UCLA Will Look to Cover Against Cal

UCLA vs. Cal, 4:30 ET

This is an interesting matchup a bit later in the day as we see two California teams taking each other on with UCLA visiting Cal. UCLA comes in looking to climb the ladder a bit and get an even better bowl game. Cal might want to play spoiler in this matchup.

UCLA comes in with an 8-3 record and probably the best player in the game with Dorian Thompson-Robinson. The bad news for UCLA is that they've dropped their past two games and have lost three of their past five games. This is one they need to step up and return to their dominance they had early in the year. Last week was a tough matchup aginst USC, but the week prior, losing to Airozna at home had to be because they were looking ahead. There really was no other reason for losing that game. Their defense isn't great, they allow over 400 yards per game to offenses, but UCLA's offense should have a field day being able to attack a weak Cal secondary.

Cal doesn't have much of a chance in this game, but they have to feel pretty good about themselves for pulling out a victory over Stanford last week. Prior to that, they lost six straight games. Now, they stay at home and bring in another tough UCLA opponent. In order for them to win, they will need to have Jack Plummer not throw interceptions (he has nine on the season) and they will need Plummer to move the ball effectively through the air. Their running game doesn't even average 100 yards per game so that isn't the best route to win this game.

I think UCLA isn't looking to make a statement in this one, but I do think they need to get back on track with a win against an inferior opponent. I don't think they take their foot off the gas in this game and am going to play UCLA -10 in this one.

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