CMHBear;578417 said:

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SC? What about Oregon?

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My bad...keep thinkin we play the Trojan Whorses first.

MiltyBear;578431 said:

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And Vereen, and Forsett, and even JJ Arrington. They were all smallish backs but none as TINY as Isi. They all bring a few other things to the table too, with Best's speed, Vereen's wiggle, Forsett's quick hit to the hole, and JJ's toughness.

It is clearly a mistake to use Isi like the back above.

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Vereen could do it--witness the Big Game in 2009 where he had 42 carries, many of them for good yards up the middle.

Well I think we know where we stand now. 4th place in the P12 North is our destiny. With this defense there's no way Cal can beat Oregon or Stanford. I'm just glad Oregon State sucks this year.

This is a tough loss to take, but I think it shows that this team is never really out of it. Look at that last drive and the conversions. While I also am mystified by the 2(!) Isi runs from close to goal line, there is no reason to dump on him. He doesn't put himself in and yell for the ball.

The fade also blows my mind. Maybe on 1st down, or 2nd down, or 3rd down but on an all or nothing down I don't get it. We have a dual threat QB and 4 downs and weon't even make them think twice about it. We've watched guys run in untouched on us with just a little misdirection but we rarely ever try that. I think its the line up and play straight up mentality and its hurting because I don't think we've clearly shown we
are better than anyone.

.

88Bear;578399 said:

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CTP - You think Sofele is only a D-2 athlete...... Seriously???? If you actually believe that then maybe you aren't the best judge of talent. Sofele was FINE. Some of the situations in which he was asked to perform were just dumb.

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Exactly!

+++++1

Calntheplay;578435 said:

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If you review my previous posts, I've been one of the few to defend Isi. I'm sorry, maybe I'm not the best judge of character, or maybe I am. It's irrelevant at this point. He's just not the caliber running back that should be leading a d1 backfield. Just my .02

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Well, that's a different point. To say he doesn't belong on a D1 field is self-disproving given his performance today. To say he should not be leading a D1backfield is more open to debate, although again he played very well overall today. He just needs to sit on some plays.

Ace4eVer;578453 said:

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This is a tough loss to take, but I think it shows that this team is never really out of it. Look at that last drive and the conversions. While I also am mystified by the 2(!) Isi runs from close to goal line, there is no reason to dump on him. He doesn't put himself in and yell for the ball.

The fade also blows my mind. Maybe on 1st down, or 2nd down, or 3rd down but on an all or nothing down I don't get it. We have a dual threat QB and 4 downs and weon't even make them think twice about it. We've watched guys run in untouched on us with just a little misdirection but we rarely ever try that. I think its the line up and play straight up mentality and its hurting because I don't think we've clearly shown we
are better than anyone.

.

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Love your post. This is exactly how I feel.

CubanPete;578363 said:

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Number of 1 yard TD runs:

Anderson: 1
Sofele: 0

elpbear: CGB tool

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Swing. And a miss!

I am honestly puzzled why the staff when with CJA earlier and didn't late in the game. I don't know that it would have been automatic... but I would like our chances better. Mass matters at the goal line. And if we didn't think we could punch it in we should have been doing something else other than using Isi that way.

Regardless, it's not Isi's fault that his number was called, and he had a great day running the ball and was a huge reason why we were even in the game. Isi is the better back, right now, than CJA. And it's not his fault the coaches called his number at the goal line instead of CJA.

Feel free to support Calintheplay in calling Isi a "D2 player" though.

slobear;578441 said:

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Vereen could do it--witness the Big Game in 2009 where he had 42 carries, many of them for good yards up the middle.

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Yep, and Vereen was 5'10 200 (maybe 5'9 190 at Cal)... with a lot of wiggle. That's why he was on an NFL roster...

isi is listed at 5'8 190 but more like 5'6 175...

I agree with what you say Ace4eVer...a very fair stance.....

Ace4eVer;578453 said:

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This is a tough loss to take, but I think it shows that this team is never really out of it. Look at that last drive and the conversions. While I also am mystified by the 2(!) Isi runs from close to goal line, there is no reason to dump on him. He doesn't put himself in and yell for the ball.

The fade also blows my mind. Maybe on 1st down, or 2nd down, or 3rd down but on an all or nothing down I don't get it. We have a dual threat QB and 4 downs and weon't even make them think twice about it. We've watched guys run in untouched on us with just a little misdirection but we rarely ever try that. I think its the line up and play straight up mentality and its hurting because I don't think we've clearly shown we
are better than anyone.

.

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Agreed, and I think anyone who thought the last series was Isi's fault is unreasonable. Isi has great heart and showed it today with his 98 yards and some big rushes for first downs.

I also agree on the 2nd part. Fade to KA a couple times if you wish, but not on the last play of the game. That just puts all your eggs in 1 basket and we know Maynard is not the most accurate QB out there yet. What is KA falls down with the ball in the air? Bootleg out right with a TE on the flat and KA to the corner would have been my call.

Blue&Gould;578413 said:

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But what I like, is that through all the mistakes, bad calls by coaches, **** poor roughing the quarterback call to set up Polks 70 yard TD, being in a hostile environment, etc. the team fought the whole way. This had the makings of an EGG. 40 point route of yore. We damn near pulled it out. I like this team. Now we'll see if we have the same fight against SC.

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This is true. Good perspective.

We lost a close one on the road to a mediocre Pac team, so I think that makes us a mediocre Pac team as well. Many of us already knew this.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to be fun at all against Oregon, SC, Stanford, Arizona, and perhaps even Arizona State. I just don't see us beating any of those teams and might schedule an alternative recreational activity for those dates.

Yep... we ran the pitch option twice today for good yardage. We could/should have won a road game in the Pac-12 which is something that some teams won't be doing a lot of. Our red zones attempts were just really bad in my opinion. We shot ourselves in the foot.

ISI is a good (and damm good) back when used in the RIGHT situations. He had at least 2 (if not 3) carries for 20+ today. He has a nice ability to hit the hole in zone reads especially on cut backs.

But.....

He is not the kind of guy that is going to get hit, twist his body, and sprawl forward for 2-3 yards. He just isn't. And that isn't much more than a function of size and strength rather than "heart" or "ability".

I think the failure to get much of a shot in the endzone comes down to, in about equal parts, to JT and the OLINE, which for at least the 4 years has seemed unable to punch it in from 1st and goal inside the 5.

And if you can't do above, you probably do not deserve and will not win a lot of football games.

BTW - take the over when we play furd and USC. It could get very very ugly against a pro style team

MiltyBear;578454 said:

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Exactly!

+++++1

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+++++++++++++++++++1

Some things never change: We still lack a top-flight offensive coordinator.

paul916;578508 said:

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We lost a close one on the road to a mediocre Pac team, so I think that makes us a mediocre Pac team as well. Many of us already knew this.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to be fun at all against Oregon, SC, Stanford, Arizona, and perhaps even Arizona State. I just don't see us beating any of those teams and might schedule an alternative recreational activity for those dates.

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We don't play Zona this year, we get Utah instead.

CubanPete;578486 said:

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I don't think calling him a D2 player is smart, but it's smarter than justifying running Isi up the middle twice in a goalline situation by pointing to his overall running stats for the day. That is straight up stupid.

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Well, that's my bad, I have no idea what I typed back there. But I completely agree it was dumb to run Isi at the goal-line and I thought I was pretty clear on that previously.

Calintheplay calling Isi a "D2 back" is inexcusable and stupid. He had a great game. He was the best running back on the field barring a pretty amazing Polk catch and run over the top. Way better than CJA.

Just not the guy who should have been put in at the goal-line.

drunkoski;578558 said:

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No touches by bigelow either

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Also a curious decision. I thought we might try a few of those toss plays where hes lined up a bit wide and can run straight ahead, but we didn't see any of that even though we used it previously.

I'm also disappointed we would run the reverse twice, but a QB option only once even though they both went for big yards the first time. You'd think running the QB option again would make the defender think and commit to the opposite decision.

Why would anyone call to have isi run up the middle. Absolute stupidity.

slobear;578455 said:

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Well, that's a different point. To say he doesn't belong on a D1 field is self-disproving given his performance today. To say he should not be leading a D1backfield is more open to debate, although again he played very well overall today. He just needs to sit on some plays.

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Ok, after thinking about it, I was wrong calling Isi a D2 player. The kid has a lot of heart. To do what he does at 175 pounds deserves respect. Obviously it's not Isi's fault his number was called, this is not my issue. My issue is our starting RB SHOULD be the guy we turn to when we need a play. My views on who should be leading our backfield have not waiverd . Time to move on and put this game behind us. I like this team a lot, they're scrappy and don't give up. And I think they have a real good shot at finishing well in this division.

GO BEARS!

Calntheplay;578604 said:

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Ok, after thinking about it, I was wrong calling Isi a D2 player. The kid has a lot of heart. To do what he does at 175 pounds deserves respect. Obviously it's not Isi's fault his number was called, this is not my issue. My issue is our starting RB SHOULD be the guy we turn to when we need a play. My views on who should be leading our backfield have not waiverd . Time to move on and put this game behind us. I like this team a lot, they're scrappy and don't give up. And I think they have a real good shot at finishing well in this division.

GO BEARS!

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he's 185-190 now, just an fyi

drunkoski;578616 said:

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Dude had no blocking. On that pass out of re flat vs presby he looked Jahvid fast.

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+1.............

our special teams blows, no blocking whatsoever. i'm just glad bigelow is alive and well.

beeasyed;578606 said:

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he's 185-190 now, just an fyi

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He's listed at 190 and looks like 160. I believe he's around 175-180 at best. He is also NOT 5'8. He was next to Keenan Allen today on a replay and he was at minimum 8-10 inches shorter than Allen. The dude is TINY. Like Vinny Strang tiny!