Lets see if the offense can get some points. Gonna be a rough season if we have to rely entirely on Gilliam breaking off 60+ yard runs.

Good play by bear safety for int. But the replay showed his landing foot was partially out of bounds. I don’t know why there wasn’t a replay. Cal has benefited from a couple of close missed calls.

Total yards after 3 quarters: Ags 306 Cal 298

Jake Parks down with injury... that would be disastrous if he missed time

Wonder why they switched punters?

Forced the punt, but poor field position now. C'mon offense, points this drive please.

3 and out and Cal has good field position now.

Short safe passes ain’t going to get it done at this point.

TD Cal and that should be the ball game

The Fat Lady is singing....

and we come out swinging with a pass for negative yards

Again too many short safe passes. At least practice going down field.

4th and 17 conversion!

and then promptly sacked

Why slip screens that get blown up?
4.8 yards per pass.

missed FG cherry on top for the offense

Great first quarter, great defensive game plan to start. Chaz Davis shines, and 2 sacks for the D.

The early play calling appeared much better, and we seemed to use our depth, keeping guys fresh.

I wished Hawk went for a FG in the first half. Ugh. Up 10-0 would have been great.

Final

Cal 34
Davis 13

Miles Hastings - 32/50 (64%), 242 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
Ulonzo Gilliam - 14 carries, 115 yards, 1 TD

Defense - 415 yards allowed (268 passing, 117 rushing), 1 INT

Like I said earlier, I don't want to put too much stock into a matchup against a Pac 12 team, but take out the 60 yard run from Gilliam and the offense as a whole looks anemic. Hastings was lucky to end the game with only 2 interceptions. Giving up 400 yards of offense obviously isn't fantastic, but I thought the defense played admirably for the most part especially when they weren't getting much help from the offense to keep the game close. To be perfectly honest, we might have a tougher opponent in South Dakota State next week.

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

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

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 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.

Hard to judge how good Cal is from this game, but they look a lot better than the 9th place team in the Pac-12. I hope they are for that would mean that the Aggies are better than they seemed today. I thought Hastings made some good throws, but he was under a lot of pressure from the Cal D-line. His two interceptions were his major failing. Those interceptions were a huge difference along with the near interception by King. Turn those three plays around and the final score is 27-20. Plus I think Hawkins erred in going for a first down when he had an almost automatic 3 points at Cal's 9 in the first quarter. Cal picked up a lot of momentum after they held on 4th and 1.

Agreed. This wasn't the worst game of all time in terms of our past FCS-FBS games, but definitely already puts a dent in the claim that this is going to be the best team in history of the program or whatever Hawk was claiming.

I think it was an encouraging game for the defense.

That comment by Hawkins doesn’t make any sense, except that he thinks this team can be as good as last, and he thinks last years team was the best. Actually it’s not a high bar, because we’ve not had many great teams in div 1.

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."

I'm right there with you that it was a weird statement to make. The 2018 squad was a play or two away from what I think was likely a trip to the national championship game. Coming out and saying that this year's team is the best in Aggie history was more than a bold claim given the QB situation and really only sets up for disappointment. Not to mention the absolute meat grinder of a schedule we have this year.

Anyway, on to South Dakota State. Hopefully we can figure out some consistency on offense this week.

I think a better comment might be "deepest Aggie team". His statement might prove its better to have an above average team with 2 standouts at QB and WR.

WHERE WAS BONAFIDE PLAYMAKER LANCE BABBS?

Where were WR transfers Crump and Kraut? I thought we might go to Castles and Thorpe more. It seems we mainly used our WRs from last year. Kraft and Hutton are good players, just possibly with limitations. Not deep threats, and don't have length. I would like to have seen more of LL, maybe he was helping protect Hastings.

UG - 7 receptions, 35 yds
LL - 3 carries; 2 receptions
Davis - 5 catches, 53 yds - congratulations
Babbs - 0 catches, 1 opportunity?

Defense
Buchanan - 8 tkls, 5 solo
Connor, Rex - 7 tkls
Venable- 6; King - 5; Budgett - 4

Hastings made some better decisions early. Is there some reason we don't throw the little sideline out like what Cal did late, which killed us? Encouraging game.

Best Aggie teams in school history...for various reasons.

'82
'01
'05
'18

Gilliam is a playmaker. Unfortunately we don’t have one at qb, just a “game manager” with a limited ceiling.

All of the teams mentioned
by AggieFinn had a better qb than now and qb is a big cog in the wheel. Unless you have an awesome defense and special teams or a tremendous rushing game, you need a qb that makes plays.

We have not stretched the defense for a long time now. I think the defense played relatively well and were not helped by the offense. I also did not see Babb.