For Jeff Tedford, Offensive Balance Will Be Huge For The Cal Bears

The California Golden Bears come into the 2010 college football season with very little expectations. In an article on Rivals.com, Cal was voted as the team most likely to disappoint. That very well could be true since the Bears have a couple of positions that have huge question marks around them to start the season. 

What could alleviate some of these concerns is the offensive strategy employed by head coach Jeff Tedford. Since he has arrived, the Bears have been primarily a quick strike offense and rarely have the Bears truly ever sustained drives.

It has helped that they have had the likes of J.J. Arrington, Marshawn Lynch, Jahvid Best, Justin Forsett, Shane Vereen, Desean Jackson, Lavelle Hawkins, Robert Jordan, Craig Stevens, and Cameron Morrah on the offensive side of the football.  

With those talented players it wasn't hard for the Bears to come back from an early deficit or score quickly.

Not to mention defensively, the Bears had talented players like Tyson Alualu, Mike Mohamed, Worrell Williams, Zack Follett, Syd'Quan Thompson, Daymeion Hughes, Thomas Decoud, Desmond Bishop, and Brandon Mebane. (Mohamed is still on the team).

When those players left either by being drafted or graduating, the Bears saw it harder and harder to come back from early deficits. This was the case in the 2009 season when the Bears were a disappointment, especially after starting the season with three straight wins. 

Defensively, the Bears struggled against the pass ranking 111th in 2009. With question marks in the secondary coming into the 2010 season as well.

The question remains, what can Tedford do to keep the defense off the field and as fresh as possible?

Get rid of the big plays?

No. But what he can do is putout a much more methodical offense then he has in the past. Against Stanford, Vereen showed that he could be a running back that could take carry after carry and also help the Bears eat up the clock. 

On that day he carried the ball 42 times for 193 yards and three touchdowns. Now, that's an extreme example of the balance on offense.  

What it does mean, though, is that the Bears should be focusing on trying to control the pace of the game and time of possession.

The Bears do have the option to slow the pace as the example with Vereen has shown, but also Marvin Jones needs to be utilized more as he is the team's number one receiver.

Jeremy Ross has the most experience in the offense and has value, Keenan Allen is a 6'3" freshman and his height could be a huge advantage for the Bears, and Alex Lagemann came on strong towards the end of last season.  

With those receivers in the lineup, instead of the offense looking for a homerun nearly every play, the Bears could utilize use short passes that get five to six yards as well as run the football with Vereen, and stay in manageable third down situations. 

Now, it doesn't mean that the Bears don't have to be aggressive. If Kevin Riley spots something in the defense, he can always audible the play and look for the homerun. 

Vereen also has the capability, much like Best did, to gain huge chunks of yards. So, quick possessions aren't going to be completely gone from the offensive philosophy.

A reason why the Bears need to look to play a little bit more conservatively was shown in the two blowouts from last year, in back-to-back games, suffered at the hands of the Oregon Ducks and the USC Trojans. When the Bears fell behind, the wheels came off.

There were too many third and long situations in those games and the Bears failed to sustain drives. In both games, the Bears could have been shutout and it also showed that if Best was taken out of the game, they didn't have any other threats to make up for that. 

Well, Best is gone. He left early for the NFL draft.

Now, the Bears are going to have to show that Vereen isn't the only offensive weapon and prove that the team can stay away from the third and long situations. 

This will be shown by the maturing of senior quarterback Kevin Riley, the emergence of the receiving core, and using their tight ends, especially Anthony Miller. 

Here's an example of what a drive may look like for the Bears—purely hypothetical. The Bears start at the 25-yard line needing 75 yards to get to the end zone. 

The first play is a carry by Vereen for four yards. The second play is a two yard run by Vereen making it third and four for the Bears. A quick little slant to Jones for 10 yards picks up the first down. 

Now, the Bears are at the 41-yard line a play action pass to Anthony Miller for nine yards putting the Bears just at the 50 yard line. The second down play goes to Vereen who picks up 10 yards on the carry. 

So far on the drive the Bears have had five plays for 35 yards. Next play is Vereen getting the carry again, this time he's stopped in the backfield for a two yard loss. This brings up second and 12 from the 42, a dump-off pass to Vereen out of the backfield for six yards gives the Bears a manageable third and six. This time Riley finds Ross for a 15 yard gain. 

The Bears are now at the 27-yard line and threatening to score. The first down play is a carry for Vereen for 10 yards. First down again for the Bears. The very next play results in a touchdown to Jones. 

Totals for the drive—11 plays, 75 yards, a touchdown, and let's say five and a half minutes rolled off the clock, although that's rather quick. It does give the Bears defense time to rest and this drive is a bit better than most of the scoring drives the Bears had last year. (Examples include four plays for 67 yards and a touchdown done in 52 seconds or six plays for 72 yards in a minute and 53 seconds.)

What the Bears should look for in terms of drives is 15-20 plus play drives that result in points. This puts added pressure on opponents defenses and later in the game if the Bears need to score quickly it will be much easier to do so with an exhausted defense. 

In other words, if the Bears want to challenge for the Pac-10 title the offense needs to be slowed down and win the time of possession battle. Otherwise, the Bears may find the same issues as the 2009 season and that is the inability to stop the pass and keep the defense off the field.