Cal vs. Oregon State Fearless Prediction, Game Preview

By Pete Fiutak | October 17, 2018 11:56 pm CT

Cal vs. Oregon State fearless prediction and game preview.

Broadcast

Date: Saturday, October 20
Game Time: 4:00 ET
Venue: Reser Stadium, Corvallis, OR
Network: FOX

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Cal (3-3) vs. Oregon State (1-5) Game Preview

One Reason Why Cal Will Win

What’s the perfect cure to the embarrassment of losing to UCLA? Welcome to Oregon State.

The Bruins were at least showing signs of improvement before rolling into Berkeley and rocking Cal, but Oregon State hasn’t shown a thing yet, especially on defense.

Considering the Bears are having a big, big problem turning the ball over, dealing with a team that’s come up with just five takeaway so far – and is dead last in college football in third down defense – is a huge break.

The Beaver run defense wasn’t even close against Arizona and Arizona State, and in the games when the opposing running games weren’t great, it was because the passing games were going off.

To settle everything down, Cal will be able to get Patrick Laird going early, and if it uses QB Brandon McIlwain more, it has one of the Pac-12’s most dangerous weapons out of the backfield. However …

One Reason Why Oregon State Will Win

McElwain was a turnover machine against UCLA, and fellow quarterback Chase Garbers hasn’t been a whole lot better.

The Bears have been a ridiculous -11 in turnover margin over the last three games, with 14 giveaways over the span. Again, Oregon State doesn’t do enough to take the ball away, but this is the week it needs a few big breaks to go its way.

There’s no downfield passing game for the Beaver D to worry about, and Cal is hardly a sure-thing to finish off drives with points – there are way too many empty trips.

As long as OSU freshman Jermar Jefferson can get going early – he has over 100 yards in four of the last five games – and if the O can somehow get up early and make Cal press, the chances for turnovers will start to come.

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What’s Going To Happen

Cal will bounce back.

Oregon State will be rested and better, and the running game will keep this interesting throughout, but after losing the last three games in ugly fashion, the Bears will finally slow down the mistakes and come up with a win that should help them pull up out of the nosedive just a little bit.

It won’t be anything pretty, but the Bear running game will be a bit more dynamic and explosive, and it’ll outgain Jefferson and the Beaver attack.

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