What a shame.

[CougPatrol]

Good game. We'll have to hope Cal is a legit team. I'm still not sure though.

Something to build off of though. I mentioned last week that I'm hoping to see something that inspires confidence in this group for next season, and I think we do. Lots of good young players on defense. Falk and our offense will be tough to deal with next year.

 

[StormyCOUG42]

Yeah. But boy am I tired of playing for next year.

 

[Cougatron]

I just want a few small things right now that are not too much to ask for.

1. Special teams not to give up a TD. That's it. Just don't give up a TD. please.

2. Luke Falk to throw the damn ball instead of waiting for the perfect throw. I already sat through 4 years of Tuel. I don't need Tuel part 2. I need an Air Raid QB who throws the ball quickly. Go watch Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma, Baylor any or hell even Goff across the sideline... any of those AIr Raid disciple QBs... What do they all do...they make quick decisions and throw the ball. That's what you do. Spread out the defense...read. throw. that's it. Now hold on here let me stare around until they sack me.

Defense played great. Skill guys did well except for Martin who dropped a few balls...he's true freshmen so okay I get it he has a lot to learn, but those 2 things cost us this game.

 

[CougPatrol]

Yeah. But boy am I tired of playing for next year.

I think we're still playing for this year too. What remaining game do we have no shot in? UCLA? Oregon and Stanford, maybe, but they aren't who they've been.

Apart from that, we have the Beavs, Arizona, ASU, Colorado, and UW. We can play with those teams.

 

[YakiCoug]

Good game. We'll have to hope Cal is a legit team. I'm still not sure though.

Something to build off of though. I mentioned last week that I'm hoping to see something that inspires confidence in this group for next season, and I think we do. Lots of good young players on defense. Falk and our offense will be tough to deal with next year.

Maybe he the light goes on and stays on for four quarters next week, but right now Falk cannot put together a full game. If he had a quick release and could make up his mind, he'd be the guy. But his lack of a quick release is holding this offense back. The pick late in the game was pathetic. Even with his limitations, WSU had the game but couldn't cover the fumble and then gave up a first down on 3rd and 36. Unbelievable.

 

[YakiCoug]

I just want a few small things right now that are not too much to ask for.

1. Special teams not to give up a TD. That's it. Just don't give up a TD. please.

2. Luke Falk to throw the damn ball instead of waiting for the perfect throw. I already sat through 4 years of Tuel. I don't need Tuel part 2. I need an Air Raid QB who throws the ball quickly. Go watch Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma, Baylor any or hell even Goff across the sideline... any of those AIr Raid disciple QBs... What do they all do...they make quick decisions and throw the ball. That's what you do. Spread out the defense...read. throw. that's it. Now hold on here let me stare around until they sack me.

Defense played great. Skill guys did well except for Martin who dropped a few balls...he's true freshmen so okay I get it he has a lot to learn, but those 2 things cost us this game.

I really hate to say this, but I've seen enough of Falk. You're right. He's Jeff Tuel Part II.

 

[CougPatrol]

Falk's not perfect, but I think he'll improve. The emergence of some defensive talent (and coaching) will mask a lot of our flaws.

After Portland State, I didn't know if we'd win any games apart from Wyoming. Now I think we could win 6.

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

I really hate to say this, but I've seen enough of Falk. You're right. He's Jeff Tuel Part II.

I love the guy, but I'm feeling the same way (Tuel V2.0). Hope I'm wrong.

 

[CougPatrol]

I really hate to say this, but I've seen enough of Falk. You're right. He's Jeff Tuel Part II.

That's a slippery slope with a Sophomore QB who just made his 7th career start. Do we bench him and start over? Only if Helinski (sp) is an absolute stud.

 

[Cougatron]

I really hate to say this, but I've seen enough of Falk. You're right. He's Jeff Tuel Part II.

He's not bad, but if he was just decisive and wasn't worried on perfection... like the pass to cracraft that was intercepted.
He waited to throw it till cracraft had clear separation... or when marks was wide open for a full 3 seconds in the soft zone and then gets drilled when finally the ball gets there.

People are open. Throw the ball when they are open. The longer he waits the more the more likely he's going to get sacked. Just make the damn throw. As much as Halliday drove me nuts with how little he would think...this is just as bad but the opposite...

I like Falk. I do. He has the potential to be something really incredible, but he's holding back the offense instead of driving it forward.

 

[Cougatron]

That's a slippery slope with a Sophomore QB who just made his 7th career start. Do we bench him and start over? Only if Helinski (sp) is an absolute stud.

I don't think we bench him just yet, but if he does this two more games or even 1 more..it's time to have a come to football jesus moment here where he needs to start progressing. He does a lot of things well. He has great leadership skills, but a great leader is decisive. He has to develop that. If that's not who he is then we need to find that guy. He's not a bad QB by any means, but he's just way way too cautious.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

He's not bad, but if he was just decisive and wasn't worried on perfection... like the pass to cracraft that was intercepted.
He waited to throw it till cracraft had clear separation... or when marks was wide open for a full 3 seconds in the soft zone and then gets drilled when finally the ball gets there.

People are open. Throw the ball when they are open. The longer he waits the more the more likely he's going to get sacked. Just make the damn throw. As much as Halliday drove me nuts with how little he would think...this is just as bad but the opposite...

I like Falk. I do. He has the potential to be something really incredible, but he's holding back the offense instead of driving it forward.

I haven't had a chance to rewatch a bunch of these games to analyze them, but I did see Dom Williams run a horrible route on one of Falks first quarter sacks. They replayed it and he was supposed to be running a 12 yard comeback and he ran into the db instead of cutting his route off early where there was room in the zone. Falk is going to see that as being covered every time.

 

[StormyCOUG42]

I think we're still playing for this year too. What remaining game do we have no shot in? UCLA? Oregon and Stanford, maybe, but they aren't who they've been.

Apart from that, we have the Beavs, Arizona, ASU, Colorado, and UW. We can play with those teams.

I think we play a lot of teams close but I have no reason to believe we can win the majority of those games. Not with our ST, and sporadic play by the offense and defense. We find ways to lose games way more than we find ways to win games. I see a lot of moral victories remaining on the schedule. If we lose to Oregon and OSU the season is dead.

Fact is, there is more often than not a talent gap between us and our conference opponents. To make up for that we need great coaching and near perfect execution in all three phases of the game.

 

[Cougatron]

Fact is, there is more often than not a talent gap between us and our conference opponents. To make up for that we need great coaching and near perfect execution in all three phases of the game.

I think that gap is closing. I didn't think we were outmatched physically this game. In the past I have, but I felt we had just as good of athletes maybe better in some areas, but where we lacked was one QB was leading...the other was waiting,

 

[ElComanche]

The special teams play is atrocious. If it isn t one thing it is another. Leach should fire the guy. the way he treats him ,leach must think his name is Conner Holliday. fire his behind yesterday

 

[SCglory]

I just want a few small things right now that are not too much to ask for.

1. Special teams not to give up a TD. That's it. Just don't give up a TD. please.

2. Luke Falk to throw the damn ball instead of waiting for the perfect throw. I already sat through 4 years of Tuel. I don't need Tuel part 2. I need an Air Raid QB who throws the ball quickly. Go watch Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma, Baylor any or hell even Goff across the sideline... any of those AIr Raid disciple QBs... What do they all do...they make quick decisions and throw the ball. That's what you do. Spread out the defense...read. throw. that's it. Now hold on here let me stare around until they sack me.

Defense played great. Skill guys did well except for Martin who dropped a few balls...he's true freshmen so okay I get it he has a lot to learn, but those 2 things cost us this game.

Yeah, Falk holds the ball too long. But I'm chalking that up to inexperience.

 

[SCglory]

I don't think we bench him just yet, but if he does this two more games or even 1 more..it's time to have a come to football jesus moment here where he needs to start progressing. He does a lot of things well. He has great leadership skills, but a great leader is decisive. He has to develop that. If that's not who he is then we need to find that guy. He's not a bad QB by any means, but he's just way way too cautious.

Don't be absurd. Falk is the cougar QB the rest of the way. Of course he had obvious mistakes (did you see Rosen's stumbles at home against ASU?), but he'll grow out of them. You can't bench a guy because he's not playing like a 5th year senior.

 

[Cougatron]

Don't be absurd. Falk is the cougar QB the rest of the way. Of course he had obvious mistakes (did you see Rosen's stumbles at home against ASU?), but he'll grow out of them. You can't bench a guy because he's not playing like a 5th year senior.

Yeah I'm okay with some mistakes, a mistake is making the wrong choice like throwing the ball poorly on a throw or something.

When you make the same mistake (holding the ball too long, not finding the open man) over and over and over and over and over. It gets to a point where you need to learn. Is it inexperience? yes that's part of it, but you have to start learning.

Here's the issue. Offensive line we have plenty of experience. He had plenty of time. Occasionally Cal brought some heat, but still this was an experienced O-line he has.

Cal recorded 7 sacks. The most they had was 4 against Washington. Washington has 3 true freshmen on their offensive line and is starting a true freshmen at QB.

And that basically tells the story. He's holding onto the ball way way too long. I do like him, but he needs to show that he can find a way to make it work better.

He has tremendous potential, but he won't get there unless he starts taking the steps toward it. He started this pattern against UW last year...then portland state...Rutgers he was better I thought he was learning...then Wyoming back to the same thing...then again against Cal.

Every QB has that 1 thing that they will battle against. This is his 1 thing. It's a must to overcome.

 

[Glad Cougar]

The special teams play is atrocious. If it isn t one thing it is another. Leach should fire the guy. the way he treats him ,leach must think his name is Conner Holliday. fire his behind yesterday

From Brand X this morning:

Leach also took responsibility for WSU's ill-fated fake punt in the third quarter, saying it was all his call.

 

[Cougatron]

From Brand X this morning:

Leach also took responsibility for WSU's ill-fated fake punt in the third quarter, saying it was all his call.

Leach takes responsibility for all of our mistakes he doesn't hide from anything. I don't think the call was terrible. Nobody expected the fake punt if he had held onto the ball he could have gotten the first down I think. It wasn't an obvious play. It had the element of surprise, but...but...still that was the best fake play we had? I don't know how many fakes we have, but I think a better one could have been drawn up where it's snapped to the uipback or something...

I just am tired of them giving up touchdowns. I don't mind fakes, or trickeration. What bothers me is giving up TDs / it costing us games.

 

[wulffui]

Leach takes responsibility for all of our mistakes he doesn't hide from anything. I don't think the call was terrible. Nobody expected the fake punt if he had held onto the ball he could have gotten the first down I think. It wasn't an obvious play. It had the element of surprise, but...but...still that was the best fake play we had? I don't know how many fakes we have, but I think a better one could have been drawn up where it's snapped to the uipback or something...

I just am tired of them giving up touchdowns. I don't mind fakes, or trickeration. What bothers me is giving up TDs / it costing us games.

You had two weird special teams plays. If you don't go 0 for 2, you probably win the game, so lets not do that again. That fake should have worked, but to call it, you need to KNOW that your PUNTER isn't going to pussyfoot into the line for that yard, and that's hard to know.

 

[Cougatron]

You had two weird special teams plays. If you don't go 0 for 2, you probably win the game, so lets not do that again. That fake should have worked, but to call it, you need to KNOW that your PUNTER isn't going to pussyfoot into the line for that yard, and that's hard to know.

yeah the decision to do it at that time was actually pretty good I didn't expect it cal didn't either and we could have gotten it, but yeah I agree is Charme some speedster tough guy no...so it's like we had the right idea, but the wrong execution. The fumble for the TD is just the way that we somehow find the path to greatest disaster possible. Where as when it's in front of us we somehow miss it like that fumble on the 2 yard line. Where the ball is just sitting there with our guys going past it.

We're so close to making it happen, but just a few small threads of it going the opposite direction.

 

[SCglory]

yeah the decision to do it at that time was actually pretty good I didn't expect it cal didn't either and we could have gotten it, but yeah I agree is Charme some speedster tough guy no...so it's like we had the right idea, but the wrong execution. The fumble for the TD is just the way that we somehow find the path to greatest disaster possible. Where as when it's in front of us we somehow miss it like that fumble on the 2 yard line. Where the ball is just sitting there with our guys going past it.

We're so close to making it happen, but just a few small threads of it going the opposite direction.

Maybe you can find if Don Sweet has an eligibility left.......

 

[Coug90]

Falk supposedly is a film junkie. One of the reasons you watch film is so you can just play come game day and not overthink things. Falk thinks too much during the game. You can also see it during his pre snap reads. He looks over the field about 10 times. He's got a great arm, great accuracy, pocket awareness. All the physical tools. Just snap the ball and sling it son!!

 

[CaliTrojan4Life]

Don't be absurd. Falk is the cougar QB the rest of the way. Of course he had obvious mistakes (did you see Rosen's stumbles at home against ASU?), but he'll grow out of them. You can't bench a guy because he's not playing like a 5th year senior.

Thank you SCglory. This guy obviously don't get it or he just hate on players he don't like. Jsmh

PGW

 

[CaliTrojan4Life]

Leach takes responsibility for all of our mistakes he doesn't hide from anything. I don't think the call was terrible. Nobody expected the fake punt if he had held onto the ball he could have gotten the first down I think. It wasn't an obvious play. It had the element of surprise, but...but...still that was the best fake play we had? I don't know how many fakes we have, but I think a better one could have been drawn up where it's snapped to the uipback or something...

I just am tired of them giving up touchdowns. I don't mind fakes, or trickeration. What bothers me is giving up TDs / it costing us games.

Yeah no one expected the fake but to allow a player with no athletic ability to run that far in the teeth of the defense is were the problem lies. And no, the punter was about two yards away from the first down sticks when the CAL player put his helmet on the ball. That's from the angle at the game and on TV. I'm sure you're going to show everyone your state of the art "still" video shots of that play.

PGW

 

[Flatlandcoug]

He's not bad, but if he was just decisive and wasn't worried on perfection... like the pass to cracraft that was intercepted.
He waited to throw it till cracraft had clear separation... or when marks was wide open for a full 3 seconds in the soft zone and then gets drilled when finally the ball gets there.

People are open. Throw the ball when they are open. The longer he waits the more the more likely he's going to get sacked. Just make the damn throw. As much as Halliday drove me nuts with how little he would think...this is just as bad but the opposite...

I like Falk. I do. He has the potential to be something really incredible, but he's holding back the offense instead of driving it forward.

That's the thing that people don't get when people are "criticizing" Falk. It's not that we don't want him to be great. It's just that his play right now has 3 negatives:

1) It stalls drives when he fails to successfully convert a play because he gets sacked or the pass is too late.
2) It puts his body in danger because of all the hits he takes.
3) It puts his receivers bodies in danger because they are taking unnecessary hits because the throws are not timed properly.

Some of his "great" passes to Marks would have been routine passes that didn't require incredible athleticism and sacrifice if he'd have just thrown the damned ball 1 or 2 seconds sooner. The kid has potential and more guts than most of us, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't be a lot better. And I'm tired of the youth excuse. An occasional mistake is typical for a young player. When you have a "oh crap!" moment on every single possession.....you need to get better.

 

[YakiCoug]

That's the thing that people don't get when people are "criticizing" Falk. It's not that we don't want him to be great. It's just that his play right now has 3 negatives:

1) It stalls drives when he fails to successfully convert a play because he gets sacked or the pass is too late.
2) It puts his body in danger because of all the hits he takes.
3) It puts his receivers bodies in danger because they are taking unnecessary hits because the throws are not timed properly.

Some of his "great" passes to Marks would have been routine passes that didn't require incredible athleticism and sacrifice if he'd have just thrown the damned ball 1 or 2 seconds sooner. The kid has potential and more guts than most of us, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't be a lot better. And I'm tired of the youth excuse. An occasional mistake is typical for a young player. When you have a "oh crap!" moment on every single possession.....you need to get better.

Experience can quicken his decisions, but it won't magically quicken his release. If Goff were our QB, we'd be 4-0 and headed to Eugene to throttle the Phil Knight Club. While it's true that Goff at Falk's current stage of development made plenty of mistakes, it's also true he had a superior release from the moment he stepped onto a Pac-12 field. I'm not so sure Falk has that or will ever have that.

 

[Cougzz]

Any talk about benching Falk is just silly. Nobody behind him is even close.

 

[CougEd]

Thank you SCglory. This guy obviously don't get it or he just hate on players he don't like. Jsmh

PGW

PGW...Pippins had a good game. One really strong corner changes the entire complexion of the back 7. It is like a great closer in baseball. Makes the set up people do what they do best. Notice when a great closer goes up and the 8th inning guys become the ninth inning guys for a couple of weeks. The whole bullpen gets out of sorts. They may have finally solved the issues in the secondary.

 

[YakiCoug]

PGW...Pippins had a good game. One really strong corner changes the entire complexion of the back 7. It is like a great closer in baseball. Makes the set up people do what they do best. Notice when a great closer goes up and the 8th inning guys become the ninth inning guys for a couple of weeks. The whole bullpen gets out of sorts. They may have finally solved the issues in the secondary.

One, you forgot "the hips" part.

 

[CougEd]

One, you forgot "the hips" part.

You have to have great hips if you are going to be a great CB. So it goes without saying.

 

[SCglory]

Yeah I'm okay with some mistakes, a mistake is making the wrong choice like throwing the ball poorly on a throw or something.

When you make the same mistake (holding the ball too long, not finding the open man) over and over and over and over and over. It gets to a point where you need to learn. Is it inexperience? yes that's part of it, but you have to start learning.

Here's the issue. Offensive line we have plenty of experience. He had plenty of time. Occasionally Cal brought some heat, but still this was an experienced O-line he has.

Cal recorded 7 sacks. The most they had was 4 against Washington. Washington has 3 true freshmen on their offensive line and is starting a true freshmen at QB.

And that basically tells the story. He's holding onto the ball way way too long. I do like him, but he needs to show that he can find a way to make it work better.

He has tremendous potential, but he won't get there unless he starts taking the steps toward it. He started this pattern against UW last year...then portland state...Rutgers he was better I thought he was learning...then Wyoming back to the same thing...then again against Cal.

Every QB has that 1 thing that they will battle against. This is his 1 thing. It's a must to overcome.

I think Arkansas State sacked Cody Kessler five times. Should Kessler be benched????

 

[Cougatron]

I think Arkansas State sacked Cody Kessler five times. Should Kessler be benched????

He also threw 4 Tds and had a 198 QBr and they won 55-6. Since that game he's been sacked 3 times. Which is what you would call improvement. 3 over the next 3 games.

Here's how the sacks went for us.
4 sacks for the first 3 games...7 sacks for the last game.

But I will take it one step further for you

Cal logged 2 QB hurries as well. They logged zero against the freshmen OL and freshmen QB at Washington.

Let's go even further. How many sacks did Cal get last year? Zero
How many QB hurries last year...2.

So what changed from last year where the O-line was the same against Cal? The QB, and he was sacked 7 times.

If you don't think that's a lot...7 sacks per game....would be 84 sacks. EIGHTY FOUR for the year.

We only allowed 36 total last year. With the same offensive line.
You know where 84 sacks per year puts you the worst of all time.

So is it a clear issue that he needs to fix. Yes. Yes it is.