eastbayyoungbear said:

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calumnus said:

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sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

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We have done it in almost every game for a quarter or two, building a lead and then go conservative with the lead. We did it again yesterday. Wake was just not good enough to capitalize on our coaching mistakes this time.

We could easily be 9-0 if the coaches just made this simple recognition: we are a quick passing, big play, fast, high scoring offense and we just need to stick with that until the final whistle.

And that style would actually compliment our defense, which Is not great at run defense but great at take aways.

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Our defense is always gassed when we hit mid 3rd quarter and start giving up score after score. How is this better for them?

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Because it forces the opponents to pass and we have a better chance of forcing turnovers that way.

pingpong2 said:

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Joegeo said:

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idk i think the defense was a major reason why Cal had to keep going on offense because they kept allowing td in like 3 minutes

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I was referring to just the INT at the end of the game. Our playcalling nearly gave the game away at the end.

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Exactly

calumnus said:

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sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

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We have done it in almost every game for a quarter or two, building a lead and then go conservative with the lead. We did it again yesterday. Wake was just not good enough to capitalize on our coaching mistakes this time.

We could easily be 9-0 if the coaches just made this simple recognition: we are a quick passing, big play, fast, high scoring offense and we just need to stick with that until the final whistle.

And that style would actually compliment our defense, which Is not great at run defense but great at take aways.

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Easily, lol lol lol lol

You forget WE ARE CAL

BearSD said:

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<snip> With that restriction, and just projecting final records, Holiday, Sun, LA, and Independence bowls will likely get to choose who they want among Cal, UW, OSU, and the winner of USC-UCLA.

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With the caveat that the other conference in those bowls matters in terms of which P12 team is chosen. For example, Sun Bowl is ACC v P12, so they probably wouldn't pick Cal.

sycasey said:

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eastbayyoungbear said:

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calumnus said:

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sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

---

We have done it in almost every game for a quarter or two, building a lead and then go conservative with the lead. We did it again yesterday. Wake was just not good enough to capitalize on our coaching mistakes this time.

We could easily be 9-0 if the coaches just made this simple recognition: we are a quick passing, big play, fast, high scoring offense and we just need to stick with that until the final whistle.

And that style would actually compliment our defense, which Is not great at run defense but great at take aways.

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Our defense is always gassed when we hit mid 3rd quarter and start giving up score after score. How is this better for them?

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Because it forces the opponents to pass and we have a better chance of forcing turnovers that way.

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That's only true if:

1. The other team can't run the ball
2. Our offense is consistently efficient

As has been seen, our offense stops moving the ball after opponents adjust because they realize that they can do things like rush 3 and get to our QB before a play develops.

Oakbear said:

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calumnus said:

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sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

---

We have done it in almost every game for a quarter or two, building a lead and then go conservative with the lead. We did it again yesterday. Wake was just not good enough to capitalize on our coaching mistakes this time.

We could easily be 9-0 if the coaches just made this simple recognition: we are a quick passing, big play, fast, high scoring offense and we just need to stick with that until the final whistle.

And that style would actually compliment our defense, which Is not great at run defense but great at take aways.

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Easily, lol lol lol lol

You forget WE ARE CAL

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Yeah, calumnus, you say we are a "high scoring offense". This scoring a lot of points thing... don't you find that... risky?!?

BearSD said:

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Cal88 said:

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Good game tonight, superb special teams, improvements elsewhere, 8 wins including a marquee road win at a top 15 SMU is very much a possibility. Holiday Bowl?

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What the bowls agreed to with ex-Pac teams is to select in order of overall record except that a bowl can skip a team with the best record among not-yet-selected teams to take a team that had one fewer win. One very possible scenario: If Cal is 7-5 and USC is 6-6, a bowl could choose either one over the other.

Oregon is likely in the playoff, so Alamo gets first choice of everyone else. They'll take Colorado if they can, but if Wazzu has at least 2 more wins than CU, they'll have to take Wazzu. Vegas is probably getting whichever of those two Alamo doesn't get.

Among the other teams, the only edge for having 8 wins is that a bowl can't pick a 6-win team over you. With that restriction, and just projecting final records, Holiday, Sun, LA, and Independence bowls will likely get to choose who they want among Cal, UW, OSU, and the winner of USC-UCLA.

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Yeah…with all respect…not sure about your bowl math.

Alamo most likely goes with WSU even if CU gets to 10 wins cause Alamo is pac12 v big 12.

Holiday then takes CU (would take WSU if somehow Alamo does take CU)

Then it's down to Vegas, Sun and LA between (ASU, Cal, UW, SC). Either UW or SC would basically be eliminated if either loses to UCLA or if SC loses to either UCLA or Nebraska. This is why we really needed SC to beat UW could it would have eliminated them from bowl contention

For cal purposes, vegas is possible if they get to 7-8 wins and ASU falters.

Sun is unlikely cause it's ACC v ACC

LA is most likely, assuming either SC or UW is not bowl eligible OR LA takes cal over SC or UW

We all need to root for SC or UW to lose to UCLA/nebraska. This would virtually guarantee at worst an LA bowl trip even at 6 wins.

In a nutshell: likely LA or Vegas. Either way, we should bring a big crowd.

Win out and force some bowl committee to make a tough decision.

eastbayyoungbear said:

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calumnus said:

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sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

---

We have done it in almost every game for a quarter or two, building a lead and then go conservative with the lead. We did it again yesterday. Wake was just not good enough to capitalize on our coaching mistakes this time.

We could easily be 9-0 if the coaches just made this simple recognition: we are a quick passing, big play, fast, high scoring offense and we just need to stick with that until the final whistle.

And that style would actually compliment our defense, which Is not great at run defense but great at take aways.

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Our defense is always gassed when we hit mid 3rd quarter and start giving up score after score. How is this better for them?

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Agreed. As with any coaching staff, there are definitely things for fans to second guess, but aiming for a lot of time of possession in order to minimize the number of plays the defense is on the field seems like good strategy for this team and its defense. I mentioned in another comment that maybe the team needs a better or different mix of running plays, but this team needs to be able to run. Throwing 50+ passes a game worked against Wake only because Wake didn't have much success in pass rushing. If Cal tried that same pass/run ratio against a team with a good pass rush, the offense would give up a lot of sacks and wouldn't move the chains very well.

And, Mendoza is a lot more accurate on short and midrange throws than on longer throws, so I wouldn't want him throwing lots of deep balls every game. A couple of those per game just to try to catch the defense off guard is enough.

Big C said:

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Game balls to Fernando Mendoza, Ryan Coe, Hunter Barth and Nohl Williams!

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feel like Xavier Carlton had a good game as well!

sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

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Fire Sonny!

eastbayyoungbear said:

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calumnus said:

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sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

---

We have done it in almost every game for a quarter or two, building a lead and then go conservative with the lead. We did it again yesterday. Wake was just not good enough to capitalize on our coaching mistakes this time.

We could easily be 9-0 if the coaches just made this simple recognition: we are a quick passing, big play, fast, high scoring offense and we just need to stick with that until the final whistle.

And that style would actually compliment our defense, which Is not great at run defense but great at take aways.

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Our defense is always gassed when we hit mid 3rd quarter and start giving up score after score. How is this better for them?

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The D gets gassed by the end of the third quarter once Cal is up because the O goes into turtle mode and the D reverts to playing a zone defense with lots of cushion, which allows receivers to make the line of gain on 3rd and 4th downs. This extends drives for the other team and tires out the D. In other words, it's a coaching/scheme issue with the coaching staff.

AunBear89 said:

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BearSD said:

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<snip> With that restriction, and just projecting final records, Holiday, Sun, LA, and Independence bowls will likely get to choose who they want among Cal, UW, OSU, and the winner of USC-UCLA.

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With the caveat that the other conference in those bowls matters in terms of which P12 team is chosen. For example, Sun Bowl is ACC v P12, so they probably wouldn't pick Cal.

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Also, after yesterday's games, UW and OSU might not make it to 6 wins and there might not be enough ex-Pac teams for all of those bowl places.

BearSD said:

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AunBear89 said:

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BearSD said:

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<snip> With that restriction, and just projecting final records, Holiday, Sun, LA, and Independence bowls will likely get to choose who they want among Cal, UW, OSU, and the winner of USC-UCLA.

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With the caveat that the other conference in those bowls matters in terms of which P12 team is chosen. For example, Sun Bowl is ACC v P12, so they probably wouldn't pick Cal.

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Also, after yesterday's games, UW and OSU might not make it to 6 wins and there might not be enough ex-Pac teams for all of those bowl places.

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The two teams from last year's championship game, Michigan and UW, are both 3-4 in the B10 and 5-5 overall.

USC is 2-5/4-5 with Nebraska, UCLA and ND remaining. More likely than not they don't get to 6-6.

UCLA is 4-5 with UW, SC and Fresno remaining.

UW has UCLA and Oregon, UCLA can knock them out of postseason, the ducks are going to blow them out badly.

SC, UW and UCLA are having mediocre seasons. If we win out, we would finish in 4th place in the virtual P12 standings behind Oregon, Colorado and ASU...

01Bear said:

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eastbayyoungbear said:

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calumnus said:

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sycasey said:

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I liked that we mostly seemed to embrace being an Air Raid team now, slinging the ball down the field and scoring fast. It's the best approach for our offensive personnel. Something that kind of showed up vs Miami but had otherwise been absent in conference play.

---

We have done it in almost every game for a quarter or two, building a lead and then go conservative with the lead. We did it again yesterday. Wake was just not good enough to capitalize on our coaching mistakes this time.

We could easily be 9-0 if the coaches just made this simple recognition: we are a quick passing, big play, fast, high scoring offense and we just need to stick with that until the final whistle.

And that style would actually compliment our defense, which Is not great at run defense but great at take aways.

---

Our defense is always gassed when we hit mid 3rd quarter and start giving up score after score. How is this better for them?

---

The D gets gassed by the end of the third quarter once Cal is up because the O goes into turtle mode and the D reverts to playing a zone defense with lots of cushion, which allows receivers to make the line of gain on 3rd and 4th downs. This extends drives for the other team and tires out the D. In other words, it's a coaching/scheme issue with the coaching staff.

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Yep.

So maybe some of this is coach speak, but listen to wake forest's HC postgame presser. Listen to the first 30 seconds. Basically said Cal's defense was realy tough the first 3-4 drives until cal opened a lead and softened up a bit. That's the opposing coach speaking.

^ great post

Cal88 said:

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BearSD said:

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AunBear89 said:

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BearSD said:

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<snip> With that restriction, and just projecting final records, Holiday, Sun, LA, and Independence bowls will likely get to choose who they want among Cal, UW, OSU, and the winner of USC-UCLA.

---

With the caveat that the other conference in those bowls matters in terms of which P12 team is chosen. For example, Sun Bowl is ACC v P12, so they probably wouldn't pick Cal.

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Also, after yesterday's games, UW and OSU might not make it to 6 wins and there might not be enough ex-Pac teams for all of those bowl places.

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The two teams from last year's championship game, Michigan and UW, are both 3-4 in the B10 and 5-5 overall.

USC is 2-5/4-5 with Nebraska, UCLA and ND remaining. More likely than not they don't get to 6-6.

UCLA is 4-5 with UW, SC and Fresno remaining.

UW has UCLA and Oregon, UCLA can knock them out of postseason, the ducks are going to blow them out badly.

SC, UW and UCLA are having mediocre seasons. If we win out, we would finish in 4th place in the virtual P12 standings behind Oregon, Colorado and ASU...

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Fifth place. Wazzu is 8-1 and will be a double-digit favorite in each of their last three games.

Even in the theoretically favorable scenario in which both UO and CU are in the playoff, Wazzu would go to the Alamo bowl and ASU to the Vegas bowl. Then the issue for our Bears is that the next two bowls in line are "Pac-12" vs. ACC games. In that situation, the Holiday and Sun could pass on Cal to avoid an ACC vs. ACC bowl and send the Bears to the LA bowl.

OTOH, it's possible the ex-Pac won't have enough eligible teams for those bowls to take two teams ahead of Cal. That might lead to a bowl trying to match Cal against one of the ACC teams Cal didn't play this fall, or they might send Cal to LA anyway and find Big 12 or Big Ten teams to fill the ex-Pac places in San Diego and El Paso.