Cal vs. Oregon Ducks Football Insta-Recap & Rate the Game: Oregon Eviscerates Cal in Their Last Pac-12 Matchup
Oregon is on a warpath for the College Football Playoffs
The California Golden Bears marched on into Autzen Stadium for their last ever matchup between them and the Oregon Ducks. Oregon, sporting a number six ranking in the initial CFP rankings, was clicking on all cylinders heading into this contest at home against Cal.
Oregon illustrated why they are a war machine at the moment, stepping on the gas after having a 14-13 lead over the Bears at the start of the second quarter. 21 straight unanswered to end the first half effectively ended the game right then and there. Bo Nix, Bucky Irving, and Tez Johnson could practically do no wrong as Oregon scampered to a 49-19 lead before calling off the starters in the early 4th quarter.
A scary scene took place for Cal during the second half, as Jaivian Thomas was injured on a goal line run, where he had to be carted off on a backboard. We hope for the best for Jaivian and nothing but good health. I suppose a football game also wrapped up, with Oregon moving to 8-1 (5-1 P12) and Cal falling to 3-6 (1-5 P12) after a 63-19 victory.
Cal v. Oregon College Football Final Game Stats
I hope Wilcox overhauls the defensive staff this off-season like he did with the offense last year. Shitcan Sirmon, get rid of one of the DB coaches and invest in special teams.
I'm going to write something I never thought I would write. With the NIL ruling college football these days, and the exacerbated nature of the haves and have nots, where the big get bigger and the lesser schools get worse, it's an altogether disheartening landscape to even be a college football fan, not to mention a Cal fan. My wife is right when she says how sorry she is for me. It's a big chunk of the small part of my life I allocate to sports to be a Cal fan.
What purpose or hope is there to line up against Oregon? UW? Their greatness this year is exceptional but will continue in kind with their NIL prowess. The double whammy of the dissolution of the Pac12 combined with the hopeless feeling of playing an unfair deck, is just too much. Even truly stellar coaches like Wittingham and Smith at OSU, cannot outcoach the talent differential on a consistent basis. And when it's not up to the skill and charisma of the coach to attract top players, like has always been the hope of a new hot coach, and it's only about NIL money, then what is the point of the exercise? I have absolutely no interest in seeing Cal play teams that have like 20 million dollar rosters when we have 1/120th of that. I don't need to watch Cal play the 49ers.
It's not that we couldn't on occasion play well enough with our guys to scare someone like $C, but we all know that the law of averages will play out. I don't see a place of hope for my Bears. I don't need to get excited about beating patsy states. Yet, I don't want Cal to become a football factory with heaps of NIL money pouring in and the players being mercenaries. I may be in the minority in how I cheer for the team in some good part because I know the players are Cal students. I cheer for them being scholar athletes. Not hired guns merely. I don't fault the players in any way, but it's a broken and horrible system.
Where does my fandom go, besides away? I'm wearing a 2003 Insight Bowl shirt as type this. I've been die hard since my freshman year in 1987. I travel all over to see my Bears. But now, I just don't know or see how I can place hope in a team, no matter how valiant and true blue, when they are simply not of the size or speed or talent to compete. And I'll finish by saying I can fault Wilcox for various things, but I truly don't believe it is all on him. No coach will get this team to beat Oregon or WA on a consistent basis in the days of NIL.