Cal vs UCLA, Stanford at USC, Key Pac-12 Battles

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Today, starting at 4PM PDT, we have Cal vs UCLA, then Stanford at USC at 5 PM and both are key Pac-12 battles of teams that really do have “storied histories” to mock that overused term for a moment.

Cal comes to LA to play a rather injury-riddled UCLA team, with its coach Rick Neuheisel on a seat so hot, it would take an ice-cold screw driver cocktail that the coach might be willing to down if his 3-4 Bruins keep performing the way they did last week in getting smashed (excuse the pun) 48-12 by Arizona.

Now comes Cal, and the feeling here is UCLA may have a chance if, and only if, the Golden Bears show the habit of calling long developing plays that an athletic defense (of which the Pac-12 has a lot of) can zero in on.

That’s what got Cal into trouble against USC two weeks ago, in a game that made this blogger want to hurl a car. Seriously. That USC game plan was awful and it was matched by that really bad 3-4 Flex Defense that Cal’s using this year.

The Flex Defense (where some defensive lineman are a yard off the line-of-scrimmage to read run plays) had its day; the giant 300-pound drive-blocking O-Line guys of the 21st Century killed it.

Fortunately for the Stanford Cardinal, it’s not giving up a yard to USC before its defense lines up. For some reason, this blogger can’t see Southern Cal beating Stanford in any way. This is not Notre Dame, and the Stanford staff just plain gets off the ball like there’s no tomorrow.

I think the word is “crisp.”

Prediction: another Stanford blowout. Maybe on the way to a perfect season unless CAL CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT.

And a lot of cocktail swigging down on The Farm.

But they do that anyway.

Stay tuned.

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