Solar

It's all relative. He was the Heisman front runner through the game against Oregon. Compared to that level of play, a 55% completion percentage, nearly 3 picks, and crying off the field under a cover after a win is in possibly broken territory to me.

The wiser man picked the under for both teams. Congratulations!

Money quote of DM: "I just got my head around and found that ball," Manning said of the interception. "There's been so many opportunities where it's a 50-50 ball and I don't turn my head or I get a pass interference. So just going to back to work and being able to turn my head and feeling comfortable tracking the ball [made the difference]." That is huge if he can do way better with that against UW next week.

As we all have seen, he just hasn't been the same since Oregon game. His confidence may be shaken. Today he played horrible making many bad throws including an almost pick at the end. After getting sacked on his final play he had his head stuck in the equipment locker before during and after the winning kick and walked off the field under a tarp straight to the locker room. I legit think he may have had a nervous breakdown. Your typically hear about players breaking from the stress then learning to love the game again and letting it all hang out. But that typically happens over the course of an off season with time away from the game with consultation with loved ones, not on a short week before the biggest game of the year. Much like Grinch getting fired, this is a real wild card to not know how things are going to go in the next game. Is Michael Penix Broken?

I had the same thought. We have Heisman level QB again too.

It's just that prevailing thought is A&M would a tough out, and LSU won, and they put up 42 points on offense with Jaden. That is the narrative. Penix getting out-duelled by Ward is enough to say he is no longer in contention, meaning he can't catch Daniels. He just got picked as I write this. OSU losing with Marvin Harrison Jr. Having merely a good game means he's out. It's really down to Bo and Daniels at this point.

Perhaps the more impressive stat, the result of holding them to such low rushing yards is that it was turnover on downs for HALF of their possessions (4/8) We did that against a big bruising running back, a very effective and physical running QB and one of the best Olines in the conference.

If the contracts were written in such a way that by us voluntarily leaving the conference we give up certain revenues then so be it. Let's let our lawyers compete with their lawyers to discover the truth though.

OSU has a few really good players. I wonder how many we will be interested in and how many would bite on the rationale "if you can't beat them, join them."

Have Bo Nix practice place kicking this week to pad his Heisman argument in the CC game. Yes, I'm kidding.

This. Some will argue OSU now has the best loss in the country, not Oregon. When we lost we only dropped one spot. OSU will NOT fall below us on Tuesday. Similar worst case scenario will be Alabama beating Georgia by a couple of points. How far will Georgia fall? If things get really ugly this way, I could see the committee throwing up their hands and just sticking with zero and one loss conference champions to spread the wealth in the final season of the stupidly restrictive 4 team playoff with 5 conferences. Then it is just a matter leaving out the least competitive conference/conference champion.

It's going to be tough for Nix to win with a final performance like that by Jaden Daniels to beat A&M. It's a weird argument/comparison to make between Nix and Daniels. Is it better to make the biggest impact for your team compared to have a hypothetical crappy QB, or is it better to get your team to win more important games that really needed the expertise relative having a hypothetical average QB? Absent that, it is a stats comparison which people ignore number of minutes played, and ignore the impact he has as an on field coach helping the coaching staff.

I will say this, we match up talent and schematically much better with the Beavers than the Huskies. I would say they are at opposite ends of the matchup spectrum. That being said we should still win, but I am not expecting this to be a dominant win, just a close win.

Ah man. I didn't think that was the best job for Smith either, but it's done now.

It took 4 games, but DL finally won a rivalry game. Here is to him turning over a new leaf of never losing a rivalry game.

If Bama was a single option I would pick them, but Michigan would be a fun game. Maybe they are trending down now, but they were the most similar team to us for most of the year.

It's a pretty classic reaction across football that anyone that beats Oregon must be really good and anyone that Oregon beats must not be very good. It's been that way for a decade. It's a tell that they just don't like the new kid on the block. With the way Lanning is building this team and bringing a wrecking ball to the Big 10 2.5 team dynamic I believe that will begin to fade rapidly.

That was easily the most conservative play call of DL's HC career to punt on 4th and 3 from the 40ish yard line.

YES! Turn over on downs. Need another score for the beauty contest! Dominate!

I hope our running game can tire out the Beaver D. They are never on the field this much, except in practice.

Thank you Manning! Great 5* play man. Staying step for step down the field with these fast receivers. We need him confident going into next week.

Dolorus again. I remember seeing his high school tape and how he just had a determined nose for the ball. He was special then, despite his low star rating. Texas dominated Texas Tech. We need to dominate through the finish to keep our playoff dreams in sight. Can't let them back in the game.

Right down the middle. Camden may have caught a bit of determination after the pathetic miss. He knows dang well he is better than that. Enough is enough. Then he shanks the kickoff out of bounds. Jeesh.

Such a big stop. We need to wear down their OLine. Just keep overwhelming them.

He looked a little pissed the way he kicked it too. I'll take it as a good sign. Beavers get the ball to start the 3rd. We need to stick with our strategy of making DJ beat us rather than Jonathan Smith.