Cal Football Video: Offensive Coordinator Assesses Bears' Offense at Halfway Point
Despite signs that the Cal offense is improving, the Bears still rank last in the Pac-12 in scoring and total offense at the midpoint of the 2019 season.
“We have to get a lot better, there’s no doubt about it,” offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin said this week.
The Bears, who are 4-2 and have a bye this weekend, have not scored more than 28 points in any of their games this season, and that typically is not good enough to win a lot of games in the Pac-12. The Bears' defense has enabled Cal to stay in every game, but the margin for error is slim.
“There are certain things we are doing well at times,” Baldwin said of the offense, “but it’s very spurty.”
The Bears are actually scoring fewer points per game this season (20.33) than they did last year (21.54), but Baldwin insists the offense is better than it was last year.
(Click here for a story that analyzes whether the Cal offense is better than it was last year.)
Part of the difference in scoring is due to defensive contributions. Cal scored five defensive touchdowns last season, and if you subtract those as well as special-teams touchdowns scored by the Bears, the Cal offense is scoring about two points more per game than the Cal offense did last season.
And the Cal passing game seemed to be picking up speed in the Game Four victory over Mississippi and the first half of the Game Five loss to Arizona State. But the injury to quarterback Chase Garbers that occurred late in the second quarter against the Sun Devils and will sideline him indefinitely has put a crimp in the offense.
The Bears have scored just 17 points in the six-plus quarters in which Devon Modster has been the Bears’ quarterback.
“We have to be able to deal with adversity and overcome that a little faster,” Baldwin said.
Stanford beat Washington with a backup quarterback (Davis Mills), and USC upset Utah with a backup quarterback (Kedon Slovis).
