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1. J Mac has arrived. Add in Benson and Dak Moore and that receiver group will be a problem for anybody. Dante has enough “it” to win a championship. Add that together with point number one along with Sadiq and the Ducks passing game will be a problem. JMU’s offense was better than expected and posed problems. The D did a great job of containing it to build a 34-3 lead. The momentum shift was startling/ concerning. About to go up 55-13, then a slip, an interception, a big return and a final score of 51-34. Ouch. I’m worried about the Davison injury. I want him back 100% against TT. Call me greedy. I’m not aware of any other injuries. For that I’m thankful. I’m hoping a dominant performance with a humbling ending sets up a confident and focused lead up to round two.

I’d theorize the relative cold and generally moist air, combined with the surface being more worn out after a full season (assuming we didn’t put down a new surface before the game) is not something our playing surface experienced a ton of this year. Maybe they weren’t all wearing full rain shoes given it wasn’t actually raining? Seemed very slippery though. I thought the receiver was flat out knocked over on the first pick, second one was iffy decision and forcing it a bit (imo), but it happens. I think Dante is hands down the best QB that has played so far in the playoff.

I agree with the Jekyll and Hyde comment completely. That’s exactly what worries me going forward. We can’t keep doing the tale of two halves thing and expect to survive against better teams. If Oregon plays like they did in the first half against JMU, that team can absolutely win a national championship. I don’t think that’s crazy to say at all. But the second half version is not getting through this playoff. What Ohio State did last year was just play their best football and keep playing it. No letups. No drifting. That’s what it takes now. It doesn’t matter if it’s the starters or the backups on the field, the standard has to stay the same. Focus, discipline, and resilience are non negotiable at this point. If Oregon can be the same team for four quarters, they’re good enough to win it all. If not, they won’t get there.

Agree with your take on Lanning’s decision to play Dante, at all, in the 2nd half. If he gets injured the Ducks are done, their quest for a title goes from being a favorite to being a decided underdog. The risk was not worth it.

I get the crowd point, and Tech fans will definitely show up, but I don’t think that’s going to decide this game. As long as they stay disciplined and don’t make it harder than it needs to be, the noise is just background. At the end of the day it still comes down to execution. If Oregon plays clean football, the crowd won’t matter much. If they don’t, then it won’t matter who’s in the stands anyway. DL and company have a lot to clean up in the next week and a half.

I wonder "WHY" the slipping? Is it the Nike cleats or is it the extra athletic taping? Multiple instances in other games this season. One would think these occurrences would be solved by now.

59-13 is looking pretty good right now. However, just like James Madison, if the Ducks truly want to be elite and a title contender, they need to beat these guys like Tyson beat Spinks. Leave no doubt.

I think Tech will have the crowd advantage. They’re going to bring a lot of fans because they haven’t played in a major bowl game as a conference champion since 1995. They’re also Texans, so they’re genetically predisposed to spending a lot of money to go watch football. However, the Ducks seem to have a good plan in place for crowd noise as we saw in a few games this season.

I think people get hung up because they’re talking about two different things and calling them the same thing. If you’re talking ideal, then yeah, success is winning it all. That’s always going to be the answer. If you don’t want to win a title, what are we even doing? But that doesn’t mean every season that doesn’t end with a trophy was a bad season. That’s just not how college football has ever worked. For years, if you won six games and went to a bowl, people were happy. If you won more than that, even better. Now the playoff exists and everyone suddenly acts like anything short of a title is a disappointment, which feels kind of ridiculous. To me, if you make the playoff, you had a good year. Full stop. You were one of the better teams in the country and you put yourself in the mix. Can you be bummed if you lose? Sure. Does that erase everything else? No. Winning it all is the goal, but making the playoff still means the season was successful. Both things can be true at the same time.

Naw, Johnson sees it is going short and slow, and comes back hard to get it. The defender sees that too, and either they both crash into each other with the ball knocked away, or at best—Johnson catches it and is knocked out-of-bounds at the two yard line. IMHO.

True, but it did look like the second one was going to be picked off anyway due to player positioning.

Honestly, after watching the James Madison game, I feel good about Oregon, but I’m not walking into the Texas Tech game acting like it’s a lock or anything. The offense clearly can score and they don’t really panic when stuff isn’t perfect, which is huge in a playoff game, but at the same time the defense gave up way too much for my liking. Against JMU you can survive that. Against Texas Tech, those mistakes turn into real problems fast. Tech’s defense is legit and they’re not going to give Oregon anything easy, so if the Ducks get impatient or start pressing early, this could turn into one of those games where you’re just uncomfortable the whole night. On the flip side, if Oregon stays balanced and doesn’t do anything dumb, they’re going to move the ball eventually because they always do. I think Oregon wins if they keep it clean and make Texas Tech earn everything, but if Tech controls the tempo and steals a turnover or two, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Oregon is the one chasing the game late. It really just feels like one of those playoff matchups where whoever blinks first probably loses.

It's difficult for me to guage because of the varied competition. Example: Tulane and JMU QB's were going against the best teams they faced all year. The JMU QB played very well against OBD's. He executed well in the first half but could not punch in a TD against the Ducks frontline D. In the second half against the 3's and 4's he and his teammates rolled up 28 points. However, he did not win and that is what matters. On a do over, Tulanes QB missed wide open throws and couldn't execute. Ole Miss QB, just like Dante simply took advantage of lesser competition. Both QB's will face stout, pressuring defenses in the quarterfinals. Miami and A&M QB's cracked under windy weather conditions. Dante had wind, rain, sleet and snow flakes in Iowa and still executed very well. Beck and the Canes O will find moving the ball very difficult against the Buckeyes D. Didn't watch the Bama vs OU game. Cannot stand either team. For me, it will be easier to guage after the quarterfinals because the matchups are balanced and better. If IU dispatches Bama, as they should, Bama leaves the field with 4 losses. I ask the CFP Committee and their ESPN bosses, how are they one of the top 8 teams? As a Duck honk, at the highest level, i choose Dante. His first half performance was exceptional. He did miss a number of wide open targets, all game. Hopefully he clrans that up against TT. I am not pleased with DL and his playing Dante in the 2nd half. He rolled the dice because Dante could have needlessly been injured. I don't understand his thought process. We would not win the next game without the #1 pick in the 2026 NFL draft. GO DUCKS! It's about to get very real.

Loss of focus discussed by coaches. “This is an unacceptable performance in the second half by our defense,” Lupoi said. “I’m pissed off right now… We went in the locker room after the game and I made that clear, and coach Lanning of course as well.” Oregon Ducks On SIOregon Coach Tosh Lupoi Offers Warning Before Facing Texa...The Oregon Ducks knocked off the James Madison Dukes by a final score of 51-34 to advance to the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. Despite the Duck

The betting line has Oregon as a slight favorite at -1.5. It’s the lowest point spread of any of the remaining playoff games which makes sense in a 4 vs 5 game. What surprised me was that every other playoff game has a point spread of a TD or better. Tech has a nasty defense, but their offense is just as good. They’re top 5 in total offense. However, they haven’t played against a top 20 defense yet. BYU (28th) was the best defense they played against. They played against one top 20 offense (Utah) and handled them easily. Oregon’s offense has been tested against three top 20 defenses (Indiana, Iowa, fuskies), but only played against two top 20 offenses (USC, Indiana).

And Beck? What the heck was that? It was windy, but 103 yards; that's a lot of dinero per yard. I understand A&M only played eight conference games, but in the name of Greg Sankey, how did the Aggies, without a rematch, find seven SEC teams without a winning record to defeat? The epitome of mega-conference scheduling. Lasso the Tortillas!

Couldn't have said it better. The intensity was totally gone. Killer Instinct. The one team that executes it better than anyone else is Georgia. They don't care if your QB had a career ending injury. You disrespect them by saying you deserve to be in the playoff against the team that won it the year before and lost a close game to be included-you picked the wrong team. OBD took offense to JMU saying they were going to give them a game. Then this happened... <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9kRpS8mwJ14?si=YgC0VALI9zCg92un" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

It's more than tradition, and pedigree. All three are playing better ball. Not as many mistakes. Better execution. Much better LBs. And the DCs prepare better for what they expect from their opponent (though Lupoi is doing absolutely stunning work with LBs that have no closing speed, or lateral coverage abilities against the run or pass).

This game was vey similar to the season opener versus Arkansas State (MM8’s first start) back in 2012. At one point Oregon was up 50-3 midway through the 2nd quarter and Chip pulled all of the starters. Oregon ended up winning 57-34 but ASU controlled the 2nd half. The game was never in doubt but you could tell the team lost focus.

Oh, you guys are peaking right on schedule. In my opinion (almost said in fact lol), Georgia is playing the best ball out of everyone-including Texas Tech.

The video of Davison needing to be helped to the locker room after the game in what looked like a very bad ankle bumbed me way more than some bad garbage time. ☹️

DL isn't happy. https://247sports.com/college/oregon/article/oregon-football-playoff-win-james-madison-dan-lanning-267388258/

DL took the starters out too early, particularly on defense. The 2nd string performed ok but as soon as the 3rd stringers were put in they struggled hard. He should have left the starters through the end of the 3rd.

Dante threw the best balls and the A&M QB threw the worst. I was very surprised at how physical Miami was. The next round of playoffs should be great. Another observation is now that they are down the final 8, there are 3 northern teams and 5 southern teams. Fans in the south do not like it when northern teams win.

I won't say anything bad about the team, but watching the second half was very difficult as a fan. It was like the person singing the national anthem forgot the words halfway through the song. It was like that bowl game vs TCU when Oregon lost after going up by 31. And they still won!!! Maybe this is the best thing for the team... to lose some focus and get smoked by a team they were blowing out a half hour ago. Maybe this is better than them putting away JMU and thinking they are great and have the playoffs in the bag. This team has been like Jeckel and Hyde in bits and pieces all season long. Which team is going to show up vs. Tech? Did the coordinators getting new jobs have anything to do with it? My take: I think they were mentally getting ready for Christmas stuff at the end of the first half. They thought the game was over, but it wasn't. They were dominating them so hard that they lost respect for their opponent. JMU knew they were not going to win, but they wanted to control the narrative of what kind of a season they wanted to be known for. Those players had a lot of pride. On the extremely positive side - the Ducks put in a defense that pressured the QB. Which was very nice to see. No more letting the QB sit back in the pocket and wait for somebody to get open. But the Ducks still need someone(s) who is an NFL type of pass rusher. And McClellan looked like one of those great USC receivers from the Pete Carroll era - he was unstoppable.