Cal Football Film Study: Kyle Wells’ Last-Second TD (and a Livecast Proposal)

EDIT- CGB Livecast Breakdown will go live tonight at 8pm (PDT). Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6jxGWk71No

Inaugural CGB Breakdown Livecast Poll

Hi CGB fans,

This week I want to try something new (in addition to my weekly video, which you’ll find below). I’d like to do a livecast breakdown of the WSU game, where you all could join me in chat, ask questions, pick plays for us to go over, etc. This is a little last minute, but if that sounds like something that you’d be interested in, please respond to the following poll with your availability (if more than one time works, please include that information in the comments):

This would probably work best if everyone has some plays in mind before we start, so if you’re interested, you could check out the game’s play-by-play to find the quarter and time of any plays of interest: http://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay?gameId=400935294. You could include any that you want to discuss in the comments of this post, and I’ll be sure to get to it.

Also, to participate in the chatroom (which will be done through youtube) you’ll need to have a youtube “channel.” This is easy to get if you have a gmail account. Just log into your gmail account and go to youtube, and it should be pretty easy to figure out. You can watch the livecast without a channel, but you won’t be able to chat.

With all that out of the way, on to the weekly video!

Video Breakdown

With their win over the #8 Washington State Cougars on Friday night, your California Golden Bears defeated a top-10 team for just the second time in forty years. They did it mostly through defense, with the offense providing just enough support to put pressure on the Cougars as the game wore on. A big part of that offensive support came at the end of the first half.

With :04 remaining on the clock, Cal had a 10-3 lead and the ball at the WSU 1-yard line. While the conventional wisdom might’ve been to take the points and kick the FG, HC Justin Wilcox gambled and called a pass to the end zone, where QB Ross Bowers connected with TE Kyle Wells for his first collegiate reception.

In this video, I look at how this play came together. While surprise was certainly a part of it, I show that WSU’s defensive call also primed their DB’s to get tricked by putting them in run/pass conflict. I also look at the coverage that WSU used, and show how the system of reads that they had in place made it possible for Cal to sneak a TE into the end zone for a wide-open TD.