TwistNHook: Recently, some people expressed concern about being able to criticize Coach Tedford at this site. They felt as if their attempts to state their viewpoints on Coach Tedford's failings were met with disinterest or condescension.
I wanted to stress that we have the Report Card for a reason. Because us front page mods, we're just a bunch of randoms trying to help jump start conversation. It's you, all of you, who are the real superstars of the site. And we wanted you, all of you, to have an opportunity to have your viewpoints up in lights. When I'm putting these posts together, I try to take as many great comments as possible. I don't edit to prove an agenda or anything like that. Whether they are critical or praising Coach Tedford (or any other aspect of the team), I just focus on ones that really reflect the great readership we have here at CGB.
If it wasn't for our great readers, we'd just be tilting at windmills over here. So, again, thanks for being so awesome. And just to show that we accept all viewpoints here, let's start this particular Report Card off with a comment that is critical of Coach Tedford. I'm not here to agree or disagree with this comment, merely to provide it (as I do with all other comments) for your enjoyment without my stupid ramblings. Thanks to CaliforniaALUM and all others for taking the time to fill out a Report Card! It means a lot to us here.
CaliforniaALUM - Tedford should be fired for not getting the backup QB some throwing reps during the game.
More great comments and your grades after the jump! GO BEARS!
Pass Offense
Category
Average Score
Standard Deviation
.750
.126
Rush Offense
.674
.159
Pass Defense
.858
.090
Rush Defense
.921
.099
Special Teams
.604
.156
Coaching
.785
.153
Overall
.813
.110
Win likelihood vs UCLA
.839 (+15.5%)
.142
Berkelium97: Everyone's happy this week!
Maynard earned great scores, as did the defense and coaches. Sofele and running Maynard had a good day, but they were outshined by passing Maynard.
Special teams continues to be hit or miss.
My goodness, look at those predictions for UCLA! Our chances of returning from LA with a win are a whopping 15.5 points higher than they were during the summer. A nationally televised faceplant of epic proportions will do that, I suppose. PUMP PUMP PUMP that sunshine!
No Editor's Choice awards this week. I'll happily take scores this high in lieu of a ballot or two worthy of an editor's choice award.
We do, however, have the usual set of awards, the Old Blues and Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers.
Even the Oldest and Bluest of us give the Bears a (barely) passing score! Success!
|
Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers |
Net Score, Percentage |
| 1. Scootie |
7.00, 100%! |
| 2. yg |
6.40, 91.4% |
| 3. JABear |
6.35, 90.7% |
| 4. Rocksanddirt |
6.20, 88.6% |
| 5. Cugel |
6.18, 88.3% |
| Old Blues | Net Score, Percentage |
| 1. golden oso |
4.20, 60.0% |
| 1. resbear | 4.20, 60.0% |
| 3. CALiforniALUM |
4.30, 61.4% |
| 4. SoCal Oski |
4.40, 62.9% |
|
5. Willis Chong |
4.63, 66.1% |
Pump that sunshine, Scootie!
.053
The Voice of Reason
Total Deviation
1. oskiwow
.032
2. SierraBear
.032
3. HydroTech
.044
4. FromCtoShining(Blue)C
.047
5. hardtobeacalfan
Next up we have The Voice of Reason for those whose scores most accurately reflect the group scores.
Oh hey, it's HydroTech. No wonder everyone loves his analysis posts so much--he's a man who represents the voice of the people!
Now let's hear your thoughts on Saturday's game. PUMP PUMP PUMP!
Gameday Experience
resbear - Stands were really empty :( Young alum section wasn't very spirited til we already had the game in hand. We did finally get a reasonably good go bears chant going with the students though!
golden oso - Expected a pillow fight and that's what I got through the 1st quarter. After that, it looked like Cal was the only one to bring its pillow and loaded it up with a few rolls of nickels in the process.
wifeisatroj - Thanks to the streamer! (I noticed later, people were really griping over at Calbears.com.) Tried to listen to Starkey at the same time but he was web-delayed by about 20 seconds.
MaineMode - Thank you to PRD
mini cal - We brought tons of jackets, etc. But we surprised for the second week in the row for 'unusually' warm San Fran weather. Were the fog?
BTown85 - We don't get CSN Bay (freakin') Area up in Portland, so I have to go to the SkyBox sports bar where they have 30 TVs and they'll dial up whatever you want SOMEWHERE in the bar. 3 IPAs and a burger got me through the first score of the second half when I had to leave, but it was fun.
Californication - Another beautiful day in San Francisco! The crowds were way down from last week, so we actually could go to the restroom and snack bar during the game and not miss much action. On the other hand, it was disappointing to see empty seats.
Oskiwow - Awesome weather and tailgating in Parking Lot A. Stadium felt very empty, and I think the final attendance figure was an unimpressive 35K. Also, why do the opposing teams always get the choice seats at the 50-yard line bleachers? For the second straight week, it was a sea of red. In any case, winning is a kind of ambrosia, and makes everything about the gameday experience that much better.
PetalumaBear - "I miss Memorial. It was a beautiful day with family and lots of friends. Enjoyed the ferry ride to/from Larkspur and the beautiful weather. Very pleased with the effort from the team and the playcalling by the coaches. Lets keep rolling Bears!
VandyImport - "Had to leave at halftime with a sick wife, who was a gamer to make it out in the first place. From where we are (317, high above home plate) the visitors still make ridiculous noise relative to us. But we have one old dude who is constantly leading cheers, and they actually sent a cheerleader up to assist him for a while. Looks like Mic Men are randomly going through the crowd to help stir stuff up as well.Ultimately, I think the structure of the stadium (and arrangement of students and band) just make it difficult to gin up the kind of noise to which we are accustomed. Only two more games though, neither of whom will have U$C-level local fan support. Deep breath, we'll get through this.
Also, would it kill anyone to open more than one or two stands on the 300 level? At least they're not looking for flasks..."
Oaklandish Bear - Finally got to see a game live, having missed the first two (three) due to travel. Started the day with a couple of tastings of the fine spirits @ Hangar One before heading for the ferry. Almost missed the ferry, as it filled up just a few people after us. Headed to Java House for a beer before heading to our seats. Beautiful day for a game, and a victory!!!iVinishe - "The student section is terrible. We can't see anything, we have an off-angle view of the video board, no one can hear us when we're yelling unless it's within 10 yards of the end zone, we can't do ""Hey Alumni GO!"" because the alumni can't hear the cheer, students have stopped showing up because the seats suck so much, and on top of it all, we have to watch as opposing fans fill up half of the sideline bleachers, while the other half is empty.
I took a walk along the Field and View levels. Seriously, you can barely hear the band, let alone the students.
Willis Chong - "I was sitting in my seat up in 319 and I see a couple of cheerleaders and one of the mic guys leading us. Actually, that's something that I liked! It was nice for the alumni to start doing cheers like students, something that I felt was lacking in the last couple of home games. There will need to be some way to synchronize the two sets of cheer squads. When we had that pick-six, one side of the band played ""Sons of California"" and the other played ""Fight for California.""
The team is finally taking advantage of the sound equipment at AT&T. It's starting to finally feel like a home field advantage now."
prd74 - Wow, it was Cal versus SC all over again, except this time we were SC and Utah was Cal. Utah had so many bad plays that resembled Cal's worst moments that it was actually spooky.
hardtobeacalfan - woooo! feels good to get first pac 12 win.rocksanddirt - mostly listened to starky and ttaylor as i was driving around finding a door to replace one that disintegrated at our house.
g - "Game was a blast to be at (certainly more fun than last thursday). Crowd was more involved. Still can't hear the band or student section that well during the game though.
Overheard someone complaining that the visiting team gets great seats on the other sidelines. That's ridiculous. Doesn't even happen in memorial stadium."
JABear - "Went to the Charter Hill Club tailgate before the game. Delicious food and open bar? Cal takes good care of its donors! Student section attendance was abysmal. Even rally comm only took up about two rows of one section. Also, kind of embarrassing when you have to cancel card stunts. The only perk of poor attendance is that only the true fans (i.e. the noisiest/rowdiest/most dedicated) are at the game.
Also, FrankCohen predicted the exact final score prior to the game, but he didn't bet any money on it. Foolish."
Scootie - OH SUNNY DAY!!!!
Pass Offense
rurata - They looked like a whole other team out there. Maynard played like all of a sudden everything just clicked. There was only one really bad throw that I can remember, but luckily nothing bad happened from it. Utah's defense is supposed to be very good, so I am tentatively optimistic that maybe Maynard has finally turned a corner. Maybe it just took some growing pains via the Oregon/USC games for things to click. All of the designed boot-legs, zone-read options, and fewer dropped passes may have helped him get into a rhythm too. We'll have to see how he performs over the next few weeks, but for now I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.
OaklandishBear - Great game for Zach, and so good to see him bounce back from last week. Over 200 yds, again! 65% completion! Good distribution to Allen, Jones, and Calvin! Fantastic catches by Jones and Allen! Yeah, Zach forced a couple of balls and should have had at least one picked, and there were a couple of drops by Hagan and Deboskie. But overall a great game.
CalBear91 - Like we've all been saying, if Maynard can just play solid ball, and not throw picks, we have the tools to be competitive in most games. We won today because of defense, and because Maynard kept us in the game by not making mistakes.
crazedfan - Probably Maynard's best, most complete performance of the season. With that said, there were still a few BAD throws, including one that should have been picked off by a Utah defender. But overall it was a very solid performance.
JustBear - "The best it has looked all season.
It is really hard to get Keenan Allen 150 yards when we are up that many points, but I want him to get 1500 yards for the year.
It was nice to have Calvin and Miller involved in offense, and also CDJ is a good option too.
The least drops in a game this year."g - Maynard seems a lot better. Made some great passes (especially that long one to the TE). Still makes some bad decisions, threw in traffic a lot (very lucky there were no picks) and overthrows, but better than last week's. Very nice seeing him distributing the ball. Maynard doesn't seem to throw the ball away and sometimes gave up on the play and running instead of throwing it away to avoid loss in yardage.
iVinishe - I noticed Maynard looking off his targets. For a split-second. Regardless, this is a HUGE improvement, and enough to satisfy my questions about whether he was being coached up. Much improved game from him today. I'd take this Maynard for the rest of the season if offered.
SoCalOski - "Honeybadger was running this time. Look out! says the opposing LB, but Honeybadger doesn't give a shit. He just runs right by him.
Honeybadger is so badass, he throws into double coverage. What? There's a linebacker fading into coverage or a corner making a break on a telegraphed pass? Honeybadger just doesn't give a shit. He just throws that ball and dares the defense to intercept it.
"
golden oso - Honey badger returns! Went through his progressions, didn't stare down his receivers (too much). Great way to keep the play alive on the deep throw to Miller. Solid execution on the roll outs. No wildly erratic passes; some overthrows but nothing like we saw against Oregon or SC. He looks more comfortable when he's not asked to be a pocket passer.
Run Offense
prd74 - Best run offense of the season and this came against a pretty solid defense. Maynard's runs, especially the TD, Isi looking like a gamer with his goal line run, and CJ looking big and bad were exactly what we had hoped to see all season long. "Better late than never" was never more welcome.
PetalumaBear - We did well against a stout run D.
JustBear - Utah keyed in on the run, and they stopped Sofele on most plays, but Sofele still managed to rush for 80 yards and that is really impressive. Maynard keepers are great too.
yg - Isi has a very distinct fish-like flop when he's tripped up, but he plays hard.
Willis Chong - Isi had a decent game. CJ had a decent game. CDJ had a decent game. Maynard actually ran. I say it worked today. It also looked like the O-line was getting some push up front.
iVinishe - CJ Anderson seems to have lost some of his effectiveness. Translation: O-line still has some lingering issues run-blocking. Isi looks better and better. I just wish he had a bit more top-end speed; then he'd really start breaking off runs.
BTown85 - I'm glad Isi got to do some damage to his friends. He gets all the smack talk privileges at least until next year. CJ did NOT look as shifty as he has before.
Oaklandish Bear - Passable. Seemed like the Bears were either getting stuffed at the line or ripping off 5-10. Avg just over 3 yds not really good enough, but just enough to keep the Utes honest. But let's show some love to Isi for the TD up the gut on 3rd and goal from the 5!!! I also liked getting Maynard more involved in options.
wifeisatroj - Still exceeding the expectations I had at the beginning of the season. But also not what we Bear fans have become accustomed to.
golden oso - Nice to see JT use ZM15's mobility. Isi was solid against a good Utah front seven, but not explosive like we've seen ion the past few weeks, but I'm still solidly entrenched on the Isi bandwagon as 'our guy.' Although..., still would like to see a solid #2. We haven't been getting the production from CJA or CDJ that I'd hoped for but could be a result of the in-game situation? taking what the defense gives us? or just not enough faith in either? But what do I know?
npyoung35 - Loved Isi this week. I was legitimately sad whenever I saw CJ coming on. He showed he could definitely be our full time feature back going forward, glad he'll be around to be healthy and productive for the next 1 1/2 seasons (no jinx no jinx no jinx).
bigdruid - "There was one play that pretty much exemplified our run offense for me - we were running a sweep for Sofele, and he's running at full speed towards the sideline with one Utah defender sprinting to cut him off. Sofele tries to change direction to break his run back inside, but it takes him 3 steps to stop his momentum and make the cut, which gives the defender a chance to recover and make the open-field tackle for almost no gain. Without a running back who can make that cut, we're never going to have a particularly productive running game.
I liked the fact that we ran Maynard more and showed some wrinkles with the zone read. But hated the fact that in the 4th quarter we couldn't run the ball to run out the clock (7 running plays for a total of 10 yards on our last two possessions (not counting the kneel down at the end). So, yeah. Hard to be happy with that kind of production."
Pass Defense
prd74 - Our young defense sure look like they have been doing their homework. The Utah QB looked bothered and haggard from the beating he took from our D which is exactly what we expected to see from a rookie QB going against a superior Pac 12 defense.
hardtobeacalfan -great! 3 INTs! i think we only gave up big yardage passes really late in the game. and the pressure was awesome.JustBear - "McClure is getting better each game, and I think he deserves to be a starter when Anthony comes back. Williams and McClure are shut down corners and it was nice to see 3 picks.
Also finally, we got some pressure on the QB and finished it with sacks or tackles."FromCToShining(Blue)C - For the most part, very good. Those long catches the Utah receivers made were just great catches despite good coverage. Great penetration to get to the ball carrier. Then again, they were also going up against a very poor quarterback and an overmatched O-line. Not sure they were really tested here.
yg - Congrats to McClure for intercepting his first interception! Kendricks has the clutch interception near the end of the half that really shut out Utah's momentum.
OskiWow - Even though it was playing against a very one-dimensional, run-first offense, the pass defense did a great job. Anytime you sack a QB four times, intercept him three times, and force and recover a fumble, it's a good day.
MaineMode - Hopefully McClure's interception is the first of many.
1988goldenbear - "Utah is not the same without Wynn, and Hays is over his head at this point. Good pressure (finally!) - and we will need more of that in every game from here on out.
Still had some killer penalties that would have hurt against a better team."
resbear - Wow. I'm even starting to feel just the faintest rays of sunshine for the Big Game. Hopefully they don't lay any eggs against the next three "easy" teams we play (but is there really an easy game for Cal?)
npyoung35 - "Overall, hard to find a lot that could be better. Gonna need to keep working hard to produce anything like that against a real Pac 12 quality QB though.
One thing that absolutely killed me with both pass and rush defense though was the number of missed tackles. Even though it was less of an issue that previous games, there seemed like MANY times when we could have dropped their QB/RB for big losses but let them get back to the LOS. (DISCLAIMER: Could be exaggerating this somewhat.) A win is a win and a very good performance is a very good performance, but if we want any chance to keep it interesting agains the 'Furd, we're gonna have to lock them down at first contact EVERY TIME."
bigdruid - "Hard to get a read here since the Utah offense is so bad. I feel for those guys - starting a backup QB that's not ready to play at this level is tough (as we found out last year). That said, we were able to dial up the pressure and get at him several times.
Really liking McClure's development, although given that people keep throwing at him I'm guessing he must be doing something wrong out there that coaches think they can exploit."
Run Defense
Berkules - Yikes.
FromCToShining(Blue)C - LIGHTS OUT. Great penetration, excellent job clogging up the running lanes, and good speed to keep them from getting outside. Negative rushing yards for most of the game? I'll take it!
Willis Chong - I don't get the feeling we could really tell how good our run defense was. On the one hand, we didn't give up very many rushing yards
SoCalOski - If the uclol running backs ought to be fearing for their very lives.
OskiWow - Dominant. Pendergast knew that stopping Utah's RB John White would make it a long day for backup QB Jon Hays, and the team did a great job of executing and doing just that.
VandyImport - Effective. Didn't particularly stand out, but then, I was trying to juggle a sick wife, a split of Jack Daniels, and two more games on the iPhone. (Aaron Rodgers' little brother is no joke, yo)
MaineMode - We have the best run defense in the Pac-12.
Petaluma Bear - STOUT.
resbear - Stouter than Guiness
Special Teams
JustBear - "Anger smash! That's why he should not be rugby punting.
Our kickoff coverage was bad today. Tavecchio missed a short FG. They allowed Utah to convert 4th down punt fake. But nothing disastrous.
I did not scream ALAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR today."Californication -Anger punted well all day except when asked to rugby punt. Why do we still do that?!?! Kickoff coverage was not good. Another blocked kick against us. Yippee!
g - "God please stop using the rugby punt.
Kickoff team coverage is terrible.
Tavecchio needs more practice on angled kicks.
Response to the fake punt wasn't to great either."JABear - Anger was exceptional, but the rugby punts still make me cringe. The extra points and field goals seemed to be kicked a lot higher this game. I think just about every extra point on the north endzone ended up sailing over the All-State net into the student section. The missed (blocked?) field goal doesn't bother me too much. The only real bad thing special teams did was give up that fake punt play early in the game.
Truman Hugh - "Tedford needs to critically assess and correct this element in the off season. There's got to be a better ST coach out there...??Such mediocrity has been a staple of Cal teams going back to Alamar. Cal deserves better Special Teams play than this."
OskiWow - Mostly good, save for a 29-yard FG miss and sometimes spotty kickoff coverage. Our own kickoff returns aren't very effective either, often placing our offense within our own 20. It was good to see Anger unload a 62-yard punt and for Tavecchio to make 2 of 3 field goals and all four PATs.
1988goldenbear - Giorgio and Anger were solid. Coverage was decent too.
fuzzywuzzy - Almost perfect, but we are not allowed to completely fire off all cannons in a conference game. Who does that anyway?
crazedfan - Disappointing. Two kickoff returns were bad, ran right in to the point of Utah's attack and only started on or around the 15 yardline. I'm not sure if that's on the blockers up front, or poor decision making on the part of Bigelow and Edmond.
Coaching
mini cal - Play calling. At first I wondered why Tedford kept running up the middle, but it really seemed to pay dividends in the second half.
hardtobeacalfan - great defensive plan and execution. i liked seeing maynard utilized according to his strengths with the rollouts and the zone reads. one thing to work on is discipline and limiting penalties.
Jacobs - Thank you for letting Maynard run!
OskiWow - "Kiesau called a nice game and played to Maynard's strengths by rolling him out left and calling some play-action plays. I think Maynard had the most rushing yards this season since the Fresno State opener.
Pendergast had a good game plan (i.e., stop the run - which we did - and dare Utah's second-string QB to beat our man-to-man coverage - which he couldn't).
OL seems to have improved, particularly over the performance against $C last week.
Not sure why there were something like 8 penalties for 90+ yards."
g - "No real complaints. Play-calling was more fine-tuned to Maynard. Defense was good.Main complaint was that bridgford wasn't really used. Hopefully we can see him play next week."
yg - The real hero is Coach Blasquez. Ask Utah now if Cal is the worse conditioned team they've ever played.
prd74 - For as bad a job as I felt this coaching staff had done through the SC game, I have to say that there so many positives in this game that I had to reverse my grading score from the previous week. More than once I said to myself, "Finally, this is what we expected" or "Wow, I haven't seen that before." How cool was that!
Oaklandish Bear - I'm going to be critical here because we only had 3 TDs on 6 red zone trips, continuing a problem we've had all year. I'm also SUPER pissed that the coaches didn't bring in the second team earlier in the fourth gtr. He should have come in with 11 minutes to play. The game was over (34-3), Zach had nothing more to learn, and we need to get Bridgford some more PT. Plus, why risk injuries to Zach, the WRs and Isi.
wifeisatroj - Seems like they kept Maynard's running mostly under wraps until the second half. Fine, but what do they do next week, when everyone knows Zach can run? I guess we'll see.
fuzzywuzzy - 34 -10, can not even begin to complain - I don't give a shit if Bridgford never threw the ball, he'll get a chance sooner or later, me thinks
Overall Performance
hrlincoln - "This performance would have easily beaten the USC team we played last Thursday. It might have even beaten the Oregon team we played the week before.
THANK YOU Cal Bears!"
rocksanddirt - only one stat matters. W
FromCToShining(Blue)C - Pleasantly surprised. We came out to play today and it showed. The penalties are worrisome but that can be fixed (I hope). Feels very, VERY nice to finally get a conference win too! Hopefully the performance today (aside from the special teams which need to improve A LOT) is indicative of the team's performance for the rest of the season. Go Bears!
prd74 - This is the first game in three years of internet streaming where I couldn't stop myself from typing "watch this" before the play started on the internet (there is a slight delay from realtime to what is shown on the computer). After a yearlong drought where we saw no improvement and truckloads of mistakes, this team told the entire Cal community to "STFU and watch us do our thing". I asked this team to make me eat my words after the last game and they did. Tasty! More, please!
Oaklandish Bear - Great game in a must-win situation. Great bounce-back by Zach, continued improvement by the defense, and no turnovers. Just need to improve special teams, penalties, and red zone TD efficiency. The next three games are all winnable.
mini cal - Overall, a great game. The obvious negatives were kick off run back coverage, and penalties.
blackandblue(andgold) - I didn't watch the game so I'm judging this on highlights and stats alone, but this looks to me like a team that is going to do some great things next year. We don't lose to many people, just Jones, Guyton, Tipoti, Cattouse, Tavecchio and some others and while they are some pretty significant players, we are returning a lot of incredibly talented individuals, especially on the defense. While this season is going about how we expected it to be, I have some high hopes for what we can accomplish next year. That being said, the rest of the season won't go to poorly as well. If Maynard can continue to play mistake free football as he did today, there is no reason why he won't shred secondaries against UCLA, WSU, and OSU. Our defense will continue to stay dominant, and this will most likely end, in my opinion with a respectful 7-5 record. Not great, but not horrible. Next year though..... I'm looking forward to it
MaineMode - Much improved. Let's see if the team can carry its focus through the soft underbelly of our schedule.
Cugel - "Very satisfying game on many levels, really the only negative is the continued number of unnecessary penalties, many of them just dumb. Defense looked beastly, the offense looked poised and confident, the special teams was solid; the only thing that held this game from being a break out game was the number of penalties. That can't make the coaches happy.
If we had played this well against UW and USC, we would have won both games (sigh). But overall, I think this team has improved leaps and bounds from the Fresno State game."
crazedfan - An all around great performance, albeit against a woefully undermanned team. I'm not so sure the outcome would have been much different even if Utah had a healthy Jordan Wynn, but it certainly would have been more competitive. Cal simply had better players thanks to years of solid recruiting and it showed against Utah.
Californication - All in all, a good result against a bad team. How did Utah win at Pitt???