Well, back to reality, folks. About the best that can be said about yesterday is that we found a way to win, even while getting exposed in many areas. This is not a great team, and considering our schedule, we are set up to potentially get creamed on several occasions. That said, it is important that we did find a way to win, as that was a critical failure of the Dykes era: losing winnable games. This team is more composed, a direct correlation to the new coaching staff. We will not win a lot of games, but I think we’ll do about as well as we possibly can, which is saying a lot.
Here are my thoughts on the positives and things that need to be worked on:
Positives
As I said during the week, I think Weber State is a good football team, one that would beat quite a few Division 1 teams, so our struggling against them wasn’t particularly surprising. It’s also hard to prepare for a team like that, where there isn’t a lot of film showing them against Division 1 talent. That said, teams are supposed to get better going from Week 1 to Week 2, and some say the leap should be large between the two. We, instead, fell back. That is not a good sign, but hopefully it will be a coachable one. If we play like this next week, the Rebels will drop 80 on us – I’m sure the coaches will say that about, oh, a million times this week. This upcoming game will be a barometer for how ready we are for Pac-12 play. Are we a team that somehow finds a way to win, one capable of playing up to the competition as we did against UNC and just well enough against equal or lesser competition like Weber State? Or are we a team with too many flaws to withstand teams that likely have better athletes and are armed with more film to see what those flaws are and hence be able to better exploit them? An argument could be made for either. Unfortunately, after watching the teams we have left on our schedule (even WSU, who did not play well yesterday, will be licking their chops about playing again against our pass defense), I don’t see a lot of winnable games, maybe 1-3 more, tops. I’m hoping we beat a good team – Stanford might be possible – and play better as the year goes on, something that never happened in the Dykes era. But I could also see us going in the tank, especially as injuries mount (losing Watson is a major blow, and not having Saffell or Hudson has hurt us already – any more than these will be a disaster given our lack of depth). At any rate, it’s nice to start our season 2-0 and forestall in serious kvetching for at least another week. Color me happy to this point.
Here are my thoughts on the positives and things that need to be worked on:
Positives
- Obviously Patrick Laird was the hero of the game. He showed toughness, decisiveness to the hole, and a lot more speed than I thought he had. He also can catch, which will continue to be very valuable. He’s like a poor man’s Shane Vereen, but that is pretty darn good. We’ll see how he does when keyed on and whether he is durable, which will be critical with Watson apparently out for a while if not the season. But I’d sure like to see him open a few more books next week!
- Luke Rubenzer played well and was one of the critical adjustments made at the half as Brown was having an awful game (I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a safety get juked as hard as he did on that long TD to Shaheed). We all know Rubenzer’s limitations – a bit slow and small being at the top of the list. But the kid has a nose for the ball. His fumble recovery saved us, he helped break up several deep passes, and made half a dozen tackles.
- This defense is good at creating turnovers. I think it was brilliant of the staff to emphasize this as we aren’t and won’t be a great, shutdown defense, but if you focus on stripping people and working on deflections, even a mediocre defense can be a difference maker at least on occasion. We may need to win the turnover battle every game to have a chance to win and our defense appears to be poised to hold up their end of the bargain.
- Cam Bynum, who I really like, and Ray Davison also had great games and were seemingly all over the field combining for almost 20 tackles.
- Matt Anderson had a good game with deep kick-offs and two very important field goals (the missed extra point was not his fault). He is a weapon for us and might be the difference in a game or two.
- Gavin Reinwald made some noise with a fabulous and very important sideline catch. His blocking needs some work, however.
- Our punting game is pretty good – no returns, decent kicks, and no screw-ups. Keep it going, gents. The only unfortunate is the return of the QB pooch punt. I was so hoping that that had exited along with Dykes, et al. permanently.
- We are very good at making 4th downs. That may mean that when the chips are down, we play better.
- The coaching staff was a bit off, having a very vanilla set of game plans on both sides of the ball, but made some critical half-time adjustments – the aforementioned playing of Rubenzer, giving Laird the ball more, and in general just keeping the team confident. I am certain that if Dykes were still the coach in this game going into half time down as we were, we would have lost. Guaranteed.
- Few turnovers and penalties – we played a pretty clean game, another sign of good coaching.
- Our secondary made some mystifyingly bad, brain-fart type plays, including in particular leaving someone completely uncovered in one of Weber’s last drives. What is this, Pop Warner? We need to clean this up and play consistently smart, especially on deep balls or we are going to get attacked there frequently, especially as we continue to have a lackluster pass rush.
- Speaking of pass rush, it was again less than mediocre. Our front four is especially weak at it, as they have been for a long time. This will continue to haunt us until we get better edge-rushing athletes or superior down linemen, which will probably be a while.
- Bowers took a step back this game. He was hesitant and inaccurate and his continuing failure to be able to find Robertson deep is disconcerting. I’m wondering if the coaches so harped on his not making bonehead picks made him way too conservative. He also has a tendency only to throw to the left side of the field, which will definitely be noticed on film and will end up costing us. Regardless, he will need to play better if we are going to have a chance to beat anyone else on our remaining schedule (except maybe OSU).
- Vic Enwere had another bad game. He looks slow, indecisive, lacking in power, and his receiving skills are poor. His decision to veer outside on a red zone run was particularly galling. I’d prefer to see McMorris get his carries if he is going to continue to play like this. Really. At least it would be more entertaining.
- Stopping TEs and containing running QBs have been our Achilles’ heels for so long I can’t remember when we were ever decent at either. It is very frustrating to see TEs wide open 20 yards down the field often and QBs evading pass rushes and taking off for big gains (Cantwell’s scamper on 4th-10 for a first down made my blood pressure rise to near explosive levels). We made Cantwell look like the second coming of Bobby Douglass for goodness sakes.
- Our return game is just horrible. Why can’t we find a way to turn this into a positive? It is very frustrating. We seem to have the athletes, but we just can’t seem to make it work.
- WR depth was missing – we need something from others besides Robertson and Wharton. Veasy and Noa are OK, but need to do more IMO. What happened to everyone else? No Duncan, no Singleton, no Hawkins, etc. Are those other guys hurt or not seeing the field? I thought they were all supposed to be good?
- After lauding Baldwin’s game plan last week, this one was a bit of a stinker. The passing game was way too conservative – he showed lack of confidence in his charges. While I think Weber St did some bonehead things (the fake FG was particularly dumb), they left it all on the field and took chances galore. Baldwin will need to do more of that if we want to have a chance against better teams.
- The stadium was empty and the crowd subdued. It’s sad to see how far down the pecking order Cal football has fallen in the eyes of the campus and community. It used to be a hot ticket, but it hasn’t been in some time. I think it will take a lot to win fans back. That won’t happen this year, unfortunately.
As I said during the week, I think Weber State is a good football team, one that would beat quite a few Division 1 teams, so our struggling against them wasn’t particularly surprising. It’s also hard to prepare for a team like that, where there isn’t a lot of film showing them against Division 1 talent. That said, teams are supposed to get better going from Week 1 to Week 2, and some say the leap should be large between the two. We, instead, fell back. That is not a good sign, but hopefully it will be a coachable one. If we play like this next week, the Rebels will drop 80 on us – I’m sure the coaches will say that about, oh, a million times this week. This upcoming game will be a barometer for how ready we are for Pac-12 play. Are we a team that somehow finds a way to win, one capable of playing up to the competition as we did against UNC and just well enough against equal or lesser competition like Weber State? Or are we a team with too many flaws to withstand teams that likely have better athletes and are armed with more film to see what those flaws are and hence be able to better exploit them? An argument could be made for either. Unfortunately, after watching the teams we have left on our schedule (even WSU, who did not play well yesterday, will be licking their chops about playing again against our pass defense), I don’t see a lot of winnable games, maybe 1-3 more, tops. I’m hoping we beat a good team – Stanford might be possible – and play better as the year goes on, something that never happened in the Dykes era. But I could also see us going in the tank, especially as injuries mount (losing Watson is a major blow, and not having Saffell or Hudson has hurt us already – any more than these will be a disaster given our lack of depth). At any rate, it’s nice to start our season 2-0 and forestall in serious kvetching for at least another week. Color me happy to this point.
