The Good, the Bad, and the Rock Fights: Cal at Utah Football

A surprising result after a rockfight of a first half...

When Utah shows up to a pillowfight, they fill the pillow with ball bearings

Many Cal games this season have featured a distinct shift in tone at some point during the game. The North Texas game was a back-and-forth battle until Cal scored 31 points in a row. Idaho was an embarassing shutout until Cal again scored 31 in a row. UW was a woeful blowout until the Cal offense found some life against the UW backups. Both the ASU and OSU games shifted dramatically as the defense gave up 229 yards and 227 yards respectively in the final 20-ish minutes of the game. Only the Auburn game has been consistent across the duration of the game. It has been hard to classify some of these tone-shift games because we have Bad performances turning into Good performances, Good performances devolving into Pillowfights as the defense wilts, and other transitions where the team seems to switch from one game type to another. Much of the first half of Saturday’s game felt like a classic rockfight as both teams exchanged defensive blows while occasionally finding modest success on offense. Then the Cal offense started self-destructing while the Utah offense turned into a bulldozer.