2 hours ago, woundedknees said:

I am enjoying the relative lack of penalties so far this season.

No penalties in a game, the first since 2000 per the telecast. They may have lacked intensity, but you can't sleepwalk to a zero penalty game.

There were no stands filled with fans behind our bench against Northwestern today, yet it was really difficult for the coaches and players to communicate on our sidelines due to super loud speakers.

Then I watched part of the Texas Tech game and on 3rd down there was a really loud sounds affect blaring away while the Beavers were at the LOS with the QB trying to make calls to the team.

If we want to take it to the extreme let's set up an 80s guitar band with a wall of Marshall full stacks behind the visitors bench pumping 140dB until their ears bleed and while we are at it install a state of the art direction sound system mounted on the light poles that pumps focus pink noise directly at the line of scrimmage.

Or better yet, install a few of those state of the art crowd control devices to direct obscene dBs at the offense.

I mean who needs yelling fans anymore?

What is too much? Are there any rules?

The last time these players would have played at 9am was peewee football. And in a stadium with no stands on their side. A weird vibe for sure.

I have 3 takeaways of future interest.

#1 Dante Moore is him. I've been a bit "I'll believe the efficiency when I see it", but I'm seeing it consistently. The amount of times he dug us out of a hole with excellent decisions and really good throwing that is like Nix was doing in his second season.

#2 We are really struggling to bring down RBs after 1st contact. I know some of that is the way the Northwestern RBs run the ball, and are likely taught to run the ball (never go down). But it seems like we are just tackling too high in the front 7 every game.

Every tackle is a bear hug 1st, where they get drug for an extra couple yards due to lack of leverage. Those extra couple of yards each run are the difference between 3 and out, and an extended drive where we can't get off the field. It's tough for the DL when they are 6'5" and trying to shed a blocker to grab a 5'10 RB that is hunched over. I'm not a position coach, so I don't know how to fix it.

#3. When our Tackles are trying to slide past the OL into the backfield to be disruptive it can leave some gaping holes for the RBs and frees up an OL to block the LBs. I guess we are good with the safeties coming downhill in a hurry before the RB breaks a big one, but it's scary. Again maybe that is just the cost of being disruptive.

Part of me can't believe this is a relatively new concept.

Just basic physics to lay you players out in a way to cover the highest probability of locations the football will go on a run play or RPO. It's a simple pyramid with the LOS as the base.

Also because it's symmetrical it doesn't give the QB any clues.

It does perhaps force more man coverage, and is probably most vulnerable to play action passes, but I think that like much of the mint defense, the expectation is rapid recognition and extreme athleticism will make up for those disadvantages.

This may be Terry's best chance to win this season.

My Pick:

OREGON

I want to say 10-48, but given the other predictions clustered there I won't win, so I'll go with:

9-54

3 TOs

3 Sacks

280 yards passing

If we can keep distributing game reps to between 70-80 players, it becomes the equivalent of a moderate practice, and we don't need no stinking recovery time.

I'm only half joking. Our depth does mitigate this disadvantage tremendously.

Having the 4 Pac12 teams play eachother makes obvious sense to mitigate travel distances as much as possible for everyone in the B1G.

They need to figure out how to make that happen.

2 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

Would Moore of Moore to Moore this Saturday work for you?

Northwestern is on the verge of entering Dante's Seventh Circle. 😁

Waste the Wildcats!

We'll just keep pounding them until they can't take any Moore.

Puns aside, the only strength on this team is their secondary is excellent, so passing windows will be smaller and run after the catch will be contested..

Once bitten twice shy, Oregon fans would be expected to have underestimated Moore. The last 5 Star skill play we had the wasn't a dud was DAT, over a decade ago.

To have a five star skill player commit actually sign with us, actually show up for camp, actually compete for a starting position, and actually be one of the best players on the field each week is a revelation few duck fans would dare to hope for.

I'll add to it that on a 4th down they went to Perry on a slant route. It was designed to go to Perry, on 4th down. Think the coaches trust him?

I'll repasted from my long winded comment in the post game thread:

Maybe Cooper Perry deserves his own thread this week. Some of the statements made by Dan Lanning to date about him were so strong, they were difficult to take seriously, but Perry may be that good. One of those slot receivers that can get open at will, and never drops the ball, and has some wiggle after the catch. If you absolutely have to have 3-7 yards in 1 down, he's the guy to do it.

Thanks for all the replies. I guess it is still the preseason so not very many good games to be had.

Are they curious of the novelty of witnessing the spectacle of a slaughter in person?

Are they dying to see the massive crowd of 15 thousand in the wind and rain?

I just can't conceive this is one of the two best games next week.

5 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

No prob. We won't be punting anyway....

Or kicking field goals.

5 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

Something I noticed at UCLA was a complete lack of pocket presence, and he stood flat-footed in the pocket, and thus between those two elements...got sacked easier. It appears he is not flat-footed in the pocket now, and I did not see any of the lack of pocket presence these last two weeks that I noted he had at UCLA.

He might have felt quite a lot of pressure in Westwood to create something special, whereas the weapons he has here at Oregon would give anyone more confidence. In both Oregon games thus far, he has thrown the ball away when nothing was open, as opposed to forcing throws for the Bruins that created Pick-Sixes.

As I ponder it...he looks completely different at Oregon than his UCLA days, IMHO.

I'm glad the early returns are promising!

To quote the cheater, "who's got it better than us? Nobody!"

3 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

I lost all sympathy for them once they decided to steal 300 million from the departing 10 members...

Phil did not join us until we went to the Rose Bowl and then the Cotton Bowl. We had to EARN his trust, as winners want to work with winners. Beavis has not earned it, has declined, and is worth much less now.

I lost all empathy when they turned around and destroyed the Mountain West conference.

So far Dante Moore has only had to play 7 on 7 with the occasional shuffling of feet in the pocket.

Moore was a 5 star based on his 7 on 7 abilities.

Obviously I'm not giving him full credit for running the offense, which isn't easy to do, but he still hasn't seen anything in the way of pressure that got him to make mistakes at UCLA that got him benched.

How does he handle a defense having some success getting into the backfield consistently, and how does he handle the pressure of executing a game winning drive when he's forced to throw every down because there isn't enough time left to run? Does he have the clutch to put the team on his shoulder in key moments?

I guess it's conceivable we are so good and will be so lucky that we win a national championship without either of those things happening to him, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I'd have to imagine that every DC this year will ask the analyst about the scouting report for Oregon, then the analyst will take a really, really deep breath...."So...

10 minutes ago, DuckFan93 said:

The bigger surprise to me is how Akili Smith Jr hasn't played yet. What's up with that?

Thomas likely he as a better command of the offense at this point that puts him higher in the pecking order than Smith, and they didn't get that far down the depth chart for Smith to play.

Dan Lanning has made comments to the effect that we can play winning football with Thomas. He's more than serviceable.

What a difference a week makes. Last week I thought FPI was the most nonsensical ranking system I'd ever seen, but now I have no problem with it.

Ironically, it was the 2019 line recruited by Helfrich that was the best MC ever had.

This is the first season where Dan has felt comfortable enough to put the backups in around halftime, and the sheer volume of "1st team" rotation players feels very different too.

This feels very national championship like for that reason alone. Like the Mariota days.

30 minutes ago, PittDuck said:

None of us saw a 66 point beatdown coming!

Congrats to both Solar and VegasDuck on an impressive WAG.

Looking forward to shucking some corn next week!

I prefer to call it a SWAG a Scientific WAG. I had my reasons posted why I thought we could put up over 60, although pick 6s weren't one of them.

Gundy playing to go home on the last drive was the bad beat for me. He wanted to get the heck out of Autzen as fast as possible rather than try to put up any more points on the board.

Ugh! I was robbed! LoL.

This is Oregon. We need a 'The Price is Right Rule" where if you guess the highest offensive score of anyone and the Ducks score more than that, you're an automatic winner. LoL

Where heck is Bob Barker to back me up on this?

I always thought he had good short area quickness, but have been surprised with his top speed.

He's also improved tremendously in his understanding of spacing and calculating the optimal path.