Buh the Stripe Out: Cal football vs. tOSU Report Card

Berkelium97: If I had reposted the grades from the Northwestern game, would you have noticed? How about Portland State? I have a hard time distinguishing among each of them. We're beginning to see some common themes with this team: the passing offense is terrific, the running game could use some improvement, defense is abysmal, and special teams are refreshing change from the Tedford years.

	Average	Standard Deviation
Pass Offense	.738	.127
Rush Offense	.429	.176
Pass Defense	.228	.192
Rush Defense	.201	.176
Special Teams	.720	.182
Coaching	.558	.182
Overall	.511	.162
Win Chance vs. Oregon	.157 (-.06)	.224

Yep, those are pretty much the same grades as last week and the week before.

Despite giving up 556.3 yards per game (4th-worst in the nation), we're not that much more pessimistic about the Oregon game. Maybe this terrible defense is just an elaborate trolling attempt by Andy Buh. Now we're going to shut down all our opponents en route to a Rose Bowl appearance. That would be nice. You know what be even nicer? Handing out some awards. Let's do that.

AWARDS!

Oski be praised, we have another editor's choice award this week. This week's honor goes to SoCal Oski. I must confess: I am a big fan of puns. Naturally, I was quite amused by some of these grades.

Pass defense: HorriBUHl

Run defense: AbominaBUHl

and best of all, our chance of defeating Oregon:

NegligiBUHl

Well done, SoCal Oski. Well done.

And now we hand out our trio of usual awards.

Sonny Yikes!

1. James_13	1.00 (14.3%)
2. resbear	2.10 (30.0%)
3. 42Calbear	2.30 (32.9%)
3. The Yogi	2.30 (32.9%)
5. FIREBUH	2.41 (34.4%)

I can't blame y'all. You could be a little more gentle on grading the pass offense, however. Despite failures elsewhere on the team, Goff has been playing incredibly well.

Sonny Delight

1. Gocalbaseball	7.00 (100.0%)
2. TezCALipoca	5.41 (77.3%)
3. Old Bear 71	5.10 (72.9%)
4. Lilbear	4.80 (68.6%)
5. Bearly Legal	4.50 (64.3%)

100%? Sure, Gocalbaseball, I won't rain on your parade. Last week Bearly Legal was among the Sonny Yikes crowd and this week he (she?) is among the Sonny Delighted.

And finally we have our award for those of us who were closest to the community average.

The Voice of Reason

1. Nor-Cal Scott	.055
2. ABVidale	.060
3. Berkelium97	.067
4. dahim0301	.072
5. cannonbear	.076

Oh look at that! I won an award! Unfortunately I was bested by Nor-Cal Scott and ABVidale. Now let's hand it over to Sam, who has combed through the comments to find the best and the brightest responses.

Sam Fielder: And now on to the comments. I really expected much more venom and vitriol in the comments about the defense, but to be honest the most impassioned paragraphs were about the gameday experience. Yes, people were not happy about the coaching or the defense, but jimmies were very rustled about the atmosphere at Memorial.

GameDay Experience
secret ASian man: Was watching the game with a law school friend who is an tOSU alum. We secured a TV when the place was focused on the Mayweather vs. Miklo, I mean Canelo fight i had a great time and my friend was genuinely impressed by Goff. However, the stripeout was a fail. Too much red at Memorial Stadium.
James_13: Blown away by the bucks and playing catch up. The first qtr they looked shell shocked and slow. Never in game ....period. I hate to see them vs the O ////////that team will score 77_90 unless things change.
GoldenBear 77: Glad I rode the Monterey trail this morning, and decided that this year was one where I would just "go with the flow". Figured anything less than three touchdown loss, as long as I could see progress was a "victory". Always valued character and growth over victory, but think we will get both in the next couple years.
ABVidale: The offense is reasonably good, but the defense....
RhetoriCal: Watching a broadcast on the big screen was nice. The pregame clip of the kid who called his cancer Michigan because Ohio State always beats Michigan made me blink rapidly and created a really difficult transition to kickoff (by rooting against tOSU, was I hoping for the kid to die?). I violated the fast of Yom Kippur with some homemade nachos, which will probably damn all of humanity.
Gocalbaseball: WE DIDNT LOSE BY 70!!! YAY
puresilence: Too much red.
InCaseYouMissedIt: Did you know Kenny Guiton is a senior backup?
prd74: It was a beautiful day, which was unfortunately lopsided in favor of the OSU fans in just about every way. OSU fans essentially took over our stadium. OSU red was everywhere The Ohio State Marching Band was as precise and loud as expected. Unfortunately, their choice of doing a Double Script Ohio at Pregame (which made them look small and less impressive) when half the stadium was empty was about as good an idea as the Stripe Out. Fail. The Nation Anthem, by both bands, was the best I have ever heard in Memorial Stadium. Ultimately, the OSUMB's habit of constantly playing between plays, regardless of who had the ball, became annoying and made the game less enjoyable for me. Oh the other hand, the Cal Band was what it is. Whenever they played, after hearing the OSUMB play, it was like switching to the mild FM station. Both halftimes were, for different reasons, nothing to write home about. OSUMB played music that would have made Lawrence Welk proud while forming formations that were old and dated back in the 60's, while the Cal Band played a collection of Euro Techno something I never heard of that would have gone over as well as Emerson Lake and Palmer would have back in my day. Some music just should not be translated in Marching Band music. Regardless, a fun day, but not a classic one.
TKE Prytanis 79: As I was tailgating someone said there were 25,000 OSU fans here for the game...I said no way...I was wrong...my comment is that we should not even try to do the blue and gold striping if we know that there are that many opposing fans...that part of it turned out to be a bit demoralizing...on the plus side, we stayed after the game and watched their post game celebration...frankly , it was awe inspiring..they have an incredible fan base...the kids need to get better on the field, but we as fans can also improve.
Oski Disciple: Embarrassing. To have our stadium dominated by opposing fans detracts significantly from the concept of the "home game." One expects and welcomes a large contingent of visiting fans when playing a prominent non conference foe but that was ridiculous. It made a mockery of the whole stripe the stadium idea. Hopefully the football program will improve to such an extent that season ticket sales will rise significantly and fans will be much less likely to sell their tickets. This is, after all, our domicile.
Goldenbear8933: Ohio State fans really came out in force... how did they get their hands on so many tickets?
IrvineBear: Wish I wasn't surrounded by and ocean of scarlet and gray at a home game.
1988goldenbear: Beautiful day at Memorial. The Stripe Memorial thing was a FAIL. The yellow sections looked pretty good, but the blue doesn't have enough contrast to pop. And the red was visually overwhelming - and there was quite a bit of red out there. Love to watch this team despite the problems. They played hard and did some really good things.
resbear: You may have noticed on aerial shots that the overflow section next to QQ (section R) was completely empty at the start of the game. Not due to lack of attendance, but because some staff decided nobody could stand there. Of course, as soon as kickoff happened we flooded the section (POWER TO THE PEOPLE). Even then some cops came down and kicked a couple of people out. Can't really blame the staff since they probably had orders from some genius in the Greatest Public University In The World(tm) bureaucracy.
Rose Bowl Oski: 1. Student Section was an embarrassment. Why was the whole section above the band empty at the beginning of the game? Why were there empty seats between the 40s? 2. tOSU band outclassed Cal Band, and unfortunately it wasn't even close. Yes, it was annoying that tOSU kept playing well after Cal was lined up for a play and often even after the ball was snapped. But they also played during the breaks while Cal Band seemed to be sitting on their hands. I think tOSU played Cal's fight song in the second half because they were mocking us, or they didn't understand why Cal Band wasn't playing -- or both. 3. Mic men appear to just be going through the motions. "Gimme a C" is tired and led with ZERO emotion. Try something innovative that will fire up both the students and the (Cal) alumni.

Pass Offense
coolingfan: Goff is the man. Other than some forced balls he threw, the pass offense is as good as advertised.
sec119: Goff looked ok, but maybe was a little too aggressive throwing it downfield. While vertical routes are good ideas, why are our guys always double covered?
gumibears: Pretty decent. Those long balls that the offense was catching the past 2 weeks were just overthrown today or the receivers were getting bumped early in the route.

Simigoldenbear: Jared Goff continues to shine, although his deep downfield passes need work. Very happy with the effort of the receivers. Fewer drops. Some confusion on a few routes. But the pass offense is the brightest spot on this young team. We have a talented reciever corps. I like how Goff spreads it around. Harper, Treggs, Lawler, Powe, Rogers the backs, even Bouza! Everyone gets touches. It's great.

Oaklandishbear: So impressed that Goff doesn't look scared and rarely has two bad plays in a row. His TD pass to Treggs was so pretty. That "trash can" drill throw sure works! Treggs and especially Harper are stellar. Need to find someone else to step up, but all-in-all, we're a passing team who can kick and punt.

Run Offense
crystallogrobear: I never thought our pass offense would be better than our run offense, but that's been the case these past two games. What happened to Bigelow? He's been a non-factor in the last three games. Our offensive line really needs to get its act together.
MJB: Lasco might be the starter from now on. Bigelow hasn't been "big" enough. As time goes on we'll need to be able to get more tough yards on the ground to keep defenses honest.
Texashaterforlife: Tackling should be all that is practiced during the bye week for the defense. Pursuit angles for tackling ball carriers could also be practiced. IMO when it comes to QB option runs; always go for the QB so he at least gets hit. I would rather see DeAnthony Thomas get a record day running the ball instead of Marcus Marriotta. D-line also needs time in the weight room.
Good, but not good enough to beat the 3rd best team in the country: Terrible, sloppy, unmotivated. Bigelow needs to adjust because nothing is working for him this whole season.
jerseybear94: Daniel Lasco II for starter!!!! Stronger, and looks to me, smarter and harder running of the two. The scatback? Muhammad! Bigs had his shot. He goes down too easy.
Tex-Bear: Offensive line need to fight harder on their blocking assignments as well as holding their Blocks longer...........they need to stop standing around go after another person in a different color uniform........Backs need to Run For Daylight.

Pass Defense
Got couth: No pass rush. Inexperience at DB
CoBears: Buh needs to figure out why the defense comes out of the gates looking like a sieve. 21 points given up before 1/8 of the game has passed? Our QB pressure packages are not getting it done either.
Decent offense, f*cking horrible defense: HORRIBLE
mitchgobears: What pass defense?
Oski Disciple: Woeful. We're getting little pressure on QBs and too many receivers are way way too open. This is a huge concern.
The Yogi: Cal has a pass defense? You learn something everyday.
Frostybear: Dreadful. No pass rush. D backs too inexperienced and slow to react. Linebackers trapped inside. Nothing good to say. Scheme, 4-3 doesn't match our personnel.
NinjaNed: Don't let anybody get behind you on 1st and 2nd down. I notice that when our team has to think to determine who has the ball, we always end up losing the battle. I'm not sure if that's just a personel thing (mychael kendricks and mike mohammad had a knack of getting to the ball) or a coaching thing, but if you aren't reacting to situations, you're wasting time and position which really caused a lot of problems in stopping their offense.
Old Bear 71: Uh, did I miss something? Actually, not as bad as it felt. It took me all day to realize that nearly half of their passing yards were done on first two series. We didn't look good, but they would have put up a hundred it they could. They didn't. Our guys are staying in there, not quitting, and not conceding a thing. Anyone who wants to beat Cal must do it themselves. Our guys are sturdy Golden Bears.

Run Defense
sacman701: The team's biggest weakness. The ends just seem helpless, they got cleared out almost every time OSU ran to the outside. They did ok in some short yardage situations, but I don't recall ever seeing a team that was worse at keeping contain.
Decent offense, f*cking horrible defense: HORRIBLE
mitchgobears: What run defense?
DancingBear96: and then there were the other guys. Forbes is cleared, but I like Sonny D not playing a guy who hasn't practiced and letting him get two weeks through the bye. Getting lit up will not help Forbes' or the team's psyche. Get him ready and in shape to not get hurt again and let him run against Oregon.
iwastherefortheplay: DL needs help. I watched the DL alot in the second half and they seemed to just make contact with the OL then stand and wait to see what happened. McCain didn't even really rush several times that I watched him. Not sure if that was the plan or not. We seemed to be outmanned at the POA almost every run. Lots of cut blocking brought the LBers down and getting to the corner was not a problem. They also ran inside very well but their OL was doing what they wanted with our DL. KF played well in the LB spot but they routinely seemed to get OL to the second level blocks.
Nor-Cal Scott: We will get better with experience, we're young.

Special Teams
fuzzywuzzy: Pretty good except for that botched on-side kick, but at least they tried an on-side kick in the 3rd...or at some point during the dreariness...
slaphancock: Trickeration not so tricky today. Still one good runback by Muhammad. And D'amato looks solid.
storky: Special teams earn 90%+ scores when the A) pull off fake plays or B) return punts and kickoffs for touchdowns. They lose 90% scores when they fail. They did both (successful fake punt and failed onside), so I gave them a nearly 90%.
HelloBowlesHall: Love love love the fake punt. Amazing. Wish for better distance on many of the punts, he's clearly very good but it doesn't always show.
HITCH: Damato looks like he's on his way to being one of the best place kickers in Cal history. Muhammed was very intelligent all game long, and made a great run. He will be a threat all season long. The fake punt was a 10/10. That was probably better than any single Tedford team has ever executed on special teams, especially against a team as good as Ohio State.
Jacobs.: I am so glad that I dont have to worry about dying every time our special teams go on. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
42Calbear: Once again the bright shining star of the 2013 CAL football team. Hats off to the coaches and players of the special teams.

Coaching
FIREBUH: Fire Buh.
beson: Does Buh know what he is doing? I don't think he does. The defense looked just like last year and the year before that. That is depressing. Sonny needs to sit down with Buh and express to him that this is unacceptable. Then Buh needs to sit down with Sacks and find out why we aren't getting any pressure. None. That's pitiful. Deadre Coleman should be blowing people up and causing havoc like Will Sutton but nope.
daiku: Sonny Dykes needs to find a way to keep his defense from getting totally gassed with the up tempo offense. Must run up a lead in order to make opposing offense 1 dimensional. Our defense isn't good enough and conditioned enough to play up tempo game.
rollonyoubears111: Everyone talks about how young the defense is and that we are thin. Well, we do have play makers and youth on both sides of the ball, so I think that the defensive coaching staff needs to really work harder and smarter.
Bigdruid: At Cal we don't fire people after 3 games. But if we did... Anyhow, this may be the worst defense I've ever seen here. I can accept the occasional individual breakdown that leads to big plays. But watching them gouge us for 7-8 yards running on every first down is a systemic failure that doesn't seem to be getting fixed.
Bearly Legal: Buh's in a tough spot with the injuries, but we need to coach the second play of the first drive a lot better.
Willis Chong: Kudos on the trick play. Doesn't change the fact that the defense came out flat 3 weeks in a row. I understand injury, but I cringe every time our D-line gets no penetration.
cannonbear: Defensive coaching? F: I know we are young, very thin, and Ohio State is a great team, but I just can't help thinking that given the same players and injuries, a D.Co with more D.Co level experience wouldn't allow 40+ a game. I was skeptical of the Buh hire to start. I think he is getting over paid and frankly that he is a little lost. Those defensive substitution penalties are all on him. I can't imagine a Pendergast defense being this consistently bad. Offensive coaching? B+: Tony Franklin is worth every penny. Special teams coaching? A

Overall Performance
minesweeper: Something needs to be done about our defense. I realize we're extremely thin on personnel, but hot damn, that was atrocious.
JABear: If we're committing to being an all-offense no-defense team, our offense needs to hit their ceiling and then smash through it. I feel like we're still not playing to potential on offense. I'm not going to talk about our defense because I'm sure every else will. We put up a lot of yards and a lot of points on a top 5 team, and while it wasn't enough to win, I'm happy with that. I love the tempo, the energy, and the never quit attitude of this team.
Lilbear: I love watching this new creative Cal Offense. Now if we could just get a little more D and a bit-o'- run game going. I predict an upset over Oregon as I think Sonny has been saving some tricks just for them.
dahim0301: Offense looks promising. Defense looks like my grandma was playing.
BTown85: As an Old Blue, it felt like old times.......
SoCal Oski: an Ohio State is good, and this loss isn't really a surprise. Unfortunately, this loss also exposed us. We are who we feared we were. I thought our offense could steal a couple of upsets and reach six wins. I now fear our defense will lose a couple of games and we will get two wins. The only positive was I was very encouraged by the tenacity and fight on the team. They never gave up, and you couldn't say that of the past three seasons or so.

Thanks again to all who took the time to fill out a report card and to pour out your thoughts! GO BEARS!