2 hours ago, Grandpa Duck said:

Maybe there is a quarterback out there who can be successful “without good protection “, but from what I saw against Indiana and Wisconsin that quarterback is not starting for OBD. It amazes me that those two opponents’ pass rushers have no difficulty getting into our backfield and our pass rushers couldn’t find theirs with GPS.

Those are rare...

The last one I can think of was Caleb Williams. He basically played without an offensive line.

However, he couldn't win the conference so there's that.

19 minutes ago, mikethehiker said:

I think OBD are going to learn more from these experiences than games like Rutgers. Very grateful that Stein made the adjustment and stuck with the ground game.

We can’t see what Dante is seeing down the field, but it doesn’t seem like he knows where he wants to go with the ball or what matchups he has when he calls for the snap.

Is Stein calling plays with a less experienced QB in mind, or is he still running an offense for the two QB’s with the most games ever played? It would be interesting to compare the average release time from the last three seasons.

Dante seems to get rattled a bit after those early sacks. I’m not sure why we have him running as much as he has with the 8 capable running backs we have.

Sadly I think he may have stuck with the ground game because they had a backup qb in there. It worked but they need to use the run to open up the pass more.

2 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

Lanning running out the clock when he could have got STYLE POINTS after the interception, was a class act. How many coaches in this position would have gone for another touchdown?

Water was GOOD to Us!

Cignetti is always going for style points. The Indiana stat is what it is in part to running up the score. They are still a good team and beat us so I am not trying to throw shade at them but they are absolutely running up the score on their opponents.

18 minutes ago, Mike West said:

I'm not worried about this team at all. As much as Indiana controlled things, they got help twice to score their go ahead TD (gifted extra yardage on a 3rd down conversion and a no call pass inteference for their TD). To play as horribly this week tells me this is a young team that can focus, but not consistently enough to feel they can challenge for a title. They are about to embark on their 4th 2k plus trip of the year, and they're 3-0 so far.

I wasn't impressed with Iowa or Indiana to be frank, and Penn State pretty much demonstrated Iowa has trouble handling physical teams as well (so does Indian whether you want to believe that at this point). Ohio State has looked good, but they have yet to face a real offense. I believe every fan base of elite programs are gnashing their teeth right now because nobody has a clear-cut dominant team. NOBODY. We are truly in the age of parity. I mean, cmon. Vanderbilt is a so called top ten team (really? Does anyone in this forum fear Vanderbilt?).

It's October. Titles aren't won in October. Besides. I called for two score margins of victory. That is my standard. It sticks. Especially for a team that is exactly where we expected them to be: 6-1. They are ahead of themselves as far as I am concerned because I really didn't expect the defense to hold Penn State to 17 points in 4 quarters (and those that are saying Penn State is a shell of itself, well that shell almost beat Iowa, but for their lack of having their NFL bound QB. An Iowa team that held "superpower" Indiana to 20-and they would have won had they had their QB). The defense will play well enough for the offense to get their butts in gear and start throwing the ball downfield.

We have seen a glimpse of what could be. I personally believe Stein is holding back on the offense given some of its troubles. I personally would open the flood gates, part the damn Red Sea and try to destroy every defense I see. But that is just me. I personally don't believe a team is going to win the title unless they score 40 plus. ON A DEFENSE LIKE OHIO STATE'S. So, in my view, you better be dialing up every damn fade, post, corner and wheel route known to mankind because you need to take down every secondary in football. There will be no explosive running plays against the elite teams. Your QB is going to have to drop 16 gigaton nuclear bombs. And you better have the best air force known to mankind.

That's my opinion and I am sticking to it. A QB is going to win the damn title, with or without good protection. We have that of QB. We need to feed him missiles (bunker busters) and atomics. Everything else is wasting time.

Thank you Mike for making me feel better.

I usually find myself to be one of the sunshine pumpers and right now I am finding I have quite a bit of continued frustration. More on that on Monday.

But still it's nice to have a positive take on everything.

https://fishduck.com/2025/08/oregons-top-five-new-rivalries-in-the-b1g/

I was already alluding to how Oregon v Wisconsin has a potential Rivalry written all over it. When the Ducks play the Badgers it has tended to be a close ans brutal game.

This game was brutal but despite the score it wasn't all that close after the first quarter.

See everyone... I bad mouth Whittington and he does better!

11 minutes ago, WaterPoloDuck said:

I think Jordan Davison and Dierre Hill are both better than Noah Whittington. I hope the offense keeps running through them.

The offense NEEDS to run through them.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm feeling it right now that we are looking at a loss.

Ducks just not playing with any passion on offens right now.

Ok.. I'm going to start bad mouthing Whittington again... Because for whatever reason he seems to do better to prove me wrong.

Our tackles are worked at the moment

He makes Moore look small.

Moore isn't the most build quarterback but he doesn't normally look that small.

2 hours ago, The Kamikaze Kid said:

Loving the quality over quantity approach. USC 34 commits? Sheesh.

It's called desperation.

Or....

Good news? Did they want that coach?

I haven't really followed the Blazers since Maurice Cheeks was the head coach. So that was... early 2000s

5 minutes ago, kirklandduck said:

That’s awesome news though I hope he doesn’t rush back, health is most important. I’d also temper expectations as he’s been out for months and will probably need weeks to get back into playing shape and rhythm.

The way trainers and physical therapy work now will have him ready without as much lag time between injury recovery and physical fitness.

In one of the earlier Ducks vs Them we saw McNutt working with trainers on rehabbing his leg. They were really working his muscles in some low impact ways. Such as the blood flow constriction where he had a strap around his leg restricting some blood flow and he was doing some light exercises but his muscles were working extra hard to build strength when he couldn't do any impact on them. That is really the modern physical therapy is to start the strength training as soon as possible because that keeps the body healthier.

They aren't overworking him but they also don't want there to be a massive gap where he will need to work really hard to get into shape. Which could absolutely lead to him over doing it. The goal is to guide his workouts as they go and ramp him.

So when they say he'll be ready... he'll be physically ready. I am sure he is working on the mental side of things already so once he is able to take reps in practice he'll be able to do so mentally as well as physically.

1 hour ago, 1Funduck said:

But, ask yourself, 'if Oregon was a 10-2 team 3 years in a row, how much howling would be going on? Would Lanning be on the Hot seat?

That was basically life under Cristobal. We were howling that we were bringing in great recruiting classes but always lost one or two games we had no place in losing.

When Cristobal announced he was leaving for Miami that was one of the strangest feelings we have ever had as a fanbase.

On the one hand we were losing someone who had gotten us close to the playoff, had won a Rose Bowl and two conference championships. Cristobal was and remains a good coach but he wasn't going to be the coach to bring the Ducks a national title. We'll continue to see how he does at Miami. He has this strange way of winning enough, and often winning some of the big games to keep people happy but he always finds a way to lose the games he's not supposed to.

Cristobal is kinda the opposite of James Franklin.

Franklin wins the games he supposed to (until the collapse that is) but fails to win the big ones. Cristobal will win many of the big games but lose some head scratches.

53 minutes ago, 1Ducker1 said:

Maybe the B1G needed the PAC as much as we needed them?

There was certainly special, though completely underestimated about the Pac-12.

4 hours ago, WTD25 said:

Was great to see the defense in sync this game, but sadly, I don't put much stock into it given the opponent.

Hope the same carries into the more challenging opponents.

It was a good "get right" game.

But remember Rutgers has a pretty bad defense but their offense has been pretty good. Producing 300 yards through the air and a QB who has been throwing at close to 70% was reduced to sub 100 passing and only a 30% completion.

So yes their defense sucks but their offense has kept them in games. So don't completely write this one off. But it's a stepping stone.

1 hour ago, Charles Fischer said:

I did not know Thomas was a 3-Star and recruited by other programs. I figured he was the typical walk-on, but he clearly has skills, and earned his time. Glad they cleared it up...

Crazy thing, as you know, is that Oregon takes walk ons from in State that could be on scholarship elsewhere.

The NIL basically makes them scholarship without the scholarship.

I'm thinking part of this is Lanning also rewarding outright work ethic right now. Thomas by the sound of it is continuing to work his butt off and Lanning is rewarding that. That is not to say that Novosad and Moga are preparing to jump in the portal but it could also be a sign of that. But for now Thomas is the one working the hardest in the quarterback room and getting rewarded for his efforts.

If Moore goes down with an injury, heaven forbid, that is when and probably only when we see the true qb2 come out.

Love it.

Also... Just going to throw this out there. But does anyone think for a minute that James Franklin sat his team down and made them take their medicine like that? With that passion for getting better?

Also anyone else notice that Lanning was doing the full team meeting in the indoor practice facility and not the comfy as auditorium they have set up for team meetings?

Lanning made them take their medicine as he ripped them for their mistakes against Indiana. And the players took their medicine happily which showed against Rutgers.

For the pac-12 to survive and truly thrive your have to go back in time and prevent USC and UCLA from leaving and basically out in place a "you win it you earn it" to unequal revenue sharing.

When it came to football both were the beneficiaries of the success of others making big bowl games as neither were terribly good overall for the last decade. Incentivize them to invest and reap the benefits.

This would hurt the bottom of the conference but fine. That's the way things are.

If the pac-12 survived the Ducks would have won the conference last year probably been ranked number 3 going into the playoff. And probably would have done some damage as they would have avoided the Ohio State buzz saw.... Which might not have been as much of a buzz saw because they wouldn't have suffered an agonizing loss to Oregon mid season. Probably would have lost to Michigan still. But may have won the conference?

So who knows how things would have turned out.

As for this season I think Oregon would win the Pac-12 again and would make the playoff.

Granted, the whole conference would be a bit better than some of its pieces. Oregon State would still have Smith probably and would be middle to middle top of the pack. Cal would be the surprise team this year. USC would be probably number 3... Just because they'd be underperforming.

Ok... Going to stop there because here's the absolute sad truth of this for me. The pac-12 is a way more fun conference to me. I did love that adorable canabal conference. It was exciting from week to week.

Sure Oregon has had some of the biggest ranked games in our history in the B1G but frankly you say Oregon v Rutgers and I don't get that excited, even with or in spite of the result.

But Oregon v Cal? Sign me up! I'd happily watch that game right now. Cal actually looks reasonably good this year.

And FSU got Stanforded last weekend! I don't being on the receiving end of a loss at the Farm but let's be honest... If you have to play an academic school who would you rather play, Stanford or Northwestern?

Give me Stanford because of the history and their supremely stupid mascot for a school that prides itself on academics. They are the color red... And their band made the dumbest looking tree imaginable and they play it off like we're the fools.

Meanwhile... Northwestern has the uninspired... Wild cat. Ughhh.

Yes... I do miss the old Pac-12 but I would rather be in the Big Bland 10 over being left out in the cold with Oregon State and Washington State. That is a date worse than conference death.

24 minutes ago, HappyToBeADuck said:

Most national articles written just rave about the 750 yards of offense and all the long runs and TD passes. Deservably earned......

It's hard to rack up that many yards if your offense doesn't have the ball as often as it does.

I looked up the game that has the record yards and that was Cal at Oregon in 2015 for 777 yards. The Score of that one was Cal 28 and Oregon 44. A lot more of a shootout type of game than a blow out.

Basically to hit records yards either the defense needs to be really good or quite bad. In this case the defense played very well and kept the ball in the hands of the offense. Even though the time of possession (now a mostly meaningless stat) was slightly in favor of Rutgers 32 mins.

16 minutes ago, MB Yachats said:

Don't forget these young men are on scholarship. If they know they won't make the pros, perhaps being on scholarship in a great program is enough, regardless of playing time. Hate to enter the portal and not get picked, and then not continue getting a free college education.

They are also getting paid well via NIL and if they invest it right they can set themselves up well after college.

Better than the vast majority of college grads for sure.

7 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

SD has been toxic for years, but not quite the cesspool that OregonLive used to be.

SD has a group that has their view and they never want to be challenged.

I need to do quite a bit of research, and not sure it will happen, but there is a narrative there that the Oregon linebackers are absolute garbage.

I'm not at all convinced by their argument that has no analysis attached but is just angry screaming at anyone who disagrees. I know linebackers have tons of roles to fill and depending on what they are doing on any given play their impact may not be seen or recorded on a stat sheet. Again... I would need to do further research on this one.