Cal Football Ranked, but Facing a Tough Test to Stay That Way
Cal Football is back in the AP’s top-25 rankings, but they will face a big test if they want to stay there next week.
For the first time since Jared Goff was a Bear, the Cal football team finds themselves as a ranked club. They are 24th out of the 25 ranked teams, slipping in during their bye week while five teams fell off the board. At 3-0, the Bears are one of 14 unbeaten teams in the rankings.
The last time the Bears were in the top-25 was on October 22nd, 2015, when they were number 20. That day, they lost to the UCLA Bruins in what would be the second of four consecutive losses and dropped out of the top-25. Goff was in the midst of rewriting the school’s record books that season, but couldn’t get Cal back onto the ranking board. Three starting quarterbacks later, Cal finds itself back among the top-25.
The Golden Bears are undefeated through three games, and their win against BYU in week two is certainly a factor for getting them back in the top-25. A week after losing to Cal, the BYU Cougars beat sixth-ranked Wisconsin, 24-21, to jump into the top-25. That made Cal’s victory look a little better, and probably helped in voting as well.
Cal had an easy time getting into the top-25 while they didn’t play over the weekend, but they’ll have a tough time staying on and moving up. Their next contest, and their conference opener, comes against the Oregon Ducks, who are ranked at 19.
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The Ducks are coming off a devastating loss in their own conference schedule opener to the Stanford Cardinal. Oregon looked poised to upset Stanford, who stayed steady at seventh in the latest poll, taking a 24-7 lead into the locker room at halftime. An 80-yard fumble return touchdown got Stanford’s comeback started in the third quarter, then another fumble recovery with under a minute left in the fourth quarter set up a game-tying field goal. Stanford then won it in overtime.
Despite the loss, Oregon moved up from 20 to 19.
Oregon can either be a vulnerable opponent, or a motivated opponent, but either way, the Bears will have to be at the top of their game to beat the Ducks. Oregon has beaten Cal eight of the last nine times they’ve met, with the only exception being in 2016 when Davis Webb and the Bears knocked off Oregon in double overtime.
In the eight losses, Oregon has outscored Cal by an average of 25.4 points, and only once has Cal lost by fewer than two touchdowns. That game came back in 2010 when Cal came up two points shy in a 15-13 loss to the number-one ranked Ducks. Five times Cal has lost by three or more touchdowns, and three times they have lost by at least 39 points. It’s been an extremely one-sided rivalry.
Next. Cal Starts Sloppy, but Stays Unbeaten. dark
Cal’s defense is playing better than it has in a long time, and it will need to be as good as ever if they want to overcome a very good Oregon team. Their offense has struggled so far this season, but has looked better with redshirt freshman Chase Garbers at the helm. It will need to be a complete team effort, and an effort much-improved from their first three games to stay undefeated.