calumnus said:freshfunk said:
That this win felt like so much of an upset was more due to media hype than reality. If you look at the specifics between the teams between 2023 and 2024, it was basically even. The lopsided win this year is a combination of bad coaching decisions by Auburn, much better play at QB by Cal and much worse QB play by Auburn.
But Cal fans shouldn't read too much into the win. If the Auburn coaches were smarter about it and had run the ball more, managed the QB passing game better, Auburn could've come out with the W. Instead, they tried to have Thorne outplay our pass defense which gave us the best shot to win.
I'm glad we got the win and it was great to celebrate it but let's not buy into our own hype too much. Our run offense and defense are still somewhat questionable IMO. Teams are less likely to look past us after this. They'll respect our back 7 much more than Auburn did and exploit weakness in our pass protection.
Yeah, pretty much. I think opposing coaches can look at this game and have some takeaways: run on offense and take away Mendoza's ability to roll right, keep him in the pocket. Thus our future success will depend on some combination of 1) getting starters back healthy and 2) our coaches coming up with better strategies to overcome those adjustments.
Cheap seats suggestion: Ott and Jet at wing at the same time. Pre snap motion, motion, motion.