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Football: Season review — defensive line
By Jonathan Okanes
Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 3:22 pm in Football, off-season stuff.
WHAT WENT RIGHT: Tyson Alualu played just like everyone expected — like an All-Pac-10 defensive end. Alualu simply showed up every week. Some games were bigger than others, but he and linebacker Mike Mohamed were by far the most consistent defensive players this season. Alualu was third on the team with 65 tackles, including 11.5 for loss. He had 7.5 sacks, three passes defensed and two forced fumbles. Fellow defensive end Cameron Jordan had some good games and ended up with 48 tackles, including 9.5 for loss. He had six sacks and five quarterback hurries.
WHAT WENT WRONG: Although Jordan shined at times, he didn’t become the dominant force many expected this season. Part of that may be due to the lack of plays made by the linebackers, that opposing offensive fronts could key more on the down linemen. But Jordan couldn’t maintain a high level of play often enough over the course of the season. The Bears were ravaged by injuries at nose tackle. First, backup Kendrick Payne missed time early in the season with a foot injury and starter Derrick Hill was out near the end of the season with a shoulder injury.
IN SUMMATION: The defensive line as a whole didn’t make a bunch of plays, but it probably was the most consistent position on the defense. Much of that is thanks to Alualu’s performance.
MOVING FORWARD: Replacing Alualu will be one of the hardest tasks the Bears will face this offseason. Not only did he excel on the field, he was the heart and soul of the defense. Married with two kids, he was almost like a father figure to the rest of the defense. Trevor Guyton will probably get first crack at the position in the spring. Next season will be Hill’s last chance to try to stay healthy for an entire season. When healthy and focused, he can be one of the Pac-10′s better nose tackles. But the Bears also are building some depth there with Payne, Aaron Tipoti and other younger players like DeAndre Coleman and Keni Kaufusi. The 2010 season will also be Jordan’s final chance to make an impact. He has all the tools to be a top NFL prospect, but needs to become more productive on the field.
GRADE: C+
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January 9th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
JO – do you think Owusu steps up? In the beginning of the season he had a couple of big games but sorta disappeared with the rest of the defense.
January 9th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Alualu was pretty consistent all year long. But everyone else was not. Sometimes Guyton played great, sometimes Jordan played great, sometimes Hill played great, etc. I attribute this to coaching. I’m hoping Lupoi is doing some good learning as a young coach this offseason by visiting other coaches or attending different programs.
January 9th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
3-4 defense without any real blitz threats/packages. I was pretty pleased overall with our dline play this year. It wasn’t fantastic, but I think they did a solid job.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Yeah it was a real no win situation for the Cal D. Without the athleticism, strength, and speed at Linebacker this year the D-Line was pretty much on its own. And in spite of that they did an okay job getting pressure. The problem is that with the teams we should have beat (USC, Utah, and Washington) okay pressure doomed us. Those were QBs that with time could execute. The most glaring in my mind was Matt Barkley we should have dominated that game but he had all day to throw and the middle of the field stuff developed real nice for him, he had great passing lanes and moved the ball really well. Unless Gregory gets REAL creative next year these guys are hosed. Alualu was a force on the line and was disruptive almost every play, but one guy alone isn’t enough (unless your last name is Suh). I’m very worried about next year’s D. They are gonna have to hit the film room HARD.