Cal Goes To 3-0

  

Cal, 3-0.  Looks great, doesn't it? But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The Bears are 2-0 right now and lounging on Cloud 9 after pulling off the biggest upset of the season, whipping Washington 20-19, in Seattle. But the Bears still have to beat North Texas, though that shouldn't be too difficult.  Cal is a 14 point favorite to beat, in Berkeley, this mid-major team that is 1-1 and reeling from a 49-27 pounding, on the road, by a so-so SMU team. True, North Texas has an explosive offense that averages 39 points and nearly 500 yards a game but their defense is a joke, surrendering, in just two games, 80 points and 959 yards, ranking a pitiful No .123 nationally in scoring defense.

The key to this game is the Cal defense, regarded as one of the nation's best. The jewel of the defense is the secondary, which will smother and punish the North Texas receivers. But these receivers won't be getting many accurate passes from QB Mason Fine, because he'll be too busy trying to escape the lethal Cal pass rush.

The Cal defense will severely restrict the North Texas point total, which is essential to a win since the Cal offense, even against a lousy defense, won't run wild. The Bear offense is very conservative, counting mostly on the rushing of power back Chris Brown and scatback Marcel Dancy. QB Chase Garbers has limited skills so the Bears won't pile up a lot of passing yardage or TD passes, which is the way teams usually engineer routs.

So, unless the Bear defense scores a lot of points or sets up a bunch of easy TDs, this isn't likely to be a runaway. But it should be a win and a boost to 3-0. Even better, depending on how the teams at the bottom of the Top 25 fare, the Bears might even sneak into the Top 25.

Predictions:

Stanford (1-1),  on the road against No. 17 Central Florida (2-0) , gets starting QB KJ Costello back but that doesn't mean victory. UCF has its own QB problems but, as a 7.5 home favorite, should handle Stanford. Last week SC's inexperienced freshman QB Kendon Slovis looked like Tom Brady while destroying the Cardinal. Stanford should take it on the chin again this week...Washington (1-1) will take out its anger against Cal on poor Hawaii (2-0)...Undefeated Oklahoma will push weak UCLA  to 3-0.