Many people looked at the Cal-UC Davis game as almost a pre-season game for Cal. A chance to let the starters build confidence. An opportunity for Tedford to take the training wheels off and see how the jalopy runs. You saw there were a few miscommunications that led to delay of game penalties, poorly used time outs, and a fumble on a snap.
Well, here at CGB, we are no different. UC Davis was our pre-season game! And when it came to the Report Card, I definitely had some problems. In specific, I forgot to put a comment box for the rush D. Sorry! I'll make sure to fix that before the Colorado game or else I'll be benched for NorCalNick! Gotta build some confidence in these early season games. After the jump, let's take a look at how you all graded Cal and your thoughts on the game. GO BEARS!
First, Berkelium97 has crunched the numbers from the grades. Looks like people generally thought Cal did well. The numbers are at the B level. People appeared fairly happy, but still had some concerns. We are Cal fans afterall. The only time we are happy is when we are unhappy. Here are the numbers:
Pass Offense: .823
Run Offense: .740
Pass Defense: .815
Run Defense: .881
Special Teams: .821
Coaching: .856
Overall: .847
Colorado predictions: .835 (-.006 from Fall Predictions)
Awards:
President of Keenan Allen Fan Club: BeastMode (every submission on his report card was "KEENAN ALLEN")
The next pair of awards is for our most and least optimistic voters. Each individual's raw score and percentage are given.
Sunshine Pumpers: sec119 (6.55, 93.6%), racsan (6.5, 92.9%), Swamphunter (6.45, 92.1%), mig (6.4, 92.1%),omnizzle (6.4, 92.1%)
Super Critic: 77elduderino (3.8, 54.3%), Ursa Major (4.4, 62.8%), 2dmaxx (5.05, 72.1%), Unbearable Likeness (5.1, 72.9%), JD (5.2, 74.3%)
The next pair is for our least and most divergent voters. The number corresponds to their deviation from the group mean for each vote.
CGB Hivemind: avsrock90 (.025), beson (.038), atomsareenough (.044), bearea51 (.045), California Pete (.047)
One-way ticket to Twist's re-education through labor camp: elduderino (.317), Ursa Major (.209), Unbearable Likeness (.154), coolingfan (.143), JD (.141)
Gameday Experience
IMG_0630 (via Monica's Dad)
DaveBear - Crowd was impressive for a Davis game but far too quiet. Everyone seemed to be in a wait and see (i.e. "I won't get excited about this team until they give me a good reason to be")
The mike-men were no help. Never leading any stadium cheers, the absence of and GO-----BEARS cheer until late in the game. Roll on you Bears cheers that pooped out before they really got rolling, and general
ineptitude in leading cheers (When will they learn when coming back from a time-out to watch and wait for the TV guy to signal before making the crowd rev up the noise so it doesn't fade out before play actually begins).
Sheesh!
Bands were great and having a visitor band was awesome.
Looking around at the changes in the stadium and SAHPC was really exciting. Can't wait for 2012.mig - For the first time in my three years here, I watched the game in the Baseball Tavern at Fenway with the Cal Alumni Club of New England. It was a pretty good time.
royrules22 - CGB Open Thread = teh awesome
Kodiak - Mrs. Kod rocks. She kept a steady stream of beer coming my way while I watching the board and the live blog.
NorCalNick - UCD fans were complaining about the hills the had to walk up. Lazy flatlanders, welcome to Berkeley!
She did have a minor work crisis which I solved for her...by giving her a double limoncello.
The unruly offspring were supposed to nap...but didn't. At least the kid knows how to yell "Touchdown Bears!"totallyawesome - Drunk. Awesome.
hrlincon - Better if my internet connection with "clear" Seattle was as advertized. However, Cal Bear football has started once again. Life is again worth living.
abaddon - PRD is my hero
Beastmode - KEENAN ALLEN
loudbear - Great crowd, Davis fans were energetic and comported themselves well for a blowout. Beautiful day and a spark and energy in the air. Fantastic way to start the season: today , the whole damn world did seem like Bear Territory
77elduderino - Sunny, a little drunk, very happy! GO BEARS.
katster - Watched it at home with my sister, the UC Davis alumna. Had to explain some concepts of football to her, but she enjoyed the game even though her Ags got killed. As for me, a Cal win is always good. Five more for a bowl game. :)
ososdeoro - red, red wine you make me feel so fine, all of the time, all of the time. Red skin, not so much
Spazzy McGee - LOVED seeing all the Davis fans. Can't wait for when we play @Davis in the future.
CruzinBears - New seats are excellent, new alumni neighbors like to cheer and be loud and respect my family's enthusiasm.... All around a great experience... beer at halftime from the Bear Backers tent.... uber clutch!
atomsareenough - Stayed home on CGB and cleaned house!
goldblooded - i honked twist's ass several times. he got annoyed and told me to stop, so i honked his boob (Ed Note: This is true and I am suing!)
CaliforniaPete - Watched at home in SoCal thanks to Veetle.com. I guess I have to tip my cap to those nerds at Stanford for doing at least one thing right.
avsrock90 - Watched it at home in Colorado, in HD (surprise!), on the dish. Feels great to have Cal Football back
SwampHunter - I dig the new concourse area near the alumni section. It's a sure sign that construction is going well and as planned.
JRBear - My limbs are sunburned and my face is burned except for the two circles that my sunglasses were covering. ...So I'm basically a panda right now.
Pass Offense
IMG_0172 (via Monica's Dad)
Tedfordium - Keenan Allen is the real deal, Riley missed a couple open throws, but didn't make any poor decisions.
royrules22 - KEENAN ALLEN WILL YOU MARRY ME?
Beastmode - KEENAN ALLEN
Omnizzle - Riley played well, minus a few errant throws. The long throw to Jones should have been a touchdown if it had been thrown 5 yards deeper. But other than that, all I have to say is:
KEENAN ALLEN. WOW.racsan - I was disappointed in the 1-6 stretch Riley had. It seemed he lost focus and was just going for highlight reel low percentage plays.
Sweeney looked unsettled. Didn't really throw muchsactobear - No game breaking plays. I expected our "O" lime to dominate more
Kodiak - The first few drives of the game highlighted the new Riley. Accurate. Precise. Quick and compact release with good feet. Good decision-making. He even completed some nice throws on the run. Then, they got a little more pressure on him and he reverted for a couple of series.
It highlights the importance of the O-line for this year. If we can protect Riley, he's capable of being really good.CaliforniaPete - 'd be feeling very good about Riley's performance, except that the big question this year is his consistency. And guess what? While he was (mostly) very good today, he had a short stretch in the 2nd quarter where his accuracy and execution were suspect. For now, I'm choosing to wear my Rose-colored glasses and keep the Pasadena dream alive.
atomsareenough - Riley was sharp early, but then seemed to lose his rhythm. He found it later, but he was definitely erratic for several snaps. Hopefully it's just a small 1st-game hiccup.
77elduderino - If we can't throw down field against Davis... uh oh.
Run Offense
IMG_0288 (via Monica's Dad)
royrules22 -IF KEENAN DECLINES, WILL YOU MARRY ME SHANE?
Oh yea Isi and Yarnway look greatUnbearable Likeness - I was pleased to see some great holes but the line looked winded by the middle of the 2nd quarter. Overall, it was a decent performance but left a lot of room for improvement.
JD - Liked what I saw of Yarnway
Beastmode - KEENAN ALLEN
DaveBear - It was solid though not impressive. Verren and Sofele performed and complemented each other well. Though there were not Best-like big plays, (I expected someone to break a long TD run against Davis), all the backs had positive contributions. Stevens was impressive at fullback. We will see a lot more of him I think. This will never be a major worry.
SwampHunter - Rated kinda low just because there weren't that many yards. The run game still looks pretty good none-the-less.
77elduderino - Frighteningly bad. The o line did not open things up. This does not bode well.
Kodiak - If we wanted to, I think we could have run the ball every play and still scored 50+ on them. Pretty good job opening holes. Vereen showed great vision, balance, and strength. Isi showed surprising strength to go with his quicks. It's obvious why he won the #2 spot. Yarnway showed some nice feet and Debo did okay, too.
abaddon - Rushing offense was underwhelming given the caliber of opponent. It looked to me like Davis was really focusing on stopping the run, though, which presumably helped open up the passing game. Still, the run blocking wasn't giving our backs much to operate with until the passing game proved it was going to be succssful.
totallyawesome - Vereen looked like his usual self - very sharp, technical runner. Did blow open the big one but almost always went for positive yardage. Sofele is the Truth - gave a lot of Cal fans reason to be excited for this and next season. CDJ also had a few good runs as did Yarnway, but the day was stolen by our jitterbug, Sofele.
Pass Defense
IMG_0260 (via Monica's Dad)
Beastmode - KEENAN ALLEN
royrules22 - Looking good, Pend(y)! Liking the blitzes and Jordan is picking up and acting like Alualu. Coleman is a MONSTER. Secondary looked fast but you can't really tell
coolingfan - Even knowing Davis wasn't too big of a threat, defense was simply flawless and deserved an A+. It was great to (finally) see the opponent QB being pressured and some blitzes.
hrlincoln - First play of the game, tight end uncovered. Argghhhhhhhhhhhh
totallyawesome - Hagan looked good, as did anthony and the rest. Was really excited to see Steve Williams on the field. UC Davis didn't have a chance.
SwampHunter - Pendergast for Vice President. This was not the same D that Gregory ran. Much more pressuring the QB in necessary situations.
We will see a better challenge next week against Colorado to see if it is the real deal.JRBear - Even though I felt the majority of incompletions were a result of being uncatchable rather than our defense, at least our guys weren't out of position like last season.
Unbearable Likeness - I saw 1 sack all day and that came in the 4th quarter. Yes, there were a lot of hurried passes and they did a great job limiting their offense to less than 100 yds. But c'mon, that was a red shirt freshman quarterback on a tier two-level team. They should have been in the backfield all day long.
So, when we play Colorado next week, a team known for big front lines, this front line better step it up a few notches from today's cakewalk.sec119 - Some of the pass defense numbers are as attributable to poor passing from the Aggies as much as it is to the pass defense. For a lot of the incompletions, the receiver would have been tackled immediately if he were delivered a catchable ball, so the positioning is ok, but I still don't know what to make of this unit.
Special Teams
IMG_0351 (via Monica's Dad)
Beastmode - KEENAN ALLEN
ben - Anger's punts are a thing of beauty. I really enjoy watching him warm up. The kickoff coverage was solid. Ross made a lot of good decisions on returns and fair catches, but I was surprised (and disappointed) to see the Davis punt coverage team on top of him so often
mig - The kick coverage was pretty mediocre - one of Davis's kick returners averaged 25 yards per return. On the other hand, Tavecchio was sending a number of kicks behind the five yard line, Anger was averaging 49 yards per punt, and Ross was doing some awesome hurdling.
Tedfordium - Great punt returns, Trevecchio has added some distance to his kicks.
Kodiak - Both kickoffs and coverage were fairly consistent. We actually looked like a normal, relatively competent unit out there. It was mind-boggling. I don't know if this phase of the game is going to be a strength yet, but at least it didn't stick out like a glaring weakness. Ross showed some improvement as a returner. But can you imagine Allen fielding punts?
abaddon - Wow... how about those special teams? A new dawn in the Jeff Tedford era as for the first time we don't have any need to scream ALAMAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!! at the top of our lungs... not even once! And unlike many of the other phases the kickoffs are not something that will be harder against better opponents.
avsrock90 - Very good game for tavecchio overall, but wtf was that kick to the 25? That came from nowhere.... Punt coverage got baited by the returner's bluffed and missed downing a ball at the one or two, but that's what early games are for...
CruzinBears - 1-5 yrd line and End Zone kicks?!?!?!?!!
Forza Moraga and Forza Campolindo!!!!!!bearea51 - Kicks past the 10 yard line, a few potential punt return TDs, good tackling... the only thing that would have made special teams better is if Giorgio's kicks had a bit more hang time
Coaching
IMG_9880 (via Monica's Dad)
Beastmode - KEENAN ALLEN
katster - That Biggs guy is awesome! He kept UC Davis playing hard until the bitter end!
...oh, you mean ours. Tedford has more wins than Pappy now. Go Bears! Other than that, it was okay, but that's pretty much what you want.royrules22 - Great performance but keep in mind taht this was a FCS team. You can't really make any predictions with this game but Allen gives me hope
Kodiak - Well, we didn't lay an egg. So, the coaches had the guys focused. Hard to say. We so thoroughly outclassed and outathleted them that it's not really a fair measure. However, I thought the offense was balanced and diverse. I liked how the D already shows different looks - it's hard to say where the pressure is coming from, or if it's coming at all on any given play. Our guys still don't show a lot of natural pass rush ability, however. This could be an issue against better teams.
UrsaMajor - I actually like being considerate at the end of the game. I don't get the decision to go for it on 4th and short when we already had the game put away. I did appreciate that Sweeney got to throw a bit (though he was unimpressive).
ben - I know the student section loves going for it on every 4th down, but I was a little surprised to see Tavecchio not trot out there a few more times. The overall crispness and execution of the offense was quite impressive, and, to me, a sign of good offseason preparation. The Oline and punt return teams (aside from Ross) were iffy to me.
77elduderino - Get ready for a 7-6 year!
CaliforniaPete - In Tedford we Trust!
whos21 - I like that Pendergast is on the field. Also, has Tedford lost weight?
Overall
IMG_9645 (via Monica's Dad)
Kodiak - Not bad. Not great.(except for Allen) Which is probably about right. There needs to be enough things to point to on film to keep the guys focused and motivated. Colorado will be a lot tougher...as will Nevada...and then Az. I still have unanswered questions for our Oline, secondary, and Mr. Riley.
Random player thoughts:
Kendricks had a great game. Holt still seems a step slow. Coleman is a beast. Miller was surprisingly quiet. Didn't remember Hill's name being called. Conte's tackling seemed improved. Allen is a beast.atomsareenough - It was a solid tune-up game for the tougher opponents we're going to see later on this season. More or less what you want to see from a good team against a weak team.
CruzinBears - around.Twist has toooooo hairy of a chest....
Spazzy McGee - Great. We didn't learn much except that Keenan Allen is awesome and Riley _MAY_ be better than last year.
whos21 - Some might have seen a little of DeSean in Allen. At least a few of us were thinking of Aaron when Riley was nine for nine. But no one would mistake UC Davis for USC.
Unbearable Likeness - Overall, the team looked about as good as they are ranked in the Pac-10. Frankly, I was expecting a lot more, especially from the defensive line.
What was Sweeney doing out there today? A bad Tebow imitation? With that stable of receivers on the field today he couldn't find an open man? C'mon, we're better than that. He needs to be stepping up his game a lot if he wants to be the #2. He looked incredibly jittery.
But, boy, can Allen play football!Overall, I'm pleased that they had a very productive offense and the defense had a good warm-up today. However, I think the team looked a little slow, the defense either overran or got passed on a few running plays that showed the cobwebs of the off season. But Washington, Oregon, and Oregon State all looked much sharper on defense and seemed to have a lot more energy than we did. So, I a little nervous because, outside of Ross and Allen's play, I didn't see a lot of improvement to look forward to.
77elduderino - LETHARGIC. If we play this way against even a bad Pac 10 foe we could get spanked.
Beastmode - KEENAN ALLEN
sec119 - Obviously, we played well; the difficulty lies in calibrating our evaluation to the true level of FCS talent. Sometimes, beating an FCS school is a real accomplishment, and other times it's a mirage. The Davis sports writers seemed to think Davis would do better, so maybe we played well on an absolute scale. But really, I would treat this as a glorified scrimmage.
loudbear - Cal has beaten up lesser teams but doesn't always look sharp doing it: previous years it would see a war of attrition where depth was what wins out. It is a huge difference to have the confidence to go the 2nd and 3rd string in the 3rd Quarter and continue to execute. This will pay huge dividends for later in the season and for the future beyond: Reminds me of the first Tedford year... GoBears!
DaveBear - The performance was solid, about as well as we could expect for an opening game. Allen, Jones, Vereen, and Riley were all impressive and bode well for the offense this year. The defense will improve, I think, and so there is great hope there too. The offensive line hopefully will be mostly injury free and, if so, should really improve as the competition steps up. It was hard to tell how well they were doing as Davis was not a great challenge.
I think it is in Cal's favor that the schedule steps up each week with Colorado being a bigger challenge than Davis, and Nevada being a much bigger challenge than either of those, leading to the Pac 10 Arizona opener.
The offensive and defensive lines should be able to grow and improve
with each game and hopefully be ready for the challenge that Arizona will certainly be.
It's hard to tell in a blow-out win with a very vulnerable opponent but
I am hopeful that Cal is in the hunt this year, despite the pre-season predictions of lower tier performance.