Rock, Paper, Scissors

After watching the replay of the Oregon vs. Arizona St. game I thought I saw Willy Glasper and Patrick Chung play rock, paper, scissors to determine who would get to fly down the field on punt coverage. Thanks to YouTube I was glad to find out that my eyes didn't deceive me:



It's great to see the enthusiasm from those two guys (especially Chung when he ends up losing)! Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but after last weeks defensive effort I would like to think that Oregon has turned the proverbial "corner" when it comes to the secondary living up to their potential. This weekends game against Cal will really be the indicator as to what we can expect out of the Ducks for the remainder of the season.

In last year's loss to the Bears the Ducks had a total of 3 turnovers that ultimately led to their demise...all three were in the 4th quarter too. The Ducks should be thankful that California no longer has Justin Forsett, Lavelle Hawkins and Desean Jackson on the offensive side of the ball. Jackson alone caught 11 balls for 161 yards and 2 touchdowns last year. If the Ducks would've been able to contain Jackson they probably would've won the game, but his world class speed was too much for Jairus Byrd and the Oregon secondary. For all the publicity I've heard this week about Cal's 3-4 defense stopping Oregon's running game I'm not convinced that they will have the monumental success that many people are giving them...including The Register-Guard's Rob Moseley. To make my point I think it's important to dissect Cal and take a closer look at what they do, who they have played etc.

So how good are the Golden Bears? There has been moments in the season where they look like the team that was picked to contend for second place in the Pac-10 behind USC. Then there are times (2nd half of Arizona game) where they fall apart at the seams and can't mesh on offense. Their biggest quality win is probably against Michigan St. back in week 1 where they barely got by the Spartans with a score of 38 to 31. They did hold one of the nations best running backs in Javon Ringer to 87 yards on 27 carries, but let's be honest...Ringer is the only offensive weapon Michigan St. has and they still put up 31 on Cal. Even more importantly Cal is probably less confident in their quarterback than Oregon is at this point in the season. Kevin Riley has been up and down his whole career, and I wouldn't expect an all world performance out of him on Saturday. The one game changer on Cal's squad that WILL make plays against Oregon is their running back, Jahvid Best. I'm going to guarantee that Best will have one long touchdown at some point in the game, but great players will make great plays. Luckily for Oregon, stopping the run is their specialty. Cal beat the Sundevils 24-14 back in early October, and although they may have thumped UCLA last weekend the score wasn't indicative of the overall outcome. Going into the 4th quarter the Bears were only up 13-17 on the Bruins before they resorted to flea flickers and Kevin Craft interceptions to finally pull away.

And what's with all this hype of Cal's 3-4 defense? Granted, they are ranked #12 in the nation in overall rushing defense but Oregon is ranked #17 so that statistic is very reliant on the opponents they have played. Cal has played 1) Michigan St. 2) Washington St. 3) Maryland 4) Colorado St. 5) Arizona St. and 6) Arizona. The best rushing offenses they have played came from Maryland (#45) and Michigan St. (#49)...both of those teams come from conferences that are total $hit too so those stats are probably even more skewed. Needless to say, they haven't met a rushing attack that is as good as Oregon's which is currently ranked #5 in the nation after 8 games...and that includes the game against USC. This 3-4 defense is the same set they showed against Oregon last year and it's the same defense which Jonathan Stewart gashed for 121 yards on 21 carries. Yeah I know, that was Jonathan Stewart, but Oregon hasn't missed a beat on the ground since his departure. Jeremiah Masoli will undoubtedly be the X-factor in this game. If he is able to find success moving the ball on the ground with his quarterback scrambles I think Cal will be in for a long day. This might be the coming out party for Masoli through the air as well...with Cal leaving 4 linebackers in to stop the run that will leave single coverage on the wide outs. Cal has won 3 of the last 5 meetings that I can remember, and 4 of them have been extremely close games...I don't expect this one to be any different.

2003-2004 Result: 21-17 Win in Eugene
2004-2005 Result: 27-28 Loss in Berkeley
2005-2006 Result: 27-20 Overtime Win in Eugene
2006-2007 Result: 24-45 Loss in Berkeley (Dennis Dixon throwing a pick on the 1st play hurt)
2007-2008 Result: 24-31 Loss in Eugene

Prediction: Oregon 31 - Cal 24

Feel free to leave a prediction of the score too...I'm interested to see what you all think.