Dogged by the Huskies: The Cal Football v. Washington Report Card

Berkelium97: We've been doing these report cards for 8 weeks now and I just don't think this is going to work. It is my professional opinion that the Bears withdraw from this course and retake it this spring.

	Average	Standard Deviation
Pass Offense	.304	.224
Rush Offense	.226	.197
Pass Defense	.205	.193
Rush Defense	.159	.190
Special Teams	.460	.249
Coaching	.245	.227
Overall	.240	.227
Win Chance vs. Arizona	.184 (-.416)	.210

Different game, same story. The offense received terrible grades. The defense received terrible grades. The coaches received terrible grades. And in a pleasant departure from the Tedford era, the special teams grades weren't that bad. The special teams grades would have been much worse, however, if not for some ill-timed Husky penalties.

Our win chance against Arizona has plummeted from a preseason prediction of 60% to 18%.

Awards

Although we elected not to hand out an editor's choice award this week, we do have our reliable troika of awards.

Sonny Delight

Name	Grade
1. rollonyoubears111	7.00 (100.0%)
2. sup_doe_library	3.45 (49.3%)
3. Nor-Cal Scott	3.20 (45.7%)
3. calfootballaddict	3.20 (45.7%)
5. djnoblin	3.10 (44.3%)

Someone clearly spiked rollon's Sonny D this week. In second and third place we have Sonny Delight regulars sup_doe_library and Nor-Cal Scott. Oh, calfootballaddict. Don't you know how bad it is for your health to be addicted to Cal football? May I recommend something more mild like meth or bath salts?

Sonny Yikes!

Name	Grade
1. SoCal Oski	0.00 (0.0%)
2. Nasal Mucus Goldenbear	0.08 (1.1%)
3. beson	0.20 (2.9%)
4. Unwatchable	0.50 (7.1%)
5. texashaterforlife	0.80 (11.4%)

Not surprisingly, SoCal Oski leads the pessimists. beson makes a second consecutive appearance among the Yikes! crowd while texashaterforlife continues to be a regular among the cynics.

The Voice of Reason

Name	Deviation
1. chruppel	.064
2. puresilence	.069
3. sacman701	.077
4. 1988goldenbear	.080
5. GoldenBoiler	.100

Has my relentless nagging worked? After several weeks of mocking the Voices of Reason for their unusually high deviations, the numbers have come back down to respectable scores. chruppel leads the way while puresilence and sacman cement their positions as regulars among the Voice of Reason crowd. Good job this week. Let's keep those deviations dropping.

I have nothing else to say about this game, and for good reason. I'll hand things back over to Sam for the comments.

Sam Fielder: Not surprisingly, given the late start time and not so close nature of the game, our number of responses dropped again. So did the level of creativity and humor, as most of the comments this week I would file under the category "Resigned" (Insert Buh joke here). But we have some great comments to share this week, so let's take a look at what you guys had to say!

GAMEDAY EXPERIENCE

Beson: You know, with the team playing this badly, I don't mind the late starts. No one ever wants to watch the games anymore, so I end up watching them at home. Drink until I'm sleepy then crawl into bed.

TooUsedToGapage: Hinder over Kline at the end is probably the biggest development. The outcome of the game was a foregone conclusion weeks ago.

SoCal Oski: Grey day near the beach in West LA, grey uniforms for Cal, grey performance by the team, grey outlook on the season ...

Nor-Cal Scott: It sucked to watch another game on a Saturday night. Doesn't Larry Scott know I need to go out and party?

schmidtty mcfunstuff: I don't remember anything after halftime...

chruppel: I was there. Sigh.

PRD74: What a beautiful day! Now the night, not so great. However, sitting in my living room, on my couch, with my BFF, who also loves to watch Cal football, is never a bad thing. She did comment on how she did not care for the gray uniforms and I said I liked them. This thumbs up comes from the guy who wears khakis and a polo shirt for 363/365 days of the year. There have been times when Cal football has eroded to a point where I was only interested in whether or not I won the football pool or how good was the pregame and postgame tailgates. This being one of those years, I have begun to measure the quality of our play by how many times I yelled "OH NO!!" versus the simple "YES!". Tonight there was a noticeable increase in the "YES!" column. Happy Halloween!

Oaklandishbear: Went out to dinner with friends, then to Pican for some bourbon, before going home to watch the game. At least the bourbon was good.

How do you know Goff is the long term answer if you won't start Kline to see what he can do? (Formerly known as Start "Zach Kline," and before that "Rose Bowl Oski"): It was very disheartening that Kline didn't get the start. Goff didn't commit any turnovers this week, but he missed a lot of throws while getting only one first down in Cal's first four possessions. By the time he found any rhythm, Cal was down 17-0.

1988goldenbear: Watched with my two boys. Had a campout in the backyard planned - tent and sleeping bags, etc. I was thinking I would have to sneak out and watch the 2nd half after they fell asleep, but then UW scored that last-minute TD in the 2nd quarter. Slept like a baby. Good times.

rollonyoubears111: Unfortunately, I was not given the opportunity to watch the game under the influence of etoh because I had to work the next day at 6am. Hey, did you know that I didn't have the etoh dehydrogenase? That means I don't need to spend much on booze for myself. I do like to buy others shots and drinks when going out, so if you see me and say, "roll on you bears!" I will make you take a shot while I fall to the ground as the vapors hit my mucus membranes. Etoh would've come in handy during this game though. You know, when we saw those Fusky running backs seemingly make our defenders stand still and when there were some broken tackles and when those big plays deflated the soul and when our receivers didn't catch those balls that were thrown right on their hands or when our O line just let some defenders waltz over to pressure our qb or how about that time we fumbled the ball in the redzone again...umm...you get the idea. It was cool accepting things. It's like watching that lone child on the beach right before the tsunami hit Indonesia, you sorta felt helpless, but accepted the fate...well, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it certainly hit a similar nerve. You know, like after it happens, you'd be like "Man! You can swim out! Hang onto something, dude! Fight man, fight!" So, yeah, it would've been nice to have a sip of a little something something.

Gumibears: My dad tried to convince me to stop watching and said it was a losing cause. I still have hope!

Texashaterforlife: I'm really starting to hate the late start time. Only games played at Hawaii should start later than 7:30 pm.

PASS OFFENSE

SoCal Oski: The promise Goff showed in the first three games is not being met. Sure, he had a magnificent first few games, but right now the best one can say is Goff is an average qb

sacman701: The usual. The quick passing game occasionally worked, but it almost never worked well enough to sustain a drive.

PRD74: No turnovers, but dropped passes; sacks, yet no injuries. A mixed bag that spilled out only 7 points. When the Oline has more time together and the WR stop dropping passes we will be a glass half full again program. Maybe against Arizona? Nah.

Oaklandishbear: Decent, but not good enough. ASU lit up the Huskies, but we couldn't. Goff wasn't super sharp, there were a few drops, but Harper is a stud. The stats might not reflect it, but it seemed like the OLine played a bit better. We're just not able to recover from bad plays (mistakes, penalties, drops, etc...)

1988goldenbear: Goff made some awesome throws and some bad throws. And no fumbles today! He got rushed a lot, but overall he adapted to the porous o-line fairly well. And for a makeshift deal, the o-line played fairly well against a good defense. More drops - Treggs, Harris, Powe - some of those were killers that would have been 1st downs. Rigsbee was not any worse at center, even after only a week of practice, so that is good news moving forward. I don't mind burning the redshirt if we are looking at a 3 1/2 year starter, and I hope that happens.

RUN OFFENSE

the townie: Finally a long run but otherwise a disaster

puresilence: Yay over 100 yards rushing! Granted a chunk of that came on the long TD run...

Maveric23: I would like to see the coaching staff utilize Bigelow more. Maybe like the Saints use Sproles.

Bearly Legal: Woo, our first long rushing TD of the year! Aside from that, meh.

RhetoriCal: Asides from Mohammed's garbage time run (praise be unto him) I actually thought we were running better (hard to run worse). The new o-line looks like it's playing a bit meaner and hopefully they work on their technique and get tougher so I don't see so many of them ending up flat on their back (though that was mostly in pass pro).

RIP DJ (Dawgfather) RIP Cal Football 2013 Season: Run offense? I feel like I should have tried out as running back for Cal this year. Every one and anyone has gotten playing time. Other than Bigelow's first drive of the year against Northwestern and Muhammad's 73 yard TD run against Washington, our 'crawling' game has many flaws. First, can the O-line make a push forward? These RBs are having to break tackles in their own back field before they can even achieve any acceleration to get positive yards. Second, unless you have a running QB, these sweeps to the outside simply make the RBs run more east and west than north and south. Clearly, the Bears aren't as fast as we thought they were in getting to the outside. Third, they have got to have a plan when it comes to the run game. They have at least 6 RBs on their roster who have had enough playing time this season. What a weapon they are sitting on! They could devise a game plan to run the ball more often and wear down the defenses. The speed the Bears supposedly possess is only advantageous when the other team is fatigued; they have to keep their RBs fresh and wear down the other team in order to break long runs late in the games.

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PASS DEFENSE

Beson: Improved. They went from "atrocious" to "not bad ALL the time". Unfortunately, the times that they are bad, they give up long td bombs on third down.

sup_doe_library: Drew's a complete liability in coverage. Lowe needs to maintain discipline like a FS should. We did see some solid play from Jackson and Willis (the first big TD was Drew's missed over the top coverage), and I did like the DL playing hard and generating some pressure (Lopa is becoming my fav bear defender). For a while we had Price playing like bad Price, even if he did torch us for a ton of yards, without big plays he would have had a pretty pedestrian game. And one of those big plays was on Lapite. which barely counts. which reminds me: why is Isaac Lapite still seeing the field? And while the DB's and DL played well, the LB's for the most part, did not. Nickerson continues to be a huge liability on the field, showing awful pursuit, limited athleticism, and getting lost in coverage. There's no excuse for the team's starting MLB to be this bad, when the DC is a MLB. At this point I'd have pulled the plug on Nickerson, because if playing LB is what I do, I recognize that the guy doesn't belong on the field (yet).

sacman701: Pass rush showed some life. We seemed to do a better job of mixing up blitzes. Walker seems to be improving in coverage. As usual there were some horrible breakdowns. Willis' failure to keep up on his long TD was entirely on him, but Lowe should not have gotten stuck 1 on 1 downfield on a WR.

Texashaterforlife: ugly this year and I do not see improvement until year 3 because of our talent pool.

RUN DEFENSE

Rollon22: Ahh, if only we can ask the other team to play rugby

BTown85: Missed tackles KILLED us....and not just on their BIG runs....

Nor-Cal Scott: Cal needs to go back to a 3-4 in the pass happy Pac12 conference. If Buh only knows a 4-3 then perhaps it is time to make a change. With all of the injuries I want to give the defense the benefit of the doubt, but I'm now convinced that the 4-3 scheme is also a major issue.

Calfootballaddict: Thought it was interesting that Walker seemed to get more play time over Drew, who seems to be the better tackler/run defender. Walker got beat in space quite a few times and I think it would have helped to have a more physical Drew trying to slow down Sankey. Have fun with KaDeem Carey next week #ugh

Gumibears: decent except for the big runs.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Djnoblin: God bless mediocrity

Bearly Legal: It's the first time a fake kick cost us points. I say we keep trying, and incorporate some surprise onside kicks too.

RhetoriCal: It's sad that the mild competence of special teams merits my highest grade.

Gumibears: just fine.

Texashaterforlife: Fake punts and fake field goals are good when down by a score or the game is in doubt. The call for the fake was when the game was not in doubt by any realist.

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COACHING

Rollon22: Easily the worst coaching for any major program in the Bay Area. Maybe the entire state

Scottyc: What coaching?

Djnoblin: Crap

Maveric23: I think they should scrap all trick plays since it may take practice time away from the standard plays that we clearly need to focus.

BTown85: It kills me when a team runs the SAME PLAY over and over again and we don't figure out how to defend it better. In this game it was Sankey follows the right side of the line for 7-12 yards. Gotta plug those holes, Bears.

SoCal Oski: Dykes and company continue to not impress. For whatever reason, the excitement and hype and joy about his coaching acumen is not validated by any on-field result. At all. But heck, at least the kids are going to class and he's laying the foundation for the right sort of "culture", right?

sacman701: I disagree with the decision to start Goff. We know what he can do. We really don't know what Kline can do. Goff may be better at running the offense as designed, but even going forward there is no guarantee that we will have the OL to run the offense as designed. Defensively, there were a couple breakdowns that may or may not have been scheme failures. It isn't clear whether Lowe was supposed to be 1 on 1 deep against a WR or whether the safeties were supposed to be up near the line on the play Sankey busted at the end of the first half.

RIP DJ (Dawgfather) RIP Cal Football 2013 Season: I put my head down on this one because I thought Tedford should not have been given the hook. Tedford and Kline was a project in the making 3-4 years before Kline came to Cal, but I digress. Dykes has emphasized the wrong things each week in practice. It's not a QB battle, its an offensive line, defensive line, linebackers, running backs, and defensive backs battle. We love to talk QBs, but Dykes has yet to diagnose the heart of the matter. His interviews have become somewhat cliche. I want to start hearing specifics. The 'plan for the future' card is total BS in college. These guys are between 3-5 years. So in 2 years, Goff may be amazing, but then he'll only be amazing for one year before graduating (or not) or going to NFL. Dykes has to put together a solid team each year because in college (with a rapid turnover rate) you are ALWAYS planning for the future and planning for now. In year 1, I have seen whom I thought were going to be 2 standout players: Bigelow and Cameron Jackson, have worse games as the season progressed. That's not coaching. These guys are supposed to get better and better, but seems like they have not improved at all over the course of the year.

How do you know Goff is the long term answer if you won't start Kline to see what he can do? (Formerly known as Start "Zach Kline," and before that "Rose Bowl Oski"): Dykes' Tedfordesque stubbornness with not giving Kline a shot, even though the offense has sputtered at the beginning of each game the past several weeks is beyond puzzling.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

the townie: More of the same

puresilence: sad

sup_doe_library: I'm probably more bullish on this game than most. I think we saw some good, important things in this game. Goff took care of the ball, the run game had a pulse for half a quarter. The DL is figuring things out. the new OL has potential and I think this is the first time it's looked halfway confident since the injuries to adcock and cochran. I think getting cochran back will be a help. Okafor and Borrayo easily outplayed how Tagaloa and Brazinski have been playing. In the end, if this team can take the best of how they played tonight and manage to do that for 60 minutes, they'll win some games. They're getting there. Now's not the time to self immolate, things are about to get interesting imo. If i'm Arizona or SC i take notice. Maybe I wouldn't be afraid of actually losing to Cal, but I think I see that this Cal team is getting better and this game was the start.

TooUsedToGapage: At least we covered the spread, and suffered no major injuries. But we may lose Kline for ever...

Unwatchable: Guess we'll never know what might have happened had Kline been given a start just for sh^&s and giggles. Defense will never play at a competitive level this season, so it doesn't really matter now who the QB is. I can't recall the last time that expectations differed so greatly from results, but maybe my memory is fading too, just like this football program, into oblivion.

schmidtty mcfunstuff: we aren't going to win again this season...

calfootballaddict: Not sure if I can sit through anymore of these games. I like the unpredictability of the offense but the defense consistently getting pushed back and back makes me want to flip channels.

rollonyoubears111: Heck, when bodies collide and in the end, you learn from your mistakes and gain some valuable lessons in life and on the field, that's all you need, man! Man, champions aren't made in a day! They are made through a disciplined process of trying to overcome what seems to be unobtainable. You need to be lucky, disciplined, talented, smart... But keep in mind during this journey about the downfall of many that are at the upper echelon. If you are complacent as a 11-0 team, you could learn nothing in life. You will only think that you deserve the world and feel entitled if it happens year after year. You start believing that you are untouchable, because you are the best there is. Then, without your teammates, coaches, fans, family members...as you further isolate yourself in vanity and instant gratification, you will be filled with the demons and soon use substances to attain that next level of euphoria.

Thanks again to everyone that took the time to fill out the report card. GO BEARS!