The Good, The Bad, and The Rock Fights: Cal at USC Football

Another entry into our new cluster, The Pillowfights

The USC defense takes the field during warmups on Saturday

The 2022 Cal football team has taken a strange turn from the Bears teams we have typically seen under Justin Wilcox. An inflection of talent at WR, RB, and QB have dramatically changed the offense, although it has been stymied by an injured and ineffective offensive line. On the other side of the ball, a normally reliable defense has been plagued by coverage issues and a lack of pass rush. As a result, many of the team’s PFF grades have been outliers compared to most of the data over the past five years. These outliers have helped to create a new category of games in our taxonomy of Cal football games under Wilcox: the Pillowfights. With yet another game with solid offensive grades from PFF (O-line excepted) and poor defensive ratings, we have another entry in the Pillowfights category of games.