Well, another week, another crushing road los....wait, what? Hey, we won. Look at that. It took the world's worst team in the history of organized organization, but, hey, we notched that Dub. Dubs a dub, right? Well, for some yes:
Redonkulous Bear - It was exciting and embarrassing. Kind of like Germany invading Poland and bragging about how they destroyed Poland's horse powered cavalry with their mechanized infantry and Stukka dive bombers.
Others, however, didn't seem to care all that much about the win aspect. They didn't just want to win. They wanted to dominate. And when we did dominate, they called it pathetic:
Tightwad Phil - Ok, so we ran for over 200 yards, but against the worst run D in the country? Pathetic. We all expected Vereen to run wild, but the O-line didn't open up many holes. When he did break past the D-line, the TEs, WRs, and pulling guards didn't open up holes in the secondary.
Man, do I hope we are equally as pathetic this week against the Oregon Ducks. Please, Bak Bak, allow us to be that pathetic!
After the jump, all the numbers and comments you can shake some sort of stick at. GO BEARS!
Pass Offense
Category
Mean Score
Standard Deviation
.500
.181
Rush Offense
.674
.140
Pass Defense
.745
.164
Rush Defense
.735
.171
Special Teams
.423
.231
Coaching
.595
.190
Overall
.597
.167
Win likelihood vs Oregon
.142 (-.389)
.175
Berkelium97: I cannot tell you how glad I am that Cal won. I'd hate to see these scores if the Cougs pulled the upset. Not surprisingly, the defense received the best marks of the day, while Mansion and the offense received so-so ratings. Overall, the scores were fairly consistent in all categories.
Our predictions for a win against Oregon have plummeted thanks to Oregon's upsurge and Cal's mediocre year.
No editor's choice awards this week. I think that's a first for a winning week. I hope you guys have entertaining report cards next week, because running those numbers is not going to be fun.
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. You all followed the rules this week! That means I didn't have to remove any report cards for the first time all year.
Keep on pumping that sunshine, Scootie!
|
Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers |
Net Score, Percentage |
| 1. Scootie |
7.00, 100% |
| 2. jali |
5.50, 78.6% |
| 3. Rocksanddirt |
5.25, 75.0% |
| 4. BTown85 |
5.05, 72.1% |
| 5. JustBear |
5.00, 71.4% |
|
Super Critics |
Net Score, Percentage |
| 1. Willis Chong |
2.96, 42.3% |
| 2. OskiMonsta |
3.20, 45.7% |
| 3. Ugh |
3.20, 45.7% |
| 4. LazyBear |
3.40, 48.6% |
|
5. denholm reynholm |
3.50, 50.0% |
CGB HIVEMIND
Overall Deviation
1. hardtobeacalfan
.077
2. Redonkulous Bear
.085
3. 1988goldenbear
.089
4. elportalien
.092
5. ososdeoro
.094
Finally we have CGB HIVEMIND for those whose scores most accurately reflect the group scores. Once again hardtobeacalfan is most representative of how we all feel. You think it's hard today, try next week when Oregon lays 100 on us!
How did you all feel about the game? Furious because we almost were upset by one of the worst teams in the nation? Delighted because we finally earned a road win? Lets find out...
Gameday Experience
BTown85 - I was NOT afraid to hear the score this week.....WHEW !
JustBear - It was ugly, but we won the game, and that's what we needed. I watched on TV, and the announcer calling the TD on Ross's TD was the quietest I have ever heard.
ososdeoro - Michael Calvin was interfered with, but the flag was picked up (I'm pretty sure) because the referees decided the ball was uncatchable. Except that the ball actually hit his hands. That has to be a first. I'm sure there was a rest of the gameday in there somewhere but this was so flabbergasting I forgot everything else.
goldblooded - i went to pullman in 2006. it was hiLOLariously podunk. the band was also full of well-meaning and friendly inbred folk. my most vivid memory was of three fat bearded men in nothing but overalls and work boots; they were in all likelihood blacked out, and as they stood behind us (the band), they yelled at us for being 'band nerds' for much of the game. any attempt to respond to them resulted in a few moments of attempted comprehension as they started into space, drunkenly coming up with the next insult. i believe we scored around 20 points on that outing as well.
jali - A WIN ON THE ROAD! A WIN ON THE ROAD! A WIN ON THE ROAD!!!!!!!11111one
denholm reyholm - Watched the game from the computer, while watching The IT Crowd on the TV. For the most part the IT Crowd was more entertaining.
rocksanddirt - well....today I was at the Farmer's Market then swung by a local dive bar to have a pint and watch the first quarter. Then home with purchases and take youngest to a horse riding play day. Ditching out on her I watched the 4th Q at 'the Grad'. yay Bears Win!
troatie - I really want to check my heart-rate during Cal games. I'm convinced my heart goes through the rough until Cal is either ahead or behind by 3 touchdowns. That means today, my heart was racing the entire game.
CoBears - Gave me heartburn all day, but the win felt like Pepto Bismol, coating and leaving me at least feeling a bit better.
Tightwad Phil - Raleigh's; this time I didn't walk out, but mostly cause I brought my laptop and was doing work. That's a way of saying this was a pathetic game to watch. Like that rainy night win over Wazzu in 2007, this win felt like a loss.
Pass Offense
LazyBear - I don't remember Riley throwing so many interceptions. I think Riley's better, and I thought that before but people just didn't think he was good so wanted him pulled. And put who in? Anyway, Brock did look a little more athletic with his feet than Riley, and did have some good passes. Oline at times didn't give a lot of protection and overall I'm satisfied with this area because it wasn't a disaster, which I was worried about.
jali - A couple drops prevented a very solid day. Mansion was predictably imperfect but passable for a first start. Two very bad decisions/throws on the INTs and a couple other forced throws but could have been a lot worse. Obviously, to have a chance in the rest of the games this year, especially against Oregon, Mansion will have to improve my leaps and boudns.
Scootie - WOOOOOOOO!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
hardtobeacalfan - the overthrows by mansion look awfully familiar. i loved that sweet catch from jones as he rips the ball out of the guy's hands to prevent a 3rd INT. and that conversion of 3rd and 20 from ross was beastly. but mansion needs to get better if we're going to have a chance in the future.
mrjpark - Promising. Mansion messed up some reads and made some bad decisions, but he showed us he can throw the ball, especially deep. His deep balls are beautiful and make Riley's deep balls look like they were thrown by a high schooler. He hits his receivers in stride and drops it right over their heads. Yes, he slightly overthrew them, but that's how it's supposed to be done. It was really disappointing that two of them were dropped. Anyhow, someone who can put that much touch into a deep ball should be able to hit his short-mid passes, and I'm sure Mansion will be fine once he gets the butterflies out of his stomach.
THAT SAID. JRoss IS BEAST MODE. 3rd and what? DIDN'T HEAR YOU, WE'RE PUSHING A PILE 20 YARDS TTYL KTHXBAI.troatie - That was about as much as I expected out of Mansion. There were some terrible throws (including the INTs), but there were some great looking ones too. Our WRs really needed to step up a lot more. I also didn't like the play calling in regards to passes. I like how Mansion's deep ball looked, but I would have liked to see a LOT more screens. And even though it isn't pass offense: Mansion looked good on the ground.
ososdeoro - We scored only 20 points against the worst defense in D1A, during which two horrendously thrown balls were intercepted. While Brock was in other ways at least as good as Riley has been, the receivers were not (#1 excepted).
Tightwad Phil - Brock looked ok. Pretty mobile (except for a couple of misreads on blitzes). Great touch on his throws (except for those two ints). And he seemed to have some good protection, but those two early drops by Miller and Jones were inexcusable and changed the momentum of the game. Hasn't that happened in a couple of losses this year; early drops/int's that take away Cal's early offensive momentum?
Run Offense
1988goldenbear - Game started with so many big runs I thought we might put 300 yards on them just on the ground. But that didn't last. Nice game for Vereen both running and catching the ball.
hardtobeacalfan - it was decent but i was expecting more against a terrible wsu run defense. i liked the runs by mansion, but i'm not convinced he has good ball security since the ball keeps popping out at the end of his runs.
Haas8338 - The best play: QB keeper on the read-option, which, of course, is ironic because Cal doesn't have a read option. Sure, they have what looks like a read option, but with Riley/Longshore there was never any actual reading or optioning going on. Hopefully Dudwig is smart enough to see that he needs to run the actual play 5-10 times a game and let Mansion keep it when the "read" says to keep it.
Oh and an occasional fly sweep on the wildcat, or something to provide misdirection, would be a good idea as well.yg - Either the Washington State defense is sneaky fast or Shane Vereen is more than just a step slower than Jahvid Best.
troatie - Vereen looked great. Some of the "crazy bear" calls weren't so great. I was yelling out loud at the TV which direction they were going, and the WSU defense saw it too. But otherwise great running.
Scootie - WOOOOOOOO!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
CoBears - Vereen was solid, though I have to say that I expected more out of our running game. I expected us to run right over them; maybe that expectation is unreasonable given our recent OL troubles.
ososdeoro - Until we can effectively run up the middle, since the power run game IS Tedford's offense, I don't see how I can possibly give better than a C-. And considering this was the worst defense in the history of man we were playing against, an automatic one grade deduction applies. D-.
Pass Defense
JustBear - Overall pretty well played. I saw a lot of DBs playing on the field at same time. Did they take out MikeyMo and Browner? I didnt see them much.
What really bothers me is that we stop them on second down, but we easily give up 3rd down conversion over the air.yg - Beastly job in this game. A season low for the efficient Tuel time.
1988goldenbear - Tuel was like Riley - sometimes good, sometimes bad. More bad than good. I think between drops and bad throws the stats probably came out pretty good for the Bears. A better passing and receiving day would have been a problem for our D.
Scootie - WOOOOOOOO!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
jali - Looking at the final boxscore, their passing numbers were lower than how it felt. We continue to get
Redonkulous Bear - 1st half = Meh
2nd Half = lol kHaas8338 - Good pressure on the QB most of the time. Coverage was mostly good as well. WSU receivers dropped a lot of balls or the stats would not have been as good.
Run Defense
OskiMontsa - Surprisingly soft against the run. Shades of Nevada at times - Jeff Tuel???
Scootie - WOOOOOOOO!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
CoBears - Shaky at first, but solidified as the game progressed.
jali - Tuel's success on the zone read scares me. Darren Thomas will run roughshod over us.
1988goldenbear - Not bad, although the over-pursuit allowed for a few keepers by Tuel for big yards. Cannot afford to do that against Thomas and the Ducks, but it almost seems inevitable.
Mallrat92204 - I don't even remember the names of the running backs on WSU because they didn't do anything
Redonkulous Bear - QB containment once again proves to be a recurring issue.
Special Teams
OskiMonsta - This does not look like a very well coached team. Consistently flat and disorganized. Thank god it was WSU. Not confidence inspiring for the remaining 3 opponents. Thank god they are at home.
mrjpark - Holy shit, find a replacement for Luigi. You can't expect to miss 2 out of 3 from under 40 yards and remain the starter on a D1 team. Inexcusable.
Ross needs to make better fair catch decisions, but I kind of saw the mishap coming. He accidentally called a FC when he had a lane, which probably got him deciding to just take it the next time no matter what. Unfortunately, the next time had him down at the 6JustBear - Tavecchio has missed too many FGs. He has to make the 37 yarder. He has to make extra point. Every point matters in the next two games.
I think Ross should return kickoffs too, if KA21 cannot go.Scootie - WOOOOOOOO!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
jali - Coverage was poor, Conte's fumble and Ross' iffy decision making were lowlights, but it could have been worse.
Haas8338 - Piss poor. WSU is supposed to have the worst special teams around and it looked like Cal was battling them for that title.
Coaching
hardtobeacalfan - genyk hasn't improved our special teams all that much. i was going to give props to marshall for getting the o-line to play better than last week, but then i remembered we are playing wsu.
mrjpark - Wasn't great, but wasn't bad. What matter is they went in at half team, beat some kids with lead pipes, and got them out on the field semi-motivated for the 2nd half. I think the fake 34 is gonna get Full Metal Jacketed -- soap and all -- next time team has a sleep over. Overall, the team looked well coached and didn't shoot themselves in the feet like they did against the Beavs. You can tell they're still trying to ease in Mansion; they're giving him mostly screens or bombs. He did try to go over the middle a couple times, but 3 INT tells you how that story ended. They're probably going to keep taking it slow with him.
troatie - I keep going back and forth with how I feel about the offensive play calling. It was a good amount of pass plays called for Mansion. But I would have liked to see more short passes. Get him comfortable. But that said, I think we could have leaned on the run a lot more. Defense looked good. Special teams make me sad.
Scootie - WOOOOOOOO!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
CoBears - A win on the road is good. A win of any kind with a backup QB in his first start is good. A close win against a bad team is bad.
Overall, I suppose I can't complain with a win, even an ugly win against a less than respectable team.jali - I saw that some were looking for us to run the ball more early on, but I liked the aggressive and creative playcalling. Letting Mansion throw some passes probably helped him later in the game and should help for the rest of the year.
On offense, I liked some of the QB runs/options to let Mansion use his legs and make it a little easier on him. On defense, we continue to live and die with aggressiveness. A blitz to get a sack would be followed by a screen into the area vacated by the blitzers.
ososdeoro - I really liked that we came out passing. We aren't going to beat any of our remaining opponents just running the ball, and Mansion has to get experience somewhere. It had to be done, IMO. On the other hand, the end-of-first-half clock management was gawdawful, at least until Mansion's INT. This and the special teams play could easily have cost us this game. Even against this opponent.
Mallrat92204 - No controversial conservatism from the coaching staff this time around. However, I was watching the Oregon-Washington game at the same time and was WOW'd when Chip Kelly called a fake XT point and went for a kicker run up the middle. The first thought I had after that was "Wow, Tedford would never call that in a million years."
Overall
jali - Nice just to win. We're at the point where we don't need to worry about style points. The turnovers hurt but the overall yardage advantage is definitely a plus to take from the game. If not for the turnovers and bad field position, we could have won much more easily. Obviously, you can't just discount those problems, but they seem like more correctable issues than if we hadn't been able to push Wazzu around.
denholm reyholm - Gave me at least a little hope of being bowl eligible.
mrjpark - It was a D+. They're graduating, but not moving on to a 4-year university. I do think we can win 1 more in the next couple games and reach a bowl game, but things have to fall in correctly because there are no gimmes left. I was disappointed that KA21 wasn't in the game plan and that Calvin saw more plays than he did. Actually, did Allen see any playing time this week?
Offensive line was much better than last week, but the competition was also much worse. So we'll see. Playcalling was fine in my books; a bit conservative, but completely understandable. Defense made up for all other deficiencies (read: special teams).rocksanddirt - only one stat matters. W.
troatie - I dunno. Immediately after the game, I was thinking, we should have killed them. But you know, I think it wasn't that bad. Mansion's first start, and the defense looked pretty good. 20 is the least amount scored on this defense this year, but WSU scored 28 on Stanfurd, 23 on Oregon, and 28 on UCLA. So overall, it was not bad. But for now I'm calling this "not a loss" rather than "a win."
Scootie - WOOOOOOOO!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
1988goldenbear - Kids did well to win on the road. I wish it wasn't so close, but I'll definitely take the win. That scrum to get the first on the little slant to Ross was amazing - lots of heart right there. Mansion will get better, and it gives me some hope for next season already. Shock the world - beat the Ducks.
Tightwad Phil - A few bright spots: Jeremy Ross, Brock Mansion, Shane Vereen, Bryan Anger, Cameron Jordan. But overall, yet another lackadaisical and poor effort. This win feels like a loss.
BTown85 - Take it all w/ a boulder of salt since it was against the worst in the conference. Solid performance and good timing for our first-time starting QB. That signpost up ahead? Reality.