1st in country in overall defensive turnovers
1st in country in fumbles recovered
2nd in country in interceptions
3rd in country in sacks

Pretty badass!

I compare this d to the 2003 defense. That d would sometimes give up a lot of points but under the numbers was fundamentally sound and improved over the season.

Our secondary played well considering how tested they were yesterday.

Go Bears!!

Our defense is average. Surrenders yards but get takeaways. I'll gladly take it considering where we've been.

stivo;842562345 said:

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1st in country in overall defensive turnovers
1st in country in fumbles recovered
2nd in country in interceptions
3rd in country in sacks

Pretty badass!

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Indeed. If we can maintain such, that would be incredible...

That said, to answer the question posed, the numbers are average, allowing 23.4 ppg, or 63rd in FBS. It's all about points... We are 72nd in yards allowed. 94th in pass D, yards allowed. 3rd down versions allowed, 88th.


Those sacks, INTs, TOs as a whole seemingly must continue to keep us in this average to not so good territory...

But, if our offense can be the offense we expect, this is more than enough D to get us to 8+ wins.

The defense has been competent to good and that is legitimately great improvement. But this has all come against the softest part of the schedule so proclamations of bad-assery are probably premature. This are likely going to start looking different starting with Utah.

Cal has a good D with some issues, like DB coverage. Team D ranks #43.

FYI: Other P12 schools - AZ at #24, Oregon at #30, UCLA at #37 and Furd at #40.

Schedule becomes way more difficult starting now.

BerlinerBaer;842562350 said:

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Our defense is average. Surrenders yards but get takeaways. I'll gladly take it considering where we've been.

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Average? Perhaps , but significantly improved over last year and big contributor to 5-0.

stivo;842562345 said:

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1st in country in overall defensive turnovers
1st in country in fumbles recovered
2nd in country in interceptions
3rd in country in sacks

Pretty badass!

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we're lightyears ahead of last year, but you're looking at totals, which isn't really fair, because when you score a ton, you have a lot more opportunities to do all of these things. At least this year, we're finally doing it, but it's really hard to look at defensive numbers at all, when your team's offensive numbers are off the charts.

BerlinerBaer;842562350 said:

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Our defense is average. Surrenders yards but get takeaways. I'll gladly take it considering where we've been.

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Indeed....progress, not perfection.

My feeling is that if we can hold a team to no more than 28 pts, we win.

Well I guess we're about to find out, huh?

How many times last year did we all say, "D*mn! With this offense, if we had Any-Defense-At-All we'd actually be pretty good!"?

Well, it's pretty darn clear that we now have "Any-Defense-At-All." And given the turnover ratio so far, maybe even an adequate to above average defense. A good defense? Good defenses stop good teams. And you don't find that out till you actually play one. Which we're about to do - three games in a row.

This team- including the defense- has been brilliant in spurts, but they're still periodically losing focus. They've yet to put together a really complete game, outside of that exhibition match vs Grambling, before a stadium full of Band fans. Next week they play before Gameday and a national audience of actual football fans. That would be an excellent time to start.

If you compare the defensive stats of our first 5 games this year to the comparable 5 games from 2014 (the three OOC games plus games against UW and WSU), here are the stats:

2014 vs 2015 (Pct Improvement)

Points allowed: 170 vs 117 (31%)
Total Yards Allow: 2,391 vs 1,934 (19%)
Yards per Play: 6.19 vs 5.53 (11%)
Rush Yards: 521 vs 686 (-32%)
Pass Yards: 1,870 vs 1,248 (33%)

Overall, improvement in nearly every category (except rushing yards allowed). Can't say the defense has arrived yet, but the improvement has propelled Cal to its 5-0 record so far.

Note: Cal was 3-2 last year against these 5 comparable teams vs the 5-0 this season.

jy1988;842562384 said:

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My feeling is that if we can hold a team to no more than 28 pts, we win.

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I think we have a decent chance of holding Utah to sub 30, maybe a bit more... While we have been exceptional with TOs (1.6 TO margin, 8th nationally) and penalties (4.8 / game, 18th nationally), they actually have done better.

Our offense, averaging 32 points in the Pac-12, will need to pick-up it's game.

Huge improvement from last year. They get a lot of abuse (guilty), but the D deserves a lot of credit for their play.

Our defense has done just what it had to. SO far, it is a great defense.

With last year's d, we are likely 3-2 or 2-3 at this point. It's hard to say for sure obviously, but this D is playing a major role in our wins.

This year it's bend but don't break, last year it was bend and break.

Improved, yes, great, no. WSU was able to convert long third down situations, 10 yards or more, on a routine basis. We also need to apply more consistent pressure on the opposing quarterback, hard for the secondary to cover when the qb has all day to throw.

Cal89;842562351 said:

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Indeed. If we can maintain such, that would be incredible...

That said, to answer the question posed, the numbers are average, allowing 23.4 ppg, or 63rd in FBS. It's all about points... We are 72nd in yards allowed. 94th in pass D, yards allowed. 3rd down versions allowed, 88th.


Those sacks, INTs, TOs as a whole seemingly must continue to keep us in this average to not so good territory...

But, if our offense can be the offense we expect, this is more than enough D to get us to 8+ wins.

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We will not get 8+ wins with this defense. The rest of our schedule is just too tough.

Golden One;842562555 said:

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We will not get 8+ wins with this defense. The rest of our schedule is just too tough.

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i dont know if you watch the other pac-12 games but these other teams arent that great.

Seems like the D has taken a noticeable step forward and the offense has regressed a bit. Or perhaps it is just that with the Pac-12 seeing our scheme for the third time the other defenses are adjusting to it?

I'd say improved more than good at this point. Those kind of stats will mask a lot of deficiencies and we've really only faced 1 challenging offense to date. We were a couple of fumble recoveries away from a loss yesterday. McClure scoops and scores; Cougs lose 1 in the red zone; Cougs have a clean shot at the Goff fumble deep in Cal territory, it bounces away, Cal gets it and Enwere goes 42 on 3rd and 36. Sometimes turnovers are caused, sometimes they fall in your lap but either way, you have to be alert enough to react. Even there's often a touch of serendipity in these plays, teams, justifiably, take credit. We've suffered the downside the last couple of years so maybe we deserve some payback.

UCBerkGrad;842562395 said:

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If you compare the defensive stats of our first 5 games this year to the comparable 5 games from 2014 (the three OOC games plus games against UW and WSU), here are the stats:

2014 vs 2015 (Pct Improvement)

Points allowed: 170 vs 117 (31%)
Total Yards Allow: 2,391 vs 1,934 (19%)
Yards per Play: 6.19 vs 5.53 (11%)
Rush Yards: 521 vs 686 (-32%)
Pass Yards: 1,870 vs 1,248 (33%)

Overall, improvement in nearly every category (except rushing yards allowed). Can't say the defense has arrived yet, but the improvement has propelled Cal to its 5-0 record so far.

Note: Cal was 3-2 last year against these 5 comparable teams vs the 5-0 this season.

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Great view. This defense is clearly better and the turnover metric is missing which is heavily in favor of this year.

Seems like a fair number of our turnovers have resulted in defensive scores. 2 pick sixes and a fumble for a TD. That has to rank pretty good.

gobears725;842562566 said:

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i dont know if you watch the other pac-12 games but these other teams arent that great.

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Yeah, I've watched most of them, and I don't think our defense will do very well against Utah, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Arizona State.

WhipItOutJoe;842562569 said:

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Seems like the D has taken a noticeable step forward and the offense has regressed a bit. Or perhaps it is just that with the Pac-12 seeing our scheme for the third time the other defenses are adjusting to it?

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We have only played 2 conference games, and we are playing Utah for the first time under Dykes. so it's very early to say that our offense is now par for the course for defensive coordinators in the PAC-12. UCLA and Arizona State are not very good, although Furd and SC look for real.

Golden One;842562707 said:

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Yeah, I've watched most of them, and I don't think our defense will do very well against Utah, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Arizona State.

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The only one I'm really worried about in that group is USC. UCLA if you control Perkins like ASU did you will contain them. Utah and furd are of the same feather. Play disciplined run D and don't let guys get behind you. Containable. Note I'm saying containable. I didn't say we are gonna skunk any of these teams.

ASU may give us fits if Bercovici runs around. He's really gotta wind up into his passes tho so there's always that extra opportunity to hit him.

USC is gonna score on us.

59bear;842562625 said:

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...... We were a couple of fumble recoveries away from a loss yesterday. McClure scoops and scores; Cougs lose 1 in the red zone; Cougs have a clean shot at the Goff fumble deep in Cal territory, it bounces away, Cal gets it and Enwere goes 42 on 3rd and 36. Sometimes turnovers are caused, sometimes they fall in your lap but either way, you have to be alert enough to react. Even there's often a touch of serendipity in these plays, teams, justifiably, take credit. .......

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Fumbles especially are a crapshoot. Yesterday, Cal fumbled four times and lost only one. WSU fumbled three times, and lost them all. That bit of luck is probably the game right there.

59bear;842562625 said:

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...... We've suffered the downside the last couple of years so maybe we deserve some payback.

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+1. I remember a game vs. Oregon a couple of years ago where every time we dropped the ball, the Ducks recovered. And every time they fumbled, they recovered it themselves. I was thinking, "Geez, can't we catch a break?" Was it the Big Game last year where tipped and deflected passes from Goff kept floating right to one of their guys, instead of falling harmlessly to the turf?

Cal is due for some breaks. So far, we're getting them this year. Perfect timing, because we need a big year to goose recruiting before the likely fallback next year.

Golden One;842562555 said:

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We will not get 8+ wins with this defense. The rest of our schedule is just too tough.

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We will not get 8+ wins with this offense as of late... Our scoring is down from last season, including from this time last season.

Is our defense anywhere near to TCU which held Texass to a meaningless TD? Didn't Kaufman coach there?

burritos;842562777 said:

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Is our defense anywhere near to TCU which held Texass to a meaningless TD? Didn't Kaufman coach there?

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Kaufman was DC at Texas Tech and then followed Tommy Tuberville to Cincy...he did well at both places. Top 10 stat stuff

Golden One;842562707 said:

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Yeah, I've watched most of them, and I don't think our defense will do very well against Utah, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Arizona State.

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Let's see, Cal plays 12 regular season games, we've already won five, so that leaves seven games to play. Of those seven you see our defense playing poorly in 5, leaving 2 where the defense plays well and we win. 5+2 =7

If we also consider that our defense gave up 44 points in a winning effort against Texas, one can assume we take at least one of those other games in a shootout.

7+1=8

Plus or minus the bowl game.

Yah, how could we EVER get 8+ wins with a defense as horrible as you think this one is??

Go Bears!!

Cal89;842562736 said:

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We will not get 8+ wins with this offense as of late... Our scoring is down from last season, including from this time last season.

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Considering that in three of those games last year our high scoring either barely surpassed or barely fell short of the other team's scoring, I'd offer that our "lack of production" is more a factor of our defense actually making stops than our offense forgetting how to score. I'll agree with you our offense needs to execute better (Sonny would agree as well), but "lack of offense" for this team isn't keeping me up at night, and I doubt any DCs on our remaining schedule are feeling good about playing Cal.

Go Bears!!

Golden One;842562555 said:

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We will not get 8+ wins with this defense. The rest of our schedule is just too tough.

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Completely agree, in fact, 5 wins with this D is basically inpossible

Golden One;842562707 said:

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Yeah, I've watched most of them, and I don't think our defense will do very well against Utah, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Arizona State.

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I forsee each of those teams putting up 43.5+ on our D minimum. Our O can't keep up it never has