**Editor’s Note: Each week during football season, we feature an essay from the opponent’s student newspaper on why Oregon will lose. This week’s edition is from Vikram Muller, a sports writer at the Daily Californian.**
The Cal football team (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12) has had its ups and downs this season as each win has been followed by a loss, and both sides of the ball have shown promise and disappointment.
Quarterback Davis Webb is among the nation’s leaders in completions, total yards and passing touchdowns, and Chad Hansen and Demetris Robertson have emerged as consistent threats while an expansive receiver core has also served Webb to his advantage. But then one can look at the Bears’ No. 87 ranked rush offense in yards per game as a reason for Cal’s overreliance on Webb to throw.
On the other side of the ball, the Bears face a similar problem, being strong against the pass but nearly nonexistent against the run. Cal’s run defense ranks second to last in the entire nation, allowing an astonishing average 283.8 yards per game. This, coupled with the fact that Oregon offense has 20 touchdowns on the ground and ranks No. 14 in rushing yards per game with 257.8, makes this game look like a possible runaway for the Ducks. Their focus will undoubtedly be centered around finding holes in the Bears’ front and keeping Webb and the Bear Raid off the field.
Add in the fact that Hansen and Webb are nursing ankle and hand injuries, respectively, and this game spells trouble for the Bears.
But let’s talk about Oregon.
The Ducks’ defense has struggled throughout the year with a switch from a 3-4 to a 4-3 after the hiring of Brady Hoke as defensive coordinator. Their defense ranks No. 117 against the pass and No. 118 against the run with respect to yards per game. Webb should have a field day if healthy. And despite Cal’s struggles with running the ball, Khalfani Muhammad and Tre Watson should gain enough on the ground for play action to have the Bears easily moving the ball downfield and into the endzone despite limited possession.
On the other side of the ball, the Ducks’ offensive line contains four redshirt freshmen, and true freshman Justin Herbert will start as quarterback with one game under his belt — a 70-21 trouncing against Washington. But the nail in Oregon’s coffin won’t be hammered by the Bears, but rather by the Ducks themselves.
After two wins in the first two games, everything was fine. But after two wins in six games, the Ducks have seemingly crumbled from within. First, head coach Mark Helfrich described his team’s loss to Colorado as a “trainwreck” and noted “malaise” as his team’s demise early in that game.
The Ducks then held a players-only meeting to address complacency among younger players, which apparently didn’t work, as a road loss to Washington State and a crushing defeat at home to the Huskies set the team stumbling even further backwards. Helfrich spoke out against his players’ “entitlement” after the loss to the Huskies, and senior offensive lineman Cameron Hunt estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the team doesn’t care about results, per the Register-Guard.
It looks like the coffin might already be sealed. Of course, last week’s bye week might have done wonders, but for now it looks like the Oregon’s season is nearly over.
The Bears should bounce back to another win, and the Ducks’ downward spiral should continue.