Cal in the NFL: Week 13

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.

• The ultimate “well, they played”: Maurice Harris failed to catch his only target in a 28-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
• Lorenzo Alexander made a single tackle (a sack) in a 21-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

Solid Performances

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

• This is one of the few weeks that you will see Goff show up in this section. Goff completed 17 of 33 passes for 207 yards while throwing for one touchdown and one interception. The modest effort proved to be enough, however, as the Rams beat the Detroit Lions by a final score of 30-16.
• Bryan Anger had himself another busy week, punting 6 times for an average of 44.5 yards/punt. One of the six punts went for a touchback while two of them pinned the opposing Carolina Panthers inside of their own 20-yard line. Anger and the Buccaneers went on to pick up the 24-17 win.

The Rodgers Complex

Aaron Rodgers had himself another mediocre game this past Sunday, completing 31 of 50 passes for just 233 yards and a touchdown (no interceptions). When you throw the ball 50 times in a game at a 60% clip, you expect for a little more production, especially when it’s Aaron bleeping Rodgers that we are talking about, right?

Also, this Packers team is definitely good enough to beat a terrible Arizona Cardinals squad that literally wants to lose in order to grab the top pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. Additionally, this was a HOME GAME! Well, they didn’t, as the Cardinals won the game by a score of 20-17 after a possible game-tying field goal was missed by Mason Crosby as time expired.

Luckily, the Packers took action and have finally fired coach Mike McCarthy. This move was long overdue and hopefully Rodgers can get back on track with the new coach next season.

The Offensive Line

The weekly report from our two favorite NFL offensive linemen.

• Alex Mack and the Atlanta Falcons suffered their fourth consecutive loss this past week, this time at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. Mack and the Falcons offensive line allowed three sacks and paved the way for just 34 rushing yards. The Falcons also failed to get anything going in the passing game with just 97 yards through the air. This is an offense with tons of talent, and one that produced earlier in the year, so it is truly a mystery as to how they have regressed to one of the worst offenses in the NFL over the past few weeks.
• On the other hand, Mitchell Schwartz and the Kansas City Chiefs continued to be one of the best offenses in the NFL despite the recent release of Kareem Hunt after the team determined that he was dishonest about his domestic violence situation. The Chiefs offense put up 40 points on 469 offensive yards while Schwartz and the offensive line did not allow a single sack. The Chiefs beat the Oakland Raiders in a closer-than-expected game by a score of 40-33.

Stars of the Week

For consecutive weeks, this section is comprised of a pair of defensive studs putting up some of their best performances of the season.

• The New Orleans Saints suffered an extremely unexpected 13-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. However, Cameron Jordan had arguably his best game of the season, making seven tackles with two sacks and a forced fumble.
• Hardy Nickerson also had himself a very nice week, recording five tackles and a forced fumble in a 24-10 loss to the Denver Broncos.

Player of the Week

• Keenan Allen, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

For back-to-back weeks, Keenan Allen is our Player of the Week! However, this week, it is a little different. Last week, we had few great performances from our Bears, and Jared Goff was on bye, so Keenan basically won by default. This week, he took his POTW performance and doubled or more than doubled his catch and yardage totals, finishing with a monstrous 14 catches on 19 targets for 148 yards and a touchdown. In a game in which the Chargers had to play without Melvin Gordon and got little production from backup Austin Ekeler, Keenan played the role of the primary offensive weapon for the Chargers, and was able to successfully lead them the a 33-30 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Week 13 In Recap

• We had a few great individual performances this week, but our Cal players’ teams as a whole struggled to our second losing record of the season, combining for a poor 4-6 effort.
• The average scores of those games did favor us, however, giving us a slight 23-21 win.

Season Record: 98–75–2

Weekly W/L Record: 8-1-3

Pythagorean Win-Loss: 11–2

Bears Record: 7–5 (and a Cheez-It Bowl appearance)

GO BEARS!