Archive for Analysis
California-UCLA Report Card
Thanks to Tony for saving me for this weekend. It’s going to be a sporadic run to the finish. Um, yeah, I went to the game. I was actually standing next to the CGB guys, which was as surreal as it sounds. It was made even better by the fact that I could barely speak. […]
UCLA Observations
The Bad Drops and pass protection. The former may improve, but so far it isn’t trending that way. I was particularly disappointed to see Morrah continue to drop catchable balls. We know from experience that he has great hands– may they reappear during the rest of the season. Pass protection is less likely to improve. We’ve been plagued by injuries on the line all season, […]
Remember, Our Window Has Not Yet Closed
A couple days ago, Avinash wrote about the slowly-diminishing probability that the Tedford era will deliever on its promise. In the face of yet another very disappointing loss, Avinash quite reasonably wondered whether the window of opportunity was closing on Cal’s potential to reach the Rose Bowl and/or genuinely contend for national relevance. The Arizona loss […]
Cal-Arizona Report Card
Nate Longshore: We’ve seen this script before. It’s the typical Nate Longshore game we’ve seen the past two years. Let’s move on before people start yelling. Grade: C Kevin Riley: Ditto. Grade: C Running backs: Just when it looked like Arizona was ready to run us off the field, Jahvid Best scorched the Wildcats and […]
The Bears are Roaring: Arizona Previews
The Bear Will Not Quit talks on Arizona’s spread offense “How do you defend against [archnemesis/former Texas Tech OC’s Sonny Dykes’s spread] offense? 1. You must limit yards after the catch. When this offense racks up 40+ points, it is due to big gains off short passes. Think of how the Patriots used Wes Welker […]
My Contribution To the Infinite Regress
At 4-1 with seven fat Pac-10 games to go, Cal is once again ranked, once again in first place in the conference, and once again besot with a doubting fanbase wondering just how good (or bad) the team really is. Why are we still wondering? Because college football is epistemologically… well, complicated. The future is […]
Is Nate Longshore A Better Quarterback Than A Machine?
(Started a thread about cardinal sins for Cal fans last night over at CGB. Come take a gander.) Lowell Cohn provides his bizarro logic as to why he rides the Nate Hate Train. I am not a Nate Longshore fan. I admit that. It’s nothing personal because he seems like a nice young man, polite, […]
Did That Cloud Of Humidity Have A Silver Lining?
On a Saturday one month ago, writing sunburned, beer-addled and depressed in northern VA, I requested that we never speak of the Maryland debacle again. But a month removed, facing our second bye week of the season, I find myself wondering what the world of Cal football would be like if we had somehow won that game. If, for example, we […]
Cal – Arizona State Report Card
Quarterback: Feels like we haven’t discussed this topic enough, eh? Longshore did enough to win the game, but he didn’t do enough to distinguish himself from Kevin Riley. On one hand, the Cal quarterback kept things simple with swing dumps and screens early. On the other, Nate floated a few passes that took some adjustment […]
Thirty-Three and a Third
Wham, bam and whaddyaknow, the season is a third over (not counting the Emerald/Rose Bowl). We have a newly-opened quarterback competition, uncertainty over the health of our star running back, a promising stable of young (or at least unfamiliar) wide receivers who have yet to assert themselves, and myriad other nagging questions. In other words, […]
