Now We Know Why Cal Wasn’t In The Top 25....

UNTLifer · September 16, 2019

49 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

I meant, and though this sounds weak to say in hindsight, is that they will not end this year in the top 25. Not even close.

I'll be sure to bring this thread back up after week 12. 😉

Related image

97and03 · September 16, 2019

This is a really weird thread.

And didn't age well.

Got5onIt · September 16, 2019

Back pedaling a little bit there?

FremontBear · September 16, 2019

There are debates on our own Forum on deserving to be Top-25. Time will tell. Meanwhile, Mean Green gave us all we wanted, and more. Here are some excerpts from post game film analysis, and the writers are generally fair, direct, and brutally honest. Did I mention BRUTUALLY honest? See you in 2022 folks, it's been good talking to all of you, and I have no issues with Rick's or anyone else's well-reasoned criticisms of Da Bears; we didn't play a clean game, to be sure.

Injuries were the big story for Cal on Saturday. Ben Hawk-Schrider, Christopher Brown, Cameron Goode and Tevin Paul all left the field with injuries and did not return
Josh Drayden was limited and Valentino Daltoso and Chineodu Udeogu did not play at all
Very disappointing performance by the Bears on both sides of the ball. By far the worst offensive performance of the year on a yards per play basis as well as the worst yards per play given up on defense
The game met the definition of a trap game between two bigger named opponents on the road. The fast start by Cal seemed to drain the Bears of whatever verve and focus they were able to mount despite the “trap” and after the first quarter they were outplayed and had to hold on for the victory
UNT played a defensive scheme that was focused on taking away the big play. Man coverage with high safeties.
The Man Green’s 3-3-5 approach proved very tough to run against and confused Cal’s OL with its flexibility in formation and assignments
In particular, UNTs defense waited until the Cal offense got their sideline adjustments and then adjusted. Almost always correctly. They had a very good read on Cal’s offense and Garbers tendencies
The weakness to the 3-3-5 was the inability to stop the QB run and Garbers was effective all game exploiting it.
After a heroic performance against UW the week prior, the Cal Offensive Line had a rough day. The pass protection was “okay” and the run blocking was mostly ineffectual.
True freshman McKade Mettauer had an inconsistent day and struggled with the UNT defensive alignments
Henry Bazakas split snaps with Brandon Mello and had a rough game. He missed several crucial blocks. Mello looked far more comfortable in pass protection but is less physical at the point of attack on running plays than Bazakas. Daltoso’s health looms large for this unit
Saffel and Curhan were again the class of the OL
Single coverage on the outside against Ca’s WR and UNT won the day
Cameron Goode was everywhere early. Dominating performance. So quick off the ball and great read and react. He’s tailor-made to take on spread offenses
Evan Weaver once again was a force with a forced fumble and a forced interception while leading the team in tackles in limited snaps
Special teams improved markedly with their best day overall. Strong coverage, good returns on both a KO and Punt.
Deng had a better read and react game though he got pushed around on a few run plays
Hawkins took a terrible angle on the long TD and along with Tre Turner was part of the blown assignment on the near long TD that was dropped; He also had forced fumble and some big-time tackles on third down
The secondary as a whole had (for it) a subpar performance. Multiple blown coverages where Cal was lucky to escape via bad throws or dropped balls.
The Cal coaches came in with a plan to give the backups a lot of snaps even prior to the injury troubles. Anusiem, Turner, Smith and Scott were in the rotation in the secondary. Tattersall and Doughty at LB and the aforementioned Mello at LT.
The defensives performance noticeably dropped off with the backups. Anusiem gave up the late TD and the long UNT drive late in 2nd quarter against a lot of Cal backups - Doughty, Smith, Anusiem, Scott, Croteau
The drop-off with defensive backups was noticeable if not expected. Longest run for UNT came with Tattersall locked his eyes on the blocker and not on the runner and lost inside shoulder contain
The UNT defense out schemed Beau Baldwin’s play-calling and Chase Garbers decision making. Their late pre-snap adjustments, their ability to confuse the OL with blitzes and stunts and the disguises between zone and man to man in the secondary all were effective.
The lack of cohesion, experience and tight communication with the Offensive Line was the most impacted unit by UNT
Didn’t track it statistically but certainly appeared that Cal had far more success passing against UNT zone than man to man. Garbers seemed more comfortable making a read and getting the ball out vs. zone
WRs other than Duncan, did a poor job of coming back to Garbers on plays where he had a lot of time and got outside the pocket
Receivers were more open on tape than it appeared live. Felt like we weren’t ready for zone vs. man so reads were slower and Garbers is clearly playing not to make a mistake. Does not trust his vision and instincts. He may have good reason to be cautious in that regard
The post fumble recovery drive was stalled by poor OL play on 2nd and 1 blitz where Bazakas whiffed on two defenders forcing Garbers to rush the throw
The following play was another missed block by Bazakas. Perhaps not an ideal play call by Baldwin either as UNT was clearly selling out to stop the run
Terrible drop by Reinwald and a bad drop by Hawkins. The first drop by Reinwald was very tough to catch, where he was hit on the ball immediately after catching the ball
Chase Garbers is what he is at this point: Very good runner, tough kid who appears to be optimizing for not making mistakes. He’s got a slower release, inconsistent footwork, below-average field awareness, and vision and is not particularly accurate especially when throwing outside the pocket
To be fair to him, he kept his eyes downfield and got to 2^nd and 3^rd reads better vs. UNT than he had in the Bears previous two games. He didn’t force balls and made some nice throws periodically. All of which are demonstrative of improved play over 2018
His biggest challenges on Saturday were his decision making both in the run game and his field awareness to find open receivers.
Poor play on 3rd and 7 in red zone in first quarter. Garbers had time and a couple of receivers open quickly but chose to roll out and take the sack instead. There’s almost certainly a little negative target fixation going on for Chase. The voice in his head of don’t force a ball likely slows down his instinctual processing and the ball doesn’t get out
Greg Thomas showing good consistent accuracy; Would love to see him get the ball up in the air more. A blocked FG or PAT is in his future if he can’t get a higher trajectory
Cal run D was not fantastic but not bad for the third week in a row. Zeandae Johnson took a step back in holding his ground at the point of attack and the loss of Paul and Goode were factors as their backups struggled.
Remigio with nice long punt return. Some strong blocking on a lower kick. Remigio needs to tuck the ball tighter as he almost lost it a la Ashtyn Davis vs. UCD
Really nice play call on Remigio long TD. Garbers makes nice read of the blitz and throws an easy ball for Remigio on the deep crossing route
UNTs QB with very quick reads and release. Despite not having a lot of time, he threw some nice balls.
Hawk Schrider limped off at end of the 1st quarter and did not return
Soft coverage outside by UNTs CBs was unexploited. No hitches, quick slants or short outs.
Not enough use of the middle of the field when we were in max protect.
Bears start last drive of half well inside UNT side of the field yet don’t score. Bad pass to Hawkins that Hawkins still should have caught, Great play by UNT CB to knock the ball out of Remigio’s hands on 2nd down. Dancy makes a bad cut where he might have had the first on 3rd down run. 4th down sack
Bears were markedly outplayed in the 2nd half. The battle of the halftime adjustments went to UNT.
The long TD catch to start the half was a combination of a great read by UNT and Fine and two bad plays at once by Cal. Tempo play for UNT, Goode is slow to react to his man going laterally, Hicks is blocked (held?) and inexplicably Hawkins goes inside the blocker even as Goode has contain on that side. Adding injury to insult, Goode pulls up with hamstring pull.
Garbers starts second half with bad option read decision. He keeps and gets a big gain, instead it’s a loss by Brown. The 3-3-5 look continued to confuse Cal
Slightly longer throw on long pass to Remigio that drew PI penalty and it’s a Bears TD
UNT made a halftime adjustment by vertically stacking their defense (3-3-2 all between the hashes) when Cal went to two TDs. Bears could not run against it in the 2^nd half
Great late presnap adjustment by UNT on 3rd and 4 on 1st drive of Q3 for Bears. Garbers misses wide-open WR and forces it to Reinwald who was well covered
Drive stalls on 3rd and 3 as UNT does their 2nd delayed blitz and Garbers drops eyes and loses a yard
Bears pass rush slowed down as game went on. Loss of Goode hurt. The one bright spot was Ogunbanjo who had two QB hurries and was a factor with his speed coming off the edge

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · September 16, 2019

6 minutes ago, FremontBear said:

There are debates on our own Forum on deserving to be Top-25. Time will tell. Meanwhile, Mean Green gave us all we wanted, and more. Here are some excerpts from post game film analysis, and the writers are generally fair, direct, and brutally honest. Did I mention BRUTUALLY honest? See you in 2022 folks, it's been good talking to all of you, and I have no issues with Rick's or anyone else's well-reasoned criticisms of Da Bears; we didn't play a clean game, to be sure.

Injuries were the big story for Cal on Saturday. Ben Hawk-Schrider, Christopher Brown, Cameron Goode and Tevin Paul all left the field with injuries and did not return

Josh Drayden was limited and Valentino Daltoso and Chineodu Udeogu did not play at all

Very disappointing performance by the Bears on both sides of the ball. By far the worst offensive performance of the year on a yards per play basis as well as the worst yards per play given up on defense

The game met the definition of a trap game between two bigger named opponents on the road. The fast start by Cal seemed to drain the Bears of whatever verve and focus they were able to mount despite the “trap” and after the first quarter they were outplayed and had to hold on for the victory

UNT played a defensive scheme that was focused on taking away the big play. Man coverage with high safeties.

The Man Green’s 3-3-5 approach proved very tough to run against and confused Cal’s OL with its flexibility in formation and assignments

In particular, UNTs defense waited until the Cal offense got their sideline adjustments and then adjusted. Almost always correctly. They had a very good read on Cal’s offense and Garbers tendencies

The weakness to the 3-3-5 was the inability to stop the QB run and Garbers was effective all game exploiting it.

After a heroic performance against UW the week prior, the Cal Offensive Line had a rough day. The pass protection was “okay” and the run blocking was mostly ineffectual.

True freshman McKade Mettauer had an inconsistent day and struggled with the UNT defensive alignments

Henry Bazakas split snaps with Brandon Mello and had a rough game. He missed several crucial blocks. Mello looked far more comfortable in pass protection but is less physical at the point of attack on running plays than Bazakas. Daltoso’s health looms large for this unit

Saffel and Curhan were again the class of the OL

Single coverage on the outside against Ca’s WR and UNT won the day

Cameron Goode was everywhere early. Dominating performance. So quick off the ball and great read and react. He’s tailor-made to take on spread offenses

Evan Weaver once again was a force with a forced fumble and a forced interception while leading the team in tackles in limited snaps

Special teams improved markedly with their best day overall. Strong coverage, good returns on both a KO and Punt.

Deng had a better read and react game though he got pushed around on a few run plays

Hawkins took a terrible angle on the long TD and along with Tre Turner was part of the blown assignment on the near long TD that was dropped; He also had forced fumble and some big-time tackles on third down

The secondary as a whole had (for it) a subpar performance. Multiple blown coverages where Cal was lucky to escape via bad throws or dropped balls.

The Cal coaches came in with a plan to give the backups a lot of snaps even prior to the injury troubles. Anusiem, Turner, Smith and Scott were in the rotation in the secondary. Tattersall and Doughty at LB and the aforementioned Mello at LT.

The defensives performance noticeably dropped off with the backups. Anusiem gave up the late TD and the long UNT drive late in 2nd quarter against a lot of Cal backups - Doughty, Smith, Anusiem, Scott, Croteau

The drop-off with defensive backups was noticeable if not expected. Longest run for UNT came with Tattersall locked his eyes on the blocker and not on the runner and lost inside shoulder contain

The UNT defense out schemed Beau Baldwin’s play-calling and Chase Garbers decision making. Their late pre-snap adjustments, their ability to confuse the OL with blitzes and stunts and the disguises between zone and man to man in the secondary all were effective.

The lack of cohesion, experience and tight communication with the Offensive Line was the most impacted unit by UNT

Didn’t track it statistically but certainly appeared that Cal had far more success passing against UNT zone than man to man. Garbers seemed more comfortable making a read and getting the ball out vs. zone

WRs other than Duncan, did a poor job of coming back to Garbers on plays where he had a lot of time and got outside the pocket

Receivers were more open on tape than it appeared live. Felt like we weren’t ready for zone vs. man so reads were slower and Garbers is clearly playing not to make a mistake. Does not trust his vision and instincts. He may have good reason to be cautious in that regard

The post fumble recovery drive was stalled by poor OL play on 2nd and 1 blitz where Bazakas whiffed on two defenders forcing Garbers to rush the throw

The following play was another missed block by Bazakas. Perhaps not an ideal play call by Baldwin either as UNT was clearly selling out to stop the run

Terrible drop by Reinwald and a bad drop by Hawkins. The first drop by Reinwald was very tough to catch, where he was hit on the ball immediately after catching the ball

Chase Garbers is what he is at this point: Very good runner, tough kid who appears to be optimizing for not making mistakes. He’s got a slower release, inconsistent footwork, below-average field awareness, and vision and is not particularly accurate especially when throwing outside the pocket

To be fair to him, he kept his eyes downfield and got to 2^nd and 3^rd reads better vs. UNT than he had in the Bears previous two games. He didn’t force balls and made some nice throws periodically. All of which are demonstrative of improved play over 2018

His biggest challenges on Saturday were his decision making both in the run game and his field awareness to find open receivers.

Poor play on 3rd and 7 in red zone in first quarter. Garbers had time and a couple of receivers open quickly but chose to roll out and take the sack instead. There’s almost certainly a little negative target fixation going on for Chase. The voice in his head of don’t force a ball likely slows down his instinctual processing and the ball doesn’t get out

Greg Thomas showing good consistent accuracy; Would love to see him get the ball up in the air more. A blocked FG or PAT is in his future if he can’t get a higher trajectory

Cal run D was not fantastic but not bad for the third week in a row. Zeandae Johnson took a step back in holding his ground at the point of attack and the loss of Paul and Goode were factors as their backups struggled.

Remigio with nice long punt return. Some strong blocking on a lower kick. Remigio needs to tuck the ball tighter as he almost lost it a la Ashtyn Davis vs. UCD

Really nice play call on Remigio long TD. Garbers makes nice read of the blitz and throws an easy ball for Remigio on the deep crossing route

UNTs QB with very quick reads and release. Despite not having a lot of time, he threw some nice balls.

Hawk Schrider limped off at end of the 1st quarter and did not return

Soft coverage outside by UNTs CBs was unexploited. No hitches, quick slants or short outs.

Not enough use of the middle of the field when we were in max protect.

Bears start last drive of half well inside UNT side of the field yet don’t score. Bad pass to Hawkins that Hawkins still should have caught, Great play by UNT CB to knock the ball out of Remigio’s hands on 2nd down. Dancy makes a bad cut where he might have had the first on 3rd down run. 4th down sack

Bears were markedly outplayed in the 2nd half. The battle of the halftime adjustments went to UNT.

The long TD catch to start the half was a combination of a great read by UNT and Fine and two bad plays at once by Cal. Tempo play for UNT, Goode is slow to react to his man going laterally, Hicks is blocked (held?) and inexplicably Hawkins goes inside the blocker even as Goode has contain on that side. Adding injury to insult, Goode pulls up with hamstring pull.

Garbers starts second half with bad option read decision. He keeps and gets a big gain, instead it’s a loss by Brown. The 3-3-5 look continued to confuse Cal

Slightly longer throw on long pass to Remigio that drew PI penalty and it’s a Bears TD

UNT made a halftime adjustment by vertically stacking their defense (3-3-2 all between the hashes) when Cal went to two TDs. Bears could not run against it in the 2^nd half

Great late presnap adjustment by UNT on 3rd and 4 on 1st drive of Q3 for Bears. Garbers misses wide-open WR and forces it to Reinwald who was well covered

Drive stalls on 3rd and 3 as UNT does their 2nd delayed blitz and Garbers drops eyes and loses a yard

Bears pass rush slowed down as game went on. Loss of Goode hurt. The one bright spot was Ogunbanjo who had two QB hurries and was a factor with his speed coming off the edge

Don’t forget about our 100 injuries. Bussey hurting his knee and players dropping to the ground like they got shot

FirefightnRick · September 16, 2019

Wow, that’s 2000’s Plumesque justification to be top 25 right there....LOL!

Rick

FremontBear · September 17, 2019

On 9/16/2019 at 6:43 AM, FirefightnRick said:

Wow, that’s 2000’s Plumesque justification to be top 25 right there....LOL!

Rick

You obviously didn't read all of the text.

FirefightnRick · September 17, 2019

2 hours ago, FremontBear said:

You obviously didn't read all of the text.

Obviously you don’t know PlummMeanGreen?

Rick

CMJ · September 17, 2019

3 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

Obviously you don’t know PlummMeanGreen?

Rick

He needed different colored text, various fonts, and some Hells Bells action.

FirefightnRick · October 27, 2019

On 9/14/2019 at 9:59 PM, FirefightnRick said:

..... Utah will have their way with you, especially if there’s no freak lightening delay.

Rick

C888DD41-97A5-4773-9CD3-F250BC1133AE.png.d11f7b88939878985eb06f04280ff1f3.png

oh yeah truth GIF by The Maury Show

Rick

Edited October 27, 2019 by FirefightnRick

CMJ · October 27, 2019

To be fair, California has been a shadow of itself ever since their QBs starting dropping.

Down to a third string Freshman. Usually that doesn't mean success.

Edited October 27, 2019 by CMJ

FirefightnRick · October 27, 2019

53 minutes ago, CMJ said:

To be fair, California has been a shadow of itself ever since their QBs starting dropping.

Down to a third string Freshman. Usually that doesn't mean success.

Does he play defense?

Rick

UNT 90 Grad · October 27, 2019

4 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

Does he play defense?

Rick

Well, if the quarterback throws like Edward Scissorhands...

Robert-Loggia-in-Necessary-Roughness-Pre

Edited October 27, 2019 by UNT 90 Grad

NorthTexasWeLove · October 27, 2019

They garbage. Tried to tell people. But them damn green goggles.

CMJ · October 27, 2019

1 hour ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

They garbage. Tried to tell people. But them damn green goggles.

Again, most teams struggle when they lose their QBs. Much less their backup QBs. Sure, their are exceptions that prove the rule, but usually teams take a nosedive when the guy behind the center goes down.

NorthTexasWeLove · October 27, 2019

Just now, CMJ said:

Again, most teams struggle when they lose their QBs. Much less their backup QBs. Sure, their are exceptions that prove the rule, but usually teams take a nosedive when the guy behind the center goes down.

Cal was never going to be good. That doodoo QB of theirs was terrible, is terrible. They are a defensive team that was never going to be as good as they could be because their offense, this and last QB, is horrible.

We (some fans) were just looking for reasons to feel all warm inside after taking that L.

CMJ · October 27, 2019

Just now, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Cal was never going to be good. That doodoo QB of theirs was terrible, is terrible. They are a defensive team that was never going to be as good as they could be because their offense, this and last QB, is horrible.

We (some fans) were just looking for reasons to feel all warm inside after taking that L.

I think they were probably gonna win 8 games this year.

Their QB of theirs wasn't great, but he wasn't bad. Besides, if he was bad...and the starter...just imagine how poor the #2 and 3 guys are!

NorthTexasWeLove · October 27, 2019

Just now, CMJ said:

I think they were probably gonna win 8 games this year.

Their QB of theirs wasn't great, but he wasn't bad. Besides, if he was bad...and the starter...just imagine how poor the #2 and 3 guys are!

With or without him they were never getting beyond and probably not even to 6-6. Without him, I guess they're just worse. I see 1 win left on their schedule...maybe.

CMJ · October 27, 2019

3 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

With or without him they were never getting beyond and probably not even to 6-6. Without him, I guess they're just worse. I see 1 win left on their schedule...maybe.

I think they were probably going 8-4 (before the Bowl game). They were certainly better than last year's 7-6 (7-5 before the Bowl game) team. At least to my eyes. I see all the Pac 12 schools more than most of you all.

Now, I don't see them getting more than 1 more win. Not unless their 3rd string freshman can find some receivers. He'll probably look better next season, but he looks scared right now.

Edited October 27, 2019 by CMJ

FirefightnRick · October 27, 2019

1 hour ago, CMJ said:

Again, most teams struggle when they lose their QBs. Much less their backup QBs. Sure, their are exceptions that prove the rule, but usually teams take a nosedive when the guy behind the center goes down.

The QB has nothing to do with a defense getting bent over.

TCU beat Texas with a freshman at QB yesterday. TCU never has a great QB or even an offense to speak of.

But they always have a phenomenal defense that, even though they may lose keeps them in most games. That’s what top defenses do regardless how shitty their offense is, and most championship teams in every conference has the best defense.

Prior to our game with Cal all we heard was how phenomenal their defense was. They had just beat U Dub afterall.

After our game I posted a poll comparing Cal’s team to SMU’s and stated very clearly their VAUNTED, highly ranked secondary & defense was no where as good as SMU’s, especially in the speed department. I was correct. Cal is 4-4...SMU is 8-0.

And I predicted that Utah would bitch slap them...and that’s exactly what happened.

Rick

Pavlovs Eagle · October 27, 2019

Utah's defense should scare most FBS teams. And Zach Moss is an A+ baller. I knew they'd clobber Cal, it was just how bad. It was nice to watch some fun late night Pac 12 After Dark football after our miserable loss.

Games at Rice Eccles are very top notch. Since SLC doesn't have a pro football team, and for reasons relating to Mormon Jesus and his feelings on Sunday activities will never have a NFL team, Utah games are THE football game to be at in Salt Lake. Great energy and packed every game.

MGNation92 · October 27, 2019

5 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

The QB has nothing to do with a defense getting bent over.

TCU beat Texas with a freshman at QB yesterday. TCU never has a great QB or even an offense to speak of.

But they always have a phenomenal defense that, even though they may lose keeps them in most games. That’s what top defenses do regardless how shitty their offense is, and most championship teams in every conference has the best defense.

Prior to our game with Cal all we heard was how phenomenal their defense was. They had just beat U Dub afterall.

After our game I posted a poll comparing Cal’s team to SMU’s and stated very clearly their VAUNTED, highly ranked secondary & defense was no where as good as SMU’s, especially in the speed department. I was correct. Cal is 4-4...SMU is 8-0.

And I predicted that Utah would bitch slap them...and that’s exactly what happened.

Rick

Trevone Boykin and Andy Dalton would like a word

MeanGreenTexan · October 27, 2019

44 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

The QB has nothing to do with a defense getting bent over.

...

Rick

I think you know better.

when you don’t have a QB, your offense can’t move the ball. When your offense can’t move the ball, you continuously give the ball to the other team. When the other team has double the # of possessions they would normally have, they’re going to have more opportunities to score. When that offense is a ranked Ute team, they’re going to rack up more points than they normally would.

FirefightnRick · October 27, 2019

48 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

Trevone Boykin and Andy Dalton would like a word

....and Sammy Baugh, Right? “Never has a great QB” meaning they never seem to have a great QB. But you know that.

Dalton and Boykin came out of Fall camp as starters for only 5 seasons combined. Despite that Patterson has only had two losing seasons out of 18,...because of his defenses.

Rick

FirefightnRick · October 27, 2019

17 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I think you know better.

when you don’t have a QB, your offense can’t move the ball. When your offense can’t move the ball, you continuously give the ball to the other team. When the other team has double the # of possessions they would normally have, they’re going to have more opportunities to score. When that offense is a ranked Ute team, they’re going to rack up more points than they normally would.

Sometimes, sometimes not. Mostly not for a top team,...which was the claim. When I made that prediction I knew nothing of Utah. I just knew Cal’s defense was overrated and not as good as SMU’s...and I wasright.

Rick