The Stanford Cardinal travel up the road to Berkeley to face the California Golden Bears in The 113th Big Game. Stanford is rolling this season and will look to continue their march towards a possible BCS bowl berth. California has had a very up and down season and is coming off a strong performance against the No. 1 Oregon Ducks that ultimately came up short.
The line has opened for this weekend’s matchup and Stanford is currently a 6 1/2 to 7 point favorite against Cal. It’s not shocking given the disparities in their respective seasons. However, rivalry games are a different beast altogether. Last season, Cal was a 7 1/2 point underdog and yet they pulled a huge road upset, defeating Stanford 34-28.
Cal was a little bit better last year than they are this year as they sit at 5-5. However, as the Bears showed last week against Oregon, their defense is incredibly tough at home. No team has contained the Oregon offense like Cal did last week and that’s something for them to build on. Furthermore, given the nature of the rivalry, if the Bears lost every game during the season but managed to beat Stanford the season wouldn’t be a total lost.
Of course, the Bears offense remains incredibly inept outside of Shane Vereen. Their defense might contain Andrew Luck and the Stanford offense, but that won’t matter if Cal can’t get any points of their own on the board.