jumping-the-gun post game thread

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

D played with their hair on fire today. Got caught a couple of times, but it paid off for the most part. This looks like a defense that game planned for a team and executed the plan very well.

If JDL ever manages to find some accuracy down field, this team will be dangerous.

The team stuck with the run, even when it wasn't working, thats great, but it doesn't really matter if you can't capitalize on the downfield throws or run the RPO successfully.

I've said it for years now: to win in the P12, you have to score an average of 30ppg. We were gifted Garbers playing like crap (not to take too much away from the defensive effort), but the Beavs will easily drop 30+ on us, so JDL better figure it out.

Glad to get the win.
It feels like there is incremental improvement, though its tough to tell against a team that isn't very good. That being said, Cal always has athletes, so it can't be completely discarded.

Go Cougs!

 

[chugspig]

Dickert and crew getting the talent to play on defense and getting performance out of a lot of guys. Hats off to them and that whole side of the ball. They fought all day.

Offense is still JV. Outside of a couple series, that whole side is highly suspect. Play calling is down right bad. We should have scored 35 points at a minimum against that squad. Brian Smith needs to be the first to go.

Happy the team has something to celebrate finally.

 

[WaltherPPK]

Hey, it's a win, you have to start somewhere at some point ! Congrats to the team !

 

[Coug90]

Dickert and crew getting the talent to play on defense and getting performance out of a lot of guys. Hats off to them and that whole side of the ball. They fought all day.

Offense is still JV. Outside of a couple series, that whole side is highly suspect. Play calling is down right bad. We should have scored 35 points at a minimum against that squad. Brian Smith needs to be the first to go.

Happy the team has something to celebrate finally.

I knew this defenses had this kind of potential. I do not understand the offensive inconsistency. I can’t see anything else other than bad coaching and play calling, and your QB not understanding where to attack (coaching). The talent is there at the skill positions, OLine (albeit there’s a couple holes there too) and JDL has proven he has the tools to get it done. For a guy who’a supposed to be a QB whisperer, it’s madding to watch.

 

[etowncoug]

I thought both the D played well and benefited from sloppy play by Cal's offense. We won the majority of plays and got bailed out when they had the opportunity to burn us. I also noticed our depth is becoming more and more of a factor. I'm seeing backups hold there own in key situations which is a good omen for the future.

Offense is a work in progress. The line played it's best game and when Jayden was on script we looked deadly. But at the end of the day he's a turkey bowl all star who got bailed out by some great plays by Jackson.

I'll take any win we can get and if the defense continues to improve we have hope for the future.

 

[etowncoug]

I knew this defenses had this kind of potential. I do not understand the offensive inconsistency. I can’t see anything else other than bad coaching and play calling, and your QB not understanding where to attack (coaching). The talent is there at the skill positions, OLine (albeit there’s a couple holes there too) and JDL has proven he has the tools to get it done. For a guy who’a supposed to be a QB whisperer, it’s madding to watch.

JDL has ++ heart and -- head tools. He hucked the second TD up to Calvin fading away, turning his head off his back foot.

 

[random soul]

JDL has ++ heart and -- head tools. He hucked the second TD up to Calvin fading away, turning his head off his back foot.

That might be true, but at least he's trying to make plays, unlike Guarantano, who seems to have Luke Falk's field vision without his grasp of the offense

 

[Flatlandcoug]

The game yesterday was the polar opposite of our 2006 game against Cal. In that one, we had the ball inside their 10 yard line three times and maybe came away with 6 points. As far as the game goes, I agree that if JDL ever finds his accuracy, he's going to be a very, very good QB. He has a ton of heart and he's a competitor on the field. You can tell that his teammates like him. That said......that dude knows how to throw a bad football. The potential is there though and he's clearly our best QB. Our offense got really stale in the second half just like every game and it put way too much pressure on our defense. Our offensive coordinator does a good job of game planning but can't adjust for squat.

On our defense......clearly our best effort in a while and there was a lot to like. I agree with the comment above that Garbers apparently reserved all of his crappy play for WSU over the past few years and squeezed it into this one game. I guarantee that the Cal coaches and players feel that they gave us this win. Dropped balls by their receivers and some genuinely bad throws from a guy that normally shreds us.

On Deckert, I thought he called a good game but we were more lucky than good not to be tied at 21 in the fourth quarter. Cal was shredding our defense late and we've all seen that movie before. Fortunately, we made just enough plays deep in our own territory to hold them off. I'm starting to think that our biggest issue on the defense is conditioning. In just about every game, our defense looks great until the second half and then we are playing half assed defense with arm tackles and bad angles. The more I watch, the more it seems that our boys are just running out of gas.

Based on what I've seen, Rolovich needs to fire his S&C coach and the offensive coordinator in the offseason. It's great to see a conference win and I hope that it's the first of many for Rolovich. Unfortunately, Arizona is likely to be the only team left on our schedule that we'll be favored to beat, but I do believe that we can still get a handful of wins if we get our sh!t together. A good coaching staff would have this team sitting at 5-0 given our poor our opposition has been. Choking late against Utah State looks pretty bad right now, we crapped the bed in the second half against Utah and we could have had a 28-0 lead on USC that might have proven insurmountable with some momentum. I think that there's a lot of potential lurking on this squad. We'll see if Rolovich can build on the win yesterday.

 

[CougPatrol]

The game yesterday was the polar opposite of our 2006 game against Cal. In that one, we had the ball inside their 10 yard line three times and maybe came away with 6 points. As far as the game goes, I agree that if JDL ever finds his accuracy, he's going to be a very, very good QB. He has a ton of heart and he's a competitor on the field. You can tell that his teammates like him. That said......that dude knows how to throw a bad football. The potential is there though and he's clearly our best QB. Our offense got really stale in the second half just like every game and it put way too much pressure on our defense. Our offensive coordinator does a good job of game planning but can't adjust for squat.

On our defense......clearly our best effort in a while and there was a lot to like. I agree with the comment above that Garbers apparently reserved all of his crappy play for WSU over the past few years and squeezed it into this one game. I guarantee that the Cal coaches and players feel that they gave us this win. Dropped balls by their receivers and some genuinely bad throws from a guy that normally shreds us.

On Deckert, I thought he called a good game but we were more lucky than good not to be tied at 21 in the fourth quarter. Cal was shredding our defense late and we've all seen that movie before. Fortunately, we made just enough plays deep in our own territory to hold them off. I'm starting to think that our biggest issue on the defense is conditioning. In just about every game, our defense looks great until the second half and then we are playing half assed defense with arm tackles and bad angles. The more I watch, the more it seems that our boys are just running out of gas.

Based on what I've seen, Rolovich needs to fire his S&C coach and the offensive coordinator in the offseason. It's great to see a conference win and I hope that it's the first of many for Rolovich. Unfortunately, Arizona is likely to be the only team left on our schedule that we'll be favored to beat, but I do believe that we can still get a handful of wins if we get our sh!t together. A good coaching staff would have this team sitting at 5-0 given our poor our opposition has been. Choking late against Utah State looks pretty bad right now, we crapped the bed in the second half against Utah and we could have had a 28-0 lead on USC that might have proven insurmountable with some momentum. I think that there's a lot of potential lurking on this squad. We'll see if Rolovich can build on the win yesterday.

I thought our defense, particularly the front 7, looked to be overwhelming Cal in the 4th quarter. It was one of the 1st games in a while where I never felt we were going to allow them to take the game in the end.

With JDL under center, all of the games have looked similar. Utah St, 1st half USC, Utah, and Cal; we should have won all but one of those. No idea how the season will play out, but if we can stay healthy, we’re not going to be an easy out. I keep hearing how we won’t be favored in all but maybe one game, but we just won as a 7.5 point road underdog, and should have won the pervious week.

Who on our remaining schedule is invincible? Oregon State? Stanford? BYU (probably). Oregon? at ASU (probably). Arizona? UW? I could see us only winning one of those, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we won 3-4. This is the type of season we win the Apple Cup. UW has no offensive identity, and we can rush the QB.

 

[Glad Cougar]

The game yesterday was the polar opposite of our 2006 game against Cal. In that one, we had the ball inside their 10 yard line three times and maybe came away with 6 points. As far as the game goes, I agree that if JDL ever finds his accuracy, he's going to be a very, very good QB. He has a ton of heart and he's a competitor on the field. You can tell that his teammates like him. That said......that dude knows how to throw a bad football. The potential is there though and he's clearly our best QB. Our offense got really stale in the second half just like every game and it put way too much pressure on our defense. Our offensive coordinator does a good job of game planning but can't adjust for squat.

On our defense......clearly our best effort in a while and there was a lot to like. I agree with the comment above that Garbers apparently reserved all of his crappy play for WSU over the past few years and squeezed it into this one game. I guarantee that the Cal coaches and players feel that they gave us this win. Dropped balls by their receivers and some genuinely bad throws from a guy that normally shreds us.

On Deckert, I thought he called a good game but we were more lucky than good not to be tied at 21 in the fourth quarter. Cal was shredding our defense late and we've all seen that movie before. Fortunately, we made just enough plays deep in our own territory to hold them off. I'm starting to think that our biggest issue on the defense is conditioning. In just about every game, our defense looks great until the second half and then we are playing half assed defense with arm tackles and bad angles. The more I watch, the more it seems that our boys are just running out of gas.

Based on what I've seen, Rolovich needs to fire his S&C coach and the offensive coordinator in the offseason. It's great to see a conference win and I hope that it's the first of many for Rolovich. Unfortunately, Arizona is likely to be the only team left on our schedule that we'll be favored to beat, but I do believe that we can still get a handful of wins if we get our sh!t together. A good coaching staff would have this team sitting at 5-0 given our poor our opposition has been. Choking late against Utah State looks pretty bad right now, we crapped the bed in the second half against Utah and we could have had a 28-0 lead on USC that might have proven insurmountable with some momentum. I think that there's a lot of potential lurking on this squad. We'll see if Rolovich can build on the win yesterday.

Cal only got 159 yards in the 2nd half vs. Cougar defense, which is much better D than we are accustomed to (especially in the 2nd half). Now, some of that can be an inept Cal offense, but I will give credit to Dickert & the players for much of it. It will take more than a single game for me to believe things are truly better, but yesterday was encouraging.

Glad Cougar

Glad Cougar

 

[CougEd]

I thought our defense, particularly the front 7, looked to be overwhelming Cal in the 4th quarter. It was one of the 1st games in a while where I never felt we were going to allow them to take the game in the end.

With JDL under center, all of the games have looked similar. Utah St, 1st half USC, Utah, and Cal; we should have won all but one of those. No idea how the season will play out, but if we can stay healthy, we’re not going to be an easy out. I keep hearing how we won’t be favored in all but maybe one game, but we just won as a 7.5 point road underdog, and should have won the pervious week.

Who on our remaining schedule is invincible? Oregon State? Stanford? BYU (probably). Oregon? at ASU (probably). Arizona? UW? I could see us only winning one of those, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we won 3-4. This is the type of season we win the Apple Cup. UW has no offensive identity, and we can rush the QB.

There are a couple of truths. Our defense looked better up front and Cal may have a worse offensive line than we do...and that is saying something.

 

[CougPatrol]

There are a couple of truths. Our defense looked better up front and Cal may have a worse offensive line than we do...and that is saying something.

I thought our offensive line looked significantly better, which was encouraging.

 

[CougEd]

I thought both the D played well and benefited from sloppy play by Cal's offense. We won the majority of plays and got bailed out when they had the opportunity to burn us. I also noticed our depth is becoming more and more of a factor. I'm seeing backups hold there own in key situations which is a good omen for the future.

Offense is a work in progress. The line played it's best game and when Jayden was on script we looked deadly. But at the end of the day he's a turkey bowl all star who got bailed out by some great plays by Jackson.

I'll take any win we can get and if the defense continues to improve we have hope for the future.

Well the progress better hurry up. We lose two runningbacks, two of our best receivers, our two tackles. So we are about two years at least from being more functional, despite the love for JDL he will lose as many as he wins.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

I thought our defense, particularly the front 7, looked to be overwhelming Cal in the 4th quarter. It was one of the 1st games in a while where I never felt we were going to allow them to take the game in the end.

With JDL under center, all of the games have looked similar. Utah St, 1st half USC, Utah, and Cal; we should have won all but one of those. No idea how the season will play out, but if we can stay healthy, we’re not going to be an easy out. I keep hearing how we won’t be favored in all but maybe one game, but we just won as a 7.5 point road underdog, and should have won the pervious week.

Who on our remaining schedule is invincible? Oregon State? Stanford? BYU (probably). Oregon? at ASU (probably). Arizona? UW? I could see us only winning one of those, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we won 3-4. This is the type of season we win the Apple Cup. UW has no offensive identity, and we can rush the QB.

The Pac-12 is terrible this year so we'll have a puncher's chance in every game. If we got our crap together and ever played a complete game, we could run the table. As for our defense, our pass defense was the best I've seen in a while. The defensive front got pretty good pressure and our DB's did pretty good overall. Rush defense fell apart in the second half for a bit but was pretty stout on short yardage situations. It just sucks that our coaching staff hasn't been able to do this 3 or 4 other times this year when it was there for the taking. Hope it's a start of a new trend (winning when we aren't playing great offensively).

 

[CougEd]

The Pac-12 is terrible this year so we'll have a puncher's chance in every game. If we got our crap together and ever played a complete game, we could run the table. As for our defense, our pass defense was the best I've seen in a while. The defensive front got pretty good pressure and our DB's did pretty good overall. Rush defense fell apart in the second half for a bit but was pretty stout on short yardage situations. It just sucks that our coaching staff hasn't been able to do this 3 or 4 other times this year when it was there for the taking. Hope it's a start of a new trend (winning when we aren't playing great offensively).

They could do it against Cal as they didn't fear anyone on their side of the ball could get deep.

 

[CougPatrol]

Nothing I’ve seen over the past 2 weeks suggests that there’s a lot of separation between Oregon State, Cal, and UW.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

D played with their hair on fire today. Got caught a couple of times, but it paid off for the most part. This looks like a defense that game planned for a team and executed the plan very well.

If JDL ever manages to find some accuracy down field, this team will be dangerous.

The team stuck with the run, even when it wasn't working, thats great, but it doesn't really matter if you can't capitalize on the downfield throws or run the RPO successfully.

I've said it for years now: to win in the P12, you have to score an average of 30ppg. We were gifted Garbers playing like crap (not to take too much away from the defensive effort), but the Beavs will easily drop 30+ on us, so JDL better figure it out.

Glad to get the win.
It feels like there is incremental improvement, though its tough to tell against a team that isn't very good. That being said, Cal always has athletes, so it can't be completely discarded.

Go Cougs!

"If JDL ever manages to find some accuracy down field, this team will be dangerous."

This is the whole conundrum. I see progress on touch. And he can throw a pretty long ball if it is to the opposite sideline 10 yards deep...but he doesn't seem to be able to throw 20-25 yards downfield. I can't fully explain that, but his ability to throw a long distance to the opposite sideline to pick up a first down gives me hope. I have yet to see progress on deep vertical accuracy. Hopefully that will come, because it is the missing "secret sauce" of this offense.

 

[CougPatrol]

"If JDL ever manages to find some accuracy down field, this team will be dangerous."

This is the whole conundrum. I see progress on touch. And he can throw a pretty long ball if it is to the opposite sideline 10 yards deep...but he doesn't seem to be able to throw 20-25 yards downfield. I can't fully explain that, but his ability to throw a long distance to the opposite sideline to pick up a first down gives me hope. I have yet to see progress on deep vertical accuracy. Hopefully that will come, because it is the missing "secret sauce" of this offense.

Leach said in his book that he valued accuracy above everything else when evaluating QBs. He must have seen something in JDL, as we were the first big school to offer him.

 

[spongeandshoot]

Here is what I don't get about JDL.

The game against the Beavers last year, his deep ball was right on point. He threw a TD to Bell on the right side on a streak but I think we had a holding call or something like that.

Then the next play, he throws a streak to Harris on the left side that he dropped in the bucket

Yesterday, the deep ball was there. I remember one play in the third quarter where the receiver at the top of the screen was several steps behind the corner with no safety help.

I think JDL may have been under a little duress on that play...but we need to start hitting those.

 

[kougkurt]

Here is what I don't get about JDL.

The game against the Beavers last year, his deep ball was right on point. He threw a TD to Bell on the right side on a streak but I think we had a holding call or something like that.

Then the next play, he throws a streak to Harris on the left side that he dropped in the bucket

Yesterday, the deep ball was there. I remember one play in the third quarter where the receiver at the top of the screen was several steps behind the corner with no safety help.

I think JDL may have been under a little duress on that play...but we need to start hitting those.

Stripling’s drop didn't help.

 

[KRUSTYtheCOUG]

JDL has ++ heart and -- head tools. He hucked the second TD up to Calvin fading away, turning his head off his back foot.


I disagree...he threw that pass to the only spot where Jackson could make a ridiculous one-handed-360-one-footed catch. Brilliant.That's all I have to say about that.🤓

 

[chugspig]

Here is what I don't get about JDL.

The game against the Beavers last year, his deep ball was right on point. He threw a TD to Bell on the right side on a streak but I think we had a holding call or something like that.

Then the next play, he throws a streak to Harris on the left side that he dropped in the bucket

Yesterday, the deep ball was there. I remember one play in the third quarter where the receiver at the top of the screen was several steps behind the corner with no safety help.

I think JDL may have been under a little duress on that play...but we need to start hitting those.

Jaden was #1 or 2 in the conference for deep ball accuracy last year I’m pretty sure.