Golden Nuggets: Cal-Oregon Predictions

Since everyone loves Oregon this season, everyone and their mothers have predictions about this game.  And they all say Cal is going to be annihilated.  Start drinking now, Cal fans, because Saturday could get ugly.

ESPN's accuscore simulator ran the Cal-Oregon game 10,000 times and...well, the results aren't pretty.  Oregon averaged outscoring us 41.8 to 18.5.  Cal won 11.2% of the time.  Look forward to James running for 150 and Thomas picking up nearly 200 through the air.  The lone bright spot for Cal is Shane Vereen, who is expected to run for 111 yards.

Ted Miller predicts a blowout.

Oregon 45, California 17: Homecooking or not, Cal and quarterback Brock Mansion, making his second career start, just won't be able to keep up with the Ducks. 

Phil Steele predicts a relatively narrow Oregon victory: 42-27.

Oregon got off to a slow start last week by managed to score 53 points in the final 3Q’s to rout a beat-up Washington team. This week they face a Cal team who is also without their starting QB Riley who is out for the year and last week Mansion hit just 50% of his passes with an 0-2 ratio but they were able to beat Washington St 20-13. LY Cal came into this game avg 49 ppg but were held to just 3 pts in the 42-3 loss. Cal has won 3 str in this series at home by 11 ppg and four of the L/7 have been decided by a TD or less but its tough to go against a Duck team that has been so prolific.

Bruce Feldman predicts a 45-28 Oregon victory.  He thinks Shane Vereen and the Cal D will keep the game close in the first half before Oregon pulls away in the second half.

John Tamahana predicts a 49-16 Oregon victory.

All five CBS writers predict an Oregon victory.

All five Yahoo writers (and 98% of their readers) pick Oregon to win.

Attendance prediction:

The average of this week's predictions is 71,319.19--a sellout!  Given the poor attendance this year and the sub-par year performance-wise, I wouldn't be surprised if attendance is in the 60,000s, but we should have at least 65k at Saturday's game.

After the jump the defense picks up the tempo during practice, the Pac-12 earns a new bowl bid, ESPN projects Cameron Jordan as a first round pick, and men's basketball cruises to a win in an exhibition game.

Football

• Daily Cal asks the Daily Emerald about the upcoming matchup, particularly how about to stop Oregon's offense.  The answer: you can't.  Daily Emerald predicts a 49-13 Oregon win.
• BearTerritory.net interviews DuckSportsAuthority.com with the usual set of questions: what can Cal possibly do to win this weekend?
• Cameron Jordan is picked 28th by the New England Patriots in Todd McShay's mock draft.
• Cam has jumped up to 20th on Mel Kiper's big board.
• Cal has been working hard to simulate the speed of Oregon's offense.  Tempo and conditioning are key factors the defense is focusing on this week.
• Brock Mansion needs to start fast to keep up with the Ducks.
• Staying disciplined and sticking to gap assignments will also be key to stopping the Oregon offense.
• Matt Summers-Gavin has settled into his position at left guard, where he spent most of the 2009 season.
• Oregon hopes to avoid the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.  Isn't it about time Juju brings the Ducks back down to earth?
• After hearing that Adam Duritz is a huge supporter of Cal, Chip Kelly decided to play Counting Crows at Oregon's practice.
• The Cal defense will have its hands full with Oregon's big, relatively anonymous lineman.
• The Pac-12 has agreed to send a team to the New Mexico Bowl in 2012 and 2013.  The opponent would be a Mountain West team.  First El Paso and now New Mexico? What exciting places to visit during the holidays!