How Cal Lost in The Rose Bowl, Part III

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Click to read Part I and Part II of the Rose Bowl series.

As the game progressed, DeWayne Walker seemed to take into account the adjustments Cal was making to his UCLA defense. Here you can see him revert from the Cover 4 and go back to the Cover 2.

uclacover2a

In a Cover 2 set, the corners do not cede space and make it much harder for offenses to find. Again, the key is to attack down the middle, as evidenced on the Stevens TD, or go to the areas the safeties are ceding you space. But you could see that receivers were missing routes or Longshore’s arm strength were decreasing. In either case, that option was not as strong as it was in the beginning.

Notice here that the spacing between corners is much smaller than it was in the original. So while the deep ball is there, the defensive backs now have a chance to spy the quarterback and make a play on the ball. This makes the quarterback’s job to thread the needle all the more important.

uclacover2b

Now Nate does have one particular issue that defenses can keep an eye on.
He locks in on his receivers.
uclacover2c
You can see on the two pictures above, his field of vision does not change; it looks like he’s watching Hawkins the whole way.
uclacover2d
And this is a problem when UCLA corner Alterraun Verner is staring right back at Nate rather than following the receiver route.
uclacover2e
Instead of following Hawkins, he’s watching the direction in which Longshore is throwing, allowing him to get the inside track to the ball and disrupt the pattern Hawkins is running in, a standard scheme to attacking the Cover 4. But this is no Cover 4.
uclacover2f
Huge interception by Verner, all made possible by playing close up on the receivers.

Now this switch to the Cover 2 on a 3rd and long might be one of two things–Cal’s ability to exploit the standard Cover 4 package to pick up first downs, or to mix and match on Longshore to make it difficult for him to always throw short. Walker probably did this not only to test Nate’s arm strength, but to make his corners exploit Nate’s biggest issue at the end of games. He’s been dinking and dunking all day. He hasn’t thrown deep yet. Why play him deep?

It could also explain why Tedford ran the ball late in the game–he knew that UCLA was not going to be as easy to pass on anymore. In any case, all of these issues led to the fatal denouement at the end, which I’ll diagram later this week.



Topics: Analysis, Cal Football, Defense, Gamefilm, offense, Strategy, UCLA

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Jan K Oski's avatar

Jan K Oski · 878 weeks ago

Great analysis, Avinash. If Tedford and/or Cignetti haven't already addressed this, I'd be shocked. But, I'm actually glad Tedford's policy is to keep such weaknesses between him and his players. That's how it is in the real world and should be unless they're breaking the law. Sorry fans who think they're entitled to every tidbit! As well, it should be a clear indicator to Tedford that he can't handle multiple duties with limited sleep, as it appears that he didn't help Nate correct this last year. I'm no expert, and I saw it... Go Bears!
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Reno Bear's avatar

Reno Bear · 878 weeks ago

Longshore is one of the worst QB's to start for Cal in a long time. His shortcomings were masked for two years by Cal's great running game. When the defenses started shutting down the run and Cal was forced to throw Longshore was not up to the task. Bring in Kevin Riley ASAP. As you point out in the article above Longshore stares at his receiver. This led to critical interceptions that lost games against ASU and UCLA.
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Avinash's avatar - Go to profile

Avinash · 877 weeks ago

Jan,
I don't think it's a HUGE deal that a quarterback locks into his receiver on a short route, especially in college. I think that Pac-10 secondaries just know what to expect and good playmakers like Verner or Cason last year can take advantage of that. Credit the defense.

Reno,
Whaaaa? Worst QBs ever? His ankle was hampering him and his throws were a little bit shorter this year. Let's face that stubbornness from Tedford was more of an issue than Longshore's struggles.
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Reno Bear's avatar

Reno Bear · 877 weeks ago

His ankle was a problem but Longshore locks into a receiver and watches him run his route. This has led to two interceptions which were returned for touchdowns against Arizona and UCLA. Both were "out" patterns that were telegraphed. He is also slow footed and panics when pressure is applied. We need a more mobile accurate QB. Longshore will never lead us to a championship. He had the best receiving corp in the PAC 10 with Hawkins,Jordan,Jackson and two excellent tight ends. As a result we barely made it to a mid level bowl game. Please bring in Kevin Riley!!
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