Christian McCaffrey tears through Cal for 49-yard touchdown

Cal came into the game as heavy underdogs, but the Bears played loose and with confidence as they were led by QB Jared Goff who showed off his tremendous skills and kept the game close with his precision passing ability. Dykes has the Bears bowl-eligible for the first time since 2011, though he still is searching for a marquee conference win.

Although its playoff hopes were likely dashed with Saturday’s 38-36 loss to OR, Stanford can still clinch the Pac-12 North and a spot in the conference championship game with another victory over its rival.

The defeat overshadowed yet another outstanding performance from Christian McCaffrey, who set a Stanford record with his eighth straight 100-yard rushing game, running for 147 yards and a touchdown.

Following that up with a Big Game win over rival Stanford would end an even longer drought and be even more significant for the Golden Bears. There have been some wild finishes between Cal and Stanford, and Cardinal grad/ESPN.com writer David Lombardi relives the 1990 Big Game from the perspective of two Stanford fans.

The Utes will make their second-to-last road trip of the season this weekend when they travel to California one last time to take on Cal and Stanford. Stanford has had a firm grasp on that trophy and the upper hand in the rivalry, winning five straight games against the Golden Bears by average of more than 25 points a contest.(AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)For many, it’s all about the playoffs.

The game was especially meaningful to graduate transfer defensive lineman Brennan Scarlett, who spent his first four years at Cal before finishing his career with the Cardinal.

“We’ll talk tomorrow”, Williams said with a smile, patting Dykes on the back.

Kevin McGuire is a Philadelphia area sports writer covering the Philadelphia Eagles and college football. “Tell me”, Shaw said.

“Missed opportunities”, Goff said.

“If we were 0-9 this would be an important game”, Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “It’s kind of a culmination of three years of hard work since coach Dykes got here, since I got here, since a lot of us got here”. The Bruins scored touchdowns on two long drives to start the first and third quarters and that was enough against the short-handed Utes. Arizona State sputtered offensively early before reeling off a string of big plays to build a 21-point halftime lead. Losing Ronnie Harris could be a problem for the secondary, but only if Jared Goff has time to work.

He first found the end zone on his 49-yard touchdown reception, on which he took a screen pass, broke three tackles and made three cuts while weaving through Cal defenders and Stanford blockers to put Stanford up 14-3 late in the second quarter.

Stanford was limited to 13 plays and 57 yards in the third quarter, though Hogan got the Cardinal going again with a 12-play, 61-yard drive that spilled over into the fourth quarter. That group includes USC’s Marcus Allen in 1981 (232.6), Stanford’s Glyn Milburn in ’90 (202.0) and USC’s Reggie Bush in 2005 (222.3) and Marqise Lee in ’12 (206.4). “The guys did such a great job blocking”. Borrayo is ready for more of that, even with the likelihood that senior running back Daniel Lasco (ankle) will be at less than full strength.

The Bears won’t win if they can not create some level of run game. “Every game’s a big game, honestly, but now we know we can beat one of the best teams and we have been knowing that so now we got to go out and just do our thing and focus on us and stop worrying about all the outside things going on”. He tied his season high with five tackles and led the team with 2.5 sacks against Oregon.

Whether McCaffrey loses out in the Heisman race to Alabama running back Derrick Henry or Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield or Leonard Fournette of LSU or whomever, he is lighting up Stanford Stadium down the stretch in ways never seen before.