One of Cal's biggest struggles on offense in week one was their inability to work the ball downfield against the two deep safeties that Nevada played. That led to Chase Garbers averaging 4.7 yards per attempt in the opening day loss. Against TCU, Garbers had an average depth of target of 18.6, as the Bears found more openings downfield, with two-thirds of Garbers attempts being thrown more than ten yards downfield.

TCU is a team known for their two deep safety looks, with a long history of playing quarters coverage, mixing in man and cover two looks. Cal got over the top for four 40+ yard completions on the afternoon, a couple against man coverage where Kekoa Crawford and Trevon Clark got behind the defense. One play, the 68 yard completion from Garbers to Clark, came against the two-deep coverage that TCU is known for.

"We had a number of quarters-beaters," offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave noted Wednesday, "that has been the coverage at TCU, to play quarters across the board. We're trying to take advantage of that coverage and prey on that predictability."

The longest gain for Cal from scrimmage came on an 'Ohio' concept, a pro-style staple (this explainer from Mark Schofield goes into more detail) meant to help offenses defeat two deep coverages. At its core, the Ohio concept is a high-low, or a 'go-flat' meant to exploit cover two (two deep zones), like the Bears did on their long completion.

This is an 11 personnel setup for the Bears, with Kekoa Crawford getting into a three point stance, a formation Cal showed in their spring game. From here, in a compressed trips formation, you can see the routes, three verticals and a flat route from Jake Tonges. Clark is the outside vertical, while Nikko Remigio, the middle vertical, is the key piece of this play.

On the play, Remigio takes one of the deep safeties inside with his route (with that safety rotating his hips away from Clark), while Crawford takes the other on his vertical. Tonges, with his flat route slightly delayed, has the eyes of the corner, who passes Clark off to where he thinks he has help deep. With Cal throwing a number of checkdowns on film, it's something the corner expects more than the deep shot and will look to come down on.

"We try to put a piece of cheese in front of somebody," Musgrave noted, "then maybe high-low them with something over the top"

That piece of cheese gets Clark wide open, as the Remigio vertical holds the safety for the senior wideout to get open down the seam. Garbers gets him the ball, the backside safety has to spring over to prevent a touchdown, and the Bears would score a touchdown on the next play. It's an example of self-scouting and using opposing tendency to one's advantage, as Cal's vertical passing game looks to get going in the coming weeks.