Duck, Duck, GOOSED! - Cal v. Oregon Report Card

Berkelium97: Well, that wasn't fun. Not only was that a miserable game, it was a long, long game. I can think of several more enjoyable ways to spend four hours: watching paint dry, hand-trimming the lawn, driving through Los Angeles during the day.

	Average	Standard Deviation
Pass Offense	.220	.198
Rush Offense	.226	.190
Pass Defense	.395	.237
Rush Defense	.251	.203
Special Teams	.209	.223
Coaching	.296	.252
Overall	.200	.180
Win Chance vs. Wazzu	.530 (-.26)	.222

For the first time this season, pass defense was the highest rated category! We can thank the wind and rain for giving the defense a hand. We can also blame the same elements for our relatively low pass offense grade. Other than the pass defense grades, the grades were pretty consistent and ranged from .200 to .300.

The win likelihood vs Washington State has taken a nosedive and now reflects Vegas' pick 'em odds for the game.

Let us not dwell on these numbers any longer than necessary. I'll hand out some awards to lift everyone's spirits.

Awards!

First is our editor's choice award, which goes to royrules22. In the name field of the report card, he wrote this: "royrules22 Why is there a gigantic text area for the user name. Are you expecting me to write an essay here? I did engineering so that I wouldn't have to write."

Names like these are exactly why the text area is so large. And if you did engineering so you wouldn't have to write so much, why did you choose to write such a lengthy name?

Now, we move onto our usual triumvirate of awards. First, we honor those who watched the game through rose-colored goggles.

Sonny Delight

1. c98	7.00 (100.0%)
2. GoldenBear 77	3.60 (62.9%)
3. GoldenBoiler	3.50 (50.0%)
4. JABear	3.10 (44.3%)
5. CalBear91	3.00 (42.9%)

c98 must have accidentally re-watched the 2006 game. The rest of those scores are about what I would expect.

And now onto the most pessimistic among us.

Sonny Yikes!

1. Swamphunter	0.00 (0.00%)
1. texashaterforlife	0.00 (0.00%)
3. fuzzywuzzy	0.01 (0.01%)
4. Minesweeper	0.40 (5.7%)
5. Nasal Mucus Goldenbear	0.49 (7.1%)

Yeah, I can't disagree with those scores. I hope none of you actually attended the game. I can't imagine how miserable this must have been in person.

Finally, let's see whose report cards were closest to the community average.

The Voice of Reason

User Name	Deviation
1. 1988goldenbear	.085
2. puresilence	.097
3. sacman701	.102
4. PRD74	.106
5. Glad to be UCSD	.116

Those deviations are a bit higher than usual. In fact, none of you would have even made the top-5 in any of this season's previous report cards.

"Glad to be UCSD"? Come on, man. I'm taking your award away and giving it to PhilaBear, who finished 6th.

And now let's turn it over to Sam and the comments.

Sam Fielder: So now on to the comments. We did not have nearly as many entries this week, which I halfway attribute to the late time of the game and halfway attribute to the terrible performance. We did have some very witty handles (and lengthy too) and some funny comments. We are nothing if not good at gallows humor. So anyway, on to the comments!

GameDay Experience
puresilence: rainy
goff looked horrible, defense was meh, offense was sh*t until the 4th quarter garbage time: meh, didn't expect much
texashaterforlife: Duck
Bearly Legal: I love Cal Water Polo!
Goldenbear8933: So... Much... Rain...
Fire sandy!: Once again completely out coached and schemed. Our defensive coaches and scheme are like amateurs going against pros. Poor defensive hire and big 10 scheme, which works so well against the PAC on the past, not - are going to keep this team down until either Buh or sonny leaves. Worst d since holmoe.
fuzzywuzzy: Fumbles, Fumbles, Fumbles
Ugly, Uglier, Ugliest
Couldn't run, pass, or tackle
Kline?
Interception...
Total meltdown
RhetoriCal: GO BEARS! *sob*
CalBandGreat: I tried doing a shot every time Oregon scored or we turned over the ball. I was passed out by the second half.
Takimoto: It rained like hell. I was severely disappointed in the Cal Swim Team, who were sitting in front of me in jackets AND ponchos. Don't you earn your schollie in the water? Come on girls! Fortunately, Missy Franklin escaped Autzen uninjured.

Dexter1: Possibly the most embarassing Cal game I've seen - and that says a lot. Did Holmoe return?

Pass Offense
c98: Oh yeah? Just wait till next year! (Their answer for each category)
JABear: Mediocre at best. Lots of drops and miscommunication. Goff was rattled and pulled. Kline looked like a backup, although I don't see why he couldn't have started last season.
1988goldenbear: Goff couldn't hold on to the ball, nor could he throw the ball. Good idea to pull him before he got hurt in a scrum for another fumble. Kline was not bad, not great. Stats are deceptive because of all the drops. He did a great job despite getting tossed into the monsoon. Either Oregon's D-line is super good (probably) or our O-line is super bad (maybe). But our guys got abused in the trenches.
Oaklandishbear: The only reason I kept watching the game was to see how Kline would do. Aside from holding onto the football, I wasn't that impressed. Looks like SonnyD made the right decision out of camp.

PRD74: I know Goff is a freshman who did remarkably well in the earlier three games, but tonight he needed to be pulled. He was a freaking mess out there and literally handed the game to the Ducks in the first quarter. Kline did well against the Ducks second and third strings.

Run Offense
texashaterforlife: Duck
Glad to be UCSD: Liked copich, lasso's comments look silly in retrospect but I liked his effort in the 4th
Cal Fan: We averaged 2.9 yds per rush. Pathetic.
1988goldenbear: Too bad we don't practice holding onto the ball. What, we do? Oh, then too bad it doesn't work. O-line got dominated, so it probably didn't matter who was running the ball. Coprich got some good PT, good for him. Lasco played fairly well. Muhammad and Bigelow got abused by the Oregon 1st string D, especially since they knew we were running because our QB couldn't hang on to the ball.
GoldenBoiler: we know our offensive line doesn't run block well, this is still the case. I believe Bigelow is the better back, but Lasco is probably the best choice right now. He seems stronger and that is important when you don't have blocking.

Pass Defense
sec119: Hard to grade defense when FUMBLE!!!!!!
texashaterforlife: Duck
Bearly Legal: Well, we did hold Mariota's stats down... let's claim some credit, deserved or not.
MJB: We knew it would look bad and that the Bears are thin there because of injuries and questionable coaching on defense. We were right about all of that.
boomtho: Why are we lining up 2 DBs against 3 receivers? Same sh*t as the Bob Gregory days and the result is unsurprisingly the same
About as disastrous a quarter as humanly possible took us of out the game before we even had a chance.: Best performance of the season, but that may have been attributed to the rain and the lopsidedness early. Plus Oregon had short fields all the time so even if they wanted to they couldn't have given up that many passing yards.

Run Defense
sec119: Hard to grade defense when FUMBLE!!!!!!
texashaterforlife: Duck
sacman701: Poor. Allowed around 6.5 yards per attempt before Oregon called off the dogs.
MJB: Not much better. Maybe even not as good. The inability to recover fumbles is disappointing.
About as disastrous a quarter as humanly possible took us of out the game before we even had a chance.: Also improved, I thought the defense as a whole held their own admirably considering how bad of a position the offense put them in time and time again.

Special Teams
texashaterforlife: Duck
Bearly Legal: Coverage team did not look like they wanted to be out there in the rain. I hope they didn't catch a cold, since that would've been the only thing they caught.
Glad to be UCSD: Leinenger took a poor angle on the first. Block in the back and missed tackles the second td. Missed pat was upsetting
Takimoto: They didn't give up three punt return touchdowns. So that's...something.

golden oso: With the QBs fighting to hold onto the ball, I'm surprised Tommerdahl went for the fake punt. Punt coverage was beyond bad.

Coaching
royrules22 : RAIN RAIN GO AWAY
JABear: Like the guts to pull starters over ball security. The turnovers clearly rattled Goff, and frankly after the third one, I was happy to see him benched. I am a little surprised he did not return to the game at all. Coaching is an area that's hard to grade due to the loss. From here, it looked more like our execution across the board was off, not necessarily our game plan.
texashaterforlife: Duck
Goldenbear8933: First time I think we looked like we got thoroughly out-coached
boomtho: I don't know how much to read into this. Pretty bad if they didn't do wet ball drills... but the weather was so ridiculous. It felt like to me people were mostly in the right position to make plays and just didn't (except the screen issue)
bobsyerunkle: come on man, this team is bad and some of the blame has to be on the coaches. this is a crap team that doesn't seem to be prepared for anything. the first four games of the season have been a disaster (well maybe not Northwestern).
GoldenBear 77: Sometimes, probably mistakenly, I think I see where coach is headed. He went for fourth down repeatedly. I think that his willingness to do this when strategically it appeared to be dubious, was to say to this team -- it is all on the line-- I am not going to accept quit and it is up to you to learn how to fight. My coaching grade is high despite what appeared (and appearances can be deceiving) to be a lack of preparation for the game conditions because I love the way he is challenging the players. (Although post Mortum, the dismissal of Chris McCain is further evidence of this, in my opinion.)

guano007: What happened to Goff the anointed? Why didn't Dykes keep him in the game to take his lumps? I suspect they wanted to preserve his stats. If you don't play, your stats won't suffer. Kline played a respectable game. Look at the competition he faced in this first ever test, maybe the best team in the nation. No, it wasn't stellar but it wasn't bad either. The one interception can be pinned on the receiver that gave up on the play. The numb finger receiver corp also dropped 5 or 6 balls that should have been caught. I hope Kline sees through the coaches scheme to keep him as a sacrificial lamb that will only play when Goff crumbles under the pressure. Mr. Kline should transfer to a program that will utilize his talent.

Overall Performance
puresilence: fumbles
Swamphunter: Yes, I am serious. We should have gone in and played a much better game than that. What moron taught our guys to hold onto the football like that in the first quarter? That's all I need to hand out zeroes like candy. Absolutely pathetic. Tedford could have called a better game than that. Congrats Sonny, you did it. You made me want Jeff back.
c98: GO BEARS!
sec119: Damn, we are awful. Yet, I felt like we could have won the game, too, insofar as we shot ourselves in the foot so many times. So it goes.
texashaterforlife: GOOSE!
sacman701: When you fumble on your first four possessions, you almost invariably lose. Against Oregon, forget it.
Cal Fan: We have the same record as last year after four games and we shoulda lost to Portland State. I think we were better last year.
the beer: The tackling is horrible. McClure had that guy in his sights when chasing him from behind on that punt and got faked out - if he would have just kept straight on into him, he would have had the tackle. Lowe did the same thing on about a 3rd and 20+ when he put himself into perfect position in the backfield and then just stopped - if he would have just kept straight on into him, he would have had the tackle. This is a coaching issue and fixable, though it will take time. Worst tackling Cal team I have ever seen.
WursterBear: Whatever optimism I had at the beginning of the season is now gone. Which is nice, because now I can be pleasantly surprised at anything positive. Well played, Sandy Barbour.
Bear in Chicago: Subtract the punt returns and the first quarter fumbling, and the performance isn't as horrible as it first appears...but I believe the score would have been worse on a clear day in Autzen.

Again, thanks to everyone that took the time to fill out a report card and leave some comments. GO BEARS!

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