Cal vs. UW Report Card

Berkelium97: What is the sound of no hands clapping? It probably sounds a lot like Memorial Stadium during the second half of that game.

Look at all those abysmal scores. This is looking like a vintage 2013 report card. Not a single category earned a passing grade. At least Tommerdahl was out there earning his paycheck on Saturday. Well, compared to the other coaches he was.

Our predictions of a victory against Wazzu have plummeted. Our atrocious defense and their remarkable turnaround after losing to an FCS squad have given the Cougs a strong advantage heading into Saturday night.

Awards

We lost so we’ll first highlight the lowest report cards of the week.

Sonny Yikes!

What happened to our perpetual pessimist Chairman Mao? One of you has a hate for David Shaw that is only matched by the creativity of your insults.

We might as well hand out five more Sonny Yikes awards because these are some of the lowest highest scores we’ve seen in quite a while.

Sonny Delight

The highest score of the week was a 37%. Man, it’s hard out there for a Cal fan.

Finally, we highlight those whose report cards were closest to the community average.

The Voice of Reason

NinjaNed wins this one handily. And look, I earned an award without cheating this time! Our SBNation overlords would be so proud.

GoldenBearsBandwagon: A tough loss against a strong UW team in Berkeley. On Marshawn Lynch bobblehead giveaway night. Let’s hear what my fellow fans have to say on the matter. Are fans still feeling the optimism from earlier in the season, or do they think things are looking down?

Gameday Experience

Broden_Duff: An away game at home.

Skatethompson: The gameday experience started with a lot of energy and Lynch's presence really energized the crowd. It was a little disheartening to have UW fans out cheering Cal fans during every phase of the game. Of course the late game time forced us to leave at half-time because we have a child that needed to go to bed. The Bobble-Head should look good on the shelf.

The townie: Almost full house. High energy early.

Pierrezod: husky fans barking

we left in the third quarter

jeff tedford smiling

Goldenlikethebears: Guys!! There is a beer garden at the stadium!!

Harmonpreservationsociety: More Hell's Bells on third down like we're some bush league USC or LJSU ripoff. The band yet again run off by some hack dj.

On the other hand, MARSHAWN LYNCH AND E40 IN THE CART!!!

Yosemite Golden Bear: Another late night on the couch, another outmatched affair.

FrmrG8r: Another late night East of the Rockies. Second half was a highly effective lullaby, though.

the beer: showed up in time for a bobblehead, but they were out at my gate. then i was in the restroom when marshawn carted on to the field. then the offense was bad. then the defense was bad. first game i have left before expiration in probably a decade. good times eh.

Bearturd: I wish CAL's AD would grow a pair of stones and tell TV and the Pac-12 to limit the number of late night games. Cal has been the punching bag for TV and the PAC-12 becuse the AD wants the money(yeah,yeah and so does a pimp need the money). At least with day games, the season ticket holders(what's left of us) can go out and have a nice dinner and drinks to get the stench of another CAL loss out of their nostrils.

2004-present: During the "Hey alumni!" chant, Washington's fans shouting "Huskies" easily drowned out the the alumni. know Washington is really good so they'd turn out but still it shows how much lower a priority football is at Cal :/ On a positive note Marshawn's joy ride was awesome.

PRD74 : Got to the parking garage 3 hours early and the attendant unlocked the restroom for me. Good omen. Got in line with a great bunch of Cal fans, time flew by, saw my first March to Victory or whatever they call it. Got my Marshawn bobblehead. All good. Cal Alumni Band Day which was absolutely the best I have ever seen. This year's Cal Band is one of the best ever. Marshawn leading the charge on the cart. Fun. First quarter not bad. Seeing Jerrot Willard, a thrill. Second quarter not as good. Halftime, super fun for this Cal Band alum, and then, in retrospect, I should have gone home. I sit with a die hard Cal fan. She stays to the bitter end for every game. Last night she said we can go home early if we wanted. I wanted to see one of our backup QBs. Like that happened. I also sat with a Hall of Fame football player who was gnashing his teeth so hard I felt he needed a night time mouth guard. No improvement except in the area of special teams. This team plays hard, but is outmatched both in talent and this time coaching.

NinjaNed: Money Lynch and E-40 had me lit af coming out the tunnel.

BrooklynBear: Best part of the broadcast was the spotlight on Demetris Robertson's artwork. That Escher-esque drawing was impressive.

Pass Offense

MarshawnLynch4DefensiveCoordinator!: really annoying that they wouldn't put in a backup QB to get them some snaps of experience. Why??

Broden_Duff: Receivers had trouble getting room and Webb got more unsure as the game went.

Skatethompson: #RuntheballJake.

First Possession. 3 and 3. 20 yard pass into 2 defenders. I have seen this more time than I can count this year. I'm sorry, but Webb is not as good as he thinks. He is certainly not as good as the West Texas Boys Club thinks.

Proven formula to will football games - run the ball and play defense. Cal - does neither.

Sacman701: Got owned all day by the league's best defense.

Harmonpreservationsociety: Hansen looked rusty in his return. Webb struggled with accuracy and tried to force too many passes, which resulted in stalled drives and 3 INTs. UW thoroughly dominated our O-Line with a 3-man rush.

Mitchgobears: Bad choices by Webb and the game being over before the fourth quarter and our backups still get no game time experience.

Yosemite Golden Bear: Davis Webb just looks strange throwing the ball, and he certainly isn't as accurate when he throws on the run vs in the pocket. 3 INTs were brutal.

FrmrG8r: Regressing. Three picks probably an indication that predicatability has set in.

2004-present: Possibly Webb's worst collegiate game. I can only be so harsh because UW is so dominant but this was a forgettable day.

Longsuffering: Took a very long time for Webb to get in rhythm. Some very questionable play calling, particularly when Cal took over with 5:55 left in the second quarter when they HAD to run some time off the clock so as not to give the ball back to Washington with time to score before halftime (since the Huskies started with the ball in the 2nd half). The Bears didn't due to bad play calling and execution, gave the ball back and Washington scored before half. That was he beginning of the end.

PRD74 : Webb had his first real off game. He should have sat down in the fourth quarter. Hudson is a stud. Robertson is what we thought he was. Great.

BearOnAMesa: Yeah, Washington's DBs are really talented. But our O-line got absolutely manhandled and Webb once again disappeared in the 3rd quarter. He hasn't been the same since Oregon State.

CoBears: Completed passes to the opposing team don't count, Webb. It was nice to almost have Hansen back. I think he is going to make a huge difference in the last few games of the season to give us a chance for a win here or there, but his 70% wasn't enough in this game to keep it close. And Webb didn't look good without him.

Run Offense

MarshawnLynch4DefensiveCoordinator!: Laird deserves more snaps, perhaps?

Sacman701: Not a factor.

FrmrG8r: Sputtering and clunky against a good defense.

the beer: predictable.

Bearturd: Don't know, did we even try to run. What little the did was poor.

Longsuffering: Showed some sparks but several times when they needed to gain a few yards they couldn't. Vanilla play calling.

PRD74 : Washington' s defense nullified our running game.

Hardtobecalfan: very hard to get going

BearOnAMesa: Unmemorable.

NinjaNed: OLine was built to pass protect, it's not surprising they can't get push in run blocking.

CoBears: Not pretty. After some encouraging early success, the Washington D-line tossed our backs around like rag dolls when we tried to run the ball.

BrooklynBear: I don't think given enough time and variety to open up.

Pass Defense

Skatethompson: The middle of the field was missing a safety or safeties for most of the night. Rubenzer was being sucking into the play all day. UW utilized the post route and destroyed the middle of the field.

Now tell me - as an amateur on the sideline - how is it that I see that and the head coach for an FBS football team - or the D-Coordinator for an FBS football team - cannot see it?

The townie: What? Who? Where?

Sacman701: Saffle made a couple of plays early, and Franklin wasn't bad. Everyone else was MIA. This team needs Allensworth back in the worst way. The non-Franklin corners and safeties were especially brutal. Tackling in the secondary was terrible.

Harmonpreservationsociety: We cheated safeties up to stop the run most of the game and it left our CBs vulnerable.

Marloshawn Franklin got beat over the top again and again. And again. AND AGAIN. He's going to have nightmares about getting gapped by John Ross. This was his Groundhog Day.

Yosemite Golden Bear: What pass defense? I think that Ross and Pettis are still running past defenders.

FrmrG8r: No excuses but with all of the injuries, 400 yards this week will likely be 500 in Pullman.

ABVidale: Cal doesn't have the depth to withstand massive injuries in the secondary against good teams.

Bearturd: Burned CAL on short passes and burned on long passes. The DB's play 10 to 12 yards off the receiversgiving the offense a easy 10 yards anytime they want it and still get torched on the long ball.

2004-present: Absolutely horrid-this was the one area that wasn't just sheer UW dominance as much as much as our own incompetence. Art Kaufman needs to go-there's no excuse for his defenses to look this poorly coached 3 years into his tenure.

NinjaNed: Depleted defense against a good offense. I would've liked to see more creative blitzes other than slowly bleeding to death.

CoBears: Methinks we need some speed. The second Ross touchdown, where we had 5 guys around him and he just ran away to the end zone, was the epitome of embarrassing. I get it, he's really fast. But even the announcers made the obvious point that you have to try to slow him down (have someone chuck him at the line, bracket him, etc.). Between him and Pettis, we were shown to be the sieve of defense that we all already knew we were.

Run Defense

Skatethompson: Not that bad today. I thought we did a good job considering the caliber of talent on the other side of the ball.

Sacman701: Left big holes all night.

Harmonpreservationsociety: We schemed to stop the run and still gave up big chunks left and right. The only reason UW only ran for 287 yds is that they were too busy lighting us up with deep passes.

Yosemite Golden Bear: Terrible, but amazingly outshadowed by the pass defense.

FrmrG8r: Swiss cheese is far too generous a description. Another week, another 300 yards rushing.

PRD74 : Our defense is equal to the 2013 Cal defense. What happened after that debacle is what will happen this year.

Hardtobecalfan: bad. but better than the pass defense was.

BearOnAMesa: Not good, but not the reason we lost.

NinjaNed: It started off alright until we got tired.

CoBears: Not bad, considering. But had we decided to try to stop the passes to Ross and Pettis by devoting more personnel to them, I'm sure the 4-5 yard gains would have been magnified.

BrooklynBear: Not demoralizing; but not good.

Special Teams

Broden_Duff: Decent punts.

Sacman701: The one bright spot. Kickoffs, punts, coverage, and FGs were all excellent.

Harmonpreservationsociety: UW seemed prepared for our kickoff strategy. We made 2 FGs and didn't give up any kickoff or punt return TDs. B-

Mitchgobears: The best part of the GameDay experience today.

FrmrG8r: By far the stars this week for Cal with a solid performance.

the beer: actually pretty decent

Longsuffering: It doesn't seem that Cal has a plan on punt returns; so many fair catches. The punt return team is not threat at all to any team we have played.

PRD74 : Our special teams are very good.

Hardtobecalfan: forced a turnover. why can't we decide who is going to field the kicks??

BearOnAMesa: A bit funky, and that missed extra point didn't help. But the brief lead we had near the beginning was due to good performances by this squad.

NinjaNed: Special teams did it's job and if our defense were any good, could've been a game changer.

CoBears: Returns were good, for the most part. We were given good field position. Coverage was good. Field goals were on target. Not bad overall.

Coaching

MarshawnLynch4DefensiveCoordinator!: I like Dykes, but this is a low point. Hoping that things can turn around.

Broden_Duff: Confusing use of timeouts and didn't make sense to leave Webb in so late.

The townie: I understand getting points on the board but field goals early aren't going to win a game like this especially when you trade 3 for 7.

Sacman701: We weren't going to win this game anyway, but this was the first time all year that the team didn't fight for 60 minutes.

Mitchgobears: Bad. Looked prepared at the beginning but fell apart quickly. We had the entire fourth quarter to give some game time experience to another quarterback and didn't.

Yosemite Golden Bear: Oh, boy. Team looks overwhelmed and underprepared for the second game in a row. Kicking FGs, crazy clock management in the first quarter was perplexing. And punting in the forth down by 39?

FrmrG8r: Tough to blame the coaches when we were outmanned at almost every position by a very good Washington team.

With bowl prospects a pipe dream at this point, is it time to start preparing for next year at not only the QB spot but everywhere?

Hopefully we are already out aggressively recruiting defense.

the beer: coaching is neat. we should try that. just imagine the possibilities.

Longsuffering: Cal out-coached, particularly during the game. Not going for it on 4th and 1 deep in Washington territory early. Indefensible given that we were playing a top 5 team and had to score at every opportunity. I hate to say it but Dykes is an offensive coordinator only and just doesn't make it as a head coach (and hard to say sine we go to the same church).

PRD74 : Outcoached does not adequately describe last night. Our defense can't tackle, DBs not turning around ever, unnecessary killer penalties, and that rests on Sonny as well as Art. Spavital being picked up after this season by another team? Not after this game. Same goes for Sonny. Why not play one of the backup QBs?

BearOnAMesa: Not offensively bad, with the decision to leave the first team in late in the game being the most questionable decision. But not good. Discipline needs work.

NinjaNed: Idk, the coaching is so vanilla it hurts. We're in dire need of a DC that can bring something new to the table, or at least recruiter who can get big bodies to Cal.

CoBears: I was initially torn between blaming coaching and realizing that even a great coach might not have been able to stop the bleeding in this one with this set of personnel. With that said, the failure to come up with a better plan to stop Ross and Pettis was very disappointing. Giving up that many scores was doubly so. We were embarrassed out there, and the coaches take the blame for that.

This truly made me wonder about the next coaching staff at Cal, and whether they will be able to have any success in the next 3-5 years. My concern is that the answer to that is no.

BrooklynBear: Taking 3 points each of the first two possessions was rough. Pre-halftime no timeout usage. No Bowers/Forrest. All these are pretty straightforward. The one I find strange is not planning/adjusting the passing game to an aggressive defensive secondary.

Overall Performance

Slaphancock: It was sort of nostalgic. It took me back five years to when this was happening all the time, and I used to say, it won't be this bad in 2016!

Broden_Duff: Pretty much what was expected against the behemoth that is Washington, but still, hard to watch all the penalties.

The townie: Kids hung in there then got trucked. They kept fighting.

Uthaithani: Worst I've seen in a long time. Players, coaches gave up. Fans might as well, too.

Sacman701: 27 points sounds respectable, but it was just 20 before garbage time, and 6 of those came on 3 and outs before FGs. So really that's 14 points on 14 possessions, which is almost never enough to win even with an elite defense. The defense got a couple of early stops but was horrific after about the first 10 minutes.

Yosemite Golden Bear: I am sure that the guys are trying their hardest and I appreciate that, they aren't quitting, but it is hard to watch Cal not only lose games, but lose in the recruiting/program advancement world. These last two games show how much better other programs are and how Cal, while being the best public academic institution, will forever be mediocre on the field.

FrmrG8r: Listless again on national TV. Time to be good PAC-12 citizens and root for Dub to run the table and represent well.

2004-present: I can only be so harsh with this one because of how great UW is, but it's hard not to wonder what could have been had a competent defense taken the field last night. Season trajectory appears the same-must win last 2 in Berkeley to go bowling. Luckily both those teams are very average so it's highly possible.

Longsuffering: Don't see progress in the program. The Bears are losing support from their fans (in large part due to horrible schedule by the Pac-12). I just don't see light at the end of the tunnel.

PRD74 : This game was a train wreck. Touchdowns? How about First Downs? Hard to see how anyone can pick up the pieces enough to win even one more game. My optimism has faded. This game was not fun and we were not competitive. Sonny and his staff better get asbestos pants.

CoBears: This game was depressing. Washington has ascended from the depths of Willingham to the heights of a potential playoff spot, and we have stayed in the middle of the conference, marginally successful each and every year. Will we ever find our Coach Peterson? Will we ever see the successes of the early 90s and the early 2000s again? As things stand right now, after these last two games and with the Cougar game looking like another big ugly ahead, I find it hard to imagine.

It's sad to finally be at the point where I go from eternal optimism to being a true Old Blue, but I have arrived, my friends. One keg of beer for the four of us indeed. Just wish we could have the glorious and victorious.

BrooklynBear: Kids continue to play hard but look overmatched against quality teams in conference.

Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully we can get a little healthier and put up a strong performance against the Cougs. Hope to see ya’ll next week, and, as always, go bears!