What are you going to do about it?Willis Chong - Well, mad Tedford finally got out. I suppose that was a good thing, even though it cost us a "promising" (and I use that loosely) drive by pushing us back 15 yards. The coaches did the best they could all things considered. But, I still would like Tedford to evaluate Marshall, as O-line play has really declined since our last O-line coordinator left.
SoCalOski - I'm starting to lose patience with how Cal plays on the road, and even more so by the coaching staff's continual denial or refusal to acknowledge that there is a very real problem. Hearing more of the same platitudes and weak excuses from the coaches about what happened just won't cut it any more. Something is wrong. Like an addict, Tedford needs to understand that admitting a problem exists is the first step toward fixing it.
Bearbacker - The OL coach needs to go. We have made mediocre defensive lines (USC, Nevada and OSU) look like all Americans. It just does not look like they are putting a 100% in protecting our QB or making holes for Vareen.
Chispacita - The .2 was for "The Kiss".
sec119 - The o-line falls on Marshall and indirectly on Tedford. Regarding the gameplan to stop Quizz -- Pendergast, you're such a tease. Overall, it's hard to implement your offensive strategy when your QB goes down, but I don't know that we would have won with Riley anyway, thanks to our other deficiencies.
ta49ers - What can i Say about Tedford, I been a huge fan of him but as a Cal faithful fan,
if we can not win the big games, don't you think that is time to find some one that can lead the team to more than a fifth place in the pac 10 ( 12) every year .
I want more for my Bears !!!!!!!!mrjpark - Utterly disappointed. They took us out of the game in the first half after Riley got injured. I think Tedford didn't trust Mansion and was looking to see if Riley would come back, which means he retreated into his conservative shell. Once he took off Mansion's training wheels, the QB seemed to get better, so I'm thinking had they just let him pass anything beyond 5 yards in the first half we might not have sucked so much.
Overall Performance
SoCalOski - Between a completely impotent and disgusting performance by the team, to the felonious officiating, this game was a complete mess. Quite possible the worst game I've seen in the nearly 30 years I've been following Cal football.
Look, I know that this loss isn't on the officials, but their performance was bad enough for the commissioner to dismiss them all permanently. It was that bad.
But even worse was the play of our team. From top to bottom, it was just embarrassing.
On another note, I'd like to congratulate Wazzu on their upcoming first conference win of the season when they beat us like runaway slaves next week.Spazzy McGee - Concentrated Ball of Suck. Good day sir.
JustBear - Just very frustrating game. We all knew from before the season even started, that we probably lose this game, so its no big deal. But as fans, u always expect a win every week. At least, i wanted a competitive game, not another blowout. Now that we lost Riley, our chances to beat next 5 opponents dropped by about half.
Chispacita - Who wore overalls? Oski?
Willis Chong - Sure, the penalties sucked, especially the ones that were really questionable, but in the end, we lost because we never had a chance to execute. The O-Line problem really showed up this week as neither the QB nor our RBs had anything to work with.
Now that we don't have Riley, I'm not sure how confident I would be about the Bears making to a Bowl game this year.hardtobeacalfan - hey refs, no need to help osu out. we can lose all on our own without your biased calls to exacerbate things. mansion showed some promise on that last TD drive, but maybe osu was playing their 3rd stringers or something.
sacman701 - That makes 6 no-shows in the last 2 years: Nev, USC, OSU this year and Ore, USC, Wash last year. Compare that to 1 (Tenn 06) in the previous 7 seasons combined. I am at a loss to understand this.
1988goldenbear - NOT looking forward to Oregon or Furd. I still think we can beat Wazzu and UW, but we have to get a better effort in all phases. And Mansion needs to develop with first-team reps so Vereen isn't running into 9 guys crowding the line every play. Boys never gave up, that's a good thing.
jali - Not good x20.
I'm afraid of the Wazzu game. Nothing good can come of it. We win big, it's expected. Anything less than a big win (close win, close loss, or big loss) will probably mean that we played poorly and will be depressing to watch.
(I'm aware that Wazzu's much improved this year, but their talent is still far from ours and we don't want to be that one big Pac10 upset that they're sure to pull this year)TightwadPhil - I went to the Oregon game last year in Eugene and thought, 'that was the worst Cal performance I've ever seen since I was a kid.' Then I went to the U$C game the next week. And then watched the game against Utah. And then the Nevada game. And then the U$C game. And now this disaster. Just when you think the coaches and players might rally and try to salvage their season or play with some pride, they continue to sink to new lows. There are so many worrisome trends in the last few years under Tedford: a) blow-out losses, b) poor QB play, c) lousy on the road, d) consistent underachievement, e) no Rose Bowl. For the State of California's highest paid public employee to have such a mediocre record in the last few years is a rip-off to the University. It's time to fire Tedford.