UCLA Football vs. Cal 2018: GJB talks to California Golden Blogs

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PHILADELPHIA, PA – SEPTEMBER 7: Defensive line/assistant head coach Jerry Azzinaro of the Philadelphia Eagles watches his team warm up prior to the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on September 7, 2014 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

GJB: Does it worry you that former Cal DL coach and current UCLA DC Jerry Azzinaro knows information about the Bears?

Attila LS Gero: I am not worried about possible inside information UCLA DC Jerry Azzinaro may have schematically or based off playcall adjustments. That is usually a moot narrative and only rarely helps teams win.

Joshua Morgan: Nah. I think that this is always an overrated issue whenever something like this happens. Sure Azzinaro knows more than most about our basic schemes, but teams change these from year to year based on performance and personnel and even just by the looks of it, for better or for worse, Cal has changed things up greatly on both sides of the ball. Azzinaro won’t know much more than you could know from closely observing the Bears, so it doesn’t worry me at all.

boomtho: Not really—this year’s offense is really different, given the two new QBs and the departure of our highly-regarded WRs.

GJB: What is the biggest issue with Cal’s offense?

Attila LS Gero: The biggest issue on Cal’s offense would be scoring. The team has yet to go over 24 points against an FBS opponent so far this season.

Berkelium97: I touched on some of the issues in a previous answer, but the biggest and most recent issue is turnovers. For the first two games, Cal had a plodding, inefficient offense (mostly quarterbacked by Chase Garbers) that took advantage of turnovers forced by the defense and generally took care of the ball. During the last two games, this has been replaced by a much more efficient, productive offense (largely quarterbacked by Brandon McIlwain) that moves the ball well until it spectacularly backfires with turnovers. In the last two games, the Cal offense has allowed the opposing defense to score 28 points off pick-sixes and fumble recoveries (and somehow, both in the same play last week at Arizona). Nine turnovers in the past two games have turned two very winnable games into a couple of games that we will undoubtedly look back on with regret as we wonder “what could have been?” after the season is over. If we fail to attain bowl eligibility this year, that loss at Arizona will haunt us all offseason.

Joshua Morgan: As I mentioned above, it is all in the turnovers. While it doesn’t look pretty at times, we have been able to move the ball even against the likes of Oregon and Arizona. The only reason why this offense has been so incredibly bad—to the point that they are pretty much the sole reason for our struggles—is the turnovers. If we can take care of the ball, our offense should be decent enough to let our defense go out and win us some games.