The Golden Bears have won eight of the last 10 meetings with UCLA in Berkeley. And the Bears have been playing close games all season long, with six of their 11 games so far this season decided by a single score or less.

Cal is 2-4 in those games, but what do we say about rivalry games? Could the Bruins be on upset watch after the season came to a grinding (and disappointing) halt last week in a 48-45 loss to USC?

Bill Connelly’s SP+ doesn’t see it. The predictive model is calling for a 39-23 UCLA victory.

UCLA was hoping to play its way into the Pac-12 title last week when it hosted USC. Two weeks ago, UCLA had an outside shot at making it into the College Football Playoff. Instead, back-to-back losses have left the Bruins on the outside looking in on both the CFP and conference title games.

“They were awesome,” coach Chip Kelly said this week of his team’s response. “Sunday night, we were flying around and Sunday’s difficult when you play a Friday game because you just played the day before, so we really tell them to go with their speed and the speed they went at Sunday night was full speed, so it was really cool to be around.

“Those guys, the one thing about this group is they love playing football, so I think this is kind of their sanctuary.”

The Bruins are seeking their first nine-win season since the 2014 squad went 10-3. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. PT on FOX.