ADDENDUM ADDED at the bottom of the post.

Good friend of the Marshawnthusiasts, Avi (aka "Bears Necessity"), thought it might be worth my while to take a look at something that happened during Big Game - specifically the failed PAT attempt. 

When I first saw the game, I really had nothing to say on the issue other than it looked like Longshore got spooked and bailed out. 

However, now I feel like I need to weigh in on the issue after being informed that there are rumors floating around on the internet that Longshore called his own number and decided to fake the PAT against orders of Tedford:

Nate told the tight end to go for the end zone and he would throw him the ball. Unlike the Levy incident, this audible occurred when the Big Game still was on the line. There are other distinctions from what Levy did as well.

and in another post by the person who said that:

There is more to the fumbled extra point in the big game than meets the eye.

The post above was also edited to apparently take out more sensitive information:

Last edited by XXXXXXX;  Yesterday [December 1, 2008] at 11:04 PM. Reason: too much non-public info

So what the heck happened on that play?

Also, we've started again with that posting.  Check it:  Interview with Gary Tyrrell, Women's B-Ball Primer.

Continue reading this post »

via imgs.sfgate.com

We've got the Axe!

So I guess we'll start off with the good.  Note: I haven't re-watched the game at the time of writing this post.

(1) Run blocking paves the way for the win.  Best had a 10.6 yard average today.  Even if you take away his longest run of the day, he still averaged 7.8 yards per rush.  Best tallied two bucks and a cent on the ground.  Dude just torched their defense.  As for Vereen, Vereen had a 4.7 yard average.  Not quite BEAST MODE, but still very good.  The RBs had pretty good holes to run through today and the OL was getting downfield for their blocks.  (If only our OL could pass block as even half as well as they run block...)

(2) The stable of runningbacks trample the Furd defense.  See above.  Additionally, all the RBs ran very well once past the the initial defenders.

(3) Cignetti has a simple, yet effective gameplan which wins the game and gets a few style points in the process.  The plan, take advantage of Best's and Vereen's speed.  Early on, Cignetti called quite a few toss sweeps.  Then the fake-fb dive flip play.  Then the end around reverse... Cignetti was definitely stretching out that defense and seeing if they could defend the edge.  Didn't quite work.  Later, Cignetti started working in some play action after the run-heavy playcalling.  The playaction helped set up Riley's TD pass to Morrah. 

The hook and ladder was ridic.  My first thought as the ball was in the air and I saw the defenders closing in was (i) this is going to go for negative 10 yards; and (ii) something doesn't seem right.  I can't say I predicted the hook and ladder playcall coming as the ball was in the air, but something inside of me just said something was different.  Something was wrong.  After peeking at an ESPN highlight, I realized why I felt that something didn't seem right and why something felt wrong.  The reason was because we faked the screen out of a formation and personnel group which we never screen out of.  It was completely unorthodox to fake screen out of the strong-I out with base personnel to the narrow side of the field.  Nevertheless, despite never setting up the hook and ladder with a screen out of a similar formation earlier in the game, the play just screamed "screen" from the start and I'm willing to bet it fooled EVERYONE in the stadium. 

Finally, Cignetti was safe and smart.  While "conservative" isn't a word that a lot of Cal fans like to hear, it worked.  We ran lots and passed little.  Why pass so little?  May I remind you of how inconsistent and porous our pass blocking has been?  So I think it was a good decision to just put the game on the shoulders of the OL's run blocking and RBs while using a few passes to compliment things.

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Here's hoping for victory tomorrow. 

GO BEARS!

BEAT $TANFURD!

GMFB!!!

In the most epic College Fantasy Football Championship game in the past 50 years Get the Lawnmower! proved that the plastic bottles, water, and sticky Gatorade residue are no match for the whirring sharp rotary blades of a lawnmower. 

With only two seconds remaining on the clock and the game tied at 87, Get the Lawnmower! kicker Leigh Tiffin split the uprights from 43 yards out as time expired to finalize the surprising nail-biter that nobody was predicting.

While the result of this championship game may have been a surprise to the fans, it wasn't a surprise to Get the Lawnmower! 

"Oh yeah, we heard the newspapers doubting us all last week," said Get the Lawnmower! QB Chase Daniels.  "Frankly, that was a bunch of b---s---.  We knew we were the better team all along."

Contrary to Daniels' thoughts the fan consensus was that team hydro_tech was more talented and  would easily win.

It's obvious where such favoritism comes from - just look at Coach HydroTech's team.  Coach HydroTech rounded up a quality bunch of star players including Terrell Pryor (QB Ohio State), Charles Scott (RB LSU), Dez Bryant (WR Oklahoma State), Jordan Shipley (WR Texas), Mike Thomas (WR Arizona), Jared Cook (TE South Carolina), Hunter Lawrence (Texas kicker), and Alabama's defense.

Many college fantasy football gurus deemed team hydro_tech as one of the most dominant teams in the past 20 years. 

"If they were so dominant, then why did they lose 61-102 to Maharg back in week three?"  asked Daniels.  "Team Maharg is freakin' useless.  I don't think Maharg even started a full team when he beat hydro_tech!"

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I'm sorry that this post is weeks behind the actual game.  Culinary school has been pretty busy lately.  The semester ends in a few weeks and finals are coming up in early December.  I've been fairly busy lately practicing my mincing technique and ingredient sniff tests.  But better late then never, right?  

One thing which I noticed while watching the Arizona game was how disturbingly similar Arizona and Arizona State scored on our defense.

If you remember my last post, I showed how Arizona State scored against our man free coverage. 

Arizona scored in a very similar manner on a passing play.  Let's take a look at how it happened.

Above is the pre-snap picture.  Arizona has "12 personnel" on the field - meaning they have 2 WRs, 2 TEs, and 1 RB.  Both TEs are on the right side of the offense's OL.  One TE is on the line of scrimmage (LOS), and a second one is off the LOS. 

Cal is in its typical 3-4 defense.  Cal appears to be playing man-coverage since both of Cal's CBs are lined up across from both of Arizona's WRs who are lined up as twins to the same side of the Arizona offense.

Continue reading this post »

Well, here are some more extensive thoughts.  They are still short and I apologize, but finals are closing in on me and time is becoming less abundant. 

(1) Defense.  Let's get the non-bad out of the way.  Defense played alright but seemed to be getting a bit gassed towards the end of the game because they were on the field so long.  Oregon State had the ball for 34 minutes and change. 

There were a few problems locating Rodgers in the backfield because the dude is so small.  Even though Rodgers broke 100 yards and had a 5.3 yard average, the defense kept the game winnable. I don't think this was the defense's best performance, but nor was it the worst. 

I think Gregory wanted to shut down the run and force Moevao to beat us, but that gameplan wasn't exactly completed since Cal couldn't entirely shut down Rodgers.  That's too bad, because Moevao looked horrible today.  He threw about 3 INTs today, 2 of which were dropped by our defenders.  If we had only shut down Rodgers and forced Moevao to win the game then we might have won.

Continue reading this post »

Put your immediate post-game thoughts here! 

This year's offense is the worst in the Tedford era.  Yes, even worse than 2005. We've got a decimated OL and have inexperienced players starting at 3/5ths of the OL.  We have our youngest and worst WR group in the Tedford era. 

Aside from Mack, Best, and Vereen and an emerging Tucker... our team just doesn't have the talent right now - or the experience. 

Defense kept us in the game today... just like against U$C.  And just like against U$C, it was up to the offense to win the game.  Just like U$C, they couldn't. 

Defenses don't win championships.  A great defense won't do it by themselves.  It takes some offense too.  Right now, we have too little offense.  We have too many injuries, and too many young guys playing.

Here's the 4th Quarter thread.  Go Bears!

Here's the 3rd quarter thread.  Go Bears!

Here's the 2nd Quarter thread.... Go Bears!