Cal Defense vs. OSU 2016

Once again, Cal's 2016 defense is historically bad and people want answers. I don't have them (if I did I'd be collecting half a million a year and saving Sonny's job), but there are a few things that can be added to the discussion that might be helpful for thinking about what we're watching week-in and week-out.

The biggest questions that people have are based around coverage. There seems to be a solid consensus that goes something like this: Art Kaufman is worried that our DB's will get burned if we play aggressive coverage schemes, and so we play off-coverage and don't put enough guys in the box, which also limits us in the pass rush. As a result, not only do we get killed in the run game, but we give up a ton of passing yards with a “Bend But Don't Break” coverage strategy. If we're going to get killed in the passing game as it is, why not play more aggressively with the DB's, load up the box, and get after the RB/QB?

Pick Plays and Cover-0: Caleb Coleman's 4th Down Stop

Every season there's some hot-button issue that gets the pundits talking. This year, for a stretch after the controversial finish to Notre Dame-FSU, that issue was the pick play. A little closer to home, a similar play gave Utah the victory over USC in the last minutes of that game. These are plays that everybody runs. Everyone complains about them when they're used against their team, and nobody notices them when their own team runs them. Until someone institutes a rule that no two receivers can pass within X yards of each other, these plays will have a legitimate place in football strategy, and that's OK. Although picks capitalize on a certain amount of “interference,” defenses have plenty of answers that can render them ineffective. Like every other play, it's about the coordinator having a sense for when these plays are coming, and making the right call to stop them. This post will break down three key plays involving picks from the OSU game in an effort to get inside the game-within-the-game behind compressed formations (formations where two or more receivers line up tight to each other). The ultimate point will be to understand Caleb Coleman's game-sealing tackle late in the game on 4^th and 2.