Thoughts for Cal Game

[palos_verdes_ute]

1. So we opened at 7.5 and it went down to 7. Thought $ would be on the utes and it would take it up to 8 or 9 – $ going the other way.

2. I hear CAL’s RB Muhammad is game time decision. I did notice him limping in the game. Huge for us if he is indeed injured.

3. I think our bread and butter is still special teams, defense, and controlling tempo. We won’t be displaying any kind of air raid offense or trickery like we saw against Oregon.

4. Pass game is developing as more confidence in Scott continues. Any kind of consistent throw game needs to have a person like Scott to make a few chuck yard plays.

[Tony (admin)]

Scott and Covey.

[oc_ute]

the OL was fantastic against UO. when you pass protect, good things happen.

[Anonymous]

Cal had 79 total yards rushing against WASU. Their leading rusher had 48 yards on 5 carries, but take away his long of 42 and you could conclude that Cal is no threat running the ball, particularly against Utah’s DL. Cal’s offense will be all Goff passing. Secondary just needs to be on their game and Utah needs to deliver pressure on Goff.

[Uterider]

Cal’s Lasko is a pretty good runner, and can catch the ball as well. I don’t much care though, Cal’s D is so poor at tackling that Booker and Wilson may both have career nights.

[rbmw263]

Time for Booker to have his big time game. I know he was great against Fresno, but didnt have a ton of chunk plays. Looking for him to have a big night now that things may be opened up a little bit with our pass game

[palos_verdes_ute]

Good point westslope. If you look at halftime of the cal game, they only had 28 rushing yards. People often forget that CAL still relies on a rushing game. Sonny wants 200-250 yards per game. When you shut that part of the game, it creates more pressure for goff.

As good as Goff is, I still think he’s a system QB, going through his reads like a mechanical machine…albeit a good one.

No way he gets 390 yards on us! I just don’t see that.

[FormerUteSax]

Admittedly I didn’t watch Cal-WSU. For the “air-raid” offenses the Cal-WSU game seems pretty low scoring. They put up some yardage, but not Madden-esque yardage like last year. I thought that game would be more like TCU vs TT. I thought they would have scored at least 80+ points with over 1000 yards combined offense.

While I think Goff is a good QB, maybe the best one we will see all year, I think we are maybe giving him too much credit.

[FormerUteSax]

Replying to my own post. Washington is the best defense they have faced and they only managed 30 points

[palos_verdes_ute]

It was indeed a lower score then expected (62 total points, and expected was 72). I think due mostly to Wazzu’s defense improving drastically (Cal’s defense got better too). But that’s the point – You stop the run game and their air raid is not as effective. Exactly what Wazzu did.

I pose another question – is Utah secondary as good as Wazzu?

We haven’t exactly faced a high power pass offense yet. Wazzu’s cover2 faces this everyday at practice. I honestly think we are on even par with them and I would be happy if we contain Cal to 34 points.

[bopahull]

I watched the Cal Wasu game in 60 minutes a couple of times. What worries me the most is how fast and accurate Goff gets the ball out. I timed his release and he very seldom took more than 2 seconds.

I believe our pass coverage is the key. If we can force him to take 3 or 4 seconds to find an open reciever, our 4 linemen should be able to get to him.

[Tony (admin)]

Yes this week’s challenge will be entirely different for our D.

[Dhisatake]

Utah won’t be able to stop Goff. What they need to do is limit the number of big plays they allow to Goff. Right now he’d 19 of 26 for passes that went 20+ yards in the air. He’s going to make some of those because he can just make the throw where it’s perfect. What Utah needs to do is eliminate the ones where coverage was blown or man is beat. If they can do that they won’t be able to make enough of the perfect throws to beat Utah.

1. Utah needs to be able to get to Goff with their four man rush.
2. Limit chunk plays by Goff
3. Stop the Run
4. Be efficient on offense
5. Let Booker be Booker.

[Onlyu]

The line on the site I use is actually Utah -8 -115. As it stands this evening the money has come in on Utah and is leaning towards -8.5.