*Holy hell.  Louis Rankin busts a big one on our D in the very first drive.  Our run D doesn’t look so hot. 

*Longshore was shown to have red stuff on his hands during the pre-game videos.  That is not some sort of sticky tack or anything for the slick balls.  It’s the leather balls bleeding their color onto his hands.

*After Washington’s two long scoring drives in the 1st Quarter, I was hoping our offense would take their time to score to rest the defense.  I think our scoring drives were like under 5 minutes.  I’m glad we scored, but I was getting worried our D would get tired from being out on the field so much.

*On a Hawkins end-around or reverse (I can’t remember) he was horse-collared tackled.  The NCAA really really really has to follow the NFL on this one and make those illegal.  Those have become sooo common nowadays and are very dangerous to the ball carrier.  Even when I see a player on TV for some other team get horse-collared tackled I cringe.  Please make those illegal.  Besides being more safe for the ball carriers, it’ll make for more offense since the D is forced to make clean tackles which are much harder to do.

*Brandon Hampton’s "bobbled" punt fair catch.  My god.  I’ve never heard so many stupid replay comments in 2 minutes.  "You can tell the rotation of the ball changed!"  REALLY?  Ya know, cuz even on the replay the ball was nothing but a blur that moved halfway down the screen with every frame.  You could barely see the white stripes on the ball than the rotation of the ball.  "It touched his thumb!"  REALLY?  Cuz, it didn’t look conclusive to me.  It looked like it just went between his hands.  There was nothing to suggest it touched ANY part of Hampton.  "You can tell it touched Hampton because he was so eager to recover the ball!"  REALLY?  A player’s reaction is not the conclusive evidence you look for in a replay to confirm/overturn the call on the field.  Just because a player acts like he’s guilty doesn’t mean he’s guilty.  Of course Hampton is going to try and recover the ball because he knows that if the refs botch the call whoever recovers the ball will have possession.  Holy hell.  That call really upset me.  It was NOT conclusive enough to overturn the intial call and the comments by the commentators were some of the dummmmm-est comments I’ve heard in my life.  (Yea, I know I didn’t but a B in dumb.  I’m not dumb.  I was spelling the word out phonetically)

*How about Cal’s first two TDs going to the TEs?  I like that.  I think the Cameron Morrah TD reception is a little glimpse into the future.  He has such great height, athleticism, and speed.  Once Craig Stevens is gone next year, I think we’ll really see a return of Tedford’s big time TE receiving threat (remember Garrett Cross?).   

*On the TD pass play to Stevens there was a nice "tell" on the play.  Also, there was another play out of shotgun which used a new formation that I’ve never seen Tedford use before.  Again, Tedford never ceases to amaze me how he still is mixing in new things throughout the season.   

*Alright, and Desean Jackson getting injured.  Well that sucks.  I have complete faith in RJ and Hawk but it always is nice to have THA1 out there.  Good thing we have a BYE week next week so he can get ready for Big Game.   

2ND HALF THOUGHTS

*UW gets the ball at the start of both halfs.  I was microwaving some food at the start of the game and didn’t catch who won the toss and what the winners chose to do, but what a brain fart.  Giving UW the ball at the start of both halfs is basically a turnover.  More brain farts.  More shooting oursleves in the foot.  Gotta stop.   

*(Sigh)  Underthrown Longshore pass that shoulda been a touchdown (although a great catch by RJ) … poor goalline run blocking results in a 5 yard loss… which results in a field goal.  Well, I think this is just a combination of Cal mistakes.  I don’t know if there is anyone to specifically blame since so many mistakes happened.  There was an "okay" pass that shoulda been a touchdown and a wiffed block on the right side of the line to cause Forsett to lose yardage. 

*Bonnell’s "intentional grounding" that should have been a fumble.  Good gob.  As you can tell, I can’t type because I’m so frustrated.  Talk about a HORRIBLE call.  That is at the very least, a possession taken away from Cal and possibly 7 points if we had "scooped and scored."  Then UW gets a FG.  The game is 34-23 when it should be 31-30.  Ya know, I’m not one to usually complain about how the game is being called but these Pac-10 refs this year have been doing a quality job at screwing up lots of games this year. 

*Penalties.  Yay penalties.  I love em.  Let’s get more of ‘em.  Can we please stop putting ourselves in 2nd and mile and 3rd and a mile? 

*That second delay of game on Longshore in the 4th Qtr was actually on Tedford.  Tedford didn’t send the play in until the 12 second mark.  Longshore didn’t get guys out of the huddle until 6 seconds left or so.  That’s on Tedford.

*Hawkins.  A crucial drop on the 3rd and a mile.  Longshore put the ball on the money and it was dropped.  That might have been a first down or at least a 4th and 1-2.  Hawk can be so streaky.  Sometimes he’s on fire, sometimes he just drops easy ones.  Frustrating. 

*Run defense.  What needs to be said?  It’s horrible.  Rankin and the other dude had huge holes to run through.  You could drive a Mack truck through those holes.  TwistNHook could have waddled through there.  They busted us up for 350 yards rushing practically. 

*I find this game very frustrating.  Why?  Because as bad as we’ve been playing lately, Washington had no business winning this game.  Could we have shot ourselves in the foot any more than we did?  I mean, our foot is already bloody and unrecognizable as it is.  We shot off both feet.  Then started moving up to the shins and knees.  We didn’t stop there.  We started machine-gunning our thighs.   Our penalties were all offensive penalties, weren’t they?  And they put us into 2nd and 3rd and miles.  Those penalties absolutely killed our drives.  I think there were at least two offensive drives that were pretty much killed by penalties.  Dizzam. 

*And turnovers!  We "officially" had 3, but you gotta throw in the brain fart to let UW get the ball at the beginning of both halves.  We had 4 turnovers.  2 of them in our own territory.  Let’s just hand the game on a silver platter to the Huskies.  

*Longshore.  Well, aside from that INT, he played very well.  He was 20/28 for 236 and 3 TDs.  If you want to throw in 1-2 more completions for drops (1 for Hawk and another for … was there another?), then he completed 75% of his passes which is EXCELLENT.  Like Tom Brady kind of ridiculous.   

*Alright.  I really do think this game turned on that 2 crappy ref calls.  The Brandon Hampton punt bobble, and the Bonnell intentional grounding play.  The BHamp call was horrible.  It was NOT conclusive enough to overturn.  And I say that seriously in a non-biased voice.  And the Bonnell intentional grounding play should have been a fumble (because regardless that he threw the ball, he threw the ball backwards).  That screwed us out of points and changed the game.  The game would have been 31-30 UW had we scooped and scored.  Anyways.  I’m pissed - if you can’t tell.  I’m more mad at the refs than at the fact that our run defense got gashed for a bagillion yards.  

*Anyways.  What did we learn from this game that we didn’t already know?  Nothing.  Our run D is not good, and Pac-10 refs suck big time.   

I originally wrote this over at Excuse Me for My Voice, in response to a post by Mr. Crawford suggesting that Tedford’s redzone playcalling is "stubborn."  TwistNHook wanted me to re-post my response here since he thought it was "sick."  Since he’s the boss, I suppose I have to.  Anyways, this post is not meant to criticize or attack Mr. Crawford, but to just try and get some intelligent discussion going on why Tedford’s playcalling in the redzone, or more specifically the goalline, has been favoring rushing plays. 

While I think a valid argument can be made on JT’s goalline playcalling being “stubborn,” let me propose this question: what’s worse, the offense not scoring on three to four consecutive runs from the 1 yardline or not calling a passing play on 1 of the four downs? If people take a moment to void themselves of the recent memories of our goalline failures, and anti-JT-goalline-playcalling bias, I think the honest answer is the former (not scoring on four consecutive runs from the 1 yardline). In all honesty, I think the fact that our blockers at the point of attack cannot open up a hole is more deserving of criticism than Tedford. I think not getting 1 yard on 3-4 attempts is 10x more ridiculous than not calling 1 passing play out of the 3-4 attempts.

I think the biggest reason for not calling passing plays at the goalline is that (1) if a guy isn’t open then it requires Longshore to scramble for more time, (2) Longshore must scramble to throw the ball away, or (3) take a sack because he can’t scramble. Now we all know Longshore can’t really (1) and (2). So that means unless the defense bites on a playaction and a receiver is open (and receivers being “open” in the endzone is much smaller than everywhere else since there is less ground to defend), there is a HIGH probability of a sack and loss of yardage.

I think Tedford’s goalline playcalling recently while “conservative”, is actually intelligent maximization of scoring opportunities and minimization of risk. Now, I put the word conservative in quotes because there isn’t really “conservative” playcalling on the goalline. In goalline situations, because there is less space for the D to defend, runs are the “norm” and passing becomes more of a “high risk” instead of “aggressive.” Passing is even more high risk when your QB can’t really scramble.

I think Tedford has done a better job mixing up the goalline playcalling recently. He did call a goalline option play. While that is still a “run” it’s not your typical handoff run up the middle kind of run and is different enough to warrant separate consideration (and careful examination of that play will show that there was a blocking breakdown which lead to NL pitching the ball and the resulting loss of yardage). He also called that shotgun wildcat look against $C. Maybe it wasn’t quite “goalline” as in 5 yards or less but still, I believe it shows him trying to break out of his “stubborness.”

What else shall Tedford call in a goalline situation instead of a run? A playaction pass? Just like most fans want to see that, the defense knows it’s coming. When Tedford sends in the 23 personnel (goalline set) the D knows it’s either some sort of run (iso or option) or either a playaction play. A pass is not really that shocking of a playcall. I hear a lot of fans always say to playaction pass on goalline because the D is expecting the run. I don’t believe that’s true. The D knows it’s “probably” going to be a run, but they definitely know if it’s not then it’s a playaction pass. What the defense is prone to in the goalline defense is overplaying the run because it’s such short yardage and every inch matters (this is not the same as playing the run because they think it’s a running play). The defense has to pretty much surge and linebackers key in on the RB because everything happens so fast and it’s hard to distinguish who has the ball. While fans who say “pass the ball on goalline because the D is expecting the run” do arrive at the right conclusion, it’s through the wrong reasoning. Playaction passes are effective at the goalline not because the D is expecting the run but because they are deceptive, and prey upon the D’s obligation and instinct to protect the short yardage.

With all that said, yes, I would like to see some goalline playaction plays. But let’s not forgot how immobile our QB is. If we do pass, he has to scramble, or scramble and throw the ball away, or put the ball in a place where only the receiver can get it. All three possibilities increase the risk of yardage loss and turnover. Some call minimization of risk as conservative (and all of us being Cal grads, the word “conservative” has a slightly stronger negative tone than for most everywhere else). I think a better term might be “reasonable.” Running 3-4 times at the goalline is much more reasonable than I think most people are willing to accept. Afterall, all the offense needs usually is 3-4 yards on 3-4 attempts (1 yard average!). Our blocking at the point of attack can’t open up enough of a hole to get 1 yard? That’s more ridiculous than not passing once out of the 3-4 plays.