Bob Dunning picks the Ags by 4:

AGGIES over SOUTH DAKOTA STATE … Dan Hawkins says this is the best team ever to wear the Blue and Gold. This would be an excellent place to start a playoff run, but it won’t be easy. Take the Ags by 4.[/quote

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/bobs-picks-is-chip-kelly-going-to-suit-up/]

Brief recap of each Big Sky game by Bob Dunning:

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-uc-davis-prepares-for-second-consecutive-road-game/

Some of those players could be nursing injuries...

I wonder if the Aggies are having any early morning practices during this unbelievably scorching heatwave this week? It was 115 in Sacramento yesterday!

From the Davis Enterprise:

Starting with excellent field position at the Cal 34, the Aggies moved quickly into the red zone before facing a critical fourth-and-1 at the Cal 9.

However, Trent Tompkins attempted to pick up the first down on the right side of Cal’s defensive line but was stopped for a two-yard loss by safety Daniel Scott in what turned out to be a dramatic shift in momentum.

Hawkins said afterward that there was no thought of going for a field goal and a potential 10-0 lead in that situation.

“Against a team like Cal, you’re not going to win by kicking a field goal in the red zone,” he said.

“It’s a tough road, for sure, but this is the level where we want to be and it’s the level where we are, and the cool thing is that we’re in the fight,” Hawkins noted.

“Every game comes down to a few plays, so we’ll learn from this game, flush it and move on. Nobody in South Dakota cares about what happened here today.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-aggies-were-prepared-but-bears-post-victory/

I think the two of you pretty much summed it up nicely.

Cal made the big plays when the needed them and that was because of the speed and athleticism of the players that made those plays. Like Mike said, Cal has a lot of offensive playmakers. They made a couple of critical plays that stopped the Aggie momentum and, once they turned the tide, they were hard to stop. The breaks went primarily Cal's way too. That 65 yard punt was huge.

In general, I liked what I saw from the Aggies regardless of the disappointing final score. We really held our own against their size, speed and athleticism. I was impressed with our O line and I thought Hastings shows a lot of promise. Cal's D made things challenging for him and he made some mistakes but, overall, he looked poised and threw some accurate bullets into a few small creases in the defense.

I hope we didn't get too banged up. The injury to Jake Parks is a big concern and I saw several other players leave the game with injuries. Hopefully, our depth will be a big plus for us this year. We'll need to be deep with the brutal schedule we have. Things don't get any easier next week at SDSU. The Jacks defense completely shut down Iowa. They're corn-fed big, aggressive and strong.

Utah Tech got off to a terrible start against Sac throwing 3 INT's in the first 10 minutes of the game and fell behind 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and 35-10 at the half. Sac rolled up 589 total yards but gave up 579 with Utah Tech passing for 506 of those yards.

Cal 34 Aggies 13
Washington 24 Idaho 17
Montana 47 Northwestern State 0
Eastern Washington 36 Tennessee State 29
Montana State 40 McNeese State 17
Sac State 56 Utah Tech 33
Houston Baptist 46 Northern Colorado 34

I really didn't care for Hawk saying "this is the best Aggie team in history." I think it would have been much better to say "we have a lot of talent and the the potential to be one of the best teams in Aggie history." It will now look like a big failure if we don't play like "the best team in history."

We certainly didn't get blown out but, overall, I think the final score was disappointing. I hope we can regroup. Next week doesn't get any easier.

Agree, SDSU may better a tougher opponent than Cal and the noise will be deafening in their house. SDSU looked like they banged up a bit and we may have lost Parks. I think we will be significant underdogs going into the game.

We had a 3rd and 1 and then turned the ball over on downs and came away with nothing after our INT.

Total yards: Cal 415 Aggies 387
Hastings: 32-50 for 242 1TD 2INT
Gilliam Jr 14 carries for 115 & 1TD

The Fat Lady is singing....

Total yards after 3 quarters: Ags 306 Cal 298

The character of the team will be tested now...will we play hard now or lay down...

Another ill-advised pass into blanketed coverage...

Total yards: Cal 205 Aggies 186
3rd & 4th down conversions: Cal 3-6 and 0-0 Aggies 4-10 and 1-3