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Home / Cal Poly / Despite two straight losses, Cal Poly football probably into FCS Playoffs with a win Saturday

Despite two straight losses, Cal Poly football probably into FCS Playoffs with a win Saturday

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Updated: November 18, 2016
Kori Garcia may continue to shoulder a lot of carries on Saturday. By Owen Main

Kori Garcia may continue to shoulder a lot of carries on Saturday. By Owen Main

Win, and you’re in. Probably.

Despite a pair of late-season losses, Cal Poly football could still make the playoffs. Heck, they could even host a first-round game. According to Craig Haley of STATS FCS Football, Cal Poly is still the 21st ranked team in the nation and would even be in line for a possible home game in the first round.

Cal Poly hasn’t played a home playoff game in nearly a decade, but they have a chance to make that a possibility with a win on Saturday.

Of course, that tweet did include a solid caveat. The Mustangs have to beat a frisky Northern Colorado team on Saturday in San Luis Obispo.

So why is this team, which lost to Weber State last weekend and Eastern Washington the week before, still in the playoff hunt? Strength of schedule is a hell of a thing.

Here’s Craig Haley’s post on all the weekend games. Haley likes the Mustangs’ chances. If Kyle Lewis doesn’t play, their road to a win on Saturday becomes, well, a little more bumpy.

Are they healthy enough?

To me, this weekend’s game comes down to good old fashioned health with a touch of grit and nastiness. The Mustangs are banged-up and have been for the last month, at least. This is a team whose skill players take a beating, and Cal Poly has felt the effects. Kyle Lewis was knocked-out early in the Eastern Washington game and is questionable for the season finale. Without his big-play threat, teams have really been able to key on Dano Graves, Kori Garcia, and Joe Protheroe.

Protheroe has been dealing with his own bruises, often running hard and coming up limping in the past month.

The knee pad on Dano Graves knee looks like a foam square from the ball pit at my daughter’s gymnastics class.

Once you factor in grit and pain tolerance — these guys have it in abundance — I don’t know how much these nicks and bruises really factor into overall play. I suspect the amount is more than absolute zero.

On defense, you may be able to scheme around players who are missing. Offensively, it’s a little more difficult when you lose your home run threat and three of the four guys who touch the ball the most are feeling it.

Saturday’s game will include two teams with playoff aspirations in their final game of the season. Cal Poly won’t be the only team with bruises, but they’ve scored 21 points or fewer in three of their past four games. Mustang fans really have to hope that Lewis somehow can be a threat and that the team can find a way to score more than the 18 points per game they’ve averaged over the past two games.

Here’s to a really fun finale on Saturday.

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