Why Sacks Are Such a Problem for Cal

Only one FBS team has allowed more sacks than the Golden Bears this season – and it seems to be getting worse

Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza has faced a pass rush all season / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

You don’t need metrics to tell you sacks have been an issue for Cal and a reason the Bears have lost three close ACC games in a row.

Cal coach Justin Wilcox calls Cal’s inability to protect its quarterback “a major problem.”

So let’s look at the numbers:

Cal has allowed its quarterback to be sacked 24 times this season, and only one FBS team (South Carolina) has allowed more. Last year, in its 12 regular-season games, Cal allowed 18 sacks. In three of its past four games this season, Cal has given up six sacks or more. Even when Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza is not sacked, he's forced to get rid of the ball before he wants to and has taken some big hits.

Let’s look at the reasons:

---Offensive line struggles

“Not great. Not great,” was offensive coordinator Mike Bloesch’s assessment of how the offensive line has performed, particularly in terms of pass protection. “Obviously the pass protection has been an issue.”

He noted opportunities for some big plays against Pitt were lost when Cal kept seven offensive players in to pass-protect against four pass-rushing Pitt defenders, but Fernando Mendoza still did not have time to get a pass off.

Bloesch is also Cal’s offensive line coach, but only one of the Bears’ five offensive line starters in their final two regular-season games last year against Washington State and UCLA – which were also Cal’s two best offensive games of the season – has been a starter in the past two weeks against Miami and Pitt.

“Obviously you can tell from the outside we haven’t played to our potential,” Cal starting center Will McDonald, a transfer from Coastal Carolina, said of the offensive line. “I feel that each week we’re really, really close to really breaking the game open. We’re too talented to not play to our full potential.”

---No running game

Bloesch’s intention to make Cal’s offense a run-first attack has not panned out.

The Bears are averaging 3.3 yards per rushing attempt, which ranks 16th of the 17 teams in the ACC. Clemson, Pitt and Miami rank first, second and third in the ACC in that category, and it’s no coincidence they are the conference’s three highest ranked teams this week.

The fact that Cal’s all-Pac-12 running back Jaydn Ott has missed two games with injuries is part of the problem in the running game, but even when Ott was healthy his productivity was minimal.

Wilcox was stating what everyone knows when he said, “For any offense, the ability to run the ball is always going to help the ability to pass the ball. It’s much more difficult when you become one-dimensional.”

Defenses can focus more on rushing the passer when there is no running-game threat.

---Running back pass protection

We hear all the time of NFL running backs who don’t get playing time because they have trouble pass-blocking.  It’s the same at the college level, and Cal’s running backs have not been proficient in this aspect.

---Quarterback mobility

Mendoza is not a statue back there, and he has scrambled for some important gains.  But he’s not what you would call an elusive or dual-threat quarterback, like some other ACC quarterbacks such as Cam Ward, Eli Holstein, Cade Klubnik and Haynes King.

Mendoza is, however, one of the chief reasons Cal has been in position to win games against nationally ranked teams Miami and Pitt.  And no one can question his courage.  Even though Mendoza’s personality and body type suggest he might be a feeble presence in the pocket, he is anything but that.

“Here’s the one think I’ll tell you about Fernando, that guy is tough,” Wilcox said. “He’s a tough guy. There’s times when he’s going to get lit up, and he takes it right in the teeth, and he delivers the ball.”

“I’m not scared to stare down the barrel,” Mendoza said, “but I need to be smart with the ball. . . . As I said in Pittsburgh, if I have a pulse I’m going to be out there.”

Mendoza has taken some vicious hits, and it will be difficult for him to survive the entire season if that keeps up.

“Obviously, we’ve got to take better care of him,” McDonald said. “He’s the face of the program right now and we’ve got to do a better job of of keeping him up and keeping him off the ground.

“When you have a warrior like him sitting back there, taking some of the hits that he’s taken unnecessarily, we’ve got to take better care of him, and that is probably the biggest goal and job this week is to take care of him and keep him on his feet all game.”

---Attempting chunk plays.

Bloesch made it clear before the season began that attempting and completing deep passes will be vital to Cal’s offensive success, and the Bears have run a number of plays designed to deliver a big play.

Those plays require more time to get the pass off.

Mendoza had enough time against Miami, when he had four completions of more than 50 yards, but he has not had enough time in most games.

Being without Kyion Grayes and Tobias Merriweather, Cal’s two projected starting wide receivers, all season limits the deep-ball possibilities, but Cal still had chances to produce big plays if the offensive line could have held off the pass rush for that extra split second.

“We had some really big opportunities that we left on the field [in the Pitt game] with some seven-man protections,” Bloesch said. “So that was very disheartening to go back and watch that on tape and see guys running wide open down the field on some of those plays.”  Instead Mendoza was sacked.

---Playing from behind

Defenses are always more aggressive when they have the lead and can focus on rushing the passer. And when Cal has had to play catch-up, the sacks have mounted.

Cal rolled up 38 points against Miami and led for nearly all of that game. Miami is seventh in the nation in sacks, but the Hurricanes had only two against Cal, which controlled the pace of that game until the fourth quarter.

However, the Bears trailed for nearly all the games against Florida State and Pitt, forcing the Bears to play catch-up with the passing game.  Cal allowed 13 sacks in those two games combined.

Whatever the reason, sacks have ruined Cal’s offensive efficiency in several games this season.  “Totally unacceptable,” Wilcox said.

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