Uthaithani;842738417 said:

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Are you kidding me?? He won the coaching battle. If you can't give him credit for this win you're just a hater and your opinion is worthless.

Go Bears!!

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Clearly gaming theory isn't your strong point

GB54;842738416 said:

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Drink American

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La Folie is an American beer...made by New Belgium...fantastic Sour beer

Bears win, trees lose. Enjoy this week.

Now I must go check out my threads on Shaggy..

Go Bears!

txwharfrat;842738412 said:

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Nope. He played the clock brilliantly at the end as it turns out... Who would have figured???

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Yea....Dykes giving the Utes the big middle finger by letting the clock run.....my defense > than your offense. Say all you want about this...but I think the defense fed off of this!

oskirules;842738245 said:

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let's hope so

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And it did! Our D won this game.

FCBear;842738423 said:

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La Folie is an American beer...made by New Belgium...fantastic Sour beer

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Wild Turkey and Dr Pepper for me

RaphaelAglietti;842738422 said:

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Clearly gaming theory isn't your strong point

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Can you explain, please? Dykes was betting on his defense stopping Utah, something shell-shocked fans can't conceive.

RighteousGoldenBear;842738429 said:

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Yea....Dykes giving the Utes the big middle finger by letting the clock run.....my defense > than your offense. Say all you want about this...but I think the defense fed off of this!

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You make an interesting point.

I might not agree with the risk but if this was a calculated choice to send our defense a message then it bothers me less.

MiltyBear;842738431 said:

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Wild Turkey and Dr Pepper for me

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very interesting.

MiltyBear;842738383 said:

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Such a big win for the D.

I hope this doesn't excuse Dykes though. That last minute was painful.

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Your excuse is that bitching is better than being apathetic, right?

RighteousGoldenBear;842738429 said:

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Yea....Dykes giving the Utes the big middle finger by letting the clock run.....my defense > than your offense. Say all you want about this...but I think the defense fed off of this!

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Bingo!

Not sure why the announcers kept praising Willingham's strategies - if he kicks a field goal like any average coach would have done, he marches down on the last drive to win the game with a field goal. Awesome for our defense, and bonehaded for the Utes.

should give the defense a big confidence boost as we move forward.

txwharfrat;842738403 said:

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As it turns out .... Sonny was brilliant. If he had stopped the clock, then Utah would have had one more down... Sonny was right.

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Sonny allowing the clock to run helped generate the confusion on the Utah sideline that clearly contributed to problems with their play calls at the end there. Not what you'd expect, but after review, he made the correct call not to call time out.

Still added to how nerve-wracking that whole defensive stand was.

dajo9;842738397 said:

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James Looney Pac 12 defensive player of the week

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Gotta give it up for Vanderbilt too, for running that Utah kid down clear across the field at the 1 yd line!

oski003;842738432 said:

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Can you explain, please? Dykes was betting on his defense stopping Utah, something shell-shocked fans can't conceive.

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No matter if you bet on your D or not, you save time for yourself in case they score. If they don't score, you can kneel and run out the clock anyway. What is the downside unless you know you're planning to commit a PI to extend their drive but also run down the clock to 7 seconds?

The poker analogy is apt. Dykes was a big donkey but he lucked out big time. It's not going to always happen for him and history definitely does not has it happening in favor of Cal.

Time for Top Dog. This game was so worth it. Go Bears!! Two ranked (?) teams knocked off this year.

4mybears;842738440 said:

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Not sure why the announcers kept praising Willingham's strategies - if he kicks a field goal like any average coach would have done, he marches down on the last drive to win the game with a field goal. Awesome for our defense, and bonehaded for the Utes.

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And that play call for the 2 PT conversion was just as boneheaded. A FADE to the short side of the field!

The Fade NEVER works in college.
Never.

LMAO!

88Bear;842738435 said:

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You make an interesting point.

I might not agree with the risk but if this was a calculated choice to send our defense a message then it bothers me less.

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I doubt Sonny would ever put it that way, but he's the type of coach that might sense this instinctively. Remember the defense stopped a 4th and 1 earlier and had told themselves they'd have to do it again.

And the only reason it ended up the way it did was a bad play by Franklin to get a PI called on him. Without that Cal would have taken over on downs at the 11 with 14 second left.

So - are we a good team now? Was this a quality win against a quality opponent? OR - since Texas lost today - do we need to rewrite the script again. Maybe Oaktown can help us. 😉

MiltyBear;842738445 said:

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No matter if you bet on your D or not, you save time for yourself in case they score. If they don't score, you can kneel and run out the clock anyway. What is the downside unless you know you're planning to commit a PI to extend their drive but also run down the clock to 7 seconds?

The poker analogy is apt. Dykes was a big donkey but he lucked out big time. It's not going to always happen for him and history definitely has it happening in favor of Cal.

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Don't waste your breath. Some people are so in love with Sonny that you can't use reason and logic with them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, great win Bears!

Also, we've got a little something brewing on the DL with Saffle, Loney and others. Let's hope those guys stay healthy.

1979bear;842738446 said:

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Time for Top Dog. This game was so worth it. Go Bears!! Two ranked (?) teams knocked off this year.

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You go get that hot link or two.

oski003;842738432 said:

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Can you explain, please? Dykes was betting on his defense stopping Utah, something shell-shocked fans can't conceive.

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He was betting on long odds. Just because you win doesn't mean you played it correctly.

Utah had 3 shots at the end zone at the 2 which is a 80% probability to score if not greater.

Assuming Utah had scored Cal would have had 1:10-1:20 had Dykes called timeout to kick a fg to win or go to OT.

Dykes essentially distilled the game down to Cal having about 5-10% to win by not taking timeouts.

mvargus;842738452 said:

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I doubt Sonny would ever put it that way, but he's the type of coach that might sense this instinctively. Remember the defense stopped a 4th and 1 earlier and had told themselves they'd have to do it again.

And the only reason it ended up the way it did was a bad play by Franklin to get a PI called on him. Without that Cal would have taken over on downs at the 11 with 14 second left.

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He's a gamer like Ayoob?

philly1121;842738453 said:

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So - are we a good team now? Was this a quality win against a quality opponent? OR - since Texas lost today - do we need to rewrite the script again. Maybe Oaktown can help us. ��

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I honestly don't know. They've disappointed me with some stuff and surprised me with others. My guess is we won't really know until much later into the season. One thing I do know...Sonny will get a LOT of good will from the doubters if he can just beat a CA school, in which case the first question will be mitigated a bit.

txwharfrat;842738403 said:

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As it turns out .... Sonny was brilliant. If he had stopped the clock, then Utah would have had one more down... Sonny was right.

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It was an interesting chess match and it sure did cause a lot of confusion over on the Utah side lines
.

Great win!

Let's not do that again.

MiltyBear;842738445 said:

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No matter if you bet on your D or not, you save time for yourself in case they score. If they don't score, you can kneel and run out the clock anyway. What is the downside unless you know you're planning to commit a PI to extend their drive but also run down the clock to 7 seconds?

The poker analogy is apt. Dykes was a big donkey but he lucked out big time. It's not going to always happen for him and history definitely does not has it happening in favor of Cal.

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There were 2 + minutes left. I can see Utah getting stopped, Cal running 3 times at the 3 yard line, and Utah calling timeouts and then punting inside our endzone with 45 seconds left.

Revenge for last year.

dajo9;842738462 said:

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Great win!

Let's not do that again.

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This should have been copy/pasted after every Cal win this season.

tequila4kapp;842738460 said:

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I honestly don't know. They've disappointed me with some stuff and surprised me with others. My guess is we won't really know until much later into the season. One thing I do know...Sonny will get a LOT of good will from the doubters if he can just beat a CA school, in which case the first question will be mitigated a bit.

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Cal is still a Dykes team. We can lose to anyone on the road and maybe beat everyone but the top 3-4 teams in the Pac-12 at home. We will do it with a lot of scoring and give up a lot of scores. Nothing has changed.

MiltyBear;842738445 said:

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No matter if you bet on your D or not, you save time for yourself in case they score. If they don't score, you can kneel and run out the clock anyway. What is the downside unless you know you're planning to commit a PI to extend their drive but also run down the clock to 7 seconds?

The poker analogy is apt. Dykes was a big donkey but he lucked out big time. It's not going to always happen for him and history definitely does not has it happening in favor of Cal.

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I totally agree with you.

There wasn't any RATIONAL defense for not calling timeouts in the last minute. There was ZERO downside in preserving time - Utah wouldn't have benefitted. The PI actually made Sonny's decision look better but that was just random chance.

MiltyBear;842738431 said:

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Wild Turkey and Dr Pepper for me

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You're a freak, bro.

tequila4kapp;842738460 said:

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I honestly don't know. They've disappointed me with some stuff and surprised me with others. My guess is we won't really know until much later into the season. One thing I do know...Sonny will get a LOT of good will from the doubters if he can just beat a CA school, in which case the first question will be mitigated a bit.

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I think we played four teams that will end up in the Top 30-45 range nationally and Cal split them, so I guess Cal is a Top 30-45 type team for the season. But remember teams and players improve and regress as the season wears on, so that is still a bit in flux.