Do you remember a few years ago when Cal had a number of NFL-bound defensive players, but absolutely nothing going on offense? Yeah, it's kind of like that.
I feel like the defense has shown up the last few games. Just moment lapses. But losing teams to under 24 should be enough to win you games in college football.
What you meant to say is our offense get to 21 points first! As Avinash points out, it is by far the most predictable stat for who will win with our team.
They seem to have some weapons including Rice. If we can contain Lewis and keep them in obvious passing downs we should be OK. Their defense held ATM to only 10 points, so I hope we can score 24+ which will give us a shot at the win.
At least part of that in the A&M game was due to the fact they had a very limited playbook when they had to put the backup (now starter) QB in, but I also wonder how much of that play-calling is just the result of not wanting to open the playbook too much in an OOC matchup with an overmatched opponent. Outside of like Oregon State, I saw very limited play-calling in the Pac-12's early OOC matchups, and it didn't go well for the Pac-12. And that sort of limited playbook, sticking to simple plays, plays right into the hand of the Colorado defense (which I talk a lot about in tomorrow's defensive article).
Thank you for the kind words. Off the top of my head, I believe Cal throws the ball on 3rd and short a lot more than other teams, but you might need a caveat for QB (Garbers) runs. If we do, in fact, run the ball on 3rd and short at similar levels to other teams, a big chunk of those runs are the QB, which is the unusual part. I also imagine our rushing gains on a per play basis are lower than other teams, but it's because we don't have anywhere near as many big explosive run plays to bring that average up, and most other teams do.
I think our defense should hold. The question is can our offense get past 21 points.
Knowing us, we have no idea which side of the ball will show up
I feel like the defense has shown up the last few games. Just moment lapses. But losing teams to under 24 should be enough to win you games in college football.
What you meant to say is our offense get to 21 points first! As Avinash points out, it is by far the most predictable stat for who will win with our team.
They seem to have some weapons including Rice. If we can contain Lewis and keep them in obvious passing downs we should be OK. Their defense held ATM to only 10 points, so I hope we can score 24+ which will give us a shot at the win.
At least part of that in the A&M game was due to the fact they had a very limited playbook when they had to put the backup (now starter) QB in, but I also wonder how much of that play-calling is just the result of not wanting to open the playbook too much in an OOC matchup with an overmatched opponent. Outside of like Oregon State, I saw very limited play-calling in the Pac-12's early OOC matchups, and it didn't go well for the Pac-12. And that sort of limited playbook, sticking to simple plays, plays right into the hand of the Colorado defense (which I talk a lot about in tomorrow's defensive article).
Also, it looks like rain on Saturday. No sure which team this will help more.
Whichever team has the QB with bigger hands.
Thank you for the kind words. Off the top of my head, I believe Cal throws the ball on 3rd and short a lot more than other teams, but you might need a caveat for QB (Garbers) runs. If we do, in fact, run the ball on 3rd and short at similar levels to other teams, a big chunk of those runs are the QB, which is the unusual part. I also imagine our rushing gains on a per play basis are lower than other teams, but it's because we don't have anywhere near as many big explosive run plays to bring that average up, and most other teams do.
These numerical questions might be better posed to Piotr, though, as he wrote a fantastic article on this subject: https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/evans-hall-deep-dive-in-the-cal-offense