Feathers

As to “bad decisions” by DL to go for it on 4th down at the 29, and 34 yard lines it’s hard to disagree in retrospect when the play failed. But, the decision to punt when the punt was blocked, and when the.punter dropped the ball didn’t turn out so well either. I’m not saying the decision to punt was wrong, but emphasizing that it’s not necessarily a coaching decision that leads to a failed play. The whole concept of “but for the coach’s decision everything would have gone better and the game would have been won” just doesn’t hold up. The player errors on two failed punt attempts were obvious. There just may have been player errors that were primarily responsible for the failure of the two 4th down attempts. Fans who default to blaming the coach are not considering all of the possibilities.

Spot on, Happy. You nailed it! One thing seldom mentioned by those who attribute error to coaches calling plays is that the QB often changes the play on the field, or at least makes a decision to pull the ball from an RB during the mesh and run it himself. Nix did that late in the CW.

WSU is leading UW 17-14. If they don’t Coug it, Ducks play USC in Las Vegas. will KD be the OC? Will Nix be the QB? Same questions for bowl game. I watched USC beat ND. Not eager to play them with Nix injured and KD otherwise engaged hiring staff and recruiting for ASU. Might be interesting to see what we can do without them. And, UW just scored a TD to go ahead, 9:40 left in 2nd quarter.

Ascribing Credit and Blame Two things prompted me to write this morning. First were the many comments following Charles’ well-written article about the “coaching error” of running Nix between the tackles contributing to his injury, and, then there was yesterday’s Cryptoquote puzzle. The puzzle quotation answer, from William Butler Years, is: “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.” I’ll deal with Yeats’ quote first, and how it applies to football and my own experience playing the game some 65 to 71 years ago. When I first wore pads in a tackle football game, 1950, I was age eleven, a sixth grader at a junior-high school in Coos Bay. My last game was seven years later as a Senior at Marshfield High when we defeated Medford at Multnomah stadium. That win capped our third Oregon state high school championship, class A, (big school) in a row. I was a back-up QB and substitute defensive back. As in Yeats’ quote above, my glory was that my teammates were my friends, and the real glory of winning began and ended with them. Marshfield’s success in those years was largely attributable to a combination of the experience and tenacity of the coaching staff and an unusual group of teenagers who were bigger, faster and more mature for their ages than were our opponents. Our coaches, led by Pete Susick, a former star running back for UW, all played college football and all fought in WW II. Unlike the name we give to our rivalry game coming up Saturday, these coaches well knew what war was about. I can never forget the comment of one coach, Walt Paczesniak: “When you boys get in the Army you’ll find out what your nose is for. That nose is not for smelling, it’s for digging!” Only one player in my high school class ever came off the field at the end of the game having experienced a loss. As a freshman, Roger Johnson, later a starting end for OSU and playing one year in the CFL, played in the only loss, 0-7 to North Bend in 1954. We won or tied every Junior Varsity game and every Varsity game except that one game Roger played in as a freshman. In short, we were the best high school football team in Oregon for three years running. We had the glory of wearing a gold football on a chain around our necks inscribed with “State Champions.” Our coaches taught us things no other teams were doing. Most significant were the calls made by the offensive linemen for blocking assignments during the instant before the ball was snapped and after the QB called the numbers indicating whether the play sent in from the sideline was to be optioned to a different play. We were one of few teams that changed the play at the line of scrimmage, and as best I recall, the only team with complicated line calls and defensive calls. Good coaching is crucial to winning, but not as important as the abilities and contribution of the players. I know that from on-field experience, mostly in four practices a week against the best high school players of my day, all the games we played and the following years of watching football in person and thousands of games on television. So, when I read a long thread with extensive comments like those following Charles’ article, attributing blame for an injury on the field to a coach, I have to wonder: “Have these guys writing this stuff ever played the game?” “Have they ever run a football, running for your life while looking for daylight?” College football is way too complicated for anyone to say that something that happened on the field of play was caused by any one person or any play call. It takes 22 players on the field at that time, a whole team of players on both sides to prepare for the play, two staffs of coaches, support staffs with a myriad of educational and experience backgrounds, officials and so much more for a football play to succeed or fail. Sure, we can “Monday morning QB” and say: “but for . . .” such and such would not have happened. That “but for . . .” is only one tiny aspect of the result. We need to consider everything, and when we do so, fairly, no one thing, person, decision or action was the cause. Nix ran the same play that he ran where he was injured at least twice earlier in the game with huge success. He has done it all season. I don’t know, and no one else writing on this board knows whether those successful up the middle plays were signaled in from sideline or whether Nix checked down to them because of something he saw at the line of scrimmage or felt in the huddle. The same is true of the fateful play where he was injured. Regardless, if you strap on pads and a helmet, and play a violent game, there is a risk you will be injured. It’s part of the game. No amount of parsing out the blame will change the simple fact that the next game or season a QB will be injured. Did the decision to run Nix up the middle contribute to his injury. No doubt about that. Was it THE CAUSE of his injury, maybe in part, but I sure enjoyed the times he ran the play without getting hurt. He could get a season ending injury by being sacked on a pass play. Anyone can say: “But for calling that pass . . . “ So, should the team not pass? I thank coaches Lanning and Dillinghham for bringing a system with a running QB back to Oregon. Our team had it decades ago with the likes of Reggie Ogburn, Joey Harrington and several more. It makes being a fan of the game much more interesting. I knew in the early games of Chip Kelly’s tenure as OC at Oregon there was a greater risk of QB injury with this guy calling the plays. Probably one of the reasons Chip Kelly had success with running QB’s at Oregon and not so much success in the NFL is that league’s coaches are unwilling to risk their jobs by putting their franchise QB in harm’s way. The Duck coaches deserve some glory for their transformation of Oregon football. Have a joyous Thanksgiving day.

Ryan Walk, moving from Guard to Center, playing error free while injured, deserves recognition.

The happiest person on the field hen this game ended .. . . TT

CLANK!

Coach calls outstanding on both sides of the ball.. Dillinghan goes dink and dunk, then BOOM. Explosion to Thornton. Ryan Walk flawless at center. Running backs are having a exceptional game. don’t know where this defense came from, but players are busting their tails.

Ducks win 34-28, 2, 2, 304 Bo has a great day!

In Canzano's article he speaks to the possibility that UCLA may not go to the B1G and if they do not they could be sued by that conference. I have to wonder just what damages the B1G will have suffered in the few months of their expectation of UCLA joining? And . . . , just how has the B1G changed its position in reliance upon the UCLA "commitment"? This lawyer doubts there is any Bruin liability, and if there were, damages would be minimal. Hence, no law suit.

I ran into a retired coach, former member of Rich Brooks' staff who I sometimes play golf with. I posed the above question to him. In reply he first talked about the skill level, size and speed of the Duck linebackers and defensive backs. Then he made a comment I have never heard before. He said: "Penix was 'unfortunately accurate'. He wasn't that accurate against Oregon State." I thought about that, and recalled sevral third down plays where the receiver was covered but the pass to the side line was low and away, where the defender reached, but could not get it. Or the pass was high and just out of reach of the defender, but the taller receiver brought it down. They were like passes I see on Sunday. Yes, "unfortunately accurate" sums it up in two words. I have won golf matches against better players when my game was "unfortunately accurate" from my opponent's view point. The shots to the pin were close and the putts went in. That just happens some times. Pros say they're "in the zone" on those kinds of days. I know there were a lot of other things about the game that impacted the outcome, but when it gets right down to it, Michael Penix was "unfortunately accurate" because he was "in the zone." On another day it would not be that way.

The husky’s knew Ty was not gong to throw or run. They did not need a script.

Above, 47sgs talks about Bo’s success resulting from his skills or coaching. I feel the main reason Bo is having his best year is the few additional decision making seconds provided by the O-line. Time he did not have at Auburn.

I think I read somewhere that Oregon is at or near the top in turnover margin. Is that not at least in part a result of the number of plays run on offense compared to the number of plays defended? We run fewer plays and have fewer fumbles and interceptions. Defend more plays and recover more, and pick more. I always am more comfortable winning the takeaway stat. I seem to recall Aliotti speaking similar words.

I am age 83, with xfinity cable. I record as many as 10 college football games every Saturday. Almost every game I care to see is somewhere on cable, and I can locate it days before with a voice inquiry. On PAC-12 network, if I miss a PAC-12 game I watch the condensed 60 minute version the following week. I have enough experience with Amazon Prime and other streaming services to believe that they will not provide the best college football live and recording experience available on cable. Yes cable costs more, but I believe streaming is going to recover all of the money they will pay college athletic departments from the viewers eventually. I think Cable is our best option here.