I wrote this in the game thread but I thought I'd start a postgame thread where we're all decompressed after the excitement of the game.

Postgame quick hitters:

- I feel bad for Marcus Harris but if there's a game to miss the first half it's SDSU. It's early but he and Nohl are looking like All-ACC CBs

- Thank God Fernando is OK. The way he went down with no contact and his reaction made it look like an Achilles. Instead he'll probably just be sore and maybe not practice this week. If we have to start Chandler I'm OK with it

- WR room looks so good. Remember, we're still missing Tobias and Kyion (two presumed starters)

- Defense is finally back! The pass rush still worries me but Reese back healthy should alleviate a good chunk of that

- OL was solid at run blocking last year and terrible at pass blocking. This year it's the opposite. The run blocking should get sorted because it's easier to progress at that through the season and Sioape (our best OL) and McDonald are coming back at some point

- Fernando looks like he's taken a big leap forward. If he keeps this up we could be a sneaky ACC contender

- 2-0 is 2-0! Room for growth but not many predicted that preseason or after week 1. Enjoy it Bear fans!

YOU ALREADY KNOW #GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/Vg1deMsBLf

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 7, 2024

ACC Cal is a different beast

BC, have you heard something about Nando's injury? I know he came back into the game, but he came back into the bowl game, too. (He's a very persuasive guy... and a gamer!) Looked bad the way he went down; hoping for the best.

I have no specific inside info but, just from decades of sports experience, some injuries are worse the day/week after even when guys return to the game. Calf/Achilles soreness is a dangerous one because it's athletically limiting but the real risk is the threat of reinjury or a worse injury (calf soreness carries a very heightened risk of an Achilles tear or rupture see: Kevin Durant or Dre Greenlaw just for recent Bay Area examples).

So he came back to the game but if it's bugging him this week and we have SDSU at home I expect the staff to err on the side of caution. Especially since they're so conservative with injuries in general

Thank you for the thoughts, BC. I strenuously disagree that the OL's pass blocking is solid this year, though.

Interviewed postgame on the radio he was very excited about the win but demurred when asked about the injury and said something about trusting the medical staff. I thought he was starting to say he would get some imaging but didn't complete the thought. My guess was that he was hurting but was too overcome with adrenaline and excitement to really feel it.

nikeykid said:

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ACC Cal is a different beast

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ACCal

chazzed said:

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Thank you for the thoughts, BC. I strenuously disagree that the OL's pass blocking is solid this year, though.

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That's fair. Within our system though with play action/RPOs and rollouts they were doing their job. The 2nd half Auburn realized they could attack us and speed up the process and we had no counter. I'd like to see us get Will and Sioape back ASAP and see what we look like then. We're not strong on OL as a whole but we're definitely not 7-8 deep with legitimate starters. Hopefully we can recruit and develop some good players there

I've felt higher than average for the past hour.

Bearly Clad said:

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chazzed said:

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Thank you for the thoughts, BC. I strenuously disagree that the OL's pass blocking is solid this year, though.

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That's fair. Within our system though with play action/RPOs and rollouts they were doing their job. The 2nd half Auburn realized they could attack us and speed up the process and we had no counter. I'd like to see us get Will and Sioape back ASAP and see what we look like then. We're not strong on OL as a whole but we're definitely not 7-8 deep with legitimate starters. Hopefully we can recruit and develop some good players there

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Against uc Davis everything was over the middle. Passes and runs were all up the middle.

Auburn stacked the box and run blitzed trying to take out of the game and Mendoza made them pay.

Second half they focused on pass blitzing and putting pressure on the qb. They also took away rolling right which was a large part of Mendoza's first half success.

The downside to that is you leave yourself open to screens and to big runs of the RB bounces outside, which is what we did for the third touchdown.

Auburns d made some great adjustments but it felt like cal was happy with their lead and not pressing it. It almost felt like they used Davis to set up this game....the question is what do they have left in the bag for a Florida state or Miami.

Bearly Clad said:

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I wrote this in the game thread but I thought I'd start a postgame thread where we're all decompressed after the excitement of the game.

Postgame quick hitters:

- I feel bad for Marcus Harris but if there's a game to miss the first half it's SDSU. It's early but he and Nohl are looking like All-ACC CBs

- Thank God Fernando is OK. The way he went down with no contact and his reaction made it look like an Achilles. Instead he'll probably just be sore and maybe not practice this week. If we have to start Chandler I'm OK with it

- WR room looks so good. Remember, we're still missing Tobias and Kyion (two presumed starters)

- Defense is finally back! The pass rush still worries me but Reese back healthy should alleviate a good chunk of that

- OL was solid at run blocking last year and terrible at pass blocking. This year it's the opposite. The run blocking should get sorted because it's easier to progress at that through the season and Sioape (our best OL) and McDonald are coming back at some point

- Fernando looks like he's taken a big leap forward. If he keeps this up we could be a sneaky ACC contender

- 2-0 is 2-0! Room for growth but not many predicted that preseason or after week 1. Enjoy it Bear fans!

YOU ALREADY KNOW #GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/Vg1deMsBLf

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 7, 2024

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Looked to me like an ACL. I reacted the exact same way on my next step when I blew mine out. Very awkward step and shear fear screams through your body. It appeared to be a knee, perhaps he hyper extended it.

Bearly Clad said:

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chazzed said:

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Thank you for the thoughts, BC. I strenuously disagree that the OL's pass blocking is solid this year, though.

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That's fair. Within our system though with play action/RPOs and rollouts they were doing their job. The 2nd half Auburn realized they could attack us and speed up the process and we had no counter. I'd like to see us get Will and Sioape back ASAP and see what we look like then. We're not strong on OL as a whole but we're definitely not 7-8 deep with legitimate starters. Hopefully we can recruit and develop some good players there

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You make a fair qualification, yeah. In the first half, rolling out Mendoza to the right was money. Part of that was the Cal offensive line.

Can someone explain the hikes? Is the C such a great blocker that we accept the hikes?

Well, we just got one game that we weren't "supposed" to get. It's a good sign for having a good record this season.

MilleniaBear said:

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Can someone explain the hikes? Is the C such a great blocker that we accept the hikes?

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Not easy to 1. Call out the line play 2. Snap the ball, 3. Block….

UrsineMaximus said:

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Bearly Clad said:

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I wrote this in the game thread but I thought I'd start a postgame thread where we're all decompressed after the excitement of the game.

Postgame quick hitters:

- I feel bad for Marcus Harris but if there's a game to miss the first half it's SDSU. It's early but he and Nohl are looking like All-ACC CBs

- Thank God Fernando is OK. The way he went down with no contact and his reaction made it look like an Achilles. Instead he'll probably just be sore and maybe not practice this week. If we have to start Chandler I'm OK with it

- WR room looks so good. Remember, we're still missing Tobias and Kyion (two presumed starters)

- Defense is finally back! The pass rush still worries me but Reese back healthy should alleviate a good chunk of that

- OL was solid at run blocking last year and terrible at pass blocking. This year it's the opposite. The run blocking should get sorted because it's easier to progress at that through the season and Sioape (our best OL) and McDonald are coming back at some point

- Fernando looks like he's taken a big leap forward. If he keeps this up we could be a sneaky ACC contender

- 2-0 is 2-0! Room for growth but not many predicted that preseason or after week 1. Enjoy it Bear fans!

YOU ALREADY KNOW #GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/Vg1deMsBLf

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 7, 2024

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Looked to me like an ACL. I reacted the exact same way on my next step when I blew mine out. Very awkward step and shear fear screams through your body. It appeared to be a knee, perhaps he hyper extended it.

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If it's an ACL injury, it's probably a partial tear otherwise he wouldn't be walking around afterwards.

Cal88 said:

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UrsineMaximus said:

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Bearly Clad said:

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I wrote this in the game thread but I thought I'd start a postgame thread where we're all decompressed after the excitement of the game.

Postgame quick hitters:

- I feel bad for Marcus Harris but if there's a game to miss the first half it's SDSU. It's early but he and Nohl are looking like All-ACC CBs

- Thank God Fernando is OK. The way he went down with no contact and his reaction made it look like an Achilles. Instead he'll probably just be sore and maybe not practice this week. If we have to start Chandler I'm OK with it

- WR room looks so good. Remember, we're still missing Tobias and Kyion (two presumed starters)

- Defense is finally back! The pass rush still worries me but Reese back healthy should alleviate a good chunk of that

- OL was solid at run blocking last year and terrible at pass blocking. This year it's the opposite. The run blocking should get sorted because it's easier to progress at that through the season and Sioape (our best OL) and McDonald are coming back at some point

- Fernando looks like he's taken a big leap forward. If he keeps this up we could be a sneaky ACC contender

- 2-0 is 2-0! Room for growth but not many predicted that preseason or after week 1. Enjoy it Bear fans!

YOU ALREADY KNOW #GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/Vg1deMsBLf

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 7, 2024

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Looked to me like an ACL. I reacted the exact same way on my next step when I blew mine out. Very awkward step and shear fear screams through your body. It appeared to be a knee, perhaps he hyper extended it.

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If it's an ACL injury, it's probably a partial tear otherwise he wouldn't be walking around afterwards.

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Eh, I tore my ACL playing basketball at the RSF and I tried to go back in the game. Fortunately, my buddy wouldn't let me play, and told me to go home. The next morning the knee was in a world of pain.

sycasey said:

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Well, we just got one game that we weren't "supposed" to get. It's a good sign for having a good record this season.

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Sooooo many things that wouldn't normally go out way did. Should have been a few more, but the moment of terror I was expecting never came

Cal88 said:

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UrsineMaximus said:

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Bearly Clad said:

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I wrote this in the game thread but I thought I'd start a postgame thread where we're all decompressed after the excitement of the game.

Postgame quick hitters:

- I feel bad for Marcus Harris but if there's a game to miss the first half it's SDSU. It's early but he and Nohl are looking like All-ACC CBs

- Thank God Fernando is OK. The way he went down with no contact and his reaction made it look like an Achilles. Instead he'll probably just be sore and maybe not practice this week. If we have to start Chandler I'm OK with it

- WR room looks so good. Remember, we're still missing Tobias and Kyion (two presumed starters)

- Defense is finally back! The pass rush still worries me but Reese back healthy should alleviate a good chunk of that

- OL was solid at run blocking last year and terrible at pass blocking. This year it's the opposite. The run blocking should get sorted because it's easier to progress at that through the season and Sioape (our best OL) and McDonald are coming back at some point

- Fernando looks like he's taken a big leap forward. If he keeps this up we could be a sneaky ACC contender

- 2-0 is 2-0! Room for growth but not many predicted that preseason or after week 1. Enjoy it Bear fans!

YOU ALREADY KNOW #GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/Vg1deMsBLf

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 7, 2024

---

Looked to me like an ACL. I reacted the exact same way on my next step when I blew mine out. Very awkward step and shear fear screams through your body. It appeared to be a knee, perhaps he hyper extended it.

---

If it's an ACL injury, it's probably a partial tear otherwise he wouldn't be walking around afterwards.

---

It "looked" like an ACL versus an ankle/Achilles. Certainly it is not an ACL cuz the med staff wouldn't have let him back in.

We're playing a backup guard at Center. It's a position that needs a lot of C/QB reps together to be in sync, and with a new player there against an SEC DL he's obviously gonna be rushing it to get into his block. You see this even in the NFL with guys who've actually played the position and Bastion doesn't have a lot of game experience period. Just another reason we need our top guys back healthy

To a smaller extent, this feels like our Michigan State road victory in 2003 w Tedford. 85,000 disappointed fans!!!

A few thoughts:

Mendoza played the best half of QB play I've seen at Cal in a long, long time. And managed to keep his composure off some terrible snaps in the second. Hats off.

The defense did great. I hated how the announcers were salivating over the Auburn wide receivers during their first drive, but after the first drive, Cal didn't give them anything to report on.

Payton Thorne is not a good quarterback, but Cal made him look really bad, kudos to the DBs.

I think we got lucky Auburn didn't try to run more.

Lachlan Wilson had 4 excellent punts, but the punt coverage failed him twice as they allowed the touchback.

I'm worried about the run offense and Ott clearly did not look right. We need to get healthy for conference play.

We have a good set of receivers and they are a deep bunch.

I thought both the coordinators had great games. After the first possession, Sirmon brought pressure and didn't play bend dont break. Bloesch had a great offensive game plan in the first half. The second half, there weren't many great options, but the offense was able to cobble together some key runs and pick up key first ddowns to keep the clock moving.

Excited for the fans, we all deserve some happiness after all the football crap over the last year or so.

Bearly Clad said:

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We're playing a backup guard at Center. It's a position that needs a lot of C/QB reps together to be in sync, and with a new player there against an SEC DL he's obviously gonna be rushing it to get into his block. You see this even in the NFL with guys who've actually played the position and Bastion doesn't have a lot of game experience period. Just another reason we need our top guys back healthy

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agreed, I can tolerate a lack of talent with the backups, I can't tolerate a center that can't snap the ball to the QB consistently.

Bearly Clad said:

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We're playing a backup guard at Center. It's a position that needs a lot of C/QB reps together to be in sync, and with a new player there against an SEC DL he's obviously gonna be rushing it to get into his block. You see this even in the NFL with guys who've actually played the position and Bastion doesn't have a lot of game experience period. Just another reason we need our top guys back healthy

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I am correct that our center's first game at that position was against Davis? If so, we should be happy we have such a serviceable option.

Yea, I don't remember him playing C at all last year but my memory isn't as good as it used to be either

golden sloth said:

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A few thoughts:

Mendoza played the best half of QB play I've seen at Cal in a long, long time. And managed to keep his composure off some terrible snaps in the second. Hats off.

The defense did great. I hated how the announcers were salivating over the Auburn wide receivers during their first drive, but after the first drive, Cal didn't give them anything to report on.

Payton Thorne is not a good quarterback, but Cal made him look really bad, kudos to the DBs.

I think we got lucky Auburn didn't try to run more.

Lachlan Wilson had 4 excellent punts, but the punt coverage failed him twice as they allowed the touchback.

I'm worried about the run offense and Ott clearly did not look right. We need to get healthy for conference play.

We have a good set of receivers and they are a deep bunch.

I thought both the coordinators had great games. After the first possession, Sirmon brought pressure and didn't play bend dont break. Bloesch had a great offensive game plan in the first half. The second half, there weren't many great options, but the offense was able to cobble together some key runs and pick up key first ddowns to keep the clock moving.

Excited for the fans, we all deserve some happiness after all the football crap over the last year or so.

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They absolutely should not have abandoned the run, we were not stopping them and the game was in reach. Reminds me of our 2004 loss in the Holiday Bowl, except Payton Thorne is no Aaron Rodgers.

Cal88 said:

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UrsineMaximus said:

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Bearly Clad said:

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I wrote this in the game thread but I thought I'd start a postgame thread where we're all decompressed after the excitement of the game.

Postgame quick hitters:

- I feel bad for Marcus Harris but if there's a game to miss the first half it's SDSU. It's early but he and Nohl are looking like All-ACC CBs

- Thank God Fernando is OK. The way he went down with no contact and his reaction made it look like an Achilles. Instead he'll probably just be sore and maybe not practice this week. If we have to start Chandler I'm OK with it

- WR room looks so good. Remember, we're still missing Tobias and Kyion (two presumed starters)

- Defense is finally back! The pass rush still worries me but Reese back healthy should alleviate a good chunk of that

- OL was solid at run blocking last year and terrible at pass blocking. This year it's the opposite. The run blocking should get sorted because it's easier to progress at that through the season and Sioape (our best OL) and McDonald are coming back at some point

- Fernando looks like he's taken a big leap forward. If he keeps this up we could be a sneaky ACC contender

- 2-0 is 2-0! Room for growth but not many predicted that preseason or after week 1. Enjoy it Bear fans!

YOU ALREADY KNOW #GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/Vg1deMsBLf

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 7, 2024

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Looked to me like an ACL. I reacted the exact same way on my next step when I blew mine out. Very awkward step and shear fear screams through your body. It appeared to be a knee, perhaps he hyper extended it.

---

If it's an ACL injury, it's probably a partial tear otherwise he wouldn't be walking around afterwards.

---

It can take hours to go from instability to pain from swelling. Not a lot of nerves around ligaments.

That said, I don't know why that looks like an ACL. ACL without contact with no lever is really hard to do.

Auburn Coach Hugh Freeze said some nice things about Cal in his short post game press conference. Tfans in the comment section focused entirely on their coaching and QB being bad. Not much recognition of their place in the pecking order these days.



Here's another 4 minute video of Peyton Thorne after the game. He was not saying much about Cal and mostly explained plays as not being on the same page with the receivers. He didn't show much passion.

LunchTime said:

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Cal88 said:

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UrsineMaximus said:

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Bearly Clad said:

---

I wrote this in the game thread but I thought I'd start a postgame thread where we're all decompressed after the excitement of the game.

Postgame quick hitters:

- I feel bad for Marcus Harris but if there's a game to miss the first half it's SDSU. It's early but he and Nohl are looking like All-ACC CBs

- Thank God Fernando is OK. The way he went down with no contact and his reaction made it look like an Achilles. Instead he'll probably just be sore and maybe not practice this week. If we have to start Chandler I'm OK with it

- WR room looks so good. Remember, we're still missing Tobias and Kyion (two presumed starters)

- Defense is finally back! The pass rush still worries me but Reese back healthy should alleviate a good chunk of that

- OL was solid at run blocking last year and terrible at pass blocking. This year it's the opposite. The run blocking should get sorted because it's easier to progress at that through the season and Sioape (our best OL) and McDonald are coming back at some point

- Fernando looks like he's taken a big leap forward. If he keeps this up we could be a sneaky ACC contender

- 2-0 is 2-0! Room for growth but not many predicted that preseason or after week 1. Enjoy it Bear fans!

YOU ALREADY KNOW #GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/Vg1deMsBLf

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 7, 2024

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Looked to me like an ACL. I reacted the exact same way on my next step when I blew mine out. Very awkward step and shear fear screams through your body. It appeared to be a knee, perhaps he hyper extended it.

---

If it's an ACL injury, it's probably a partial tear otherwise he wouldn't be walking around afterwards.

---

It can take hours to go from instability to pain from swelling. Not a lot of nerves around ligaments.

That said, I don't know why that looks like an ACL. ACL without contact with no lever is really hard to do.

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You are clearly not a fan of the Chicago Bulls and remember the trauma of Derrick Rose in Game 1 of the 2012 playoffs.

It was mostly Wykoff at center against Davis

Re Mendoza's injury, he went into the medical tent to be examined (and pointed up to the sky in mini-prayer just before ducking his head into the door opening). Then he came out and played at least one more play, the victory formation kneel down (and possibly other plays according to some posts here). For those of you with expertise, would they have been able to detect an ACL tear by wiggling his knee around, and does the fact that he was allowed to come on for at least one more play after being examined tell us that he does not have a serious injury?

A complete tear would be detected on physicao exan==usuually the PCL is torn too. then the knee fills with blood and the knee would be grossly unstable on physical exam--you can slide the tibial platea back and forth in a total tear.
A partial tear or some othe rinternal derangement of the knee is not going to definitively diagnosed in the tent,
Mendoza will get an MRI. thats for sure, then you'll have answers.
.
If he hurt his knee, best case is he dislocated his patella through hyper-extension and relocated it spontaneously. This was my first impression from 100 meters away more--but was 100 meteres away ahd never did an exam so take that with grain of salt

I was at the game. The auburn fans thought the refs were very pro-Cal and the refs hurt their chances. They thought both instances reviewed for spearing were legit spearing. i disagreed on both.

They did not understand why spiking the ball, picking it and throwing it down is IG but the refs were right.

The PI in the EZ that took away a PI was a BS call but many Auburn fans thought the refs stole this game from them.

subjectivity is weird

cubzwin said:

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I was at the game. The auburn fans thought the refs were very pro-Cal and the refs hurt their chances. They thought both instances reviewed for spearing were legit spearing. i disagreed on both.

They did not understand why spiking the ball, picking it and throwing it down is IG but the refs were right.

The PI in the EZ that took away a PI was a BS call but many Auburn fans thought the refs stole this game from them.

subjectivity is weird

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Auburn got a bunch of calls on their last TD but we got a ton of favors from the refs up until that point