David Marsh

Oregon and Stanford have a special relationship because between the two of them they have ruled the conference for a decade+. One of the first articles I wrote for FishDuck was actually about how the Pac-12 Championship game sucks because for so many of those years the Pac-12 Championship Game should have been played as a rematch of those two teams as they were by far the best two teams in the conference. Stanford as spoiled many of our seasons but we have spoiled a good few of theirs. In 2015 Oregon basically single-handedly kept Stanford out of the playoff and ensured McCaffrey wouldn't win the Heisman.

I don't think we are completely out of it. But there is a lot out of our control. We need to see a team playing for the future and playing to win. We see a lot of playing to not lose right now out of Brown. That invites more losses. Better to believe we are out for now and swing for the fences and if we get ourselves back in it we are a better team for it.

I'm not happy about this statement either... it begs the question as to how bad are those freshman qbs? However, HOWEVER! there might be a little hope. This is a bye week and next week is full prep for Cal. Why would Cristobal say anything besides they have full confidence in Brown? It would only help Cal in their prep process and do NOTHING for Oregon besides appease the fans. Now, I would like to be appeased, not going to lie, but what is keeping me from full panic mode is that I would say the EXACT same thing if I were Cristobal this week.

To date I have found Moorhead to be very private as an individual. He has been probably more reserved in interviews than other coaches. I'll be more concerned if we don't hear anything for a week.

In 2017, 18, and 19 Oregon had a stellar quarterback in Justin Herbert but in all those years really lacked a stable of receivers for him to consistently throw the ball to. Just look at what he can do with receivers who can catch the ball! Now we have the opposite... we have the receivers but don't have a quarterback who consistently gets them a ball in a place to make a play. We have seen over thrown deep balls, late passes that come behind the receivers, and just outright missed reads where Brown puts the ball into traffic and thankfully it has only resulted in one interception to date. Switching out the quarterback would start to see an improvement here. It would take some time because Thompson (presumably) would have to build a relationship with his receivers a bit ... but he has a much better feel for the ball. 2015 was the last time Oregon was in sync with a good QB and receivers. We could be again but we need the right quarterback to do it.

Depending on what it is that is certainly possible. I haven't seen any updates to Moorhead's status just yet. I don't expect to hear about it really until next week. Bye weeks often consist of some lighter practice, some more reps for 2nd, and 3rd teams and coaches making some recruiting visits.

I would say fixing the QB problem unlocks the receivers which opens up the whole offense. The funny thing in 2018 and 2019 the problem was flipped. Oregon had the QB in Justin Herbert but lacked the receivers. Getting the QB right is tough and for I will say 3 of this year's games Brown has been the right QB, knowing the lack of experience behind him. Now, I think it has flipped. I struggle with the topic of the article because on the one hand... this is absolutely true that the talent has failed to produce. However, some of this talent has absolutely produced big results. The Sewell brothers, KT, (i know all super highly ranked), Dye and Verdell have developed and made jumps every year. The offensive line would look better if there were better RPO reads going on from the QB. The amount of youth gives me pause on a blanket statement like failed to develop. I'm on the fence right now... I think 2022 is the YEAR Cristobal really has to prove it. I would have said it was this year, but 2020 doesn't count for the majority of teams, Oregon being one of them.

That's the real question.. if not Cristobal then who? And the answer is... none of the current top coaching talent is leaving where they are at for Oregon. Some of the up and coming coaches are also probably not good fits for Oregon as they really are mid-west coaches. So that leaves a whole lot of questions with no real answers.

One observation I recently saw was a large part for the offensive line not looking as good is if Brown has the wrong read. The RPO system is designed to be flexible. Whatever the defense gives the offense takes. This is an article going over Browns shortcomings from last Saturday and is worth a read. It wasn't stated in the article but if you look at the pictures provided you really do start to get a sense the offense is doing their job but Brown isn't doing his correctly with what is happening. The 4th and 1 at the goal line at the end of the 1st half is such an incredible example when you see if in still frame. The offensive line has pulling linemen to do something COMPLETELY different than what Brown actually does. It wasn't a play even designed to go up the gut, the linemen were pulling to attack the edges more. I now really want to see what this line does when a QB is doing the right thing. As for the defensive line... Ughh the injuries on defense make it really tough to gage how well the whole defense is doing. They have shown some growth but they aren't there yet by any means. The defense could use some big bodied guys to plug some holes though.

ASU maybe... they have enough hype to get them into the conversation. OSU, not a chance, they don't have enough media support to boost them into the conversation and even though we don't want to admit it at times, the media power will determine whether or not they can get into the playoff. Cinci stands a better chance than Oregon State at getting into the Playoff.

ASU is a good team... I'm just not convince how good. There is a good argument that they should be No.1 over OSU right now. I just see a Beaver team playing with more passion than ASU. If the two teams played tomorrow I feel OSU would win that game. ASU has a better roster on paper and we will just have to see how they continue to do moving forward. The Pac-12 this year is as dangerous as ever...

That play in the 4th quarter was Brown making the wrong read and trying to make something happen. If he just took the sack it would have been better. I agree with Charles that Brown often puts the team on his shoulders when he really doesn't need to. There seems to be a lack of trust between him and the other players. In the Mariota years Mariota could and would put the team on his shoulders and he would ensure the play that needed to happen, happened. Same thing for the most part with Adams and Herbert. Brown doesn't have that skill set.

Yes

This week I feel the need to restrain myself from putting "Pac-12 Refs" in as No. 1 because it feels like they are the biggest threat to any team in the conference for now. This week has been difficult for me to judge so here are my Pac-12 Power Rankings for Week 5. 1. Oregon State (4-1, 2-0) - Yes, Beaver Fans you deserve the No.1 spot this week. The Beavers beat Washington for the first time in... what seems like forever and they are 2-0 in Pac-12 play and continuing their upswing. I don't think they will make it out of conference play unscathed but for now they can live high at the top of the Pac-12 North. At the very least it should make for an interesting Civil War Game this year. To my college Mr. Z, enjoy this while it lasts! 2. Arizona State (4-1, 2-0) - I still don't know what to make of this team in truth. They are 2-0 in Pac-12 play so far having defeated Colorado (not too impressive) and UCLA (more impressive) but this team still feels overrated. We will just have to wait and see how well they do in the long run. 3. Oregon (4-1, 1-1) - Ughh... I don't really feel good about putting Oregon here but at the same time losing to the psudo No.1 of the refs makes their loss look less bad. Did Oregon deserve to win at Stanford? No. Did they deserve to lose? Possibly. Did they deserve to lose to the refs on a highly questionable call on what was the last play of the game? Absolutely not. Factor in losing to the refs, and the amount of injuries this team has had to overcome to date and sitting at No.3 in the Pac-12 feels ok. There is a lot of the coaching staff is going to need to do to make this team a contender for the Pac-12 Championship, namely fixing the QB situation but that will be determined the next game. 4. Stanford (4-2, 2-1) - Should Stanford be ahead of Oregon? Maybe, probably but again read what I said above about the refs and the last call of the game. This team is good and they are getting players back from injuries. They will contend for the Pac-12 North but if they stumble, Oregon has a clear shot to over take them. 5. UCLA (3-2, 1-1) - UCLA lost to ASU though beat Stanford, they also lost to Fresno State. They have their own set of problems to work out and actually look kinda like a mirror of Oregon where they have a good run game and short passing game but seem to lack that x-factor to get them to the next level. Their defense might be better than Oregon's but no one in the PAC has forced more turnovers to date. Still difficult to determine just how good this team is. 6. Utah (2-2, 1-0) - Utah had a bye last week so they are holding here for now. 7. USC (3-2, 2-2) - This team looks middle of the road. They beat a Colorado team that doesn't have any offense. USC lost to Oregon State, who are currently No.1 and Stanford. They have yet to play and beat anyone above them on this list so this feels solid. 8. Washington (2-3, 1-1) - Washington has had two road games under Jimmy Lake and two road losses. This last one to the Beavers. Washington has improved on offense but they are still a far cry from being effective. 9. Washington State (2-3, 1-2) - Washington State scored a win against Cal. They also appear to have far more offense than Colorado. The offense is a far cry from the Mike Leach Air-Raid offense that was the thorn in the side of the Pac-12 and their defense has some bright spots but not enough to make up for the woeful lack of offense. However, this may be the year that Washington State may win the Apple Cup against Washington.They may be sorting out some of their problems but beating a team that has only one win of the season isn't exactly a resounding victory. 10. Cal (1-4, 0-2) - Cal is bad, but they didn't lose to Washington State by that much so they really only deserve to be ranked only slightly below Washington State. This team needs an offense to make some noise, but their defense has fallen off a cliff since DeRuyter left. Cal's mission at this point is to try to get a win against a Division One program. 10. Colorado (1-4, 0-2) - Colorado and Cal are honestly tied both are bad but for different reason. I know a tie is a bit of a cop-out because this is a power ranking but at this time I think Colorado and Cal are equally bad. If the two teams were to play tomorrow that game may very well in a 0-0 game heading into overtime. Colorado probably has a better defense than Cal but Cal has a better offense and vice-versa. At the end of the day I would say these two cancel each other out. However, on October 23rd these two teams play each other so we will get an answer to this question. 12. Arizona (0-4, 0-1) - Arizona had a bye. Last week I had them at No. 11 this week as they didn't play and Washington State showed some life I let WSU jump them. Arizona may be better than the two teams above but we will just have to wait and see. Please feel free to argue with me. Am I too much of an Oregon homer for putting Oregon at No. 3 or is that sorta fair? Am I just too bitter after the Reffing fiasco Saturday night? Well... that's probably true. Here's to hoping Oregon gets their act together so we return to our rightful place at the top of the PAC.

And with walk on linebackers... And a depleted defensive line. And an offensive coordinator in the hospital. Excuses are all well and good for fans... But not coaches. Also the things I listed were outside the control of coaches. Fixing the QB situation is in the control of the coaching staff and that needs to be done.

This sort of thing certainly didn't help the moral of the team. This has been a super rough year for Oregon football between the injuries and now a coach going to the hospital. Hopefully it is nothing too serious and Moorhead will be back on his feet soon... and if not his feet hopefully able to call plays from the box if needed. Knowing that Moorhead was in the Bay Area when he went to the hospital does give the coaching some slack for the play calls because there really wasn't a whole lot of time for another play caller to get comfortable. But considering all the injuries and everything... it is remarkable just how many games this team has won so far. Hoping the bye week allows us to get Moorhead back for Cal.

Brown doesn't seem to see the field too well. He will often opt to pass into coverage rather than see the receiver who needs half a second to get open. So often there is a receiver open or just on the verge of getting open when that ball is thrown. Now under pressure, this becomes understandable but that isn't always the case.

orr.... we kicked a field goal... we really needed to finish the first half with a one score game.

The play calling seemed ok from my PoV but the execution was lacking. I also firmly believe a QB change wasn't even on the table for considerations because Moorhead wasn't there. Not that it would have been considered anyways... but just my 2 cents there.

The Taggart era cleaned the slate at Oregon. He got rid of the entire staff and in the process did bring us Cristobal. In the process Oregon lost so much institutional knowledge. Just think if Cristobal was on the staff during the Helfrich years and he was apart of the Oregon blur offense and then he ascended to head coach after that, would he have a different take on the offense? Taggart's offense was Taggart's offense, when he left he took his offense with him. He called the plays and it was his thing, for better or worse. There was far too much freedom in the institutional void of Oregon at the time that Cristobal really could choose what we wanted the offense to look like, espeically when his OC was still Arroyo, who hasn't done well offensively at UNLV. Not sure if things would be different... but it's worth thinking about.

I have gone from a non-fan to a die hard fan and all that happened in the Kelly years... a die hard fan that writes for this website. After a loss like like the one suffered last Saturday I find the need to detox myself and get some perspective and then I realize that all my internet activity is Oregon Ducks related or history, news, or board games. I find myself in the similar spot Charles, I find myself frustrated because the product on the field isn't terribly interesting from an offensive stand point. The defense being bend but don't break or just bend until breaking is kinda run of the mill for Oregon so it has to be a truly powerful lock-down defense for me to get excited about it. This Oregon team has kinda needed a loss like this to be a kick in the pants to get them to wake up... but I really do find that the players might wake up a little bit.. but the changes really need to come from the top. The offense needs an overhaul, it needs to be a modern offense. At the end of last year I did write an open letter to Mario Cristobal. I feel what I wrote then is still valid today. I don't think I will lose interest in the team, it has kinda become a hobby that has dominated my free time. I don't think getting rid of MC is the answer... because if not MC then who? No one should be making comparisons with ANY coach to Saban. Saban is an anomaly at this sport. Though MC really does need to get introspective and determine what needs to change is him.

It feels worse. That was a coaching error. This feels like the refs manufactured a Stanford win. Now, did they or didn't they? That's up for debate but it feels that way which is the worst thing a ref can do. The utmost priority to good reffing is consistency. Players need to know what is a penalty and what is allowed. Every ref team has their own variation and that is completely normal. But there is trust formed throughout play and players usually know when they pushed it too far with a group of refs. That trust was destroyed on that last drive. That trust was destroyed on the final true play of the game with that pi flag. That's why this loss hurts. It feels like it was stolen... Not by the poor play of the Ducks (there is that) but by a group that is supposed to be neutral on the field the refs. Blaming the refs should never be na excuse for a loss... But it really feels like the refs were pulling for one team at the end of this game.

If KT was called for targeting that was targeting too.

The reffing has been aweful in these last two mins. Oregon hasn't played great but that wasn't targeting... And why all of the sudden change what is acceptable okay for pass interference?

That was NOT targeting... He led with his hands and there was contact but that was not targeting.