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Negatives anyone? Which ones did you see against Utah?

After a sloppy, blowout loss, there were plenty of negatives to go around. Which ones stood out to you?

By unclesam22
Russ Isabella-US PRESSWIRE

Vincent S: Ugh. Do I have to put something here?

TwistNHook: Where to begin? Perhaps the fact that I spent a chunk of the positives thread talking about punting is a sign. If you look at the stats, the score would seem bewildering to you. Cal significantly outgained Utah in yards. Cal averaged like 5.5 yards a rush! Just look at the stats here:

                                    CAL     UTAH

FIRST DOWNS...................       19       22
  Rushing.....................        7       13
  Passing.....................       12        7
  Penalty.....................        0        2
NET YARDS RUSHING.............      153      188
  Rushing Attempts............       28       45
  Average Per Rush............      5.5      4.2
  Rushing Touchdowns..........        1        4
  Yards Gained Rushing........      184      210
  Yards Lost Rushing..........       31       22
NET YARDS PASSING.............      288      156
  Completions-Attempts-Int....  20-32-1  16-24-1
  Average Per Attempt.........      9.0      6.5
  Average Per Completion......     14.4      9.8
  Passing Touchdowns..........        2        0
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS...........      441      344
  Total offense plays.........       60       69
  Average Gain Per Play.......      7.3      5.0
Fumbles: Number-Lost..........      3-2      1-0
Penalties: Number-Yards.......     6-52     8-80

That doesn't look like a team that got blown out. But because Cal lost two fumbles, had a special teams meltdown, and gained most of these yards when the game wasn't in doubt anymore, they mask the disaster. Here is the key here:

Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD   4-76-0  4-230-2
  Average Per Return..........     19.0     57.5
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD..   1-10-0   1-13-0
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD.    0-0-0   1-17-1

Cal gave up 230 yards and 2 TDs on kick off returns. 57.5 yards per kick off return! Obviously, that's skewed and the mean would be significantly lower than the average, but still.

Berkelium97: I could produce a list that makes Luther's 95 Theses look like a shopping list, but I'll focus on one particular element that bothered me to no end: second half offense.

1. We don't hand the ball off to Bigelow until there are 29 seconds left in the third quarter? The O-line was dominating in those first few series. Why not go for a home run then?

2. Hook and lateral: why even bother pulling that out of the playbook? There were 3 minutes left in the game and we were down by 29 at the time. If we're going to show opponents it's in our playbook, at least run the play when its outcome is meaningful.

3: No time for backup QBs? I was pissed when Tedford had Maynard playing on that final series. There were 4 minutes left and we had no chance to win. Why not give Bridg or Hinder some experience with the 1s? I hope this isn't an omen for the future. After we lose the next game, we have no reason whatsoever to continue playing Maynard. But if we keep playing him with 4 minutes left in a 4-TD game, why wouldn't we play him after we're already bowl ineligible?

JahvidKnowsBest: Just about everything. I understand we were missing 3 out of 4 starting Lbs. I saw McCain near campus around 3 pm on Saturday, so he didn't even end up traveling with the team. This begs the question as to why Tedford wouldn't bring the heart and soul of his defense on the road in an extremely hostile environment. A bit perplexing. Also, kickoff coverage... What the hell happened? I knew we were gonna get blown out after they took the first one to the house.

Ohio Bear: Wow. Where to start? And once you get started, where do you end? We gave up not one, but two, 100-yard kickoff returns for touchdowns. We can start right there, I guess. And on the second one in particular, not only did the special teams play poorly, but the effort was poor. It was embarrassing.

We can identify a lot of offense derp, defensive derp, and special teams derp. The negatives go on and on. But to keep it broad here in this space, the overriding negative for me was that the performance was uninspired and had the look of an unfocused, unprepared team that was not mentally ready (or willing) to play.

LeonPowe: This season isn't over yet? Ugh, it's one thing to see a once good coach decline and have his team not prepared. . . but this season has been so long already.

Unclesam22: As everyone has said, way too many to list out. Once again, Cal came out under-prepared, with little energy and effort, and looked disinterested. Super frustrating to watch.

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