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Football: From the press room
By Jonathan Okanes
Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at 7:17 pm in Football, Gameday.
Obviously, most of the discussion in the press room after the game was about Keenan Allen. That was about as memorable a debut as you can have. Granted, you can question the level of competition, but Allen still made things look so easy and seemed so effortless about it.
You get the feeling Allen isn’t surprised by this. Not in a cocky way, but just a quiet confidence that this is how he expects to play. It will be interesting to see how he does against better competition.
It was a pretty flawless performance. Again, a tougher opponent would have presented more problems. But between a productive running game, the receiving tandem of Allen and Marvin Jones and the superior execution of new defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast’s schemes for the first attempt, the Bears left the stadium feeling pretty good about things.
On to some notes:
- Jeff Tedford became Cal’s all-time leader in wins in the modern era (68).
- Allen had 120 receiving yards, but that’s not the record for a Cal freshman. That belongs to DeSean Jackson, who had 130 yards twice in 2005.
- But Allen’s debut was better than Jackson’s, although Jackson still made an impact. He caught just two passes for 37 yards, but had a touchdown catch and also returned a punt 49 yards for a score against Sacramento State.
- LB Keith Browner and DE Trevor Guyton each had sacks, the second each in their careers.
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September 4th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
52-3 is nice, but this team has some serious problems on O. Riley’s numbers were OK b/c he had the benefit of Allen, Jones and Vereen, who simply dominated the Aggie defense. But every time UCD signaled pressure at the LOS, Riley lost his composure — twice leading to penalties. He looked pretty unsettled in the pocket too. I have no idea why a senior QB with a lot of playing experience is this uncomfortable under center and in the pocket.
OL is another huge concern. UCD was totally outmanned, but the right side of the line couldn’t effectively run block during the first half and parts of the second. Cal should’ve blown defenders clear off the ball, but it never happened. The big gainers from the first half were mostly the result of individual efforts, not space created by the OL.
A few folks had complaints about the lack of sacks, but Davis was doing a pretty good job of getting the ball out before contact. The pressure was there, as evidenced by the low yardage totals and completion percentages.
If what we saw from the Cal O today is roughly indicative of what they’re going to do all year, the consensus prediction (Pac10 7th place) is about right.
September 4th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
…LR…
Painfully I agree with you on a number of things:
1. Riley made a lot of easy WIDE OPEN throws but missed the ones i like to see him complete. He badly under threw Jones, overthrew Allen who almost bailed him out, missed Calvin who got open and was waiting for him on the outside, just to name a few.
2. the so called Tedford being more relaxed and fun on the sideline during games…(chuckle)…well i think we all got to witness first hand that JT is a few light years away from getting there. i mean i understand there was some sloppiness on offense, but if he cant muster the positive energy to motivate his players to be more focused without being so obviously furious playing against a heavily outmatched opponent then go figure. i honestly didnt expect him to change in that regard but i honestly was also hoping to see the improved version only in this game and the real JT to come back next game against Colorado. again it just goes to show how unlikely its is for us to see “JT 2.0″ anytime soon.
September 4th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Easy guys. While I agree with both of you, I think it’s way too early to jump to conclusions on how Cal will do this season. It’s the first game and they were shaking off the rust. Let’s see how they (especially Riley) do against real competition like Colorado. But I do agree JT needs to take it easy and relax a bit and be more of a motivator!
September 4th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
It’s going to be hard to see how good Cal is until they face a pac-10 team. There are a few things I can take away from this game though. First, Kevin Riley has trouble keeping his composure. His pocket awareness is not that great, and when he’s under pressure he is wildly inaccurate. Sometimes, Riley rushes his throws which also leads to his inaccuracy. The second thing we can take away from this game is that Keenan Allen has potential to be great. He has deceptive speed (I’m thinking 4.45 speed) because of his long strides, but he has great size and YAC ability. His cuts are precise and anklebreaking, and he is finally the playmaking receiver Cal has waited for so long now ever since Desean Jackson and Lavelle Hawkins departed to the NFL. In a few years, Allen will be a 1st round draft pick. Third, Marvin Jones and Keenan Allen will most likely be the best WR duo in the PAC-10 and be one of the better ones in the entire league. Both have great hands and playmaking ability. Marvin Jones also displayed how special he is by making that extraordinary catch while having a defender draped all over him causing a pass interference. If Marvin Jones and Keenan Allen are still both at Cal next year, look for Cal to be contenders for the Pac-10 title (as long as there is a competent quarterback). The last thing I want to talk about is the Cal Bear Defense. Like Abe said, UC Davis did a great job of releasing the ball quickly and avoiding sacks, but this also lead to high inaccuracy and low total offensive yards for the Aggies. The pressure was there, and the coverage was decent. I would like to see some of the players in the secondary step up and start showing some playmaking ability and hard hits. Oh yea and DeAndre Coleman is huge and powerful. If he works on his technique (he won’t be able to maul many players in the NFL like he did to the Aggies), he is also probably going to be a 1st or 2nd round draft pick in a few years.
September 4th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
7th place? Perhaps, but remember this is the first game as well and Davis is a decent D1 AA school (heck the beat Stanford not long ago). Allen is an elite talent and pairing him with Jones provides the bears with perhaps the second most talented receiving tandem behind USC and even that’s debatable.
I believe it was obvious that UC Davis was going to force Cal to throw the ball and they with very good results in the first half. Wasn’t the score 35-0 in the first half? That’s pretty freaking good if you ask me. And I for one LOVED the different look of the defense. You could clearly see the different packages Cal had and I’m excited to see it continue…Cal’s got so fast players on defense. They, in my opinion look like a top 3 Pac 10 team this year.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
Abe – did you see Tedford do something that tells you he was tense? I was at the game, so didn’t catch any “tantrum” type behavior.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
JT was fine. Riley played fine. We can run the ball and relieve pressure with a short to intermediate passing game. Calm down
September 5th, 2010 at 3:02 am
It’s pretty clear we still have big questions at OL and QB. However, every other position + coaching has been upgraded.
Given Cal’s easy schedule this year I think there’s no way Cal finishes 7th. Definitely going to win at least 8 games… most likely 9.
September 5th, 2010 at 6:44 am
I’m not sure how someone finds things to rip the coach and the quarterback about in a 52-3 win over a weak opponent, but I see it is possible.
I watched some of Colorado’s game yesterday and they will pose a much bigger challenge. They looked pretty good against Colorado State. We’ll see.
September 5th, 2010 at 8:16 am
worse than seeing riley struggle a little on rushed throws (just like last year) was seeing how uncomfortable sweeney looked in the back up role. of the designed throws, he took off running on 3 quarters of them. i mean, you’re playing against uc davis who is half expecting you to run every down to wind down the game, you can’t find an open receiver? even worse for me was knowing that mansion is supposedly not as good as sweeney. to realize all of allen’s talents at wideout, i hope hinder, bridgford or maynard are seriously better than sweeney… maybe this is reading a little too deeply into mop up time, but i was not impressed & it worried me for next year.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Yeah, I agree: what’s with all this pessimism?!
We looked like any team playing its first game of the season. We were a bit rusty and, at times, overeager, but come on, Bear fans: 52-3!! It was the blowout it needed to be.
Sure, it was an FCS team, but within their division, UCD is a very good team. I think for all intents and purposes, UCD is more like a lower-tier FBS team (like New Mexico, Western Kentucky, Washington State) and the Bears did just what the should have done against them.
I don’t think we have “big questions at QB.” Riley looked pretty good yesterday. There was that one series that he got a little frazzled and lost focus and accuracy, but overall, he played well. At one point he was 9 for 9.
This, along with a very exciting Jones/Allen tandem, bodes well for Cal’s passing game, which, as we all remember, was sorely lacking last season.
I do agree that the O-line needs to tighten up a bit more, which I think they’ll do as the season progresses. Fortunately, the difficulty-level of our OOC schedule steps up each week, so we’ve got a good “preseason” opportunity to address these issues and prepare for Arizona and Pac-10 play.
In the end, Old Blues, at least take comfort in this: Cal beat its opponent by a 49 point margin; Stanfurd beat its even-lesser opponent by 35. Their defense allowed 17 points, while Cal held UCD to just one field goal late in the third quarter.
I’m sure you can find something good in that, right?
Go Bears! Let’s give the Buffs a taste of Pac-12 things to come!!
September 5th, 2010 at 9:44 am
You guys are nuts.Riley was good but had 1 bad series.52 to 3 how much can you shown real 2nd half play as we put the ball away.Many subs keep the BEARS from having a consistent effort on the o line.We have to be better every week or we will be average.
September 5th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
…Calfan1…
this is one of the benefits of watching games on tv, you get to see things in more detail. anyways to answer your question, JT was basically his old self, looked pretty unhappy for much of the first 3 quarters as can easily be seen from his hand gesture and body language, facial expressions, lip movement…etc. the half time interview before going to locker rooms also was telling. since he openly talked about being more fun and relaxed on the sideline that was one of the focus of the broadcast and even the guys calling the game talked about how “JT 2.0 looked a lot like JT 1.0″. So i was just pointing out that i didn’t see much change myself.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I thought the team played really well. The defense looked fairly solid, and put a ton of pressure on UC davis leading to a lot of incompletions. Our receivers are amazing and Vereen should have a great year. Riley was alright, not spectacular, but I dont really expect to see a NFL caliber QB out of him. My main problem was with the OL. For being so talented and experienced they did not mesh or dominate as they should have. Vereen got most of his yards after contact and i felt that the right side was being constantly beat. If they shore up I think we will have a great year because of our schedule.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I am a big CAL fan and was at the game yesterday. And even though I don’t believe that 1st game can tell you everything about the team I have to admit that we are in for a long season if we play at this level.
The Good:
1. Keenan Allen looked good and confident.
2. We won
3. Nobody got hurt, except maybe Jarrett Sparks who went out in the first half limping and never returned.
4. Also i think that our run D was pretty good.
The Bad:
1. Riley started out pretty well, but than started missing one open receiver after another towards the end of the half. He is a mobile QB who is very inaccurate when he leaves the pocket. Have to say I was expected more from him, this kind of performance will not cut in Pac 10.
2. Riley’s job is secure. Our back up quarterbacks were a joke, I can’t believe that these are highly recruited QB’s who been with the program for 2 and 3 years respectively. Tedford didn’t even let them throw the ball against UC Davis, and when they tried throwing it finally they couldn’t even find the wide open receivers. Than they ran like two stooges instead of throwing it to open receivers down field. I can’t even express my frustration of how poorly they are prepared. If Riley goes down our season is over, it looks as Allen’s cousin has a legitimate chance to start next year.
3. Davis has a Freshman quarterback who never played in a college game. I’m cautiously optimistic about our defense, but let’s be real, this was a true freshman QB from a FSC school. There were plenty of wide open receivers that he could have hit number of times, and he missed a lot of throws, was very inaccurate, just looked like a true FSC freshman. (Even than I think he was way more posed than our back up stooges). The Pac 10 QBs will hit those receivers, and than we will be in for a long day.
4. Was not impressed by our linebackers. I felt like DJ Holt was too slow to cover anybody in the middle, he is god at stopping the run but cant keep up with tight ends if his life dependent on it. I’m not even talking about the slot receivers that he some times had to cover. And our secondary was patchy.
Don’t mean to be very pessimistic, but I think that it is to early to be drinking the koolaid. I didn’t see Tedford on the sidelines, but I’m glad that he was furious, because they have a lot of issues to solve.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
That is not to mention that we still don’t have a good kicker as our kickoffs had not improved much, and our O line did not move Davis like I expected them to do so. Both Punt returns and Brian Anger looked solid though.
September 6th, 2010 at 7:38 am
we need matt summers gavin. i don’t care what JT thinks. he’s our number 1 o-lineman, and he proved it every time he took the field last year. unless he’s injured, and tedford’s trying to hide that (which he has a penchant for), he needs to be in there next week. if he is, you’ll get your long runs and big holes you’re looking for.
September 6th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Hey Rollon- I suspect that JT does not care what you think, either. Personally, I will put my money on someone who is a football professional and actually attends all the practices. No offense to you, though.
September 6th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
MSG did not start because he hasn’t been practicing so it’s not fair to the other guys. That’s what JT said and I totally agree. But I’m sure JT will reevaluate the Oline and MSG will start before too long. We might see him play more against Colorado, so stay tuned.
By the way, I think our kickoffs and kickoff coverage have improved dramatically. I remember last year, our opponents usually started at their own 30 or 40, but it seems like GT is kicking it farther this year and consistently to the 5 (even though he never kicked it into the endzone and it will never get there). The coverage was good except for a couple times. So Davis usually started at their own 20 or less. That’s decent improvement compared to last year’s opener!
September 7th, 2010 at 12:05 am
Where is the love? Whomp, whomp, whomp! 52-3 came from offensive scoring, so why all the NFL reviews? MSG is NOT our number one offensive lineman which is a direct insult to those working out on and off the field everyday. We had a crappy season last year with MSG in the game. He only looked good b/c he was playing next to Schwartz. Our 2008 season was soooo much better and MSG didn’t play at all (fancy that).
MSG will not lead us to the land of milk and honey so please stop gassing him up. Our starting offensive line did well and kept Riley on his feet. The starting line with the exception of Cheadle left out in the third quarter (notice MSG didn’t sub for guard or tackle). Nit picking the O-line (especially the right side) is not the solution. Enjoy the win.
Sounds like someone is passing around a glass of hateraide and too many people are sipping on it.