Looks like the opening lines have Cal favored by 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 points

And WHAT exactly has Baylor shown anybody yet this year? They've played 3 terrible drecks, one of the drecks of the conference, and an inept Texas offense. The only real defense they played in Texas basically stuffed them.

Petty's numbers are better than his ability (see Trevor Knight for OU) ...

There's a reason that there's a saying Baylor's Baylor ... you'll learn about that a little bit this week.

I'd take the points in this one and sit back and watch it on DVR for those watching the SEC Elimination Game of the Week.
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Baylor has been better the past few years. Bryce Petty had a monster year last year. I agree that part of, maybe even most of the reason is Art Briles system, but he's good. It's a road game for TCU. Ease up a little bit Tequilla. You are riding high after a big win.
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Waco is a 90 minute bus ride from TCU - so yes, it's a road game ... but this is definitely not like hopping a 3 hour flight down to Denver for a game. When games are that close you tend to get a lot more road fans at the game.

I've got 3 points that I'll make and will keep making this week on this game:

1) The better defense on the field getting 10 points in the game generally leads me to taking the points and the better defense

2) Everybody sucks off Art Briles (and he's definitely a good/great offensive coach) and how great Baylor is, but in reality, what have they ever really won? They are getting more mileage out of I'm not sure what than any school I've seen this side of Oregon.

3) Equally, many are sitting there talking all shocked at TCU having success but forgetting that the biggest reason for their struggles the last 2 years was issues at the QB position. Since jumping into the Big 12, even with the QB struggles, they've only lost by more than 2 scores in 2 games in conference play. The year before jumping to the Big 12 they won the Mountain West including a win at Boise. The year before that? Rose Bowl win. Year before that? Loss in Fiesta Bowl to Boise.

So yes, you're probably right that I'm riding high after a big win. However, my dog in the fight has a coach with a track record of winning big and winning big games (7-7 in the last 10 games against Top 10 teams - that's a nice record). Baylor's best year ever by far was last year where once expectations hit them they got slaughtered by Okie Lite and then blitzed by Blake Bortles and Co. in the Fiesta Bowl.

One last thing ... there's absolutely no love lost between these schools. And in my opinion, the hatred is far greater from TCU down to Baylor than the other way around (long story involving politics and the breakup of the SWC). It's a "rivalry" game that means a lot more to TCU than Baylor (who is always looking down with envy to Texas).
 
If we can't score 35+ on Cal, the offensive staff and Petersen need to be lit on fire. That's probably what it will take to win the game. I don't care how good or bad Miles is. Cal gave up 49 to Arizona, 49 in regulation to Colorado, and 59 to WSU. Petersen is an offensive coach. I don't like blaming Smith too much because Petersen is ultimately in charge. They have talked about coaching the players differently and some changes in the playbook. Big improvement should be expected.
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The big red flag to me this week is that even in the games where Cal gave up a ton of points, most of those points came through the air. We know that generally speaking Cal has recruited reasonably well going back 3-4 years (before Dykes) and that a lot of what we saw last year with Cal was a team that was slaughtered by injuries.

I'm not saying that I think what Cal's been doing isn't a bit of smoke and mirrors ... and I'd be surprised if anybody thought that that was what I was saying ... but on this board, I'm never surprised by people doing a lot of twisting ...

I personally don't think that Arizona is that good, and that's the best team that Cal has played so far (although Colorado is a much improved team this year regardless of whether it shows up in the win/loss column). I do think that this is a chance where Cal's going to have a definite step-up game in terms of competition as we'll have the best defense that they've seen and probably the best OL (even though they need to improve significantly). The optimistic side of me says that we'll be able to control the LOS and that will help our offense move the ball fairly significantly.

I do think that the offense is going to have to get into the 30s for us to win the game this week as while I do think that our secondary is improving, their strength matches to our weakness whereas that doesn't appear to be true on the other side of the ball.

One thing I haven't seen anybody talk about but is making me feel a little bit better is that for as well as Goldson has been playing for ND, he had a lot of struggles against the Stanford defense. So for as bad as our offense was against Stanford, I'm thinking we're learning that the Stanford defense is pretty good while their offense is fairly pedestrian. There's nobody left on our schedule that will play anywhere close to the kind of defense that we saw from Stanford.
 
Tequilla, Briles has turned Baylor into a winner. They were dog shit before he got there. They haven't gotten over the hump, but he's accomplished things at Baylor that deserve respect.

I have no idea what point you are trying to make about Oregon. Stop dooging it up. Oregon won 10+ games five years in a row, and 11+ the last four. Chip Kelly was a truly great coach for them. Oregon gets recognition because they have been one of the best programs in college football in recent history. BCS Bowl wins and title game appearances are huge accomplishments and deserve recognition.

I don't know the doog term for the Horned Frog's, but come on. 10 points may be a lot, but TCU being underdogs seems reasonable to me. TCU is coming off a 4-8 season. One big win doesn't make you a world beater. You have to earn respect and Vegas obviously isn't buying that TCU is an elite team at this point.
 
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If we can't score 35+ on Cal, the offensive staff and Petersen need to be lit on fire. That's probably what it will take to win the game. I don't care how good or bad Miles is. Cal gave up 49 to Arizona, 49 in regulation to Colorado, and 59 to WSU. Petersen is an offensive coach. I don't like blaming Smith too much because Petersen is ultimately in charge. They have talked about coaching the players differently and some changes in the playbook. Big improvement should be expected.
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The big red flag to me this week is that even in the games where Cal gave up a ton of points, most of those points came through the air. We know that generally speaking Cal has recruited reasonably well going back 3-4 years (before Dykes) and that a lot of what we saw last year with Cal was a team that was slaughtered by injuries.

I'm not saying that I think what Cal's been doing isn't a bit of smoke and mirrors ... and I'd be surprised if anybody thought that that was what I was saying ... but on this board, I'm never surprised by people doing a lot of twisting ...

I personally don't think that Arizona is that good, and that's the best team that Cal has played so far (although Colorado is a much improved team this year regardless of whether it shows up in the win/loss column). I do think that this is a chance where Cal's going to have a definite step-up game in terms of competition as we'll have the best defense that they've seen and probably the best OL (even though they need to improve significantly). The optimistic side of me says that we'll be able to control the LOS and that will help our offense move the ball fairly significantly.

I do think that the offense is going to have to get into the 30s for us to win the game this week as while I do think that our secondary is improving, their strength matches to our weakness whereas that doesn't appear to be true on the other side of the ball.

One thing I haven't seen anybody talk about but is making me feel a little bit better is that for as well as Goldson has been playing for ND, he had a lot of struggles against the Stanford defense. So for as bad as our offense was against Stanford, I'm thinking we're learning that the Stanford defense is pretty good while their offense is fairly pedestrian. There's nobody left on our schedule that will play anywhere close to the kind of defense that we saw from Stanford.
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I think you meant "tugging". HTH.
 
If we can't score 35+ on Cal, the offensive staff and Petersen need to be lit on fire. That's probably what it will take to win the game. I don't care how good or bad Miles is. Cal gave up 49 to Arizona, 49 in regulation to Colorado, and 59 to WSU. Petersen is an offensive coach. I don't like blaming Smith too much because Petersen is ultimately in charge. They have talked about coaching the players differently and some changes in the playbook. Big improvement should be expected.

Cal will pass for a lot of yards, but sacks and turnovers can hopefully negate some of that. I know the Eastern game scarred some. It was a pathetic performance, but it was also a comedy of errors. Dropped interceptions, drive extending penalties, Kikaha used frequently in coverage, etc. Most of that seems to have been fixed. I don't even want to think about possibly losing to Cal.
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Absolutely. I just cannot see us beating Oregon in autzen, so this game is probably a must win if Petersen wants to salvage this season and win 9 games and maybe 10. I already picked uw to win this game, but I'm not that confident in my prediction.
If we lose this game Petersen should be fired at midfield
 
Baylor is more or less where Oregon was 10+ years ago ... they puff out their chest like they've accomplished a lot when in reality they really haven't accomplished much of anything ... that's the point I was trying to make. I'm surprised that you're thinking that I'm saying that Oregon hasn't accomplished much in the last 5+ years (although time will tell how much of Oregon's success is tied to what Chip Kelly did for them).

Your points on TCU are definitely valid and from the outside looking in I'd say the same thing about a team with the 2+ year resume that TCU has had. It's hard to be dialed in on everything that is going on and I definitely wouldn't expect a lot around here to be dialed in on what is going on with TCU.

I don't get to watch as much TCU as I'd like to, but I probably end up watching about half of their games each year. They've completely changed the offense to make things significantly easier on Boykin who had to play well before he was ready to at QB the last 2 years due to Casey Pachall losing a year basically to a drug/alcohol problem and then last year with an injury for the balance of the year. Defensively, TCU has been what most have come to expect from them. In 2012, TCU ranked 18th nationally in total defense (yards allowed). In 2013, they had an off year ranking 28th nationally in total defense.

Simply put, their struggles have all been on the offensive side of the ball. The biggest challenge/hurdle for TCU in recruiting outside of the major conferences was at the QB position. They got lucky in getting their "Kellen Moore" in Andy Dalton. Now that they are in the Big 12, the hope would be that they'll be able to start recruiting higher caliber QBs. Their defensive system is time tested and proven.

I'm sure I got laughed at before the season for saying that they had the talent to compete for the Big 12 title. I'm fairly certain that when I said that the long odds on TCU to win the national title was laughed at. I'm sure many didn't believe me saying that they had a good shot against Oklahoma. They've got a good to great shot against Baylor. Win that game and they are looking at a downhill route to the College Football Playoffs. Win this weekend at Baylor and some of those comments don't look so crazy.

Let me ask you this - has anything in the last 2 years made you not think that Gary Patterson isn't one of the best coaches in America? And if you still believe that he's on the short list, then what about them having success or expecting to have success playing Baylor (who again, while I agree has earned some respect still isn't a program that is used to the high expectations of winning) is THAT crazy?

 
I came here to comment on the Cal spread. What is this TCU/Baylor garbage polluting the bored?
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It's what the LPT would call threadjacking ...

It's also arguably the 2nd biggest football game this weekend in the national picture.
 
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Tequilla, we get that you are a TCU fan, and the Horned Frog's are a legit team this year.

But Baylor's offense is too damn potent to lose this game at home.

Baylor win rather easily, say 54-28?
 
Tequilla, we get that you are a TCU fan alum, and the Horned Frog's are a legit team this year.

But Baylor's offense is too damn potent to lose this game at home.

Baylor win rather easily, say 54-28?
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You mean the same offense that had their QB go 7 for 22 this past weekend for 111 yards? Which means relying on a team to run the ball against a team that historically ranks quite high in run defense rankings?

I'd be shocked if Baylor put up anywhere close to 54 points.
 
Need Cyler to have a reasonable enough game that we can run the football on Cal ...

Reason #5 in 5 reasons will be important this week so that Cal doesn't go score 50+ points since that's what they want to do.

I saw two early lines that really made me scratch my head:

Mississippi St is a home dog to Auburn - State's the best team I've watched this entire year

TCU is a 10 point road dog at Baylor ... love taking the underdog with the better defense.
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So you haven't watched Auburn this year?
 
If I had lighter fluid and a torch I would kill myself after reading this thread.
 
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