Bulldogs win opener 35-7 over Cal Poly. Was it as underwhelming as score might indicate?

Fresno State won its opener on Thursday night, taking out Cal Poly 35-7 in front of a good crowd of 36,011. The final score might not be what any of them expected — the Bulldogs kicked off as 41.5-point favorites — and there were some areas of concern coming out of the game and others in need of cleanup.

“Very rusty,” coach Jeff Tedford said after his first game back in his second stint at his alma mater.

“I thought we performed pretty well at times. But, too many penalties. We have to learn how to keep the grind on, jumping up 21-0 and then after that it seemed like the floodgates opened with penalties, putting ourselves in bad situations, giving them plays on defense with penalties, an offsides, a late hit on the quarterback. Those are discipline plays and we have to improve those things, for sure.”

All of that played into a very dull stretch in the second quarter, which in past years and last year in particular have been one of the Bulldogs’ best. They had a scoring differential of plus-112 there last season, their best in any quarter.

But here are three things to ponder, picking through a game that did not exactly meet expectations for a team with legitimate conference championship aspirations.

Are the Bulldogs off balance?

The run-pass ratio for the Bulldogs in this game is fascinating, considering they were up against a lesser Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponent.

Quarterback Jake Haener hit 36 of 42 passes for 377 yards and officially the Bulldogs threw the ball 43 times (he spiked it once to stop the clock) while they were running it only 33 times including three sacks.

That could be a sign that there is concern over the Bulldogs’ ability to consistently run the football, and it’s worth noting all but one of those passes by Haener were in the short to intermediate range. Or, it could be a sign that offensive coordinator Kirby Moore knows he has a quarterback who can fit the ball into anywhere and hit at an 85.7% clip and that he is going to have as much fun with that as is humanly possible.

Consider the percentage of run to pass plays in the Bulldogs’ past five matchups against FCS opponents:

2021 Cal Poly: 38-29, 56.7%

2019 Sacramento State: 39-42, 48.1%

2018 Idaho: 44-29, 60.3%

2017 Incarnate Word: 40-37, 51.9%

2016 Sacramento State: 43-42, 50.6%

Moore and the Bulldogs flipped that against Cal Poly, running it only 44% of the time on a hot night against a defense that didn’t play a deep rotation across its front and was coming off a season in which it was ranked last in the Big Sky Conference against the run.

Through three quarters they ran it only 38.1% of the time and take the three sacks out of the equation and it’s 35%.

We’re going to lean on the latter as far as those signs go with Moore, who through two games as the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator has been able to create and take advantage of mismatches with his skill players and note that according to Pro Football Focus the Bulldogs’ receivers racked up 275 yards after the catch led by Nikko Remigio with 76 and Jalen Moreno-Cropper with 74.

Fresno State did not have 275 YAC yards in any game last season, but if the Bulldogs keep giving Remigio, Moreno-Cropper, Josh Kelly, Erik Brooks, their other wideouts and running back Jordan Mims chances to make plays in space, they are going to make some big plays.

It could be a good tuneup for the next two games against Power Five conference opponents Oregon State and USC. It’s a new year, but last season the Beavers and Trojans ranked ninth and 12th in the Pac-12 in chunk pass plays of 20 or more yards allowed and a few missed tackles in space were sure to have played into that.

The X-factor in the run defense

The Bulldogs went into the game expecting Cal Poly to start junior Spencer Brasch at quarterback and the Mustangs instead went with freshman Jaden Jones, who has a completely different skill set.

Jones hurt the Bulldogs in the first half with several runs and scrambles, rushing the football five times for 36 yards. He got away a few times in the second half, as well. But Fresno State was able to make an adjustment, and the Mustangs’ running game slowed considerably.

Jones gained 59 yards on nine plays, but three Cal Poly running backs combined for 47 yards on 21 plays, just 2.2 yards per play, and that includes one bust where Shakobe Harper bolted for 28 yards.

“He definitely got loose a couple times,” said safety Evan Williams, who led the Bulldogs with eight tackles including six solo stops and 1.5 tackles for loss. “Throughout the game he was looking to make things happen with his feet. It wasn’t what we expected, but we adjusted and I think we adjusted well. Shout out to our D-line, just being able to contain. He’s a great athlete and was trying to make things happen with his feet.

“We made our adjustments at halftime once we realized what they were trying to do, what their game plan was. I think we responded accordingly and did pretty well with that.”

An unsettled line

Fresno State clearly is not set up front, playing several offensive line combinations at the start of the game.

The Bulldogs played eight offensive linemen, starting Jacob Spomer at left tackle, Tyrone Sampson Jr., at left guard, Bula Schmidt at center, Mose Vavao at right guard and Dontae Bull at right tackle.

But Osmar Velez, Braylen Nelson and Jacob Isaia also got into the game.

Fresno State ran the ball well, and more consistently than a year ago. But the three sacks stood out. Even with as much as Haener was hit a year ago, the Bulldogs allowed three or more sacks in a game five times including four in a loss at Oregon and five in a loss at home to Boise State.

“I think that’s trying to build some depth there,” Tedford said. “We’ve been doing that all camp, really. It’ll be nice to go back and watch the tape and really analyze what happened. We got sacked a couple of times tonight and one of them was schematic. They kind of fooled us. That’s good on them. They did a nice job with the scheme.

“But we have to watch the tape. I think this is going to be a great tape for us to watch, Your first game out, you know, there’s always going to be certain mistakes that you have here and there and there’s a lot to clean up. I think there’s a lot we can learn from in this game.”

By the numbers

17.5: The Bulldogs averaged 17.5 yards on their two kickoff return opportunities, and have now not returned one for a touchdown in 598 chances dating all of the way back to 2008.

14: The Bulldogs racked up 14 of their 33 first downs in the first quarter. They had 15 first downs total last season when beating Wyoming.

0: Turnovers gained by Fresno State. The Bulldogs had at least one in every game last season with a high of five.

8: Haener opened the game hitting his first eight passes and had two runs with six completions in a row and one of five in a row. The Bulldogs quarterback never missed on consecutive passes.

36,011: Announced attendance. That is the third-largest home crowd over the past eight-plus seasons.

35: Points for the Bulldogs on five trips into the red zone.

0: Dropped passes by Bulldogs receivers.

8: Tackles for loss by the Bulldogs defense with 1.5 from safety Evan Williams, nickel Morice Norris and linebacker Malachi Langley.

102: Temperature at kickoff, tying the highest for a game at Bulldog/Valley Children’s Stadium.

13: The 377 yards for Haener marked the 13th time he has had 300 or more in a game, tying David Carr for second on the Bulldogs’ all-time list.

This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 6:28 AM.