Ace4eVer;842177756 said:
I'm a Clancy fan so I'm going to add a little bit to what you've written here.
In 2010, our defense was awful against Nevada. I don't exactly remember who was injured, but I think Browner was at MLB and was supposed to handle the QB on the read option. He did no such thing. However, the score was 21-24 in the 3rd, with Cal driving when Riley threw a pick-6. After that, Cal fell completely apart and turned it over on downs and allowed 3 consecutive TD drives. Final score was 52-31, not 13.
There's no real excuse for the 2010 USC game, but I still believe Tedford was intimidated by SC and coached that way. We had the ball 4 times in the 1st quarter, and went 3 and out every single time. USC's starting field position was: SC 44, Cal 43, SC 35 and CAL 41. Thats pretty close to midfield. In the second quarter, we picked up 5 first downs and threw 2 interceptions. This was a complete team failure.
2010 Furd game. Mansion starting at QB, fumbles at Cal 26. We hold Furd to a FG. Next drive we make it to the Furd 25, Mansion throws a pick. Furd drives the entire field for the TD. It then goes Punt-Punt-INT and Furd scores a TD on every possession in the 2nd. Again, complete team failure.
Amongst the above stinkers, he held Davis to 3, CU to 7, AZ to 10, UCLA to 7, AZ St to 17, UO to 15, UW to 16. We lost 3 of the above games. They weren't the same teams as they are now, but we've given up 30 to Portland St. already.
In 2011, we actually held UO to 14 points in the first half. They destroyed us in the 3rd.
In 2012, the Utah game, they returned 2 KOs for TDs. I won't hold the pick-6s against Buh and don't expect people to hold STs breakdowns against Pendegast. It was obvious by the time the UO and Or St games rolled around that Tedford had completely lost the team.
I know it looks like I'm making excuses for him, but I'm just trying to frame the numbers. I always felt like the offense let the defense down in those years and blowouts, just like the defenes is letting the offense down now. He was villified when he left, but I don't know how someone can go from fired Cal DC to USC DC without being able to show something.
I'm hoping Buh can turn this around, especially since I know we're realistically keeping him around for at least 2 years. If our injured players return and make that big of an impact, thats fantastic. Right now, I'm concerned that UO will score 56 in the first half.
Thanks for the post and the details of those games. I will say I preferred Clancy over Gregory any day of the week. Gregory's defenses always seemed to leave a tight end wide open over the middle, and had lots of trouble with running QB's or any kind of spread. I still cringe when I think of that Bowl game where Gregory's defense was unable to get anywhere near Sonny Dykes' Texas Tech QB, and that guy couldn't run much at all.
I don't think you are making excuses when you point out how an offense or a special team can let down the defense, or be partly responsible for the defense not defending well, but if we use that argument, I think we have to apply it to the current team as well, beyond the obvious pick sixes that you pointed out. Looking at the OSU game, the Cal offense started that game and played the first six minutes nearly as bad as the defense played them. Cal got the ball first, and this is where you would like to see them make a statement, but they went 3 and out and punted. On Cal's second drive, this is where you need to show some fight, and show you belong in this game, and we go 4 and out and punt again. On Cal's 3rd drive, this is where you need to stop the bleeding, and we have our worst drive of the entire day, gaining minus two yards and fumbling the ball over to OSU on our own 23 yard line, and they scored easily to go up 21-0.
If ever a defense should be demoralized, that would have been it. But the rest of the 1st quarter, they sucked it up. On Ohio State's next drive of the quarter, they ran only 5 plays and were forced to punt. On the next OSU drive, they drove 55 yards, and Cal held them to a field goal. On their final drive of the quarter, Cal held them to minus 4 yards and they were forced to punt.
Cal held OSU to one TD in the 2nd quarter, despite a poor 26 yard punt by Leininger. Cal's offense was not very good in the 2nd quarter, one drive of 16 yards and out, and settling for two field goals, one from the OSU 10 yard line. Still Cal had settled in defensively and appeared to have stopped the bleeding. Even after that blistering start by OSU, we were only down 10 at half.
It was the 3rd quarter where Cal lost that game. The Cal defense gave up 3 TD's, but again the Cal offense underperformed. Cal's 1st drive went for minus 5 yards and they had to punt. Cal scored a TD on their second drive. Then on their 3rd drive, they went 66 yards and got stopped on 4th down at the OSU 7 yard line, failing to score deep in the red zone. Cal had the ball for only 3:18 minutes in that quarter, not a recipe for success.
So I don't agree with all the Buh-birds who want the DC fired. As you have pointed out, there is more to playing defense than just the defensive unit playing well. Both the offense and special teams also have to play well to give the defense a chance to slow down a team like OSU.
:gobears:
ykes
