My thoughts being at the game.... -
09-13-2008, 05:33 PM
1) It was hot and humid. No question in my mind that the humidity played a role in the game. I live in the DC area and I was dripping wet and completely wiped out when I got home after sitting in the heat and humidity.
2) I was utterly amazed to see Riley's statistics at the end of the game. As some have already voiced, this had to be one of the worst 423 yard team passing performances in recent memory.
3) Sitting about 5 rows off the field behind CAL's bench, it was clear that a few of Riley's errant passes were due to WRs cutting the wrong way or taking the wrong route. Riley was visiably frustrated on at least 2-3 drives - Tedford seemed to agree. His INT was a result of the WR slipping on the field and the DB jumped the route.
4) Tedford had another blow up, this time directed at one of his trainers who was madly trying to retape Vareen's ankle in the second half. I'm guessing it took way too long and Vareen missed a play he was supposed to be in on.
5) I thought one very pivotal play was the personal foul called on Alex Mack that killed one of our drives. As one of the self professed leaders on the team I would have expected better from him.
6) I wasn't really impressed with Byrd Stadium. It is built about 50 feet lower than the surrounding terrain, which kept the breeze to a minimum on the field. They never showed replays on the TWO jumbotrons - one at each end of the stadium. This was especially true when the call/play had the chance of getting the visitor crowd into the game. The non-safety and all the non-PI calls come to mind. If it wasn't for the piped in music, the home crowd wasn't really that loud - Memorial is way louder.
7) Anger had some seriously good punts today and had the Terps sitting around me asking who he was.
8) The Terps I met were great. They were even more surprised by the game than most of the CAL fans. After last week they seemed to expect a blowout going the other direction.
5) I thought one very pivotal play was the personal foul called on Alex Mack that killed one of our drives. As one of the self professed leaders on the team I would have expected better from him.
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Yeah, that was bad. Given that the wheels were already coming off at that point, he needed to be playing a steadying role for the other guys.
I would hope that we won't see any more of that sort of thing from him for the rest of the season.
thanks for the nice recap. It was nice to see so many CAL people there... lots of folks on the upper deck and the two sections in the endzone on the first deck... looked good on tv.
Alex Mack is a great talent, and we all appreciate this, I'm sure. But he has had the tendency this year to go snap to whistle plus two seconds. I noticed it against MSU and WSU also, and he has gotten by with it until now. But now, Coach M has to work with him on tuning his aggressive style. I think if a player has started a block before or right at the whistle, the refs give a blocker leeway to finish it, as long as it doesn't extend too long (maybe someone knows the appropriate rule & interpretation). Mack is a very smart player and I'm sure he will make the needed adjustments. I'm more worried about other places on the O-line, as others have mentioned.
is it that difficult to convert a punter into the kickoff guy? I think each of their starts was beyond the 40 yard line.
I asked GreyBear this before. His response, in a nutshell, was: "The physiological demands of punting and kicking are completely different. Anger is clearly a special punter, so let's treasure him for what he is."
4) Tedford had another blow up, this time directed at one of his trainers who was madly trying to retape Vareen's ankle in the second half. I'm guessing it took way too long and Vareen missed a play he was supposed to be in on.
I think Tedford might be feeling the 7 years without a Rose Bowl more than we do... Likely he is not worried about getting canned, but he is maybe feeling the heat of working his azz off and things going wrong anyway...
Seems like he is a lot more irritated on the sidelines in the past few weeks, going back to OSU last year.
1. Agree. Very hot, very humid. Anyone else see me on the way up to the stadium? I was with a group of three with a bunch of beer in a garbage bag, trying to sell two tickets...
2. Also, definitely agree. I expected to see around 200 passing yards...certainly not 423. I guess a lot of yards came up toward the end of the game, but what's the point if we're not scoring with any of them?
6. Definitely true. I thought the whole place was really tacky. First of all, I didn't like how all the Cal fans were squeezed into one section where we were made visually and acoustically unimpressive. Secondly, I hated how the stadium would play music really loudly on our third downs...can they not make noise themselves? Thirdly: the field definitely did not look flat from our seats in section 3.
8. We had some decent experiences with Terps (on the way up to the stadium, some Maryland fans screamed at us "Cal sucks!," followed by "You have a really great fine arts program!")...as well as some awful ones...but I guess that's what we get for deciding to sit in the middle of Maryland territory the first half.
Cool, thanks for your observations. It's really hard to pick up receivers cutting the wrong way when the camera is just focusing on the qb until he throws the ball. Riley definitely did not have his "A" game today. Maybe not even his "B" game, but he hung in there against a pretty tough rush and caught fire in the 4th quarter. Maybe that will give us the confidence to come back and win some of these tough Pac 10 games. You know they're going to be dog fights. BTW, that Mack penalty was disastorous.
Alex Mack is a great talent, and we all appreciate this, I'm sure. But he has had the tendency this year to go snap to whistle plus two seconds. I noticed it against MSU and WSU also, and he has gotten by with it until now. But now, Coach M has to work with him on tuning his aggressive style. I think if a player has started a block before or right at the whistle, the refs give a blocker leeway to finish it, as long as it doesn't extend too long (maybe someone knows the appropriate rule & interpretation). Mack is a very smart player and I'm sure he will make the needed adjustments. I'm more worried about other places on the O-line, as others have mentioned.
I agree 100%. He loves to clear the pile, and does it every game.
But the field shouldn't be flat, especially because it's a natural grass field - it's rounded up in the middle so that water can drain off either side. Unless you mean that the field looked much rounder than usual grass fields.
When Mack came off, Mihalchek (sp?) got in his face, but then Mack gave some right back. Whether he was frustrated at how the offense was playing or thought it was a cheap flag, I am not sure.
When Mack came off, Mihalchek (sp?) got in his face, but then Mack gave some right back. Whether he was frustrated at how the offense was playing or thought it was a cheap flag, I am not sure.
I think he was just very frustrated. TV shots showed him just sitting on a bench with a wet towel wrapped over his head not talking to anyone, but he looked MEGA p!ssed.
Mack is a very intense, fiery competitor on the field, and I have no doubt he was just frustrated that his line was getting worked by a supposedly mediocre Maryland d-line.
But the field shouldn't be flat, especially because it's a natural grass field - it's rounded up in the middle so that water can drain off either side. Unless you mean that the field looked much rounder than usual grass fields.
I don't usually sit so low at a stadium, but the field did have a nice convex shape to it. I guess you have to do that when you build your field in the bottom of a hole. I'm sure they must have a 6 star drainage system, otherwise they would have a 30 foot bathtub.
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