The Oregon Ducks are riding high right now after their statement win over the No. 10 UCLA Bruins last week, thrusting them back into the national spotlight after a long road back to prominence following their Week 1 blowout loss to the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs.
Now that Oregon has secured its highest ranking of the season — No. 8 across most major polls — and is on the fringes of the College Football Playoff discussion, they will look to keep that momentum rolling forward in a major way. That will be put to the test this week with a road game against the California Golden Bears, a somewhat feisty team that has given the Ducks problems in the past.
Oregon has lost two of its past three games down in Berkley, and the Justin Wilcox defense has gotten the best of the Ducks in recent years. However, this Oregon team isn’t the same as those Oregon teams, and a lot has changed with Cal recently.
As we do every week, we wanted to look past the narratives and storylines for this game and dive into the numbers. On paper, who should have the advantage? Which team puts up the more impressive stats? Cal’s defense is said to be good, but do their numbers back up that notion?
Let’s find out in our Week 8 tale of the tape: