01Bear said:

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golden sloth said:

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heartofthebear said:

---

I was on the fence about going, but as tickets became scarce, jumped on it, getting 2 tickets way up in section 240. Having had sat there 2 years ago, I was okay with that. Then as forecasts turned sour, I kindof regretted it. After all, staying home would mean being able to also match Goergia-Tennessee, USC-UCLA and Washington-Oregon St. Plus I'm fasting right now, so lunch before the game was out.

But, despite many traffic hassles both ways, including a train delay because a car was on the tracks, I will never miss a Cal game in PA again. Here's my take on Cal, Furd, the game and the future:

• Firstly Palo Alto is absolutely bear territory, at least on big game days at Furd. Cal fans dominated the Stadium, as we did 2 years ago except more so last night.
• Cal fans stomped their feet on 3rd downs making the whole place shake and rumble. While the only thing that Furd did was the PA guy would yell aggressively that it was 3rd down, which, after Cal continued to convert 3rd downs, sounded pretty lame.
• I am so sick of Stanford announcing it is Leland Stanford. I shouted "who the **** cares about his first name" because, yeah, nobody cares--No offense to any Cal fans named Leland.
• Cal plays absolutely their best football at Stanford stadium going back to the Zach Maynard era. Yeah lots of those were losses but they were close losses to Furd team that was far superior in talent.
• I don't like Wilcox as a HC, but he has figured out how to win big games better than most of our recent HCs.
• Mendoza and Ott are going to be a dynamic duo at Cal as long as they are here. Ott is now learning to make even better decisions on inside runs, popping outside when needed. And he usually breaks 2 tackles on each run. Maybe it was just the poor Furd defense, but I think Ott may actually be getting better.
• Mendoza has an elite arm. You heard it here first. It is elite because of the velocity that is still catchable. The ball gets to the receiver very fast. Mendoza is very much like Brock Purdy internally with an even more likeable personality and better leadership skills. Purdy makes better decisions at this point but I think Mendoza may have a better arm. Mendoza needs to sense pressure a bit better, protect himself on runs better and avoid making the risky throw a bit better, although Purdy still makes risky throws too. Mendoza will be in the NFL, which I said before he even took a live snap at Cal.
• What do you think about Ott taking a knee at the 5 with less than 2 minutes left in the game? I have mixed feelings. Selfishly I wanted him to score, which he could have done easily as there was nobody around him. 34-15 would have looked so much better on the scoreboard and it would have more accurately reflected how much Cal dominated that game. But, after my initial dismay, I realized that Ott's decision had iced the game. It's the decision all the broadcasters and coach preach as the right decision, but rarely is it done, especially in college and especially by a young player. When Ott was first interviewed at Cal, something about the way he talked made me think that he was kind of egotistical and narcissistic. That rapidly changed and I have grown to respect him as a young man as well as an elite athlete. But none of that prepared me for what he did last night. He is very intelligent and knows the game situation, maybe even better than his coaches. And he is selfless and a true team player. That act along with Mendoza's play and Spavitol's coaching will give Cal great leadership on offense moving forward. That will help us pull in offensive talent through the portal during the off-season as we still need to bolster our OL and could use better top end talent at WR.
• More mind blowingly bad calls from pac-12 refs in the big game: Why is it that the refs. love Furd so much? But the punt return interference called against Cal in the first quarter last night was completely fabricated. There was nobody within several yards of him. The flag was not throw until very late. That call could have cost Cal the game as, at one point, it was a 6 point game with Furd driving for a score. What is disgusting is that they couldn't review it because it wasn't the fumble recovery that was in dispute. It was the penalty call, which cannot be reviewed. It isn't just that calls are blown, but it is when they are blatantly fabricated that bothers me and this has happened in every single big game for as far back as I can remember in favor of Furd. Having said that, I'm not sure that was targetting on Mendoza, Mendoza was knocked out when his helmet slammed on the ground falling backwards. I didn't see the Furd player hit Mendoza in the head at all.
• This game makes watching next Saturday's game more fun and interesting but I am not very hopeful. Chip Kelly, who somehow has pissed off his employer, is 9-1 against Cal as an HC. And Cal does not have a very good history against UCLA in the rose bowl. Also UCLA has solved their QB problem, which contributed to their losses this season. UCLA has an elite defense so how will the big 3 leaders on offense I mentioned above handle that? That will be interesting to watch. However I am not looking forward to watching Garbers and Sturdivant carve up Cal's pass D, especially since I feel both should be at Cal. I just want the key players to come out of the game healthy enough to play next season.
• Despite all of the crap this year, I am actually looking forward to next season. But we have to get much better coaching and talent on defense immediately.

---

Regarding the targeting. It absolutely was targeting. Mendoza was running, and never dipped his head, and sinclair made direct helmet to helmet contact. Sinclair deserved to be kicked out. He could have easily hit him in the chest, but instead hit him in the head. Sinclair is a dirty player, and has no business being on the field. **** him.

---

Yup. On the Pac-12's broadcast, there was a video showing the crown of dirty Furd Sinclair's helmet hitting Mendoza's chin. It was definitely targeting.

---

For the penalty, it doesn't really matter where he hit Mendoza, and doesn't matter if Mendoza was "defenseless" (he wasn't "defenseless"). Sinclair was leading with the crown of the helmet and making forcible contact. It is targeting.

The "leading with the crown of the helmet" targeting is really more about protecting the player guilty of targeting than it is about protecting the player being hit. On "crown of the helmet" targeting calls, you see the player flagged for targeting need to get carted off the field more often than the player who was hit.

But yeah, dirty furd Sinclair got flagged THREE times for illegal hits on Mendoza. The first one, where Mendoza was sliding, was the toughest to avoid, but he could have at least made an effort to avoid the hit once he saw Mendoza start his slide. He made no effort, so yeah, dirty. On the interception, he hunted for Mendoza to block him was downfield. Yeah, dirty. And then he risked his own health to lower his crown so that he could hit Mendoza, and probably knew he was going to get him in the head. Stupid and dirty.

He played a great game with the 10 tackles, and a bad game with the three 15 yard penalties. I sometimes feel sorry for a guy who gets ejected for targeting, feeling like he screwed up but didn't really intend to do anything. I felt ZERO sympathy for Sinclair, I was VERY happy to have him off the field, because he was so clearly acting like a dirty furd.

01Bear said:

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golden sloth said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

I was on the fence about going, but as tickets became scarce, jumped on it, getting 2 tickets way up in section 240. Having had sat there 2 years ago, I was okay with that. Then as forecasts turned sour, I kindof regretted it. After all, staying home would mean being able to also match Goergia-Tennessee, USC-UCLA and Washington-Oregon St. Plus I'm fasting right now, so lunch before the game was out.

But, despite many traffic hassles both ways, including a train delay because a car was on the tracks, I will never miss a Cal game in PA again. Here's my take on Cal, Furd, the game and the future:

• Firstly Palo Alto is absolutely bear territory, at least on big game days at Furd. Cal fans dominated the Stadium, as we did 2 years ago except more so last night.
• Cal fans stomped their feet on 3rd downs making the whole place shake and rumble. While the only thing that Furd did was the PA guy would yell aggressively that it was 3rd down, which, after Cal continued to convert 3rd downs, sounded pretty lame.
• I am so sick of Stanford announcing it is Leland Stanford. I shouted "who the **** cares about his first name" because, yeah, nobody cares--No offense to any Cal fans named Leland.
• Cal plays absolutely their best football at Stanford stadium going back to the Zach Maynard era. Yeah lots of those were losses but they were close losses to Furd team that was far superior in talent.
• I don't like Wilcox as a HC, but he has figured out how to win big games better than most of our recent HCs.
• Mendoza and Ott are going to be a dynamic duo at Cal as long as they are here. Ott is now learning to make even better decisions on inside runs, popping outside when needed. And he usually breaks 2 tackles on each run. Maybe it was just the poor Furd defense, but I think Ott may actually be getting better.
• Mendoza has an elite arm. You heard it here first. It is elite because of the velocity that is still catchable. The ball gets to the receiver very fast. Mendoza is very much like Brock Purdy internally with an even more likeable personality and better leadership skills. Purdy makes better decisions at this point but I think Mendoza may have a better arm. Mendoza needs to sense pressure a bit better, protect himself on runs better and avoid making the risky throw a bit better, although Purdy still makes risky throws too. Mendoza will be in the NFL, which I said before he even took a live snap at Cal.
• What do you think about Ott taking a knee at the 5 with less than 2 minutes left in the game? I have mixed feelings. Selfishly I wanted him to score, which he could have done easily as there was nobody around him. 34-15 would have looked so much better on the scoreboard and it would have more accurately reflected how much Cal dominated that game. But, after my initial dismay, I realized that Ott's decision had iced the game. It's the decision all the broadcasters and coach preach as the right decision, but rarely is it done, especially in college and especially by a young player. When Ott was first interviewed at Cal, something about the way he talked made me think that he was kind of egotistical and narcissistic. That rapidly changed and I have grown to respect him as a young man as well as an elite athlete. But none of that prepared me for what he did last night. He is very intelligent and knows the game situation, maybe even better than his coaches. And he is selfless and a true team player. That act along with Mendoza's play and Spavitol's coaching will give Cal great leadership on offense moving forward. That will help us pull in offensive talent through the portal during the off-season as we still need to bolster our OL and could use better top end talent at WR.
• More mind blowingly bad calls from pac-12 refs in the big game: Why is it that the refs. love Furd so much? But the punt return interference called against Cal in the first quarter last night was completely fabricated. There was nobody within several yards of him. The flag was not throw until very late. That call could have cost Cal the game as, at one point, it was a 6 point game with Furd driving for a score. What is disgusting is that they couldn't review it because it wasn't the fumble recovery that was in dispute. It was the penalty call, which cannot be reviewed. It isn't just that calls are blown, but it is when they are blatantly fabricated that bothers me and this has happened in every single big game for as far back as I can remember in favor of Furd. Having said that, I'm not sure that was targetting on Mendoza, Mendoza was knocked out when his helmet slammed on the ground falling backwards. I didn't see the Furd player hit Mendoza in the head at all.
• This game makes watching next Saturday's game more fun and interesting but I am not very hopeful. Chip Kelly, who somehow has pissed off his employer, is 9-1 against Cal as an HC. And Cal does not have a very good history against UCLA in the rose bowl. Also UCLA has solved their QB problem, which contributed to their losses this season. UCLA has an elite defense so how will the big 3 leaders on offense I mentioned above handle that? That will be interesting to watch. However I am not looking forward to watching Garbers and Sturdivant carve up Cal's pass D, especially since I feel both should be at Cal. I just want the key players to come out of the game healthy enough to play next season.
• Despite all of the crap this year, I am actually looking forward to next season. But we have to get much better coaching and talent on defense immediately.

---

Regarding the targeting. It absolutely was targeting. Mendoza was running, and never dipped his head, and sinclair made direct helmet to helmet contact. Sinclair deserved to be kicked out. He could have easily hit him in the chest, but instead hit him in the head. Sinclair is a dirty player, and has no business being on the field. **** him.

---

Yup. On the Pac-12's broadcast, there was a video showing the crown of dirty Furd Sinclair's helmet hitting Mendoza's chin. It was definitely targeting.

---

He was playing dirty the whole game and deserved to be ejected. Now he will miss the first half of their game with Notre Dame too. Real team player.

TedfordTheGreat said:

---

One thing i was super impressed with was the offensive scheme and creativity.

I love the multiple motions that we do before we snap the ball. For example, In the attempted 2 point conversion, we overloaded the right and then threw a slant to our best WR on the left, creating a 1:1 matchup. Didn't work but it was inches away. In addition, the announcers commented on how some of the motions confused Furd in the second half.

I still think our OL is not all world, but we don't put our QB in the pocket for 3+ seconds (like we did last year) over and over again. Our number of sacks we suffered are way down this year.

You can tell that we are trying to coach around our strength and weaknesses. I am liking what I am seeing from Spav. We need better talent but as it stands our offense is functional in the P5 level with the talent we have.

A small gripe I have is that we gotta stop going to empty backfill (or motion Ott away). A couple of the sacks we suffered are due to the LB blitzing unblocked. Our threat for the running game is one of our biggest strength. We need to leave Ott there to at least slow the LB down, and if they don't come, move up field as an outlet option. Small gripe, only saw it 2 to 3 times for a few sacks. I am confident our team can clean that up

---

I doubt the team will be able to clean it up in the next game. UCLA has two excellent edge rushers in Laitu Latu and Gabriel Murphy (two guys who will likely be selected in the NFL draft). Also, they have really good linebackers in Muasau, Medrano, and (former Cal Bear) Oladejo. I fully expect UCLA's pass rushers to be living in Cal's backfield next Saturday.

The question is, will Spav adjust his offense to take advantage of UCLA's aggression? Jaydn Ott can probably make a killing catching short passes out of the backfield off of play action all day (or at least until UCLA backs off on bullrushing). So long as Cal can get off quick passes (especially to the edges), it should help mitigate the rushing threat. It may not be enough to win the game, but dinking and dunking will likely help keep Cal in the game (hopefully enough for it to win on some lucky bounces and fortuitous turnovers).

Cal8285 said:

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01Bear said:

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golden sloth said:

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heartofthebear said:

---

I was on the fence about going, but as tickets became scarce, jumped on it, getting 2 tickets way up in section 240. Having had sat there 2 years ago, I was okay with that. Then as forecasts turned sour, I kindof regretted it. After all, staying home would mean being able to also match Goergia-Tennessee, USC-UCLA and Washington-Oregon St. Plus I'm fasting right now, so lunch before the game was out.

But, despite many traffic hassles both ways, including a train delay because a car was on the tracks, I will never miss a Cal game in PA again. Here's my take on Cal, Furd, the game and the future:

• Firstly Palo Alto is absolutely bear territory, at least on big game days at Furd. Cal fans dominated the Stadium, as we did 2 years ago except more so last night.
• Cal fans stomped their feet on 3rd downs making the whole place shake and rumble. While the only thing that Furd did was the PA guy would yell aggressively that it was 3rd down, which, after Cal continued to convert 3rd downs, sounded pretty lame.
• I am so sick of Stanford announcing it is Leland Stanford. I shouted "who the **** cares about his first name" because, yeah, nobody cares--No offense to any Cal fans named Leland.
• Cal plays absolutely their best football at Stanford stadium going back to the Zach Maynard era. Yeah lots of those were losses but they were close losses to Furd team that was far superior in talent.
• I don't like Wilcox as a HC, but he has figured out how to win big games better than most of our recent HCs.
• Mendoza and Ott are going to be a dynamic duo at Cal as long as they are here. Ott is now learning to make even better decisions on inside runs, popping outside when needed. And he usually breaks 2 tackles on each run. Maybe it was just the poor Furd defense, but I think Ott may actually be getting better.
• Mendoza has an elite arm. You heard it here first. It is elite because of the velocity that is still catchable. The ball gets to the receiver very fast. Mendoza is very much like Brock Purdy internally with an even more likeable personality and better leadership skills. Purdy makes better decisions at this point but I think Mendoza may have a better arm. Mendoza needs to sense pressure a bit better, protect himself on runs better and avoid making the risky throw a bit better, although Purdy still makes risky throws too. Mendoza will be in the NFL, which I said before he even took a live snap at Cal.
• What do you think about Ott taking a knee at the 5 with less than 2 minutes left in the game? I have mixed feelings. Selfishly I wanted him to score, which he could have done easily as there was nobody around him. 34-15 would have looked so much better on the scoreboard and it would have more accurately reflected how much Cal dominated that game. But, after my initial dismay, I realized that Ott's decision had iced the game. It's the decision all the broadcasters and coach preach as the right decision, but rarely is it done, especially in college and especially by a young player. When Ott was first interviewed at Cal, something about the way he talked made me think that he was kind of egotistical and narcissistic. That rapidly changed and I have grown to respect him as a young man as well as an elite athlete. But none of that prepared me for what he did last night. He is very intelligent and knows the game situation, maybe even better than his coaches. And he is selfless and a true team player. That act along with Mendoza's play and Spavitol's coaching will give Cal great leadership on offense moving forward. That will help us pull in offensive talent through the portal during the off-season as we still need to bolster our OL and could use better top end talent at WR.
• More mind blowingly bad calls from pac-12 refs in the big game: Why is it that the refs. love Furd so much? But the punt return interference called against Cal in the first quarter last night was completely fabricated. There was nobody within several yards of him. The flag was not throw until very late. That call could have cost Cal the game as, at one point, it was a 6 point game with Furd driving for a score. What is disgusting is that they couldn't review it because it wasn't the fumble recovery that was in dispute. It was the penalty call, which cannot be reviewed. It isn't just that calls are blown, but it is when they are blatantly fabricated that bothers me and this has happened in every single big game for as far back as I can remember in favor of Furd. Having said that, I'm not sure that was targetting on Mendoza, Mendoza was knocked out when his helmet slammed on the ground falling backwards. I didn't see the Furd player hit Mendoza in the head at all.
• This game makes watching next Saturday's game more fun and interesting but I am not very hopeful. Chip Kelly, who somehow has pissed off his employer, is 9-1 against Cal as an HC. And Cal does not have a very good history against UCLA in the rose bowl. Also UCLA has solved their QB problem, which contributed to their losses this season. UCLA has an elite defense so how will the big 3 leaders on offense I mentioned above handle that? That will be interesting to watch. However I am not looking forward to watching Garbers and Sturdivant carve up Cal's pass D, especially since I feel both should be at Cal. I just want the key players to come out of the game healthy enough to play next season.
• Despite all of the crap this year, I am actually looking forward to next season. But we have to get much better coaching and talent on defense immediately.

---

Regarding the targeting. It absolutely was targeting. Mendoza was running, and never dipped his head, and sinclair made direct helmet to helmet contact. Sinclair deserved to be kicked out. He could have easily hit him in the chest, but instead hit him in the head. Sinclair is a dirty player, and has no business being on the field. **** him.

---

Yup. On the Pac-12's broadcast, there was a video showing the crown of dirty Furd Sinclair's helmet hitting Mendoza's chin. It was definitely targeting.

---

For the penalty, it doesn't really matter where he hit Mendoza, and doesn't matter if Mendoza was "defenseless" (he wasn't "defenseless"). Sinclair was leading with the crown of the helmet and making forcible contact. It is targeting.

The "leading with the crown of the helmet" targeting is really more about protecting the player guilty of targeting than it is about protecting the player being hit. On "crown of the helmet" targeting calls, you see the player flagged for targeting need to get carted off the field more often than the player who was hit.

But yeah, dirty furd Sinclair got flagged THREE times for illegal hits on Mendoza. The first one, where Mendoza was sliding, was the toughest to avoid, but he could have at least made an effort to avoid the hit once he saw Mendoza start his slide. He made no effort, so yeah, dirty. On the interception, he hunted for Mendoza to block him was downfield. Yeah, dirty. And then he risked his own health to lower his crown so that he could hit Mendoza, and probably knew he was going to get him in the head. Stupid and dirty.

He played a great game with the 10 tackles, and a bad game with the three 15 yard penalties. I sometimes feel sorry for a guy who gets ejected for targeting, feeling like he screwed up but didn't really intend to do anything. I felt ZERO sympathy for Sinclair, I was VERY happy to have him off the field, because he was so clearly acting like a dirty furd.

---

He was clearly in the Shayne Skov role on Saturday.

oski003 said:

---

Cal8285 said:

---

01Bear said:

---

golden sloth said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

I was on the fence about going, but as tickets became scarce, jumped on it, getting 2 tickets way up in section 240. Having had sat there 2 years ago, I was okay with that. Then as forecasts turned sour, I kindof regretted it. After all, staying home would mean being able to also match Goergia-Tennessee, USC-UCLA and Washington-Oregon St. Plus I'm fasting right now, so lunch before the game was out.

But, despite many traffic hassles both ways, including a train delay because a car was on the tracks, I will never miss a Cal game in PA again. Here's my take on Cal, Furd, the game and the future:

• Firstly Palo Alto is absolutely bear territory, at least on big game days at Furd. Cal fans dominated the Stadium, as we did 2 years ago except more so last night.
• Cal fans stomped their feet on 3rd downs making the whole place shake and rumble. While the only thing that Furd did was the PA guy would yell aggressively that it was 3rd down, which, after Cal continued to convert 3rd downs, sounded pretty lame.
• I am so sick of Stanford announcing it is Leland Stanford. I shouted "who the **** cares about his first name" because, yeah, nobody cares--No offense to any Cal fans named Leland.
• Cal plays absolutely their best football at Stanford stadium going back to the Zach Maynard era. Yeah lots of those were losses but they were close losses to Furd team that was far superior in talent.
• I don't like Wilcox as a HC, but he has figured out how to win big games better than most of our recent HCs.
• Mendoza and Ott are going to be a dynamic duo at Cal as long as they are here. Ott is now learning to make even better decisions on inside runs, popping outside when needed. And he usually breaks 2 tackles on each run. Maybe it was just the poor Furd defense, but I think Ott may actually be getting better.
• Mendoza has an elite arm. You heard it here first. It is elite because of the velocity that is still catchable. The ball gets to the receiver very fast. Mendoza is very much like Brock Purdy internally with an even more likeable personality and better leadership skills. Purdy makes better decisions at this point but I think Mendoza may have a better arm. Mendoza needs to sense pressure a bit better, protect himself on runs better and avoid making the risky throw a bit better, although Purdy still makes risky throws too. Mendoza will be in the NFL, which I said before he even took a live snap at Cal.
• What do you think about Ott taking a knee at the 5 with less than 2 minutes left in the game? I have mixed feelings. Selfishly I wanted him to score, which he could have done easily as there was nobody around him. 34-15 would have looked so much better on the scoreboard and it would have more accurately reflected how much Cal dominated that game. But, after my initial dismay, I realized that Ott's decision had iced the game. It's the decision all the broadcasters and coach preach as the right decision, but rarely is it done, especially in college and especially by a young player. When Ott was first interviewed at Cal, something about the way he talked made me think that he was kind of egotistical and narcissistic. That rapidly changed and I have grown to respect him as a young man as well as an elite athlete. But none of that prepared me for what he did last night. He is very intelligent and knows the game situation, maybe even better than his coaches. And he is selfless and a true team player. That act along with Mendoza's play and Spavitol's coaching will give Cal great leadership on offense moving forward. That will help us pull in offensive talent through the portal during the off-season as we still need to bolster our OL and could use better top end talent at WR.
• More mind blowingly bad calls from pac-12 refs in the big game: Why is it that the refs. love Furd so much? But the punt return interference called against Cal in the first quarter last night was completely fabricated. There was nobody within several yards of him. The flag was not throw until very late. That call could have cost Cal the game as, at one point, it was a 6 point game with Furd driving for a score. What is disgusting is that they couldn't review it because it wasn't the fumble recovery that was in dispute. It was the penalty call, which cannot be reviewed. It isn't just that calls are blown, but it is when they are blatantly fabricated that bothers me and this has happened in every single big game for as far back as I can remember in favor of Furd. Having said that, I'm not sure that was targetting on Mendoza, Mendoza was knocked out when his helmet slammed on the ground falling backwards. I didn't see the Furd player hit Mendoza in the head at all.
• This game makes watching next Saturday's game more fun and interesting but I am not very hopeful. Chip Kelly, who somehow has pissed off his employer, is 9-1 against Cal as an HC. And Cal does not have a very good history against UCLA in the rose bowl. Also UCLA has solved their QB problem, which contributed to their losses this season. UCLA has an elite defense so how will the big 3 leaders on offense I mentioned above handle that? That will be interesting to watch. However I am not looking forward to watching Garbers and Sturdivant carve up Cal's pass D, especially since I feel both should be at Cal. I just want the key players to come out of the game healthy enough to play next season.
• Despite all of the crap this year, I am actually looking forward to next season. But we have to get much better coaching and talent on defense immediately.

---

Regarding the targeting. It absolutely was targeting. Mendoza was running, and never dipped his head, and sinclair made direct helmet to helmet contact. Sinclair deserved to be kicked out. He could have easily hit him in the chest, but instead hit him in the head. Sinclair is a dirty player, and has no business being on the field. **** him.

---

Yup. On the Pac-12's broadcast, there was a video showing the crown of dirty Furd Sinclair's helmet hitting Mendoza's chin. It was definitely targeting.

---

For the penalty, it doesn't really matter where he hit Mendoza, and doesn't matter if Mendoza was "defenseless" (he wasn't "defenseless"). Sinclair was leading with the crown of the helmet and making forcible contact. It is targeting.

The "leading with the crown of the helmet" targeting is really more about protecting the player guilty of targeting than it is about protecting the player being hit. On "crown of the helmet" targeting calls, you see the player flagged for targeting need to get carted off the field more often than the player who was hit.

But yeah, dirty furd Sinclair got flagged THREE times for illegal hits on Mendoza. The first one, where Mendoza was sliding, was the toughest to avoid, but he could have at least made an effort to avoid the hit once he saw Mendoza start his slide. He made no effort, so yeah, dirty. On the interception, he hunted for Mendoza to block him was downfield. Yeah, dirty. And then he risked his own health to lower his crown so that he could hit Mendoza, and probably knew he was going to get him in the head. Stupid and dirty.

He played a great game with the 10 tackles, and a bad game with the three 15 yard penalties. I sometimes feel sorry for a guy who gets ejected for targeting, feeling like he screwed up but didn't really intend to do anything. I felt ZERO sympathy for Sinclair, I was VERY happy to have him off the field, because he was so clearly acting like a dirty furd.

---

He was clearly in the Shayne Skov role on Saturday.

---

And any debate about whether targeting against Sinclair was justified is washed away in the tsunami of karma for Skov's uncalled missile launch into his throwing arm well after a completed pass that not only took Goff out of the game, but required surgery to repair in the off-season causing him to miss all of Spring ball.

He appealed the targeting penalty and won. He gets to play 1St half vs ND. Pac-12 refs suck during and after the game.

DiabloWags said:

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oski003 said:

---

He was clearly in the Shayne Skov role on Saturday.

---

His Mom, Sister, and 2 Aunts went to CAL.

---

Hopefully, they aren't as dirty as he is.

OdontoBear66 said:

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TedfordTheGreat said:

---

One thing i was super impressed with was the offensive scheme and creativity.

I love the multiple motions that we do before we snap the ball. For example, In the attempted 2 point conversion, we overloaded the right and then threw a slant to our best WR on the left, creating a 1:1 matchup. Didn't work but it was inches away. In addition, the announcers commented on how some of the motions confused Furd in the second half.

I still think our OL is not all world, but we don't put our QB in the pocket for 3+ seconds (like we did last year) over and over again. Our number of sacks we suffered are way down this year.

You can tell that we are trying to coach around our strength and weaknesses. I am liking what I am seeing from Spav. We need better talent but as it stands our offense is functional in the P5 level with the talent we have.

A small gripe I have is that we gotta stop going to empty backfill (or motion Ott away). A couple of the sacks we suffered are due to the LB blitzing unblocked. Our threat for the running game is one of our biggest strength. We need to leave Ott there to at least slow the LB down, and if they don't come, move up field as an outlet option. Small gripe, only saw it 2 to 3 times for a few sacks. I am confident our team can clean that up

---

In regards to your last paragraph I recall one time in the second half where we had 3rd and short and it was with an empty backfield. That I do not understand when you have the best RB in the Pac12 whether he gets the ball or is a decoy. But empty with 3rd and short is not too smart.

---

We actually did this at lest twice in the third quarter:

• 3rd & 2 at CAL 37
  (13:34 - 3rd) Fernando Mendoza sacked by Anthony Franklin and Tobin Phillips for a loss of 9 yards to the CAL 28
  
• 3rd & 3 at CAL 32
  (4:25 - 3rd) Fernando Mendoza sacked by Gaethan Bernadel and Lance Keneley for a loss of 7 yards to the CAL 25

In the fourth we had a similar third down situation and handed the ball off to Ott:

• 3rd & 3 at STAN 37
  (15:00 - 4th) Jaydn Ott run for 3 yds to the STAN 34 for a 1ST down

HearstMining said:

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heartofthebear said:

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I was on the fence about going, but as tickets became scarce, jumped on it, getting 2 tickets way up in section 240. Having had sat there 2 years ago, I was okay with that. Then as forecasts turned sour, I kindof regretted it. After all, staying home would mean being able to also match Goergia-Tennessee, USC-UCLA and Washington-Oregon St. Plus I'm fasting right now, so lunch before the game was out.

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• Mendoza has an elite arm. You heard it here first. It is elite because of the velocity that is still catchable. The ball gets to the receiver very fast. Mendoza is very much like Brock Purdy internally with an even more likeable personality and better leadership skills. Purdy makes better decisions at this point but I think Mendoza may have a better arm. Mendoza needs to sense pressure a bit better, protect himself on runs better and avoid making the risky throw a bit better, although Purdy still makes risky throws too. Mendoza will be in the NFL, which I said before he even took a live snap at Cal.

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In the words of Keith Jackson, "Whoa Nellie!". I love the guy; first of all, he just looks and moves like a Cal QB: Bartkowski, Roth, Taylor, Rodgers, etc. and his attitude and background are very appealing. But I don't think we've seen enough of him to know if his arm is "elite". The majority of his passes have been crossing patterns, or patterns where the receiver is sitting in a seam of the zone defense. This calls for a quick, low-trajectory pass and this plays to Fernando's strength as he has a quick release and is decisive about when to throw. But he needs to show me three things to be considered elite:

• Can Fernando throw the long (40-50 yard) pass to a streaking receiver? Unfortunately, a perfect example of this was Ashton Daniel's TD completion in the Big Game. Ignoring the team that made it, that was a thing of beauty. Can Fernando put the necessary "air" under a 40-50 yard pass to allow the receiver to get to it? This is not a criticism - Cal has taken few shots downfield and it's not clear that any Cal receivers have the wheels to catch such a pass. But Mendoza has to be able to throw it.
• Consistency - Mendoza still throws a few balls where you just scratch your head. I assume these are due to confusion between the route he expects to see and what the receiver actually runs.
• The interceptions he throws aren't generally to the guy who's covering the intended receiver, but to another defender. Does he just need to improve his vision to include these defenders when throwing?
• Can he throw on the run? It strikes me that on the few occasions he has tried, his accuracy suffers.

But I like all of us, see Fernando's potential and it's exciting. Having said this, I'd love it if Sam Jackson comes back next season to provide competition as well as a different look to the Cal offense.

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Yes, those would be my focus areas for the years to come. I think Mendoza is committed to his development and will improve but, you are right. I said he has an elite arm, and explained my reasoning. I did not say he is an elite passer. But Mendoza has the arm strength to do the things you are looking for. It is accuracy and decision making that will require those things you mention. I think for sure he is a little green when trying to make throws requiring more air underneath them. But he did show some nice touch and a screen last Saturday, lobbing the ball over 2 defenders to get it to Ott, who ran along the sideline for a first down. In past weeks that ball would have been batted down.

But his "elite" arm gives him a good chance to play on Sundays. One of the great distinctions between a college QB and a pro QB is the velocity on long throws to the sideline on out patterns. Even some pros give up pick sixes because the DB has time to jump the route. That happens because the ball comes across field too slowly. I feel that Mendoza is able to get the ball to the receiver before it can be jumped for an INT. The INTs he does throw, as you point out, are due to vision and/or decision problems or are due to chemistry with issues with his receivers. I feel like those things can be fixed, and I am really curious to see how much of a jump he will make next season. We all know about the sophomore slump for guys that ball out as freshmen. But I don't think Mendoza will have that problem. For one thing, he has had to play against mostly very stiff competition this season and who knows how much easier things will be next year. And also he only played a little more than half a year. I feel like he will go into the offseason with the motivation of players and teams that have "unfinished business", which will help him focus on further development and will keep him working on that chemistry with his receivers.