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Football: Cal-ASU first quarter recap
By Joe Stiglich
Friday, November 25th, 2011 at 8:09 pm in Uncategorized.
Cal leads Arizona State 17-7 after one quarter, and neither team’s defense has made much of an appearance so far. The Bears scored on all three of their possessions — a 48 yard Tavecchio field goal, an 18 yard Sofele TD run and a 16-yard option keeper from Maynard, set up by a Kendricks 33-yard fumble return. But the Sun Devils are carving up Cal’s defense pretty good …
Some first quarter stats:
First downs
Cal 7
ASU 7
Rushing yards
Cal 5-79
ASU 16-91
Passing
Maynard 4-7-0
Osweiler 4-5-0
Passing yards
Maynard 52
Osweiler 72
Total yards
Cal 131
ASU 163
Time of possession
Cal 4:43
ASU 10:17
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November 25th, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Wehofx, I’m liking the play calling too. Finally lettin Maynard run. Good stuff.
Officials have no reason to screw us this time and yet, that call on miller was total bs and cost us a huge gain. West least we’re well rested!
November 25th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
At least, not west. Man, autocorrect keeps getting worse!
November 25th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Marvin’s gotta catch that but the pi was a good call. These announcers are idiots. His jersey was tugged, and he was pushed. And Marvin didn’t grab the mask on the stiffsrm, his hand was wide open, no penalty there either. Sheesh. I guess overall I can’t complain about the officiating. And this has been a really fun one to watch. Go bears.
November 25th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Does Tedford ever show any fire? Does he even care? Maybe he is just thinking about how he’s gonna spend his salary. Boy Williams really looks bad tonight, lets see more McClure.
November 25th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Fun game to watch so far
November 25th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
100 bucks says we take a knee here no matter what. I was thinking we would before too but we fumbled instead. Classic bear football.
November 25th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
And btw, once again, settling for field goals come backs to haunt.
November 25th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Anyone else curious if Cal should consider ending its commitment to the 3-4 defense?
November 25th, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Wow just wow.
November 25th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Un-unbelievable!
Stiglich, any chance you have the stats for Cal this season defending against other teams going for it on 4th down? It would be really nice to know the % when the opponent is in that “why not” territory, just out of FG range. 2-2, both leading to TDs. Add the fumble, and those 3 plays equal 21 of ASU’s points.
Cal should have stepped on their neck early in the 2nd quarter. Maynard missed badly (again, please quit with the improved accuracy garbage – he’s still maddeningly inconsistent) on a wide open fade in the end zone, settle for a FG, and now trail.
I continue to inch closer and closer toward finding myself embarrassed to be a Cal fan. So close. Thank Cthulhu that Stanfurd choked against the Cuse, or I’d be giving myself brain damage slamming my head to the wall. Instead, I just have minimal drain bamage from watching our games.
November 25th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
If we’re having this much trouble covering passes in the 3-4, I think a switch might be a disaster. Are we not blitzing or are they just that bad at breaking thru when we do?
November 25th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Our special teams coverage
Sucks!
November 25th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Unacceptable to have to burn a timeout there. Totally unacceptable. Clok management should never be a concern when you’re paying the manager 2.5mm a year.
November 25th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
secondary play really looks horrible tonight. Ref calls aren’t helping but boy we are making their offense look much better than it is.
November 25th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Would love to see tedford get fired up after that anderson td. Gotta give credit togreat playcalling tonight on offense.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Would love to see avery sebastian get some time in.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Campbell cattouse and josh hill seem like good kids. But theyre not pac 12 quality football players. This is a result of our down recruiting years.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Daredevilfan…you are right on the money, Steve Williams looks like he hasnt played CB in his life before, he has the speed but he keeps getting burned. he was supposed to be the next Syd. Pendegrast is calling argualbly his worst game, by failing to bring any pressure so far, Brock is too comfortable back there.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
We need to play call ourselves into the end zone here. A fg is the kiss of death.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Anyone know what ever happened to kaelin clay ?
November 25th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Noooooooooooo!! Wteff does a fg do? I’m so tired I this. Our d has proven they can’t hold these guys and we think a 2 fg lead will take care of it. With our special teams
Giving them the ball at the 40 all night? Man. I give up.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Nothing wrong with the play calling. Offense couldn’t get it done. O line is tired.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
abe…yeah, not sure why Pendergrast and defense regressed tonite. I know we have a lot of injuries, but just seems like we are lost on 3rd downs. Need to turn it around at the end here now that we had to settle for another fg. would have loved to see CJ get some chances inside the 10…..
November 25th, 2011 at 10:31 pm
Better be a fumble, after the same was reversed against Cal in the first half. Still waiting . . .
November 25th, 2011 at 10:32 pm
whew…
November 25th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Rollon, I am really, really, really, hoping Tedford proves us both wrong on that FG stance of ours. . .
November 25th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
I just reqlized maynard looks like gumby. Feel free to promote that as his nickname.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Well, better season than I had expected overall, but still some bad losses leaving a bad taste in mouth. Guys played with heart, but I thought we’d end the season really looking forward to strong D next year and instead have some questions right now. Maybe can shore things up during bowl game. Just wanna keep taking steps forward again. Keep up near top in recruiting, climb from middle of Pac10 into top third, then wait for our magical year. Okay, on East Coast so will end with Go Bears!
November 25th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
How can u complain about fg’s when our
Bears put up 47? O looked great. O line,
isi, cj, receivers and zm.
The D, however, mystifies me. How can they
can look so good at home and suck so bad
on the road?
Regardless a very good win. None of that
lame .500 record. Looking forward to whatever
bowl w continued improvement.
Go Bears!
November 25th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
Definitely Gumby. Nice call. Well, I guess tedford knew we were going to recover a fumble after taking the field goal from the 2. Lucky for us, az state was in full collapse mode. Had Utah won, we wouldn’t be celebrating, I don’t think , but the players came out for this one and played hard all game. We need someone to kick off and kil pats, and punt, but I’ll miss these consistent fgs from gt. need to tackle better. Nice effort overall, but timeout management and decision making were as frustrating as ever. A
Nice season that did indeed exceed expectations. I’m happy with it. We could have done better but this was good. And Maynard did look better today. And the play calling was the best of the season. Go bears. We EARNED a bowl with 7-5. 6-6 bowl just wouldn’t have felt right.
November 25th, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Any Zach Maynard haters out there after the last two weeks. STFU!
November 25th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
I’m quite confident the D will be strong again next year, perhaps stronger with DB experience. The issue will remain to be an inconsistent arm stifling drives. I could not want a guy to find consistency more. I really like Maynard in every other respect, but the random wide throws, IMO, cannot be had from your starting QB.
And you gotta love when a replay ref agonizes over a call because he knows he can’t be inconsistent in the same game! It really was the difference down the stretch, allowing those FGs to win on the road!
November 25th, 2011 at 11:12 pm
Sorry, Ed. You are not paying attention if you think his accuracy is not a major issue. Maybe he is just like The Sundance Kid. “Can I move? I’m better when I move.”
In fact, that does it. I’m calling him Sundance from now on.
November 25th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Tonights a good night to be a golden bear. And I think a lot of people were watching this one, too. Finally, a solid performance on the national stage.
November 25th, 2011 at 11:30 pm
Lets not get crazy about maynard. Hes doing better thats for sure. Doesnt erase his games against sc or oregon or ucla
November 25th, 2011 at 11:37 pm
That was a true Cal win in so many ways. Sure the secondary gave up a lot of yards and Maynard missed some throws. But the O line was huge, Maynard played really smart, and RBs ran hard. Bring on Mack Brown.
November 25th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Also the reffing was awful as usual for PAC 10 play. There were 3 terrible interference calls (2 on us) and very inconsistent holding calls.
I really didn’t think we were getting that fumble call. But we’d lost the first close replay that was eerily similar, and they blew the whistle early to stop a recovery. Only fair to give us the last one, I just had no faith they’d make the right call.
November 25th, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Saw about 10 other Cal fans here in Tempe. Glad we made the trip. I take back all those bad thoughts about Tedford and Maynard. He was right to stick with him. Its refreshing to see another team amke more bonehead penalties than ours. Didn’t asu beat moren’s team?
November 26th, 2011 at 12:32 am
Great win. Awesome way to end the regular season and fired up for the future. Add some big time recruits and get better pressure on the QB by our D and another year of experience for the cb’s plus a couple home run hitter speed guys on O and we really have something.
Liking the direction our team is going.
Great job, Go Bears!!!
November 26th, 2011 at 12:35 am
Great win for Cal and Tedford! I have been very critical of Tedford for the past 4 years…but I call it like I see it and Tedford led Cal to a solid season this year…with a performance better than expected at 7-5. More importantly, Maynard is obviously getting better….we have not seen a Cal QB actually improve as the season wore on since Rodgers in 2003.
Cal now gets an extra month of practice to prepare for a Bowl game which will only help them for 2012. With the new stadium opening up…I think it’s reasonable to hope that the program is rising again…I still don’t think Tedford is the guy to get Cal a conference Championship…but at least there is hope!
Tedford “hot seat” has cooled down considerably…but Erickson’s seat just caught FIRE! I don’t see how Erickson survives at ASU. I think Mike Leach would be a great fit for ASU.
November 26th, 2011 at 1:41 am
Congratulations to our Cal Bears football team and Coach Jeff Tedford and his coaching staff for beating ASU tonight and owning ASU 8 times out of the last ten games. Thank you for your hard work that gave us fun times at ATT Park, a 7-5 season (so far), and a bowl game again.
But most of all thank you for hopefully quieting somewhat the hateful criticism from the “afraid of my own shadow” namecalling naysayers. What has been more irritating and annoying than our SC wannabe are the so called fans that showed little confidence and/or support for OUR team, but instead choose to show no class before and during the season. I am certainly glad that none of these purported fans were coaching the team or running our program.
November 26th, 2011 at 1:42 am
Go Bears!
Nice solid win. Nice steady progress over the second half of the season. Maynard turned it around, Isi, CJA and O-line played great.
November 26th, 2011 at 6:12 am
Great win for the Bears. Hope we get to play a quality opponent at a decent bowl now that Cal is standing at as high as #3 and as low as #6 amongst the Pac-12 teams depending on the remaining games. I am happy for Zach Maynard! Great job on the road!
November 26th, 2011 at 6:27 am
A nice, rare win on the road. Hope to see more of these next year.
With no real home games and seven on the road, not that bad of a season.
November 26th, 2011 at 7:18 am
Before we all pat ourselves on the back and congratulate everyone on a winning season, remember the following:
The Bears beat only one team (mighty Utah) with a winning record this year.
Once again Cal is a mediocre team led by a very expensive mediocre coach. This has been true for more than seven years. So unless the Cal fans are satisfied with loading up our schedule with weak out-of-conference teams and counting on 3 or 4 PAC-12 teams to be struggling every season and being satisfied with irrelevant bowl games – a change is needed.
I have been a Cal fan for 30 years – but to be honest, I’m losing interest in watching mediocrity and knowing it will not get better unless Tedford is replaced and the fan base decides it wants more and recognizes the problem.
November 26th, 2011 at 7:54 am
In the last five years, 2008 (6-3) and 2009 (5-4) were the only season where the Bears won more PAC-10/12 games than they lost.
In 2008, the PAC-10 teams they beat had a combined win-loss record of 26-48. Not exactly beating up powerhouses.
Cal went 5-4 in the Pac-10 that year. The win/loss records of the teams they beat was not stellar at 28-35.
I’m sorry to be such a downer, but are you guys really satisfied with Tedford and team now that we won a shoot out with a team that just learned they didn’t have much to play for just before the game?
November 26th, 2011 at 8:20 am
It really is all about next year, in terms of tedford. We had no chance at a bcs this year and we may still get the holiday bowl. Next year we should get 10 wins minimum. Even if we have to beat an urban meyer oh state team.
November 26th, 2011 at 9:24 am
@Greid: I think it’s fine to celebrate the win against ASU. It’s fine to take a big picture but doing so right now is really being a debbie downer. Let us enjoy the win. It’s not like we can go back in time and play $C/Oregon/Stanfurd. Those chances will come next year.
November 26th, 2011 at 9:36 am
Go bears!
Hatred are gonna hate no matter what, particularly the anti tedford nutsos.
Here’s what we’ve seen from this team so far this year:
Better in November than in September. A lot better.
Tons of players coming back. Tons. O line and Marvin will be missed but that’s how it goes.
Players believe in each other. See post big game tweets.
Sofele and Maynard really starting to get into it.
Gotta say, I can’t wait for the bowl/next year. Bring on tOsu!
November 26th, 2011 at 10:48 am
This is a time to celebrate the way the team ended the year strong and got better each week after ucla. Really proud of the character displayed by our team and the way they battled in practice and came together as a single unit to do what was needed to win football games!
They will be rewarded with a good bowl game, all the games we might play in are as good as it is going to get outside of a BCS/Rose Bowl.
The coaches have really been on the same page with the team and calling great plays. Maynard is getting better and making plays with his strong athletic ability, fun to watch him make things happen when a play breaks down. Really impressed with Zack’s fight to improve and lead the team.
Being happy today does not mean Cal fans do not have high expectations for next year.
2012 is a key year for the program to step back into national prominence.
Go Bears!
November 26th, 2011 at 11:34 am
LOL Greid
You’ve been a fan for THIRTY (30) years and you’re just now starting to lose interest in mediocrity????
That’s hilarious.
The game has slowed finally for Zack.
The game has speeded up for Isi .. and his low-pads smackdown of that cornerback was perfect.
Cal’s future looks bright especially in FGs can be changed into TDs.
November 26th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
That was a great win on the road and a nice end to the regular season.
I think the coaches have finally learned to call plays for ZM, rather than trying to make him conform to the Tedford pro-style pocket-passer offense. ZM is not a consistent passer – I still hold my breath every time he throws – so the coaches need to call the plays he excels at – the QB keepers, the option, etc. Hopefully after the bowl game they can work on ZM’s throwing mechanics in the offseason.
Defense was atrocious last night, but usually they are decent. Sofele and Anderson are hitting their stride. I’m optimistic for next year.
Go Bears!
November 26th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Optimism for 2012.
Home Games against 4 of the 5 teams we lost to this year (Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, Washington)
USC on the road with a–hopefully–new QB.
Arizona with a new QB and coach.
Colorado.
November 26th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Did Stiglich get laid off after the first quarter?
November 26th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Amusing to hear people claim that ASU had nothing to play for. What more did Cal have to play for? And yet we showed up and played hard and got the win.
Feel sorry for the haters still whining about past seasons – you are unable to appreciate what THIS team accomplished THIS year. What the team did last year doesn’t diminish my appreciation of what we did this season with a new qb, rb, and no home field. People are so angry at Tedford they can’t give this team and staff the praise they deserve.
November 26th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Great win, and Maynard and that offense look a lot better. I really want Cal to into an upper tier bowl like the Alamo or the Holiday to see if this is real or just a mirage.
November 26th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Smile on my face matching the Cal players last night. Our share of breakdowns and mistakes, but a total team effort to pull out the win. I too am optimistic considering the young, key players who return in 2012. Lest we forget, we were ahead of Oregon at the half, and we came close to capturing the Axe. Can’t wait until next year. Go Bears!!!
November 26th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Kent, Leach at asu would be interesting. Another rock staar hc in the pac 12 would be a good thing.
Bobby/#49 RE: Player’s tweets. Could you – and JS – tweet to players to #Calfb? Or are # and twitter discouraged by JT?
Another entertaining thread to read, esp CalD/#54.
Go Bears!
November 26th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
The team competed to finish out the regular season and win or lose that is what we want to see. That is promising and Maynard playing well is also promising. You play to win the game so no matter how 55-54 or 3-0 it is about winning and competing. Here’s to hoping that Tedford can get the edge back that he had 6-7 years ago. Expectations will be high again in 2012 based upon this finish let’s hope they can play close to or above their potential.
November 26th, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Nice win. Whereas last week was a solid performance, we finally saw what Maynard could do against a decent defense. It really makes a difference when you have him run, roll out, and pass to the TEs. Had this been in place during UW, Oregon, U$C, or UCLA, this really could have been a special year. But there a lot of pieces in place to make a very strong next year. With the talent on the team, a 9-win season should be expected.
I have been extremely critical of Tedford since 2008. But when there is a good coaching effort, I think it is important to recognize that. Last night the offensive game was definitely solid, creative, played to our strengths and played to ASU’s weaknesses. It reminded me of the 2002/2003 game plans, where we had good (but not great) players, but what allowed us to beat Michigan State and Virginia Techs of the world were smart offensive game plans.
As for our defense, while not great last night, Osweiler happens to be an excellent QB. He was let down by some drops and fumbles, and the game was much closer than the score indicated – easily could have come down the last possession.
And I echo the many ASU fans – Erickson has got to go. Idiotic penalties may work when he was at Miami, or even OSU in 2000, but not with a team like ASU.
And the refs upheld the honorable tradition of being the worst conferences refs in the country. The number of extraordinarily bad calls (on both sides) was embarassing.
November 26th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Lots of talk about cal in the holiday bowl, but we’re looking at 5th place in the PAC, so I’m not sure how we’d get the bowl meant for the rose bowl runner up. Anybody know why they would take us?
November 26th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
It will be interesting to see the impact that the new Stadium and football facilities will have on recruiting this year…Cal had very strong recruiting classes that past 2 years (ranked #11 and 17th nationally). It also will be interesting to see how the players from these past two classes develop and perform next year.
Meanwhile…Erickson is out at ASU….I still think Mike Leach would be a great fit…I still remember how he thoroughly out-coached and out schemed Tedford in the HOliday Bowl back in ’04.
November 26th, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Wow… UCLA scoreless throughout the game.. loses to USC 50-0… they lose on both fronts this year: US News rankings and football… must not be fun to be a ucla fan..
November 27th, 2011 at 4:44 am
UCLA has apparently asked for a waiver (from the NCAA, I guess)to be allowed to go to a bowl game with a losing record. They will be 6-7 after the idiotic Pac 12 Championship game.
Don’t see how the NCAA allows that and what bowl game wants the first team with a losing record anyway?
November 27th, 2011 at 7:34 am
The pac12 champ game is bowl enough for ucla.
November 27th, 2011 at 9:06 am
Folks – I too had BLIND enthusiasm and hope for the Cal Bears success for many years. Life has taught me that BLIND enthusiasm and hope only will not breed success. In fact it breeds status quo. Success comes from continuously and realistically evaluating the situation, identifying faults, digging into the cause and SOLVING it….along with hard work.
We’ve had many reasons for hope in the past: Riley saving the team in the Armed Services Bowl. Beating Stanford several years ago. Nothing has changed because we did not solve the problem.
Very little has changed since earlier this season. We had a good night against ASU. So did UCLA. Is UCLA any better able to compete? The USC game would suggest otherwise.
I’m all for the thrill and excitement of a win. Celebrate and enjoy. But, don’t let it cloud your analysis of what needs to be done to make Cal a BCS contender (we should not be paying Tedford $2.9M for any less of a goal). We need to send a message to Sandy that change is needed.
Many of you will not like my post and many of you will disagree with me. Remember this thread next season when Cal faces it’s first serious team in the PAC-12. I predict the same result as the last 6 seasons.
For those who have followed this blog for awhile, look at my similiar posts four years ago that had the same message. Here we are four years later – mediocrity and staus quo.
Jim – nice comeback! I’m laughing myself..30 years and I’m JUST NOW frustrated!!!
November 27th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Greid…here, here! Excellent post! As for the status of the Cal football program, I feel like there is some serious leadership lacking…I’m not talking about Tedford…I am speaking of Sandy Barbour and the Chancellor!
What is the vision of the Cal althletic program and specifically what role does Cal football play?
Under Chancellor Tien, for the 1st time…Cal publically stated that a goal for all athletic teams was to win their conference championship…prior to Tien, there was no clear objective in terms of winning or losing. And since Tien, the Cal administration has sent contradictory signals of the importance of playing to win. Paying its football coach top dollar (11th highest paid coach in the country), yet accepting sub-par performances for 6 consective seasons (2005 – 2010) without a hint of holding the coach accountable for the status of the team.
I personally don’t believe that winning championships in college football these is possible without compromising the rules/or integrity/ or morale values. I’m not sure that winning championships should be a stated goal for Cal…but I do take issue that Cal has not clearly determined what they what…and I feel that Cal is currently “half pregnant”…what I mean by that is…they are paying Tedford…big time money….Cal is developing faciliticites that are “state of the art” …. which leads most followers into thinking that Cal is seeking to compete for Championships with this type of investments in its football program. Accepting anything less, seems foolish given the expense. I just want to hear from Sandy Barbour and/or the Chancellor regarding the prioritization of winning for its athletic programs.