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Yup, this game is gunna be a slugfest, UNTIL Mr. Bimage meets Mr. McKee in the backfield and puts the hurt on him ~ REPEATEDLY.

I have the Big Game fever and the family has placed me in a straight jacket.

Too bad we won't have Craig and Mettauer, perhaps the youngins can get 'r done. Dunno.

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I’m completely ok with the pettiness here. Furd sucks.

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Nov 18, 2021Liked by Christopher Helling

What an incredibly clever and informative piece of work. Damn. Thank you. I can only imagine how much time must go into getting all these clips and then writing pithy things about each one. The long and short is that we have an overall better team, even with the absences, and should win. I see our RB room having a field day, and Garbers running for 100 and throwing for 300.

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The most time-consuming part of watching a Stanford game is all the naps I take in between.

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Must be! I love Eddie Izzard and how he says that. Seems like! The photo of the stadium with trees in the stands is so deeply sad.

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But seriously though, thank you for the kind words. It does take a long time to pull the clips I want, convert them, and string together a semi-coherent narrative about them, but I do it because I enjoy seeing other Cal fans enjoy and discuss my articles.

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Nov 18, 2021Liked by Christopher Helling

It's a public service to us fans that is hard to place a value upon. Any act of this sort, even if compensated slightly, stands as a testament to the importance of our collective goodwill. We each make choices about our willingness to help others, and though this isn't feeding the hungry or healing wounds, it is arguably an essential service to the well being of those of us who bleed blue and gold. My life is certainly and measurably better when there is a lively Cal community around our sports. So again, thank you.

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Is that picture really from a Stanford brochure?

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Holy smokes, I googled "gse stanford nominate for award" and it already brings back the picture on WriteForCalifornia. I believe it's legitimate, but in all fairness it's not like the Stanford-educated teacher is seen writing the line up there. It's a classroom and was likely written by a student, perhaps in a "come do this problem on the board" sort of way.

However, that's not going to stop me from stripping context if it will paint Stanford in a bad light. Similarly, the Austin Jones "butt block" was legitimately a good block by Jones, where he laid out to stop an unblocked rusher from getting a sack, it just so happens that as he was getting up he happened to again block the USC player with his butt, with McKee off-screen having just thrown the pass.

All that said, that's not nearly as entertaining to watch.

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So it's not a butt block and he's putting in twerk.

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You don’t have to strip context to put them in a bad light. A picture of a GSE scene should never have people laughing in front of failed middle school algebra.

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Excellent editing job.

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Nov 18, 2021Liked by Christopher Helling

Nice article and I hope your prognostications ring true.

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That's a tough question, there's far too many QBs in the Pac-12 for the past 5 years to stack people up historically. I would say that McKee is pretty similar to his predecessor, Davis Mills (who I thought had NFL-talent but was not NFL-ready).

Anthony Brown is playing better since the Cal game, which really just a way to say that he's made less mistakes and occasionally hits a couple nice passes per game to prevent opposing defenses from loading the box too much. He's a known quantity at this point.

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True, but it's perhaps a bit more wise to dive for that pylon with two hands, lest Brown make the same mistake Jayden de Laura did on the game's opening drive.

Speaking of which, that's a rule that makes no sense. If you fumble the ball anywhere else on the field, if it goes out of bounds, your team maintains possession. If it is fumbled forward, the ball returns back to the spot of the fumble. If it is fumbled backwards, the ball is down at the spot it went out of bounds. So why is it that when you fumble the ball out of the endzone, neither of these things are true?: (1) your team maintains possession, and (2) the ball returns back to the spot of the fumble?

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That is a rule change that is a couple of decades overdue. I can't fathom why with all the other changes dealing with possession and advancement that hasn't happened at any level.

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I like it as is because (1) you fumble out of my end zone, it’s my ball (2) bigger stakes for bigger situations and (3) Marcus Ezeff.

But my favorite fumble rule is Tedford’s: you fumble, you sit.

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I'm not saying that Brown fumbled the ball, I'm saying that Brown should have held the ball with both hands as he dove for the python. Jayden de Laura also tried a one-handed pylon dive (which is obviously a very insecure way to hold the ball), got the ball knocked loose before reaching the pylon, and fumbled the ball out of the endzone for an Oregon touchback. Hence why I said he should hold that ball with two hands.

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