Passes to tight ends, 8 completions,12 attempts, 25 yards total.
Only one pass completed to Larison in six tries, for 11 yards.
Weren’t able to get a passing game going beyond the wide receivers.

I hated to see Jadyn Ott get injured. I hope he heals up quick. The Bears will certainly need him when they start playing the big dogs in the ACC.

I have to say....Cal's offense is in trouble. Their offense definitely didn't win that game, and against an FCS team it should.

Great day for football. Some fun moments in the first half!

My vantage point wasn't great, but at least 5 times it looked like MH underthrew a receiver, or floated it up for grabs. He forced at least two, one a pick.

My understanding (no expert) is on an outside route with a defender between the QB and the WR, you throw it over / past the WR, so he either catches it, or it goes out of bounds. Limited opportunity for a pick.

Post-game comment from Tim Plough:

"I told the team we are not a pat on the back program and that we are disappointed every time we don't win a football game. I felt like we hung in there with a really well coached Cal team, but the turnovers we had in the third quarter offensively can't happen, and we can't give up a kickoff return for a touchdown. Those are things we will clean up this week. But I was really pleased with the defensive effort today and if we can get the other two phases to play at that level then we can be a good team."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/8/31/football-no-18-uc-davis-starts-fast-but-falls-at-cal-31-13.aspx

Plough presser, 4 minutes.

https://youtu.be/B5LvmrFom1k?feature=shared

I saw Teddy departing the stadium w his large family and gave him a fist bump. Nice young man.

I guess it will be all 5 yd and 10 yd passes all year. 20 yards and we are taking our chances and longer forget about it. Should have brought 2nd string QB in 4th quarter. We weren’t going to win and the pre season is about getting people experienced

Watching the highlights I don't know if it's just trying to neutralize the Cal rush, or just playing to Hastings' strengths, but we did not push the ball down the field nearly enough. If you're going to hang with a bigger, faster, deeper team you have to take chances. Yet even in the more modest approach, MH still threw 3 picks...and each one was in the over 15 yard range...all looked underthrown or badly misread.

The good
- First half offense was cooking Cal. Frankly we should have been up going into halftime.
- Defense the whole game. Only let up 1 TD in the 1st half. Forced a scoop and frankly held the Bears in check despite the number of turnovers from the offense.

The bad
- First game of the season kicking jitters? Missed FG and extra point didn't make the difference in this game, but they could in conference play.
- Not a fan of the pooch kicks. It did lead to some Cal confusion on 1 that almost caused a turnover, but also had 1 result in a kick 6. Just kick it out of the end zone.
- Red zone play calling; run up the gut, run up the gut, run up the gut...

The ugly
- 2nd half offense. Not much can be said that hasn't already. Turnovers galore and generally ineffective even when not turning the ball over. I expected things to slow down after halftime with Cal making adjustments, but the dichotomy was shocking. Looked like 2 different teams.

Add to that ugly low punts that only netted a decent average due to some rolling.

Yes the line drive punts were very strange. Not sure if that is a coaching choice or the new punter is only capable of kicking that way.

More good: wide receivers
Each of the three starters had good games, although Gbatu took a little while before having success. Chaz Davis has had good games each of the recent Cal and Oregon State games, CJ was outstanding, and Dobbins was a major contributor who was playing his first game as a true freshman. He is going to play a bigger role in future

Another true freshman, Mayo, a nose tackle, played.

Was at the game. Competitive first half. Had to leave for a wedding for the second. Hey, was able to go to both!

Seriously need to figure it out with the kicking & punting game. Could've been up 10-7 in the first quarter, 17-14 at the half. The kicking disparity between FBS and FCS is huge.

Agree that it was better showing than at Oregon State... anything is better than that (I was there too). I get why they'd stick with the experienced senior for QB, but man, still the same challenges as in previous seasons. Don't think a different coach is going to change that.

Lan is still the Man.

A few thoughts:

* kickoff return was huge. Up 13-7, with the defense completely stopping them. With Rogers at QB, I don’t think they score, so 13-7 lead and the ball after the half. But, instead it’s 14-13 after we stall…and we never got things going again. Starting the half with a pick hurt. I wonder what defensive adjustments Cal made, cuz we weren’t open like the first half. Only 3 minutes of possessions in 3rd quarter - makes defensive effort even more impressive.

* defense was VERY good. Held a pACC-12 team to under 300 yards, held possible all-American RB to 50 yards with a long of 7.

* LB was a position of concern going into spring, but they were very good.

* young coeds of Cal were working hard to get the attention of their classmates. Some very cheeky outfits!

* second half highlight? Nicko Rocek sitting down with our group (with AgAlum and family) at the top of section O. Spent 5-10 minutes giving advice to Alum’s basketball aspiring grandson. Nice young man. Very appreciative of us being basketball season ticket holders!

Time to learn from the mistakes and get that first win.

Cal Recap episode is up. Interviews with Bob Dunning, Bobby Erskine, Miles Hastings and Porter Connors.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6QsjFjGSjkExl2MTfuwyQ2?si=_kjA10Y0Q9-gVi_uQhZmkQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aggie-pride-a-uc-davis-football-podcast/id1758625363?i=1000667945649

Sounds like your guys' assessment isn't too far from what the rest of the board saw during the game. Defense was lights outs and should carry over well to FCS play. Big question marks regarding the offense and special teams. We simply will not make the playoffs if we turn the ball over at this rate throughout the season.

What happened to Simpson at TE? Williams really struggled out there. Missed a block that probably would have put Lan in the end zone and did not look good on the dump offs.

Very surprising Gale got very little PT. Wonder if it’s a run game blocking issue for him to drop in depth chart. We were expecting Dixon to get more targets as well.

1. Stacy Dobbins is FAST. He ran L to R along the LOS in the 2nd half, and I was like "Oh sh-t". So he can go deep - who can get it to him?

2. Meyer is a PTP. Great get.

3. Where are our lengthy receivers - Del Real, Pickett, and Mascheroni?

4. Are we really only going to play LL and Perez
at RB? We seem very conservative in passing out PT. Jordan Fisher had 17 carries for 57 yards against University of Montana. He averaged about 3.9 YPC last year.

5. In the 4th Q, even w 7 or 5 minutes left, why not bring in new players?

6. Hats off to the Defense and DC Matt Coombs.

7. Did we run a jet sweep?

8. The coeds have a lot of **** and ***** recruits. Concession lines were manageable, unlike UC Davis Health Stadium. Which is frustrating. We have solid teams, new stadium, great food, cold beer... we just have to wait a quarter to get any. (Especially big games.)

In some of the camp releases Simpson was.discussed as still recovering from last season's injury.

I too wondered about not seeing Jordan Fisher. Also, I didn’t notice any wheel routes out of the backfield in which LL and historically UG have been very successful. Tight end play was underwhelming-at least as concerns passing game. Someone needs to emerge there and I think it’s got to be Gale. It may be a non-athletic issue, but coach the guy up and turn him loose. Regarding the blocking aspect of tight end - I didn’t pay attention and I am sure the coaches know who gets it done there.

It puzzles me that a D1 (yes even FCS) cannot recruit/get/train a kicker to get it into the end zone. Athletes today are so much stronger/bigger it should be ubiquitous. Heck - train a linebacker or tight end - anyone to boom it if your “kicker” can’t get it done.

Line drive punts are going to come back and bite you - don’t understand.

We tried Lan and Mateo on multiple wheel routes but Cal had them covered.

Offense: 12 drives: 1 touchdown, 1 FGA (0-1) , 4 punts, 6 turnovers (3 interceptions, 3 downs), 0.5 points/drive

Defense: 12 drives: 3 touchdowns, 6 punts, 2 turnovers (1 fumble, 1 downs), 2 points/drive

Excerpts from the Write for California game recap blog.

The guy kicking off, Rory Bell, previously kicked for Temple and Cincinnati. 14 touchbacks at Cincinnati, has kicked a 55 yard field goal at Temple,

yah, I wondered. A bit tough to see in TV.