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Cal Visits Oregon In Friday Night Tilt

Oct 12, 2021

Following its bye week, Cal returns to action Friday night when the Golden Bears travel to Oregon to face the No. 9 Ducks. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN.

Cal leads the all-time series, 41-40-2, and prevailed in last year's contest in Berkeley, 21-17. Nikko Remigio's 28-yard TD reception from Chase Garbers with 5:14 left in the third quarter proved to be the difference as the Bears shut out Oregon in the second half.

Cal's last win vs. Oregon in Eugene came in 2007. Justin Forsett's 1-yard touchdown run with 3:11 to go broke a 24-all tie, and with 16 seconds left in the game Marcus Ezeff forced a Cameron Colvin fumble at the Cal 1-yard line. The ball rolled out of the end zone for a touchback to give the Bears possession and a 31-24 victory. Forsett rushed for 101 yards and two scores on the ground, while DeSean Jackson finished with 11 catches for 161 yards and two TD receptions.

Garbers Picking Up the Pace at Quarterback
— Through five games this season, Chase Garbers is putting up some of the best numbers of his career. To date, he is 107-for-170 for 1,245 yards and seven touchdown through the air.
— Garbers leads the Pac-12 in per game total offense (281.2 ypg) while he is third in passing yards (249.0 ypg) and completions (107).
— Garbers' passing yards per game and 62.9% completion percentage are career bests.
— Two of Garbers' career 300-yard passing games have come in 2021 at Washington (319) and TCU (309). His other two 300-yard games also came on the road, both in 2019 at Ole Miss (career-high 357) and Oregon State (315).
— Garbers has completed 20 passes of 20 yards or more.
— With a 7-yard rush for Cal's final TD at Washington, Garbers tied the school record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with nine (also Brian Bedford and Dave Penhall). 
— Garbers has 898 yards rushing for his career and is closing in on the school record for rushing yards by a Cal quarterback (931, Joe Kapp).

Offense Producing Big Plays
— So far this season, Cal's offense is averaging 408.6 yards per game, a high during the Justin Wilcox era in Berkeley. Cal is sixth in the Pac-12 in total offense as well as rushing (159.6 ypg) and passing (249.0 ypg).
— Cal produced 13 plays of 15 yards or more against Sacramento State (8 rush, 5 pass) – the most in any game under Wilcox.
— Kekoa Crawford leads the team with eight plays of 15 or more yards from the line of scrimmage, followed by Trevon Clark and Chase Garbers with six each and Jeremiah Hunter with five. All of the plays by Crawford, Clark and Hunter are receptions, while Garbers' are all rushing 
—  Overall, Cal has 39 plays (14 rush, 25 pass) of 15+ yards over five games. The per-game breakdown is: Nevada (5 – 3 rush, 2 pass), at TCU (7 – 1 rush, 6 pass), Sacramento State (13 – 8 rush, 5 pass), at Washington (9 – 1 rush, 8 pass) and Washington State (5 – 1 rush, 4 pass).

Bears Getting More from Moore
— Damien Moore leads the Golden Bears rushing attack with 62.6 yards per game, including an average of 5.0 yards per rush. He has scored at least one touchdown in four games this season with a total of six to date (1 run vs. Nevada, 2 rush at TCU, 2 rush vs. Sac State, 1 reception at Washington).
— Moore's five rushing TDs all came in the first three games and were the most in the first three games of a season for Cal since Shane Vereen posted six rushing TDs in the first three games of the 2010 season.
— Moore ranks tied for fifth in the Pac-12 in total touchdowns (6) and tied for sixth in rushing touchdowns (5).
— Moore's 26-yard TD catch at Washington was his first career TD reception.

Goode Playing Much Better Than Good
— Over his last 13 games, Cameron Goode has accumulated 16.5 tackles for loss and 10.0 quarterback sacks.
— At TCU, Goode had his 15th and 16th career sacks for a combined minus-27 yards. The 2.0 sacks tied a career high (also at UCLA in 2019). Goode added another tackle for loss, giving him 3.0 TFLs (-30 yards) for the game.
— Goode has 25 total tackles this season and tied for team honors with eight at Washington while his 3.0 tackles for loss (-30 yards), 2.0 sacks (-27 yards) and three quarterback hurries all pace the Golden Bears.

Long Plays Part of Cal Offense
— Cal had a combined seven completions of 30 yards or more in two games at TCU and vs. Sacramento State. The last time the Bears had that many in back-to-back games was in 2016 vs. Arizona State and Utah when Davis Webb was the Cal quarterback.
— Garbers' 68-yard pass to Trevon Clark at TCU was the longest career pass and catch for both players.

More Offensive Numbers on the Rise
— Cal is producing its some of its highest numbers over the past five seasons in four major offensive categories: scoring offense (24.2 ppg), total offense (408.6 ypg), rushing offense (159.6 ypg) and passing offense (249.0 ypg).
— The Bears' per-game rushing average is the team's highest since averaging 183.0 ypg on the ground in 2012.
— Cal's 5.1 yards per rush is its highest since a 5.6 average in 2008.

Long First-Quarter Drives for Bears
— Through five games this season, Cal has shown a knack for long first-quarter drives, with at least one drive in every game going 63 yards or more. The Bears had two each vs. Nevada, TCU and Sacramento State and one at Washington and vs. Washington State. Cal has produced seven TDs on the eight drives.
— Cal opened against Nevada by going 63 yards on 15 plays over 9:03, culminating with a 1-yard TD run by Damien Moore. The Bears followed with a seven-play, 72-yard drive over 4:08 and closed it out with a 2-yard TD pass from Chase Garbers to Nikko Remigio. The last time Cal scored touchdowns on its first two possessions came against Colorado in 2018.
— At TCU, the Bears drove 68 yards on their first possession only to be stopped on downs deep inside Horned Frog territory. But the next time they got the ball, they went 68 yards again, finishing with a 54-yard touchdown pass from Garbers to Trevon Clark.
— Against Sacramento State, Cal's first two drives went 85 and 69 yards, both ending in 4-yard TD runs by Damien Moore.
— Cal had a 13-play, 67-yard drive for at TD at Washington and a seven-play, 79-yard opening drive vs. WSU.
 — The Bears have scored 47 of their 121 points in the first quarter (38.8%)