Rushinbear said:

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The FSU dl overpowered our ol. and, mendo has to have a presnap protection call he can go to - two lined up on the left and we had only one ol to block them. maybe a two tight end set more often.

Overall, the FSU d was strong and fast.

Our d was pretty good. held them to one td per half. that normally gets you the win.

Once the crowd got juiced, no one could hear anything at the line. hence the presnap penalties. we're talking 90k people yelling as loud as they could. we don't hear that too often, esp at home.

we're gonna hafta wait on JW until the end of the season anyway and there's only one more team that has the Noles' talent and they're next game. the rest give us a pretty good chance. 7-5.

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Yes. Their sheer athleticism enabled them to get the best of just about every 50/50 play, including a few catches and that one run where Nando, had he high-stepped, would have walked into the end zone; but instead he was tripped/tackled by a very athletic finger/hand. We were so close, in so many ways, so many times. It was truly the most painful loss in a long time but felt very much like ND and Auburn losses.

The o linemen, if they're not mentally fit enough to handle snap count duties, let the 3rd stringers play. They're not physically fit enough for this level anyway. Give someone who won't push us back 5 yards on every snap a chance.

The whole "it was so loud" bull**** needs to stop. We all watch a lot of college football. We've watched games where teams are playing in front of even more hostile environments. Hell we all watched the BC and Memphis games. Did we see olines having that many procedural penalties in the red zone?

**** we aren't even remembering when we had three straight penalties when we are our own 1. Luckily those were irrelevant. But still, it's a disaster. And it's 100% on the coaching staff.

Every other team somehow gets their players ready. We don't. It's that simple.

ducky23 said:

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The whole "it was so loud" bull**** needs to stop. We all watch a lot of college football. We've watched games where teams are playing in front of even more hostile environments. Hell we all watched the BC and Memphis games. Did we see olines having that many procedural penalties in the red zone?

**** we aren't even remembering when we had three straight penalties when we are our own 1. Luckily those were irrelevant. But still, it's a disaster. And it's 100% on the coaching staff.

Every other team somehow gets their players ready. We don't. It's that simple.

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That we were even AT our own 1 was another coaching failure. Special teams. We let them catch their own punt on our 1 instead of standing there as a decoy and jumping out of the way. We had one guy back and he peaced out early allowing them to grab it. Even sticking around for a few seconds it likely bounces into the end zone for a touchback. Can't be any worse than what resulted. We did escape that mess with some Nando magic though.

It has been 12 years since Cal has last defeated a winless team - September 8, 2012 against Southern Utah. Cal has given 8 straight winless opponents their first win.

— Channel Tree Sports 🌲 (@channeltree) September 22, 2024

Fred Bear said:

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ducky23 said:

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TedfordTheGreat said:

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i think the letdown from sebasta's billboards, to our fans doing work for calgorithm, everyone was talking about us. to yalls point, we NEEDed this win and the spotlight because the opposite might mean death to this program in 6 years.

wilcox washed all that down the drain. institutional support or not, we literally carried him this year and gave him a loaded gun to help us turn this program's perception around and he couldnt get it done

what a gut punch

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I've been mulling over why this one hurt so much more than the others, and I think you nailed it.

As a collective fan base, we've done more to prop up our coach and our AD than any other fan base in the country. The fact that he still cant get the job done is beyond depressing. What more can we possibly do?

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You could do what any sane athletic department would have done a long time ago and fire this bum and get a real coach.

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Damn that's genius. Why didn't I think of that

The OL issues, which have been the biggest impediment to offensive success all season, are many. Trying to place all the blame on a single factor like noise or injuries is stupid.

The answer is D) All of the above. Injuries leading to multiple lineups with some playing out of their preferred position. Anyone with OL experience can tell you how important getting consistent reps in practice and in games with the same unit is. Building cohesion, timing, communication, etc. Team chemistry, if you will.

Against FSU, we were plugging in projected starters returning from injury, in a hostile environment raging for a win, against a DL with 5* studs with NFL futures. Combine this with inconsistent coaching, and we get presnap flags, missed blocking assignments, and heavy pressure on Fernando.

Perhaps holding the returning lineman out until Miami would have been a better plan. Give them two more weeks of practice with the 1s to bed in.

bearsandgiants said:

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ducky23 said:

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The whole "it was so loud" bull**** needs to stop. We all watch a lot of college football. We've watched games where teams are playing in front of even more hostile environments. Hell we all watched the BC and Memphis games. Did we see olines having that many procedural penalties in the red zone?

**** we aren't even remembering when we had three straight penalties when we are our own 1. Luckily those were irrelevant. But still, it's a disaster. And it's 100% on the coaching staff.

Every other team somehow gets their players ready. We don't. It's that simple.

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That we were even AT our own 1 was another coaching failure. Special teams. We let them catch their own punt on our 1 instead of standing there as a decoy and jumping out of the way. We had one guy back and he peaced out early allowing them to grab it. Even sticking around for a few seconds it likely bounces into the end zone for a touchback. Can't be any worse than what resulted. We did escape that mess with some Nando magic though.

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That's a moot point. Even if we started at the 20 yard line, we would've ended at the 1 yard line if all those penalties had counted

TedfordTheGreat said:

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Strykur said:

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TedfordTheGreat said:

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if u watch wilcox's post game presser. Again, he gives and recites in clear detail the breakdown on defense, but yet on offense he just keeps saying "it's bad we need to be good/better". How Justin? As a defensive guy, i don't think he knows nor has he hired someone that knows.

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How does he retain a locker room where he grills the defense in detail for giving up 2 scores and then just passively mentions the offense needs to improve, this ain't 1987 where you could win games with the expectation you could scape out wins by holding opponents to 7-10 points

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Bingo

Watch the SDSU presser, the Auburn presser. Same damn thing every time

It's because he only knows D. That's fine, but as other posters have said, then spend BIG on a OC who knows what he's doing, not a lazy coaching search and settling

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The problem is that we've been through a bunch of OCs and the offense always looks about the same. Maybe a little better or worse depending on the skill position talent, but still the same conservative, predictable plays. It's Wilcox's offense.

bearsandgiants said:

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ducky23 said:

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The whole "it was so loud" bull**** needs to stop. We all watch a lot of college football. We've watched games where teams are playing in front of even more hostile environments. Hell we all watched the BC and Memphis games. Did we see olines having that many procedural penalties in the red zone?

**** we aren't even remembering when we had three straight penalties when we are our own 1. Luckily those were irrelevant. But still, it's a disaster. And it's 100% on the coaching staff.

Every other team somehow gets their players ready. We don't. It's that simple.

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That we were even AT our own 1 was another coaching failure. Special teams. We let them catch their own punt on our 1 instead of standing there as a decoy and jumping out of the way. We had one guy back and he peaced out early allowing them to grab it. Even sticking around for a few seconds it likely bounces into the end zone for a touchback. Can't be any worse than what resulted. We did escape that mess with some Nando magic though.

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That was a hell of a pass by Mendoza, wasn't it?

Econ141 said:

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It has been 12 years since Cal has last defeated a winless team - September 8, 2012 against Southern Utah. Cal has given 8 straight winless opponents their first win.

— Channel Tree Sports 🌲 (@channeltree) September 22, 2024

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Wow

LOWEST POSTGAME WIN EXPECTANCY IN A WIN, WEEK 4:

Arkansas > Auburn 6.8%
Monmouth > FIU 18.0%
Florida State > Cal 33.4%
Stanford > Syracuse 33.6%
Texas Tech > Arizona State 38.5%
Texas A&M > BGSU 47.4%
Mizzou > Vandy 49.0%

Full list here:https://t.co/w7ALlZmjBl

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) September 22, 2024

This makes the loss hurt even more cause Cal did go to one of the toughest environments and genuinely outplayed them and probably wins that game more often than not but coaching/playing mistakes cost them.

Joegeo said:

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LOWEST POSTGAME WIN EXPECTANCY IN A WIN, WEEK 4:

Arkansas > Auburn 6.8%
Monmouth > FIU 18.0%
Florida State > Cal 33.4%
Stanford > Syracuse 33.6%
Texas Tech > Arizona State 38.5%
Texas A&M > BGSU 47.4%
Mizzou > Vandy 49.0%

Full list here:https://t.co/w7ALlZmjBl

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) September 22, 2024

This makes the loss hurt even more cause Cal did go to one of the toughest environments and genuinely outplayed them and probably wins that game more often than not but coaching/playing mistakes cost them.

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I hear you, but I don't think we outplayed them. It was pretty even, as the score suggests. They did score 2 td's and we couldn't get it across the line.

Rushinbear said:

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Joegeo said:

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LOWEST POSTGAME WIN EXPECTANCY IN A WIN, WEEK 4:

Arkansas > Auburn 6.8%
Monmouth > FIU 18.0%
Florida State > Cal 33.4%
Stanford > Syracuse 33.6%
Texas Tech > Arizona State 38.5%
Texas A&M > BGSU 47.4%
Mizzou > Vandy 49.0%

Full list here:https://t.co/w7ALlZmjBl

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) September 22, 2024

This makes the loss hurt even more cause Cal did go to one of the toughest environments and genuinely outplayed them and probably wins that game more often than not but coaching/playing mistakes cost them.

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I hear you, but I don't think we outplayed them. It was pretty even, as the score suggests. They did score 2 td's and we couldn't get it across the line.

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we had double their yardage, we just couldn't get it done when it counts

calumnus said:

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Econ141 said:

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It has been 12 years since Cal has last defeated a winless team - September 8, 2012 against Southern Utah. Cal has given 8 straight winless opponents their first win.

— Channel Tree Sports 🌲 (@channeltree) September 22, 2024

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Wow

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Technically we beat UC Davis in our first game when they were winless. Woohoo!

Days later and this one still stings. Why? We've lost so, so many heartbreakers over the years that I should be immune to this feeling, right? I think this one's slightly different because the game was absolutely handed to us on a silver platter and we said, "No, thanks." I didn't ever delude myself into thinking this team had a chance of running the table. I knew there'd be some losses, but that's what makes this one even worse. When you're a middling team, you just can't give away games like this. Who knows how many more winnable games there will be. And if by some miracle the team comes together and wins five or six more games, this loss will still be killer because it will be a stain on the season. It's not like FSU was some sleeping giant ready to roll the rest of the ACC. FSU is trash. I see them winning another game or two all season.

Given the tiny, tiny margin for error in a very close game like this, the unusually long travel distance, change of timezones, and the hot, humid weather can't be discounted as contributing to our lack of sharpness on offense. For one thing, heat and humidity take a bigger toll on larger people like linemen because the reduced body surface area to volume ratio makes it harder to cool off by sweating, and our team is not acclimated to these conditions. I know that Wilcox says "they are young" and these things don't matter, but I disagree.