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Week 3 - Sac State at Cal

SDHornet

SDHornet

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Week 3 - Sac State at Cal

The Hornets will take a short trip to Berkeley to face the winless California Bears (0-2). Cal will be looking for their first win of the season after looking good early on in both of their games, only to come up short both times. Cal jumped out to an early lead against Nevada in week 1, then fell apart and went away from what was working which allowed Nevada to pull off the 22-17 upset. Last week Cal traveled to TCU and lost a 34-32 shootout in Texas.

Cal runs a more traditional single back/shotgun offense with a bit of RPO mixed in. QB Chase Garbers (41/65, 486 yds, 3 TD, 1 INT) is a good QB that has mobility. His top receivers are WRs Trevon Clark (6 rec, 157 yds, 1 TD) and Nikko Remigio (10 rec, 38 yds, 2 TD). RB Damien Moore (29 car, 150 yds, 3 TD) is a power runner that likes to run inside behind the massive Cal OL.

The Bear defense operates in a 3-4 base set with a lot of nickel packages mixed in on passing situations. They’ve given up big plays in the first 2 games and have struggled to get off the field on 3rd downs and make red zone stops. This defense has accumulated 5 sacks so far and has 6 players with 10 or more tackles. S’s Elijah Hicks (12 tkl), Daniel Scott (12 tkl, 0.5 TFL, 1 INT) and ILB Evan Tattersall (12 tkl, 1 TFL, 1 sak) lead the team in tackles.

Cal’s K Dario Longhetto (1/2 FG, 4/4 PAT) looks capable. His lone miss came on a 40+ FG. Longhetto also handles the kickoffs and about half of them are returnable in which the coverage team is giving up 19.6 yards a return.

Cal will have no reason to overlook the Hornets given their disappointing start to the season. I think they’ll come out highly motivated and impose their will early on behind their power running game. Then Garbers should be able to light it up on this suspect Hornet secondary. Offensively, the Hornets should be able to move the ball and score some points, but I don’t think they will be able to keep pace with the Cal offense for long. Unless Cal no-shows for this game, it should be a rout.

Stingers Up!
 
Mrs. BSCfan and I are making the trip down from the Northwest for this one! We're both looking forward to seeing the team play live in a PAC-12 venue. (Since last year's game in the stadium about 90 miles from us was canceled)
 
I watched the Cal game before coming up. Garbers has some speedy receivers and he is capable of hitting them on deeper routes. Their run game was not great and TCU was able to contain much of the time.

Their D is fast and they fly to the ball. TCU ran some RPO and they struggled to get the ball to the RB timely and the plays got blown up. They were getting a lot of pressure on the QB early.

If our offense starts clicking a little more between QB and receivers could be an interesting game!
 
They will not care that TT is on the opposing sideline. With 0-2 frustrations to get rid of they will definitely run it up on us if given the chance.
 
For what it’s worth, the 2-deep released today still says Dunniway OR O’Hara.

“If you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks.”
 
Kadeezy said:
For what it’s worth, the 2-deep released today still says Dunniway OR O’Hara.

“If you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks.”
Click to expand...

Correct. Even when you have a situation like New Orleans the last few years or San Francisco this year where a guy comes in for spot duty (Taysom Hill or Trey Lance), you HAVE to have THE Man. In those cases, Drew Brees was THE Man in NO, and Jimmy Garoppolo is THE Man in SF. We should settle on one (probably O'Hara) and bring Dunniway in for spot duty. I could even see bringing Dunniway in for a series early in the second quarter so O'Hara can get a guided view of play from the QBs Coach or OC before going back in, but O'Hara (or whoever is settled on) should really be acknowledged as the starter and the team should know it. To do otherwise breeds confusion....
 
Kadeezy said:
For what it’s worth, the 2-deep released today still says Dunniway OR O’Hara.

“If you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks.”
Click to expand...

Ridiculous.

There’s good reason why coaches/teams don’t employ a 2 QB system the vast majority of the time.

Continuing down this road will only make things worse.

I realize TT is a QB guru and knows a lot more about coaching the position than I do (though I do have experience coaching the position) and sees these guys in practice every day whereas I do not. However, I don’t know what in the world he sees in Jake Dunniway.

I’m not sold on O’Hara, but what I have seen from him through 2 games intrigues me more than anything I’ve seen from Dunniway during his time at Sac State and at St. Mary’s.

As for how Dunniway is ahead of Kaiden Bennett — who is far more talented — I can’t say. Kaiden must be experiencing extreme difficulties we aren’t privy to.
 
BuckeyeHornetFan said:
Kadeezy said:
For what it’s worth, the 2-deep released today still says Dunniway OR O’Hara.

“If you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks.”
Click to expand...

Ridiculous.

There’s good reason why coaches/teams don’t employ a 2 QB system the vast majority of the time.

Continuing down this road will only make things worse.

I realize TT is a QB guru and knows a lot more about coaching the position than I do (though I do have experience coaching the position) and sees these guys in practice every day whereas I do not. However, I don’t know what in the world he sees in Jake Dunniway.

I’m not sold on O’Hara, but what I have seen from him through 2 games intrigues me more than anything I’ve seen from Dunniway during his time at Sac State and at St. Mary’s.

As for how Dunniway is ahead of Kaiden Bennett — who is far more talented — I can’t say. Kaiden must be experiencing extreme difficulties we aren’t privy to.
Click to expand...


I’m with you. Dunniway is a leader, great kid, but he’s a known entity.

My faith is in TT, but this board exists for us noobs to vent about our perspectives…. I would’ve told the QB room after film this week: O’Hara, starts at Cal, he’s playing the whole game unless it’s a blowout in either direction. In that case, we’ll get Kaiden some snaps. If an injury occurs, I’ll consider the game situation and go from there. But all three of you better be ready. Yaru and Dorian, go do some jumping Jacks.
 
🔥🔥Just find a way to WIN!!🔥🔥
Bennet should get a chance at QB if OHara struggles in my opinion.
Jake is good guy but slide into 3rd on depth chart now
Hornets 32 - Bears 28.
 
Left 7 points on the field.

Unnecessary 2 points conversion attempt early in the game. TT outsmarted himself.
2 missed FGs that were very made-able

Once again, QB play needs to be straighten out. D line needs more push.

But proud of the kids! On to the next game!
 
42-30 Hornet loss. Hornetsports recap.

Credit to the Hornets for hanging tough. This game was a lot closer than what I expected. Offense moved the ball better and scored more than I though they would. Dunniway was throwing some darts out there. Very impressive showing. Not surprised the run game got shut down by Cal's front. A lot better ball control as well.

Hornet defense did about what I expected against this talented Cal offense. They got some stops but the tackling needs to get better. Filer III's pick was pretty sweet.

Special teams was horrendous. That missed FG at the end of the 1st half and then allowing the kick return to the house to open the 2nd half was a pretty brutal sequence. Gotta make those short range FGs. Crazy to think this game comes down to the wire if the ST comes through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAhszDmf00
 
SDHornet said:
42-30 Hornet loss. Hornetsports recap.

Credit to the Hornets for hanging tough. This game was a lot closer than what I expected. Offense moved the ball better and scored more than I though they would. Dunniway was throwing some darts out there. Very impressive showing. Not surprised the run game got shut down by Cal's front. A lot better ball control as well.

Hornet defense did about what I expected against this talented Cal offense. They got some stops but the tackling needs to get better. Filer III's pick was pretty sweet.

Special teams was horrendous. That missed FG at the end of the 1st half and then allowing the kick return to the house to open the 2nd half was a pretty brutal sequence. Gotta make those short range FGs. Crazy to think this game comes down to the wire if the ST comes through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAhszDmf00
Click to expand...

Pretty much how I saw it.

I’ve got to give Dunniway a lot of credit for a very good game. Probably the 2nd best game I’ve seen him play. I still don’t think he’s the answer at the QB position, but gotta give credit when and where it’s due. He played very well.

Also thought the o-line played markedly better than the 1st two weeks in terms of pass protection. Maybe CAL just isn’t very good, but still they gave Dunniway adequate time for much of the game.

Run blocking is still terrible. As is pass defense on the back end, where they seem to get beat deep a few times every game whether the offense connects or not.

Pass rush needs a lot of work too. Even when someone gets home, they overrun or get juked by the QB. They’ve got to rush under control.
 
Nice to see Sac State show up at Cal and represent competitively on TV. Good for the program. Superior to the prior two visits to Berkeley.

Looking forward to the Hornets improving the things already mentioned and seeing the full potential of this team on display at Idaho State as they spend more time together on the road during the first month of the season .

Stingers up!
 
BuckeyeHornetFan said:
Pretty much how I saw it.

I’ve got to give Dunniway a lot of credit for a very good game. Probably the 2nd best game I’ve seen him play. I still don’t think he’s the answer at the QB position, but gotta give credit when and where it’s due. He played very well.

Also thought the o-line played markedly better than the 1st two weeks in terms of pass protection. Maybe CAL just isn’t very good, but still they gave Dunniway adequate time for much of the game.

Run blocking is still terrible. As is pass defense on the back end, where they seem to get beat deep a few times every game whether the offense connects or not.

Pass rush needs a lot of work too. Even when someone gets home, they overrun or get juked by the QB. They’ve got to rush under control.
Click to expand...

Good comment on the OL pass blocking. Dunniway also showed good pocket awareness in avoiding/stepping up in the pocket to buy some time and extend some plays. OL has made big strides since a poor week 1 showing.
 
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