David Marsh

The Canes have been playing with their food all year. It's not a surprise that at some point their food bites back. Lanning doesn't let the Ducks play around. They're on a mission and I anticipate them to keep it that way.

And the commentators keep saying that the timeout was worth it because they thought it might be a fake punt. Umm.... They had the 2 min timeout and the situation DIDN'T change. How were they not already prepared for that?

But he cannot win either.. And he can lose if more players decide they want out.

UCLA knocked out Iowa tonight (Friday) and they've been on a bit of a tear lately. They have won their last three games against Nebraska, Rutgers and Iowa. They have a 4-5 overall record and are ahead of USC in the B1G and tied with them for overall record. Furthermore, UCLA has three very winnable games for them left in the season... At Washington, v. USC and v. Fresno State. They could very well go 3-0 in those or 2-1. Either outcome gets them bowling. The Bruins have started to put something together in the back half of this season. And who would have thought that the worst team coming from the Pac-12 to the B1G would be USC? Certainly not Trojan fans.

Personally I've been disappointed with the slate of Heisman candidates this year. Even Gabriel seems like a step down from Nix last year. Not a big step mind you but a step. As for Travis Hunter. Colorado will get a bowl game regardless. All the playoff guarantees is one more game. I didn't put don't a proposed date to move the Heisman because I'm not sure. It could be something like January 3rd... Let bowl season and the early rounds of the playoffs playout. Then vote. I don't think it should be an MVP like trophy but let's get real here. The best players are probably going to make the playoffs and if they don't they're making a bowl game.

I want to say that even against Ohio State by default there were a lot of run plays going to the left of their defense. I think there is a natural flow behind Connerly in particular there. Hopefully we get a good game out for Rodgers this weekend against Maryland to help build him up. He's going to be needed next year at the very least.

Just as a fan, I was happy they got that last touchdown. I know the betting lines are great for well... betting but don't really matter in the grand scheme of the football season. It was just nice to see the Ducks score closer to 40 this game against a pretty sound defense.

However, in college football since players still need to be students, a lot of teams are up and practicing in the morning because students still need to go to class. It's not perfect and I am also sure that not every individual does great with that but that is something that a team can reasonably practice for. Whereas an east coast team is less likely to start a practice at 8pm. It all has an effect on the game for sure.

If true... It's good to be wrong!

This will hurt the team with him gone. But Holden has himself a game on Saturday. Stewart is a massive threat and teams are treating him as such. Justius Lowe also have an incredibly good game last Saturday. And maybe even moving Whittington to receiver for a few plays would be beneficial. His production has shot up since my article about that so it would actually be to just get another solid receiver on the field. Then we might see some youngsters make the field in the next few games. If they can still preserve their redshirts all the better.

Do you think that since USC had Riley that maybe they pursued joining the B1G more actively? I think the money probably would have swayed them regardless. But maybe Fox looked at USC with Riley and saw a USC program that could compete in their pet conference and would be worth the money. What I'm thinking here is thataybe the Riley hire at the end of the 2021 might have helped put the rest in motion. It certainly helped USC's brand until this year.

Best part is that let's pretend for a moment that it was called incomplete. Ducks would have taken the field goal (i would have hoped) and gone up 3 points. And if you say the game strictly plays out the way it did, which it wouldn't but let's get real those arguments are their own thing. Oregon still wins and covers the spread.

The best coaches learn from losing and learn quickly so they don't have to deal with it too often. Lanning doesn't like losing. No one likes losing. And what Lanning learned from losing twice last year was to build up the secondary even more. And guess what it worked. Riley fired his DC and hired a new DC not because he learned a lesson but because there was going to be a riot from the fanbase, donors and his own locker room if he didnt.

The B1G royalty has been defeated by the Ducks in year one in the B1G. Beyond that... Oregon has a win streak against Ohio State at two now and a win streak against Michigan at three. Obviously these streaks predate joining the conference but always nice to extend them.

I think what Lanning wants to do here is get the ball and then cap the middle eight off with a long drive that eats up 4-6 minutes of clock. Yes... A 6 min drive ends after the middle eight but it still serves the same purpose with keeping the opposing offense off the field for an exceedingly long time. The problem is that we aren't getting those drives.

Cig is a very good coach. But he does strike me as an LA guy. But then again I could be completely wrong. There was a Trojan post making fun of Eugene a while back saying something to the extent "there's more to LA than football" and that's part of the culture problem in LA in general. Would Cig want to deal with that if offered the job?

On paper for sure. But on paper we were supposed to lose. Ohio State didn't look great against Penn State yesterday. I'm not saying Michigan is better than Penn State or is going to beat Ohio State. But if Ohio State doesn't up their game a bit I think Michigan will at the very least scare them. Michigan does still have a lot of huge humans in both sides of the line of scrimmage.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Ducks come in at No. 2 in the playoff committee rankings behind Georgia. I'd be shocked to see us any lower. Ohio State probably No. 3 It will be interesting to see where Boise State lands.

Yeah the fumbled punt I think was a major teaching moment for Pellum. He caught the punt fine and took the initial hit but kept on struggling and then the ball popped out. He just needed to fair catch and call it good. Or when he took the first hit just go down. Struggling for more yards in that position makes ball security a lot more difficult. You could tell in the sideline he was so shaken by the expirence that it might take some time before he feels comfortable with punt return duties again. I think that might be the biggest reason why we saw Stewart fielding punts afterwards.

You can build an offensive line to compete in the Big 12 from the portal. Colorado is showing how that is possible this year. But when Colorado played a B1G team in Nebraska they were annaliated. USC has major problems and they stem from recruiting. And the recruiting problems they have are on the line of scrimmage and they really can't fill those gaps through the portal. They can Plug some of them... If they can beat Oregon out for some of those transfers.. I don't know who USC would replace Riley with at this point. Carroll for a year or two but I don't think that experiment will work.

We have only had 2 games all year where we scored more than 3 points in the 3rd quarter. Oregon State and Boise State. It's bad in the third quarter offensively. In the fourth the Ducks are quite respectable. But I've been critical that the Ducks haven't broken 40 more than once this year and it has been a cause for concern. But the reality is that Oregon breaks fourty in almost every game if we score a touchdown in the third quarter. I hope Lanning fixes this soon because the Ducks are leaving the door open for some teams to stage a comeback. Thankfully our defense doesn't let that happen.

And he was going against probably some of the best defensive line talent in the country. Michigan's defense is good and defensive line is one of the best. I think Rodgers has Maryland to get some good reps in. I saw somewhere that medical redshirts can only be given if the player doesn't finish the season. I think Bedford has already used his redshirt before coming to Oregon. If that's the case and he's healthy enough to play then the staff has a hard decision to make for him. All I know is we have a week with a home game against an opponent that doesn't have an elite defensive line to figure some things out. I will say this... Sure Rodgers got beat a few times but the offensive line on the whole looked far better than it did against Idaho and Boise State. They still ran the ball effectively enough on that last drive to score a touchdown and burn out the clock.

Indiana kinda scares me... But I have to remind myself they haven't played a rank team yet. But they do frequently score 40-50 points in a game. I do wish the Ducks would break 40..

Michigan has been ultra one dimensional this year. They have rotated through three quarterbacks and may have finally figured out their QB rotation. They have an incredible tightened room, in particular Loveland is nasty to go against. I think Oregon hit them at the right time. Michigan won't make the playoff this year but they could still ruin some other teams. They have a solid offensive line and run game and their defense is good. It seems like they might be getting just enough quarterback play now to round out their team. If their QB play can continue to develop then I think they give Indiana a scare at least and may even challenge Ohio State. Glad our Ducks got our win over them now and not in a week or two.

I was with you... But then they cut to a shot of Lincoln Riley and I immediately wanted him to lose.