23 Comments

"(the first and only school to drop back down to FCS voluntarily)."

Some UC Regent: "Hold my beer."

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LOL.

"We don't want to be a football factory, but we're okay with imbalanced, sheltered nerds, who can only thrive in a bubble."

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Am I reading this rightly?

Is our defense ranked 12th in FBS CFB(by stats)?

https://www.oddsshark.com/stats/team/football/ncaaf/8659

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I read it as 11th in yards allowed, 48th in points allowed.

I'm not surprised, D has looked good and a lot of points came on short fields after our offense turned it over. But we won't really know much until we face Penix in Seattle.

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Yes. Tests remain and OSU and a few others, like $C, lit us up pretty good the last couple of years.

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I think we can take this victory for granted; should be similar score to the N Texas game.

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DOOM!!!!

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Probably will drop 60 and pitch a shutout.

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Why do you curse us with hubris? LOL

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Hmmmm... well, it might turn out to be similar score, but not a victory?

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IN THIS GAME CAL WILL WIN IF, AND ONLY IF, WE HAVE EXCELLENT PASS DEFENCE,I INCLUDING

CONTINUAL HARESSMENT ALONG WITH FREQUENT SACS OF THE IDAHO QB. IF CAL CAN DO THIS WE CAN CELEBRATE FOR THE GOLDEN BEAR! IN ADDITION, PERHAPS WE CAN ENJOY SOME HIGH QUALITY MIDDLE AND LONG SHOT PASSES FOR OURSELVES!! GO BEARS............GERBEAR

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GO!

BEARS!

GERBEAR

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GER!

BEAR!

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I think he might be shortening Gerry and rhyming with 🐻.

In any case, he’s a treasure.

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This coach reminds me of Madden, who was frenetic and a genius.

Thank you, again, Chris.

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This should be an easy win, but knowing Wilcox, we will play down to the level of our opponents

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Sep 14, 2023Liked by Christopher Helling

Chris - these previews are always so informative and hilarious. I look forward to them each week. I laughed out loud at your Auburn preview with all the gifs and links about their clown head coach. Thank you for bringing fun to this thing that is supposed to be fun.

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Thank you!

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Sep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023

Seems like the Bears will definitely have their hands full. But you didn't mention the O line until the end. I'll just take it as a sign that there is nothing remarkable about the O line and they will be, as you say, simply overwhelmed. Should be fun to watch!

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author

I thought about mentioning it earlier but ended up glossing over it a bit. I don't think they're particularly strong in pass blocking, and Cal's defensive line has been looking strong these first two weeks. I'm definitely expecting the defensive line to cause havoc in the Idaho backfield.

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More and more teams are putting heavy blitz pressure on opponents passing games.Triple and double A gap blitz's. delayed nickel and corner blitz's and wider edge blitz's. These "dog" blitz attacks should be used by Cal especially on long 3rd down. So far, I've seen very little of them from our defense. Heavy pressure makes a QB scramble and get rid of the ball sooner than he wants to. It works!

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Sep 14, 2023Liked by Christopher Helling

Great analysis Christopher - it appears they could be tough unless we can bring the pressure on McCoy and also negate the running game. Will this be a game where the first team to 24 points wins? If we can't score 24 points at home against these guys then it could be a long season.

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If we lose this game, Wilcox should resign in disgrace because we know a loss here won’t get him fired.

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