College football: Unbeatens clash when Cal, Utah meet

SALT LAKE CITY - Long after the ESPN College GameDay set is broken down and the hype gives way to the kickoff for Cal’s biggest football game in eight years tonight, the outcome will be settled in the usual way.

Quarterback Jared Goff and the 23rd-ranked Bears (5-0, 2-0 Pac-12) will need a big game from their offensive line to derail the No. 5 Utes (4-0, 1-0) in front of an expected sellout crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

“It doesn’t matter how good Jared is. If doesn’t matter how good Kenny Lawler is. It doesn’t matter how good anyone is. If we go out there and play bad, our team will play bad,” senior guard Jordan Rigsbee said of the offensive line. “When we play good, we’re a phenomenal offense. When we don’t, we’re a very average to good offense.”

Specifically, when the O-line paves the way for the run game, the Bear Raid offense is at its best. But if Cal can’t win the line of scrimmage, the Utes will be free to unleash pressure on Goff and sit back in the secondary.

“They’ve got a great defensive front,” Cal coach Sonny Dykes said. “Your quarterback just can’t sit back there and throw it every down. We’re going to have to take some heat off Jared by running the football.”

The Bears - taking aim at their first 6-0 start since 1950 - haven’t played a game in this kind of spotlight since 2007, when they were 5-0 and ranked No. 2 before losing a 31-28 heartbreaker to Oregon State.

How severe was the fallout? From that day through the end of last season, Cal’s record was 40-55.

Now the stakes are high enough for the only two remaining unbeaten teams in the Pac-12 that ESPN will televise its College GameDay program from the Utah campus on Saturday morning.

The Utes had a bye last week following their stunning 62-20 win at Oregon.

Cal comes off a 34-28 win over Washington State that highlighted a recurring problem. Aside from a freakish 42-yard run by Vic Enwere on third-and-36 from the 4-yard line, Cal running backs gained just 69 yards, averaging 2.9 yards per attempt. Among 27 designed running plays, 12 went for 1 yard or less.

The week before, when the running backs gained 153 yards against Washington, the Bears had 14 attempts that went for no more than a yard. They failed to convert a fourth-and-goal run from the 1 and three other times could not negotiate a first down needing just one yard.

That follows a pattern established last year, when the Bears struggled to run against the league’s most physical defenses. In losses to Washington, UCLA and USC in 2014, Cal averaged just 2.3 yards per rush.

Without the balance of a run game, Goff will wear a target for the Utah defense. According to the website Pro Football Focus, Cal’s junior quarterback has been pressured 52 times (and sacked 12 times) in five games.

Dykes said the Utes can afford to keep their safeties back to defend the deep pass because their front seven is so good.

“It’s probably the strength of their defense,” he said. “It’s important to run the ball well on first down, stay on schedule. We’ve got to finish blocks better. We didn’t play as physical (against WSU) as we did the week before.”

The Bears also hope senior running back Daniel Lasco is ready to give them a lift. He sat out the Texas and Washington games with a hip muscle strain and was ineffective playing just the first half against the Cougars.

“I’m kind of aggravated with it a little bit,” Lasco said this week. “It’s all in my head. I know it’s 100 percent, or very close to it.”