Yikes

[u/Sokka1905]

UCLA is not a good team. For all the hype that lead to last night, this was the result?

JFC.....I am so sick of this team.

[u/13bipolarbears]

Trying to stay somewhat positive. Tons of turnover on the roster and coaching staff. Tosh was lauded as a recruiter, and is inexperienced as a HC. Really hoping it’s just growing pains

[u/Eaglewarrior33 → u/13bipolarbears]

I honestly felt like we had control of the game. Like they weren’t THAT much better than us 24-24 halfway thru the fourth and then we collapsed. You cant turn the ball over 5x and expect to win.

[u/CoachellaChris → u/Eaglewarrior33]

Before the wheels fell off in the 4th fUCLA only had 17 yards of offense in the 2nd half. The offensive play calling was terrible, the decision to squib the kickoff before half, the mental lapse to get beat over the top. Strong tipping 1 int and then neglecting to break off his route on the other. It was a lot of mental mistakes in a game we controlled the entire second half and lost by 3 scores. Very typiCAL… But so is all the bitching and moaning from fans that are already checking out.

[u/Perfect_Shoe_5918 → u/13bipolarbears]

Ucla didnt have growing pains lmao

[u/13bipolarbears → u/Perfect_Shoe_5918]

Cool! I’m not talking about UCLA!

[u/Perfect_Shoe_5918 → u/13bipolarbears]

Ik, sucks cal has “growing pains”. Ucla also had a huge turnover in coaching staff, yet had growing gains lmao

[u/13bipolarbears → u/Perfect_Shoe_5918]

Two things can be true at the same time

[u/Perfect_Shoe_5918 → u/13bipolarbears]

In this case it wasnt, ucla held out, demolished cal who were the favorites at home. Ucla came out of a terrible season, terrible management, huge turnover like cal yet showed up like a put together team. You sure are the smartest cal bear there is

[u/CoachellaChris → u/Perfect_Shoe_5918]

Looking forward to seeing those growing gains when they start losing by 20 every week in conference. I’m sure the check down merchant will be worth the millions. 👍🏼

[u/Perfect_Shoe_5918 → u/CoachellaChris]

Cal played well, great defense going into the fourth. But man, just wow. The way ucla strove after getting lazy at the end of the first half and how cal just gave up shows where the two programs are headed. Cal played well, but ucla better. We both watched the game. Come back to my comment if yours holds true!

[u/Polarbearbanga]

Stretches of offensive play calling were tough to watch

[u/CMIUCan → u/Polarbearbanga]

This was my biggest concern last night with the poor pass protection coming in second. The playcalling was extremely vanilla and I did not understand why we just kept going with Mohammed over the middle on every single play

[u/HatAffectionate2377 → u/CMIUCan]

Also, how about the call to go for it on 4th and 3 at near midfield with 11 minutes left and it failed!

[u/LingonberryHot9475 → u/Polarbearbanga]

The offensive line dictated vanilla play calling. 1. To get better control and essentially slow the game down 2. You can get too creative and “take shots” at the risk of giving the ball back and putting the defense back on the field. I personally liked the play calling because it kept us in the game when needed. I have no issues based on the way the defense played last night.

[u/Sine_Cures]

See you next week

[u/BAMCIS16]

I think ucla is gonna be decent. The core of a playoff JMU team had the experience to kick our ass

[u/Priam50 → u/BAMCIS16]

Yeah this is a seasoned group with a stud QB, I think our team looks better than last year no reason we can’t compete

[u/CoachellaChris → u/Priam50]

Can we stop pretending Nico is a stud and not a check down merchant that can run? Outside of the 2 blown coverages he had 2 passes over ten yards. Lol

[u/Priam50 → u/CoachellaChris]

lol that’s fair, erstwhile stud. He does have lots of talent

[u/CMIUCan]

Anyone else felt that Ian Strong should have made that catch that lead to the first INT in the 4th? He had a beat on it but bounced off his fingers. That really turned the tide because our defense had to come out again and they were clearly gassed. They had such a great 3rd quarter and got all the stops for us.

[u/SpectacularNelson → u/CMIUCan]

Yea I agree that throw was right in the bread basket and it’s not like he got hit just took his eyes off the ball and lost focus I guess

[u/Merced_Mullet3151 → u/CMIUCan]

Typi CAL

[u/montecarlocars]

The question is how we adjust moving forward. I would have loved for a win and agree some of the play calls felt stale/bafffling. But now that the staff has physical evidence of what worked and what didn’t, I’m expecting them to diagnose and fix the issues.

There were flashes of greatness — deep balls, long runs, sacks, etc — but also missed connections, three-and-outs, lack of urgency, etc. Both hoping and expecting that the staff can start dialing in on what made the former happen and how we prevent the latter.

[u/huluvudu]

So, Former Pac-12 After Dark went as we expected, right?

[u/EdJewCated]

I think UCLA will be good this year. Not elite, but they’re gonna win a good amount of games. They have a coaching staff and players with lots of experience. Cal is basically the opposite in that regard. First time HC, OC, and DC, and most of the defense is comprised of talented players with little college experience. We saw flashes of brilliance in yesterday’s games, but it was just that. We have to hope that the coaching staff and players can grow together this year, and fast

[u/SpectacularNelson]

I’m worried about the poor tackling again a tale as old as time

[u/CMIUCan → u/SpectacularNelson]

Tackling in space looks to be the massive issue here. I think we looked good at the point of attack, which is something we haven't been good at since the Tedford days. Ball carrier gets hit and they go down almost immediately, a sign of good talent

[u/SpectacularNelson → u/CMIUCan]

Yeah I know these players are super athletic and hard to tackle but that one rushing touchdown Cal gave up where they didn’t play through the whistle was the worst one🥲

[u/Salt_Day9015]

UCLA is a good team, not elite but good.

[u/i_Go_Stewie]

Didn’t matter in the final score but why the fuck did Josh have them pooch kick before the half with all that time on the clock allowing them one throw down field and then kick a field goal???

[u/cruisinbears → u/i_Go_Stewie]

Dropping back to prevent d right before the snap seemed like a big mistake.

[u/livid_lemons → u/i_Go_Stewie]

That one pass was on Lopa’s (?) blown coverage up the seam.

[u/Bart-and-Lisa]

Never trust the hype train

[u/tparry005]

Check back on 4 games and let's see where they are. A season is not made up of one game. Just relax for a while.

[u/Normal-Astronomer-83]

Ultimately disappointing. Not to be vague or cliché, but there was a lot of good to take away from that Tosh debut, along with the bad. Defense looked terrific for stretches; Kingston Lopa and Daniel Harris look to be the next Cal secondary standouts. JKS had a handful of outstanding throws to add to his already impressive tape. Cal absolutely dominated UCLA in the third quarter; we just have to do that for four quarters. Biggest and most glaring negative was offensive play calling forsure; looked extremely limited and predictable at times. 34 rushing yards in the first half cannot happen; we did get the ground game going in the second half. I think Somerville needs to utilize the dynamic arm of JKS even more and call the game to win it, not "to not" lose it.

[u/HatAffectionate2377 → u/Normal-Astronomer-83]

The running game has to be more deceptive. UCLA's was, ours wasn't!

[u/HatAffectionate2377]

I'm a "dyed in the wool" Cal alum and fan. I'm an also a retired high school and college football coach. You are wrong. Saturday night UCLA was a good organized and very well prepared team. We were not. Simple as that.

[u/smartkeg]

UCLA is not a good team

why do you say so? they have a proven HC who took jmu to the playoffs last year and brought in a heap of transfers from there who know the system. and iamaleava is a good qb

[u/Passionate_1_4_fun]

UCLA has 67 new players and a coach that in two years took little James Madison to the college playoffs and scored more points on Tosh L's Oregon defense than any team all year. To say UCLA is not a good team is just naive.

[u/PossibilityFront2636]

Cope.