For tonight’s 7:00 p.m. game with Oregon, Cal is without wide receiver Trevor Davis and defensive lineman Brennan Scarlett, from Oregon’s Central Catholic High School, both out with injuries.
Look for the Bears to challenge the Oregon secondary with the deep ball and to try to slow the Duck offense down by crossing them up with running plays on offense. Tailback Daniel Lasco is a solid between-the-tackles runner who has 523 yards and 6 touchdowns this season while averaging 5.1 yards a carry.
The 4-3 Bears are a more balanced team than Washington State, but their secondary is porous, giving up 391.7 yards per game. Quarterback Jared Goff has thrown 24 touchdown passes this season and just four interceptions. He’s vastly improved and looking to erase the memory of the poorest performance of his career last year in the monsoon at Autzen Stadium, when he was 3-7 passing for 11 yards, yanked out of the game in the first quarter.
Linebacker Hardy Nickerson leads the defense. He’s the son of the former 49er star of the same name.
In other news, Texas A&M announced yesterday that it was backing out of a scheduled home-and-home series with Oregon in 2018 and 2019. A few hours later the Aggie Athletic Department announced it had scheduled Clemson for those open dates.
In recent seasons Georgia, A&M, and Kansas State have all backed out of games with the Ducks. Curiously, Alabama has open dates for the 2018-19 campaigns, but few teams want to take the risk of an early-season high-profile game. Matchups like Oregon-Michigan State are a rarity.
The Denver Post reported yesterday that former Oregon safety John Boyett was released by the Denver Broncos after an incident early Wednesday in which police said he “drunkenly head-butted and punched a cab driver, stole a shovel from a construction site then tried to hide from officers by covering himself in mulch.”
Drinking earlier at a Denver bar, witnesses said he was highly intoxicated and making threats. He slammed his head into the patrol car window, spitting and screaming for the officers to call his boss, John Elway.
It’s Boyett’s second alcohol-related arrest in just over a year, and the second time he’s been released from an NFL team because of one.
John Boyett was one of toughest and most productive safeties in Oregon history, and if the reports are true, he’s faced with serious addiction and behavioral issues that threaten his life and safety. Let’s hope he gets help and finds a new direction. Pro football is probably over for him.
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