10 defining stats from Cal’s loss at Utah: Bears morning links

Junior Stephen Domingo, a transfer from Georgetown who gets his first chance for the Bears after coming back home to the Bay Area, has been impressed with how the young players have participated in the chat sessions. A 10-yard pass from Goff to Stephen Anderson took the Bears to the 10 and two rushes by Tre Watson resulted in a four-yard run to the end zone. But if you want Cal to win the Pac-12 North, then this was a massive missed opportunity.

There were no questions about the Utah run game and defense entering the season, but the quarterback position kept the Utes from being considered a Pac-12 contender. Powe had two catches for 18 yards and a touchdown. The game against Texas during which Jerrod Heard rushed for 163 yards and three touchdowns showed that Cal could work on containing mobile quarterbacks. “I really don’t like to talk about how big a game is, I just go out there and play”. Cal QB Jared Goff has 20 games in his career in which he has passed for at least two touchdowns, including every game this season…. We wanted to prove to them that we’re the dominant defense. The next break came early in the third quarter on White’s TD catch of CU cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon’s deflection, giving the Sun Devils a 31-10 lead. But, Saturday was a completely different story, and the Buffaloes lost their 13th consecutive conference game. It was in a few ways a preview of what a hostile National Football League environment might be like for Goff, and he didn’t adjust throughout this game. The game ended when Oregon quarterback Jeff Lockie, on fourth-and-9 from the 24, was intercepted by safety Shalom Luani.

Arizona State appears to be playing its best football of the season. All I know is that when we get down that far, drives need to end in points.

Combine that defensive productivity with Booker’s ability to pace the offense, and Utah was the stronger side in the trenches.

“I don’t think the defense and everyone else around me gets enough credit”, he said. The top two prospects, Osa Masina and Porter Gustin, are contributing heavily as true freshmen for USC, while the three other four-star recruits signed with Ohio State, UCLA and Wisconsin.

This game has huge implications now that they are they last unbeaten teams in the conference and in each division.

No team is free of adversity or struggles in its own play.

It was the six turnovers and a monster game from Utah running back Devontae Booker, who had 222 yards on 34 carries and two touchdowns, that were the difference for the Utes in the waning hours of Saturday night. “He’s been through so much in his college career”.

Goff wasn’t just better than his interception total might indicate, he was downright surgical, at times, showing deft touch on deep balls down the sideline and up the middle.

Towards the latter part of the 1st quarter, Utah running back Devontae Booker pulled off this impressive 40-yard touchdown run. “Just go out there and do us”.

The advanced stats on these two teams don’t quite line up with the rankings, as Bill Connelly’s S&P+ has Utah 19th and California 48th. The Ducks are 3-3, and it wouldn’t be a shock now to see them split the back six of the regular season with games against Washington, ASU, Cal, Stanford, USC and Oregon State.