Cal in the NFL: Week 14

Well, They Played

These guys will show up on the stat sheet but may have not had the greatest of contributions in their respective games.

• In a game that I would have to guess that not many people watched, Lorenzo Alexander and the Buffalo Bills fell to the New York Jets by a score of 27-23. Alexander made just one tackle in the game.
• Tyson Alualu had one tackle as his Pittsburgh Steelers suffered an embarrassing 24-21 defeat at the hands of the bottom-feeding Oakland Raiders.
• Oh boy. Do I even want to recap what happened to Jared Goff on Monday Night against the Bears? He had the worst game of his professional career, completing 20 of 44 passes for 180 yards, throwing no touchdowns and four interceptions. The Bears defense looked unstoppable, keeping an elite Rams offense to just 6 points in a 15-6 win. Well, onto the next one.
• Hardy Nickerson and the Cincinatti Bengals played hard against the Los Angeles Chargers but fell short with a 26-21 loss. Nickerson had two tackles in the close loss.

The Offensive Line

The weekly report from our two favorite NFL offensive linemen.

• Alex Mack and the Atlanta Falcons continued their struggles this Sunday, falling to 4-9 with a 34-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers. They did manage to out-gain the Packers offense 344-300, but they also had 13 penalties for 101 yards. Things are getting ugly in Atlanta.
• It wasn’t the best game for the Mitchell Schwartz and the Chiefs offensive line, as they allowed three sacks and had Patrick Mahomes constantly on the run against an elite Ravens defense. However, the Chiefs ever-potent offense did manage 441 offensive yards, enough for a 27-24 overtime win.

Solid Performances

Some solid, albeit unspectacular, performances from our former Bears.

• While we definitely have been missing the elite statistical performances that we have become accustomed to from Aaron Rodgers, it definitely was nice to see his Packers get back into the win column. Rodgers completed 21 of 32 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions and also added three carries for 44 yards. Again, not the greatest game from Rodgers, but we hope that we can begin to see him trending upwards once again with Mike McCarthy finally gone.
• Bryan Anger had a great game, punting five times for an average of 45 yards/punt. His long went for a booming 62 yards and one of his five punts went inside the 20. Despite Anger’s success, his Buccaneers lost the game by a score of 28-14 to the New Orleans Saints.
• Cameron Jordan continues to play great football as of late, recording his third straight game with exactly three sacks in the Saints win over the Buccaneers. Jordan had four total tackles in the game.

Player of the Week

• Keenan Allen, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

For the third straight week, Keenan Allen is our Player of the Week! This was one of our worst weeks of the season for our former Bears, but Allen was still able to come up with a solid performance in a 26-21 win against the Bengals, catching five of nine targets for 78 yards and a touchdown. He has really stepped up as of late with Melvin Gordon out for the Chargers, becoming their primary offensive weapon. Furthermore, he has now scored in 5 straight games after having 7 consecutive scoreless games. Lastly, Allen’s 78 yards have pushed him over the 1,000 yard mark for a second consecutive season. It definitely has been great to see him fully healthy and dominating the league once more.

Week 14 In Recap

• As stated above, our Cal players had a poor week individually, and their teams didn’t do much better, combining to go 4-6 for the second straight week..
• The average scores of those games didn’t favor us either, giving us a slight 23-22 loss.

Season Record: 102–81–2

Weekly W/L Record: 8-3-3

Pythagorean Win-Loss: 11–3

GO BEARS!