Oregon-Cal has Vegas’ highest points total over/under in any game since at least 1980

Oregon and Cal are both a specific kind of football team.

They are both in the top 30 nationally in scoring offense, posting a combined 79 points per game. And they are both in the bottom six in scoring defense, allowing a combined 82.

So when Oregon and Cal play each other in Berkeley on Friday night, it won’t be for the faint of heart. Points will be in tall supply, and there won’t be much defense at all. The over/under in Las Vegas for this game is 89 or 89.5 points at most books, the highest over/under ever tracked by OddsShark.com’s database, which goes back to 1980. (All of these are recent games, thanks to the emergence of hurry-up spread offenses.)

And as you can see, six of the eight previous games on the list went over the projected points total

The scoreboard operators at California Memorial Stadium will be busy beavers.

TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN. The broadcasters are Allen Bestwick, former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, and Kris Budden.

Radio: Oregon and Cal

Online streaming: WatchESPN

Spread: Cal is a 3-point favorite.

Make friends: Get to SB Nation’s team blog chats for this game at Addicted to Quack and California Golden Blogs.

1. Oregon will do its damage on the ground. The Ducks, for all their shortcomings, do have a whale of a running game. Running back Royce Freeman averages 7.7 yards per carry, and the Ducks have spent the season rolling four or five men deep in the backfield. They’re only somewhat explosive, but they run with ceaseless efficiency and keep their offense on schedule. The ground game stands to take a good bit of pressure off rookie quarterback Justin Herbert.

2. For Cal, it’s about the passing game. Veteran transfer QB Davis Webb is a gunslinger, and watching Cal score tons of points into the wee hours of the East Coast morning has become a miniature college football tradition this year. The Bears throw a ton, and they’re pretty good at it. Webb is neither superbly efficient nor apt to pull off huge plays, but he’s good enough at both, and Cal can beat just about anyone when he’s really ticking. Webb has a 171 efficiency rating when Cal wins, which would hold up under normal circumstances as a nationally elite mark.

3. It’s hard to figure out how either defense will get stops. Neither unit produces much havoc. Both have tended to give their opponents plenty of room to operate. Both do poorly on passing downs, when they’re supposed to be at a significant advantage. Both have been varying degrees of putrid against the run, and both have been generally bad against the pass. It’d be nice to be able to suggest a reason this game will be different than we all think, but there’s not one.