Cal Football: Peter Sirmon's Deep Dive into Bears' Defense Reveals Range of Issues
During Cal’s bye week, defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon took a deep dive into what’s happening on his side of the line of scrimmage. He wasn’t thrilled with what he saw.
“We have to do a better job of limiting explosive pass plays — that’s been a theme in the first five games of the year,” he said Tuesday as the Bears continue preparing for their Friday night game at No. 9 Oregon.
Sirmon said he compared the first five games this season to the same sample size in 2019, bypassing the 2020 schedule because the Bears played no nonconference opponents. Besides, they didn’t even get in five games last year — only four during the height of the pandemic.
A surface view of those two stretches shows a substantial dropoff.
In 2019, against UC Davis, Washington, North Texas, Ole Miss and Arizona State, the Bears were 4-1 while allowing an average of 18.6 points. (The loss to ASU came after quarterback Chase Garbers was injured). Only once in those five games did the opponent score more than 20 points.
This season, against Nevada, TCU, Sacramento State, Washington and Washington State, Cal is 1-4 and has surrendered 27.6 points per game. The Bears have not limited any of those five to fewer than 21 points — the first time that’s happened to Cal’s defense over a five-game stretch since 2017.
“Defensively, we need to play to a higher standard,” Sirmon said.
Cal’s defensive work against the run has been solid so far. The Bears are 38th nationally, allowing just 119.2 rushing yards per game.
The pass defense doesn’t get such relatively high marks. Cal is 116th in FBS, surrendering 281.4 yards per game through the air.
“Where we’ve seen a significant increase is the explosive pass plays,” said Sirmon, adding that the defense has been flagged 10 times for penalties that resulted in first downs. “Those automatic first downs typically precede points.”
Identifying the culprits here is trickier. Sirmon won’t automatically point his finger at the defensive secondary.
“The game is not played in a seven-on-seven vacuum,” he said. “The linebackers are involved in the pass defense. The rush integrity - the pressure on the quarterback.”
The Bears have logged just 1.4 sacks per game, ranking them in a tie for 110th nationally. That lack of quarterback pressure directly impacts the amount of time coverage in the back end must hold up.
“To single out any (group) is not probably not a true indication of the 11 guys playing out there together,” Sirmon said.
And yet the Bears have made recent changes at inside linebacker, a position from which they normally get great production. Redshirt junior Evan Tattersall, who began the season as a starter, hardly played in the 21-6 loss against Washington State two Saturdays ago.
Sophomores Muelu Iosefa and Trey Paster are the starters with freshmen Femi Oladejo and Nate Rutchena seeing action in the backup roles. Against WSU, Iosefa and Paster each played 39 defensive snaps and Oladejo and Rutchena got 33, according to Sirmon.
“I think we’ll continue to see those four guys divide the reps,” Sirmon said.
The consistent progress shown by Oladejo and Rutchena has Sirmon feeling upbeat.
“Some young players don’t have the maturity yet to stack consecutive days,” he said. “When it comes to building, it feels like every day is a new day so you don’t have the opportunity to build on the foundation of what you’ve done before which makes it really hard to crack the lineup.
“Those two players have had the ability to stack (good practices).”
Rutchena, who comes from Monte Vista High in Danville, had one tackle, an interception and a pass breakup in his first college action against WSU. Oladejo contributed four tackles in the game.
And Tattersall?
“Evan is a talented guy,” Sirmon said. “Where we need to all improve as linebackers is we need to improve production and we need to improve the ability to finish.”
Complicating things is the fact that the coaching staff doesn't feel confident introducing too many defensive wrinkles while playing young players still learning their way.
He talks more about that complication in the video below:
Cover photo of Washington State's De`Zhaun Stribling scoring a touchdown against Cal by Kyle Terada, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
