Gerald Alexander
Cal's passing game made some fairly material improvements in 2017 with Alexander (stats Pac 12 games only):
Yards per Pass Attempt
2017: 7.77 (10th in conference)
2016: 7.76 (7th in conference)
Yards per Pass Completion
2017: 11.39 (4th in conference)
2016: 12.75 (10th in conference)
Completion %
2017: 68.2% (12th in conference)
2016: 60.9% (8th in conference)
Turnovers
2017: 15 (5th in conference)
2016: 11 (10th in conference)
Teq Analysis
If you view pass defense based on yards per attempt and completion %, you would argue that Alexander was at best break even and perhaps worse than what Cal had in 2016. The key here though is looking at the yards per completion. Shaving almost a yard and a half off per completion tells you that they did a far better job of keeping the game in front of them willing to give up short completions. With the increase in turnovers that also argues for the defense being far more structured and able to take advantage of teams when they push the ball down the field.
Moreover, when you compare to how UW plays defense, UW isn't particularly concerned about the opposition's completion percentage as many throws are underneath and swing routes to RBs before rallying up to make tackles. Watching Cal this year, that's very similar to what I saw in how they game planned. That's evident in the fact that their points per game against dropped by almost 2 TDs from 43.6 per game in 2016 to 30.6 in 2017.
Comments
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The yards per completion is only down because completion percentage is up. Maybe Cal took a different strategy to give up small gains in order to avoid the big chunk play but in the end the result was the exact same on a per play basis.
Cal's improvement as a defense came entirely in run defense. In 2016 they were the WORST in the nation at 6.2 yards per rush allowed. They brought that all the way down to 4.2 in 2017.
Maybe they left their DBs in single coverage more often in order to take away the run and Alexander's unit did well to maintain the same ypa allowed, I don't know.
But on the surface the stats don't show any real improvement at all for Cal's secondary this past season. -
Plus, he fucks.
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Kinda looks like he sucks to me.
This analysis isn't impressive at all.
There could be good reasons - tons of DB's on islands like Fremont hypothesized, or mass graduations last year that left them really young - and maybe there's better evidence from previous stops. But this does nothing to convince me he's a viable replacement.
If Lake leaves I hope we do better. -
Cal played alot of cover 1 or 2 man on the outside. They zoned their backers to mix it up. I remember correctly. So it was a variant of cover 2, man, and cover 1. They had a lot of dudes in the box.dnc said:Looks like he sucks to me.
Extremely unimpressive.
Unless there's a real good explanation like @FremontTroll hypothesized (tons of man coverage and DB's on islands) this isn't a strong argument for him.
If Lake leaves I hope we do better. -
Stats don't mean fucking shit.
This shit doesn't mean anything. The guys is a boss coach. If you watched the games from this year to last (which I did), then you would understand.
If you think receiving stats tell you the whole story about how good DBs are playing you are crazy.
Alexander is really good. Stats are for losers. -
Regardless we get to see at least one more year of how he does at Cal. LIPO
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Fuckin this. The numbers were scheme and talented related. Cal sold out to stop the run. Cal's DBs played a shit ton better this year than last.Dennis_DeYoung said:Stats don't mean fucking shit.
This shit doesn't mean anything. The guys is a boss coach. If you watched the games from this year to last (which I did), then you would understand.
If you think receiving stats tell you the whole story about how good DBs are playing you are crazy.
Alexander is really good. Stats are for losers. -
Bullshit. Stats mean a lot. They don't mean everything, and if Cal really did sell out to stop the run and maintained an equal pass defense then that's impressive. I have a hard time believing you watched more than a couple Cal games in 2016 and 2017 though. I doubt @BearsWiin even did that shit.Dennis_DeYoung said:Stats don't mean fucking shit.
This shit doesn't mean anything. The guys is a boss coach. If you watched the games from this year to last (which I did), then you would understand.
If you think receiving stats tell you the whole story about how good DBs are playing you are crazy.
Alexander is really good. Stats are for losers. -
Stats aren't for losers. The wrong stats are for losers.Dennis_DeYoung said:Stats don't mean fucking shit.
This shit doesn't mean anything. The guys is a boss coach. If you watched the games from this year to last (which I did), then you would understand.
If you think receiving stats tell you the whole story about how good DBs are playing you are crazy.
Alexander is really good. Stats are for losers. -
They played a lot of cover 1 variants to get an extra safety in the box. They mixed it up with cover 2. Watch the SC game.dnc said:
Bullshit. Stats mean a lot. They don't mean everything, and if Cal really did sell out to stop the run and maintained an equal pass defense then that's impressive. I have a hard time believing you watched more than a couple Cal games in 2016 and 2017 though. I doubt @BearsWiin even did that shit.Dennis_DeYoung said:Stats don't mean fucking shit.
This shit doesn't mean anything. The guys is a boss coach. If you watched the games from this year to last (which I did), then you would understand.
If you think receiving stats tell you the whole story about how good DBs are playing you are crazy.
Alexander is really good. Stats are for losers.
