I’m not sure its a whole lot better after sleeping on it. Embree wanted to see where his team stands after the Hawaii game and he got some scary answers to his question. There were some eerily similar moments to the past few years in terms of always seeming to shoot ourselves in the foot as soon as doing anything positive. I might have titled this post “Flashes and Lapses” as that was the story of the day in all phases. There were some positives (I promised Amy I would try to focus on them), but they are a little hard to find, sprinkled amongst the blatant negatives. Although the team hung in there and made a game of it, for a few minutes in the 2nd half anyway, they just had too many glaring mistakes at crucial moments, especially on offense (although there might be some explanation-see 3rd paragraph). The defense actually executed their game plan fairly well, but unfortunately had absolutely nothing in it about Moniz running, and he took advantage. Whether or not it was part of Hawaii’s game plan coming in, it became part of Moniz’s in the middle of their second drive. Again, every time the Buffs did something well, someone made a crucial mistake and stalled them. “They” say that the biggest improvement is always between the first and second game. We can only hope so, or Cal is going to destroy us again.
After the defense actually started the game with a great series and stopped Moniz and Co. for a 3-and-out (more on them below). The offense took over, poised to execute its game plan and impose its will. We were all ready for a great Speedy run to begin the Embree/Bienemy era and… Tyler fumbled the first snap from Munyer. This play was about the worst thing (besides a turnover) that they could do to start the game, especially right after the D made the stop to gain some momentum. Instead of kick-starting the team with even a short gain, it killed the offense, forcing(?) them to throw on 2nd (Clemons drop) and 3rd (another incomplete), drive dead, Rodney yet to touch the ball. Good punt.
After a Hawaii field goal, the offense started off well on their second drive, moving the ball down the field with some nice runs by Stewart, a catch by Cefalo. Unbeknowst to most everyone, the game probably changed right about here, as LT David Bakhtiari hurt his knee and was replaced by back-up Ryan Dannewitz. I noticed in the middle of the series but I don’t think the TV announcers ever noticed or commented. I went back this morning (yes, I’m a glutton for punishment but it helped understand some of this!) and watched to see what happened. Early in the series Bakhtiari seemed to clutch at his knee, but got up and played the next few snaps. When Speedy went right to gain 12 yards, the last we saw of Bahktiari was him engaged on the left side, seemingly fine. When they came back to the huddle, Dannwitz was in. While they didn’t stall right then because of this, it was huge the rest of the way as Dannewitz is just not nearly as good, experienced, strong or quick and he got beat badly more than a few times. Although the line did open up some holes at times for Speedy early, they also let him get hit for some big losses and Tyler was getting crushed in the quickly collapsing pocket far too often. RT Jack Harris struggled at times as did supposed All-American candidate RG Ryan Miller. They rotated centers throughout the game, although I still noticed Munyer more overall. I also noticed Munyer more often after a busted play, and saw Handler make a few nice blocks and seemed to have more production when he was in, but I am not sure. Otherwise, I don’t believe they played anyone else here. They had a little success on the two drives in the second half, but were plagued by sacks, runs for loss and penalties. Steve Marshall has a lot of work here, especially if he is without Bakhtiari, to prove his Cal critics, who were ecstatic to see him go, wrong and help right the Buffalo ship.
As for the skill positions, they also had their ups and downs, many of which might be attributed to the play of the line. Tyler made some great throws, but also got caught in a collapsing pocket all too often, and had the terrible pick(almost six) on the late 4th down. Rodney had some great runs, but a few 7-8 yards losses. Maybe his best run was called back when “blocking” TE Matt Bahr flagged for holding after Rodney had already gotten around the corner. Stewart actually made more of a difference with his screen passes than backfield running. Richardson is the real deal, but did have a drop or two to go with 2 nice TDs. Clemons showed why the coaches have been all over him. Cefalo and the freshman McCullough each had 2 short catches, but it was not nearly enough from the wideouts. Deehan had 3 and Thorton had 1 for the TEs, but also not nearly enough. Stewart had almost half of Tyler’s passing yardage. When they had the opportunity to make something big happen, they rarely did. They had two great chances late, once after the fumble, and again after the next defensive stop, down 24-17, but they couldn’t make it happen. Maybe Bahktiari will be okay and if the line can get it going everyone will be better. No matter what, there is lots of room for improvement at all offensive positions.
The Buffs defense actually played fairly well. They started in the nickel (Orms at DB with no Webb) and the D-line started getting pressure on Moniz right away, seemed able to confuse him a little early. The D did get 5 sacks, caused a few other hurried passes, and held them to well under their passing average. On Hawaii’s 2nd series, though, Moniz was able to step up twice and make big running plays. On the 2nd one he sidestepped an overmatched Tony Poremba easily and sprinted away for 34 yards. To make matters worse on this play, Ray Polk shoved Moniz out of bounds to add 15 yards. The Buffs were lucky to hold them to a field goal. Unfortunately, they were never really able to make an adjustment to Moniz’s running. While they quite limited his passing, he more than made up for it with his legs, taking huge chunks of yardage seemingly whenever his team needed it. While the D-line had its moments, it was rotating a lot of players (I counted 9, including the Jack, which played more like a DE for this game at least), and had some QB pressures, there were just too many big plays and I am not sure how to truly evaluate their play, but it is certainly not “stellar”.
NT Conrab Obi was in the middle of things a lot and came up with the fumble recovery on DE Chidera Uzo-Diribe’s highlight sack-forced fumble; he had some great plays but also disappeared for long chunks. Obi fell on the fumble so fast most players and the announcers didn’t even know what happened. This could have been the play of the game, but the offense could not capitalize. The TV guys only called Pericak’s name when they confused his 83 for Obi’s 93. Bonsu, Cunningham, Kasa all played, but again, not much to report. Hartigan was pretty quiet at the “Jack”, and was just left frozen by Moniz on his 57-yard TD. David Goldberg was on the field, but I only noticed him standing around after plays. I really wish we could have seen Juda Parker in there, unless they are definitely going to redshirt him. I was surprised to even see Poremba get any more snaps after the first snafu-I don’t think he ever made a play. They need to settle on a rotation of the fastest players here and get them all on the same page with the entire front seven. We may need to play Parker and Nembot.
Just as the line needs to show marked, consistent improvement, so do the LBs, who were too quiet and completely invisible on Moniz’s big runs. Maybe they were too busy admiring Cabral's hula skirt. Actually, Webb made a fabulous tackle, on the RB when he broke through untouched and QB Moniz kept the ball and instead went 57-yards. The middle of the field was way too open for Moniz to scramble almost at will. While Doug Rippy’s name was called a lot, and he had some big plays, he did not always wrap up the ball carrier. He needs to take over the middle of the field for this defense to have success. This is especially true because: Where the ^&*! was Jon Major?! Patrick Mahnke was in on a lot a plays in the 2nd half, and seemed more effective than Webb. I think they only played 4 LBs at the 3 spots (again, seemed like the “Jack” was more DE-ish). I don’t know that anyone on the bench can help-maybe the big hitting of TFr. Brady Daigh?
Conversely, the DBs played relatively well, especially since that is the area everyone was worried about. TFr. Greg Henderson held his own and I did not see him make a big mistake; he made a textbook, open field tackle on 3rd down. Similar analysis for Sandersfeld, although he dropped a crucial game-changer in the 4th, right before Hawaii scored to make it 31-17, putting the game all but out of reach. Parker Orms, playing most of the game in the nickel, seemed to be the one being picked on by Moniz as his man was often the receiver catching the ball when Hawaii did pass. Orms also dropped 2 possible ints. They played a lot of guys in the secondary and it will be interesting to see how this rotation changes vs. Cal. Polk is getting better but the big penalty and a failure to wrap up still plague his consistency, which they desperately need. Perkins didn’t appear to make mistakes, nor did he make any big plays. I saw everyone out there a little: Deji, Vigo, Terrel Smith (wish we saw more of him), even Josh Moten. This group is going to have to create some turnovers and not let opportunities get away.
Overall, the defense had many of those “flashes”, but not nearly enough to overcome the “lapses” in tackling, especially against the improved Moniz. Granted, he looked amazing and must have worked on this part of his game in the offseason, but we had no answer whatsoever and he made a few of our defenders looks silly (Poremba, Webb, Hartigan). We had some missed tackles that have to be corrected, but we won’t see another QB this mobile and dangerous (hopefully) until Darren Thomas and Oregon.
Special teams were, surprise, a mixed bag as well. The brand new true freshmen did their job well. Darragh O’Neill punted well, got the ball off high and long and they did not give up any big punt returns. There were a few close calls, but that formation usually makes it look worse than it is with defenders getting pretty close. Wil Oliver hit all three of his attempts (2 PAT, 34-yard FG) and Justin Gorman did a good job of placing the less than perfect snaps from Ryan Iverson. Speedy and P-Rich and can fair catch, and Rodney tried to run one in traffic, but got little. Kickoffs were not great, with Arthur Jaffee being replaced by Tony Jones after he muffed an early one. Lockridge returned most of them, running more laterally than vertically. Kickoff and coverage was another story. Castor blasted his opener out of the end zone, but fell apart from there. After CU scored to open the half, Castor lobbed one softly to the 7 which was returned to near midfield, setting up Hawaii’s short field to answer with a score of their own. After the next TD, Castor looked like he tried to coffin corner it as it wobbled and bounced out around the 10, giving Hawaii the ball way upfield. Needless to say, I doubt he will kickoff against Cal-it will either be Oliver or maybe this is where Zack Grossnickle comes in. TFr. LBs Brady Daigh and KT Tu'umalo (playing in front of home crowd) burned their redshirts to play special teams coverage (RB Josh Ford changed to #29 as he plays kickoff coverage with #42 Tu'umalo), but surprisingly no one else did, but that may very well change next week. JD Brookhart hopefully will tighten some things up this week practicing in this area.
There are undoubtedly many things to build on for the next game, but many more they flat out need to improve. We need the “second game” cliché to be true, as well as Cal to maybe look past us a little. The loss is hard to handle, when we all put so much emphasis into a possible win beforehand. The coaches have their work cut out for them this, evaluating film and deciding who will play next week. The stairs at Folsom will likely take a pounding today as well. The look on Embree’s face, as he shook his head after Oliver made the FG, said it all: bitter disappointment. He couldn’t believe they weren’t able to capitalize on that turnover; he couldn’t believe they kept shooting themselves in the foot (or maybe dropping a brick on it); and he couldn’t believe they were going to leave this opportunity on the island.
Heard he's already getting hate email! Ouch.
ReplyDelete