PFF Grades: Cal vs. Idaho State

With the Rivals partnership with PFF, we're taking a look at the top 20 graded players on each side of the ball (with 10 or more snaps taken) from Saturday afternoon's contest against Idaho State.

* Bennett is listed as having played only nine snaps. We're not entirely sure that's correct, but it's right at the line of where we'll throw him in.

Analysis

Garbers is ranked as the highest rated player on offense for the second week in a row, owing to his passing ability. He did complete 80% of his passes, but the way he did it, using his feet to find clear passing lanes and opening up plays for receivers helped his case. The interception that he threw wasn't counted against him, and the redshirt freshman showed why the Bears made him the starter going into BYU. He was 4-6 on passes 20+ yards downfield, with 86 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT

Dancy showed some of his elusiveness that the media got to see during fall camp in his 25 reps, with his 11 runs totaling 80 yards, piling up 63 yards after contact with nine avoided tackles.

Mike Saffell came away as the highest graded offensive lineman, thanks to being the highest graded starter as a run-blocker (most apparent during Dancy's TD, where he got to the second level to try and annihilate a linebacker), and not allowing a single pressure in the pass blocking game. Patrick Mekari graded higher as a pass blocker, and both Valentino Daltoso and Jake Curhan got dinged for allowing two pressures each.

Ian Bunting graded highest among TEs (with 10 reps, Jake Ashton technically graded higher), thanks to catching every target thrown his way.

Highest Grades:

Passing: Garbers 91.2

Pass Blocking: Patrick Mekari, 86.4

Running: Marcel Dancy, 83.5

Run Blocking: Bennett 79.8

Analysis:

Maldonado's a bit of a surprise at the top, but his pass rushing skills got shown with a sack and a half in his first game action. The true freshman from Bishop Amat got to show what jumped out on film, a fantastic motor and a dynamic swim move on his way to three QB pressures in 11 pass rushing attempts to total the highest pass rush grade on the defense.

Evan Weaver was the highest graded starter thanks to making six defensive stops along with breaking up a pass in his direction. Only Jordan Kunaszyk had more, with 7 (and 1.5 sacks in a strong pass rushing performance for the senior).

Ashtyn Davis graded highest among DBs, mainly for his interception but also for the four tackles he made, without missing a tackle. Davis has been one of the biggest pieces among the DBs, both as a coverage guy and a surprisingly excellent tackler.

Highest Category Grades:

Run Defense: Weaver, 78.1

Tackling: Bryce Turner, 79.5

Pass Rush: Maldonado, 87.8

Coverage: Davis, 78.2

Overall Scores:

Offense: 78.6

Passing: 90.2

Pass Blocking: 82.7

Receiving: 57.8

Running: 80.8

Run Blocking: 73.1

Defense: 76.6

Run Defense: 73.9

Tackling: 54.5

Pass Rush: 71.3

Coverage: 76.3

This was the best offensive performance by a lot this year, especially from the QBs, but the low grades in tackling and the receiving section tell what we've surmised from the weekend, that it was a sloppy performance, with missed tackles and penalties, one that could doom the Bears against a better team.