David Marsh

Losses are the determining factor absolutely. Losses count more than wins. It doesn't matter who you beat only who you lost to.

I'm feeling optimistic... I wish I had the links but I have read in a few places now that Moorhead struggled with installation via Zoom. As a high school teacher who has been distance teaching for almost a year now I can safely say that Zoom is incredibly deceptive as to how much anyone actually learns from this platform. Now, I obviously don't know the level of engagement and participation from players but Zoom just invites distractions and I am absolutely sure that the off-season was no where near as productive in terms of installing the offense as it should have been. Moorhead's results were certainly a mixed bag in 2020 but there was a lot of interesting potential. Keep in mind that it wasn't just a new quarterback but also an entirely new offensive line in terms of starters. Each game had some flashes of intrigue as to how this offense is supposed to look moving forward. Shough seemed to get anxious and too happy with just trying to run the ball rather than waiting for passing routes to develop. This worked well in the beginning of the year where defenses didn't seem to expect Oregon to have any quarterback runs. Though once they picked up that Shough would actually tuck and run the ball they closed in and were more disciplined against the quarterback run. Then Shough just didn't stretch the field with many vertical passes to force the defense to play the entire field. There are changes that will need to be made... though I feel optimistic that those changes will happen. Especially with some talented youngsters coming into the program that are hungry for an opportunity to prove themselves and see the field. Is the Spring Game here yet?

Good... We can savior those Husky tears when they lose to Oregon again... When Oregon has to play washington at Washington ... Again. We will all just remember who the Pac-12 champions are, even with a dumb system last year.

This is all the more proof that Oregon is carrying the conference right now. The two revenue generating sports of football and men's basketball are owned by the ducks right now.

The fact of the matter is that Oregon has the talent and potential to win every game in their schedule. Yes, including Ohio State though I'm on the side that it is unlikely Oregon beats ohio state in the second game of the season, it is possible for Oregon to do so. Oregon can and should beat everyone in pac-12 play. Is there the possibility of a slip-up... Yes... But this team needs to play to their potential every single game. The defense is truly loaded with talent and a new scheme needs to maximize that talent and let them cause chaos. The offense has a ton of potential and that youth needs to show up. Cristobal and Moorhead need to set that offense loose. Yes, I am saying BOTH coaches are responsible for making this happen. If Moorhead wants amother head Coaching job then he needs to prove that he still has the offense chops to do so, that does mean making sure Cristobal let's him run an offense that can score points on demand. In the end there are no excuses this year. Oregon out classes 11 out of 12 teams on the schedule this year and they need to prove it. Side note... After reading the 247sports predictions for years now I truly believe they pick the games that may have the biggest risk and make them as Oregon losses. More to prove they are not Oregon homers and can achieve an independent thought ... Unlike our purple neighbors to the north who cannot accept the notion they may actually lose a game.

Not a bad record at Oregon so far in truth... He didn't have a full spring or a full fall camp with the quarterbacks. Even then Shough was ok... Though at Oregon we are a spoiled lot when it comes to quarterbacks and simply put ok is no where near good enough. In the past decade Oregon has started the following quarterbacks... Darrin Thomas, Marcus Mariota, Vernon Adams, Dakota Prukop, Justin Herbert and Tyler Shough. Just to throw out a fairly impactful stat I feel of the most touchdown passes in a single game by an Oregon quarterback... Thomas, Mariota, Adams, and Herbert are all tied for first with 6. Harrington and O'Neil also make the list in the years 2000 and 1994 respectively. Why I love that stat is that it just shows how much of a game changer those quarterbacks can be in a game. Furthermore, on a list of 6 quarterbacks total in program history to tie for the record 4... Yes 4!... Have played for Oregon in a significant starting role in the past 10 years. We are absolutely spoiled and expect the best from out quarterbacks. Now, I am not saying we as fans should lower our standards but I think we do need to put our standard into perspective. Tyler Shough is going to Texas Tech and is now the leading man to start at quarterback next season. He'll still have to compete for the job but I want to emphasize here that other schools WANTED him after a mediocre season at Oregon because it wasn't a mediocre season elsewhere. Oregon still won the Pac-12 championship and Shough still finished towards the top in quarterback rating for the season. Though at the end of the day Shough isn't good enough to play at Oregon. Moorhead will have a whole offseason to get a quarterback ready to run the system to it's full potential... AND we should have some receivers to stress the opposing defenses to make the new starting quarterback's job easier.

I'm sure it helps sells tickets... but scores over 120 points on a regular basis is INSANE! I remember when it was a high scoring game when the game reached a hundred points, and that wasn't that long ago... in the 2000's! Key match-ups really seem more like who can put up more 3s rather than a competitive back and forth of offense and defense. I also find the NBA incredibly boring to watch due to the length of the season and then the length of the playoff. Best of 7 sounds nice... but after a long season we know who the statistically the best teams are. Major upsets are unheard of as winning 4 games in a series of 7 is difficult, especially when the top seeds have already proven they are the best through a long schedule. There are no Cinderella teams in the NBA playoffs because they have to win too many games and a prolonged slip up from a statistically top team isn't going to happen. Ughh... the NBA is a stat machine and that's about it these days. The individual games can be interesting but the overall narrative for a season is pretty boring. Each team's playoff results for the most part resemble their season. The only games of any potential interest are the finals (Conference and Finals) as those four teams might actually be able to cause an upset... but even then it turns out that more often than not, the statistically best teams win.

Then to make matters even more vomit inducing .. those stadiums are usually built with large sums of money that are raised from the local communities via taxes and other donations. Then you get teams like the Chargers and the Raiders (and the Rams? less sure on them) who want new stadiums and they opt to move to a city that is more willing to build them a shiny new stadium rather than stay in a community that has supported them for years. Professional sports are a quagmire of their own. We love them, hate them, and at times just don't know what to do with them. College teams have their own set of problems... though at least I know my Ducks won't be moving away.

Salary caps for fans are an interesting exercise of gamification of management. You have to like the logistics and finances of how programs operate and who they can add to their rosters. I'm not an NFL fan though I'll usually watch a few games a year if there are Ducks involved that I want to see... Herbert is making me into a Chargers fan and I am really hoping Mariota finds a home as a starter so I can watch him again. For most fans, me included, the financial side of things is pretty boring. I find it usually leads to disappointment more often than not as a team cannot acquire a player because of the salary cap. Now I get why the salary cap is there from a fairness perspective. Fans usually only care about salary cap shenanigans if they are playing a campaign sports game... Madden or NBA 2k-whatever (it's been well over a decade since I last played one). Where it does get interesting to manage the salary cap. Though I doubt anyone is listening to the pundits about the best way to do this to apply it to a game. I am also of the opinion that NFL teams should have a larger roster for the health of the players. If the rosters were bigger there could be more player substitutions and rotations throughout the game. Leading to fewer hits and better post-game recovery. I do know that I am probably in the firm minority in this opinion... And it doesn't really relate to your topic Charles.

I would just like to shameless plug my article from a few weeks ago where I say USC is NOT Oregon's Equal in Football. The air raid is going to hold usc back!

I know I'm probably in the minority here but I usually find Walton quite entertaining... Not from an informational point of view but from the reactions whoever his commentator is during the game. Usually the other commentator just can't deal with it and either tried to redirect him and make him more focused or just gives up. However, this is usually only amusing while the Ducks are winning... Otherwise he is super annoying.

The last scary receiver Oregon had really was Dillon Mitchel and that was because he was paired with Herbert. 2019 there wasn't much of a fear factor receiver wise... I think we had a couple guys who could scare a defense last year but Oregon really lacked the quarterback who could get the ball down the distance. Though there were some creative plays with Dye coming out of the backfield that did create some interesting match-ups. Here's hoping Oregon has the quarterback who can really stretch the field in 2021.

As to the run game component... We haven't had a big time runningback in the mold.of a Freeman, Barner, or James for the past three years. Verdell just doesn't have the same ability. Verdell always seems to look for contact rather than make a cut away from contact. He doesn't really make any cuts at all... He goes off like a bullet and rams into anything in his way. Which would work great if he was a couple inches taller and about 20 pounds heavier... That way he'd demolish whoever he ran into... But instead it just becomes a cloud of dust and a few yards. Granted... Verdell is very good at falling forward so if he typically can pick up a couple yards... But it isn't pretty. Additionally... The pistol... Need I say more on that?

I'll be honest I'm not sold on USC... Though they have one of the most favorable schedules in the pac-12 south. They get Oregon State and Washington State... Both teams can be a handful and potentially dangerous. However, neither have the caliber of talent that Oregon or Washington have and don't pose the same risk. I think Utah or ASU may have the better teams as they attack using more balanced attacks. USC and their air raid will make them tough but beatable with agressive defenses. Last year it took a miracle last minute for USC to beat ASU and then they played Utah who were sidelined for 3 weeks and put them away fairly easily. We will just have to wait and find out.

I think Cristobal is looking for potentially a few project players as well that have all the physical assets needed but need to be refined. Oregon is in a great place right now with offensive linemen. The 2020 Offensive line really needs to be more cohesive in 2021 but that will come with time, the one thing they were woefully short of last year, especially with FIVE new starters. With that said... there will be a few spots opening up in the 2022 season as there will be some who graduate and move on. Though there will be plenty of options for replacements between those who are in the second string right now and 2021 incoming Freshman who will be red-shirted this season but potentially ready to go in 2022. This will really allow Oregon to take a physical monster who needs some work like Percy Lewis and develop him as a player. He may not see the field till his 2rd year (Red-shirt Sophomore?) but Oregon can afford to wait and develop him because of our offensive line depth. THIS is a fantastic sign. We all love seeing Freshman get right on the field in year one, especially if they are four and five-stars, and over the past couple of years Oregon has played a lot of Freshman. Though in reality we want to see a lot of these players red-shirt and develop for a year or so before they get on the field. A whole lot of development can happen in a red shirt year. So we might not see Lewis take the field for a year or two... but when he does with his size and with Oregon's offensive line training... he will be trouble for a lot of teams.

I think it is possible... and it is March so I feel I can sunshine pump a little bit. At this moment there are so many unknowns. I think the defense is going to be good to potentially great with DeRuyter's scheme. I also think the offense will have enough time to actually learn the scheme and gel as a unit, which never seemed to fully happen at any point last year. The offense had individuals step up from game-to-game but never really a whole team. Though the question as to whether or not a Pac-12 one-loss team will get into the playoff... I think it really comes down to style points and what the Big-12 looks like. Barring major upsets we can reasonably pencil in Clemson, the SEC Champion (probably Alabama), and Ohio State. The fourth spot is up for grabs between the Big-12 Champion, the Pac-12 Champion and Notre Dame. If Oregon loses to Ohio State but its not a horrific loss and Oregon wins the conference with some style... then I think Oregon can grab a playoff spot over a 1-loss Big-12 team. For now... I think I will just live in my optimistic bubble and wait for spring ball to start.

RatherBe thanks for the correction and information. I either read something somewhere that was incorrect or misinterpreted it. Thanks for the in-depth information.

You can't make Washington happy no matter what their schedule is... they could play 12 home games and have Oregon after a double bye week and they'd still complain about something. There seems something completely wrong with Washington's fan-base and their delusion is unmatched. I think a lot of that is also built around the journalists that cover them too. All their stuff is an echo chamber that perpetually pumps sunshine to the point that they don't actually see the sun! They don't know their program and I'll be honest Washington has a TON of advantages they could leverage to their advantage, they are just being underutilized. When it comes to recruiting it is a pretty common response when Washington loses out on a recruit that their fan-base decries "We didn't want that guy anyways" and sometimes they start bashing recruits that didn't commit to their school. I just wonder if that ever puts off perspective recruits. I'm not saying Oregon's fan base is perfect (but we know we are)... and there are some forums out there that do a whole lot of sunshine pumping but the fan-base doesn't go insane with delusion the same way that the Washington fans do. I guess as an Oregon fan I do get a bit of joy out of watching the Washington fan base foam at the mouth at really non-issues.

Monster is an understatement... he IS an offensive line onto himself.

Absolutely... I do feel that the defense was in a much better form in the last two and a half games of last season. I feel confident that DeRuyter is going to have our defensive unit functioning at a high level early on in the season. I also feel we could have our offense functioning at a higher level at the start of the season as Moorhead is going to have a FULL off-season to install his offense. He will need to ensure his starting quarterback is able to run the entire offensive playbook effectively. whether that is Brown, Butterfield, Thompson or Ashford.

I just want Mariota to play and show off his skills! Which also means I want him to play for a team that wont let him get sacked multiple times a game.

I think they are still in discussions about that... neutral site would be best for BOTH schools financially at this point. Right now Oregon gets paid by Ohio State to come to OSU but as OSU does not come to Oregon they will not get paid by Oregon. A neutral site game will re balance the payments in some way.

Looking at the entire schedule... Oregon is the better team in all those match-ups independently (excluding Ohio State). Now the coaching staff needs to ensure the team is up to the task of playing every single week. I think the team will look much improved this year with a full Fourth Quarter conditioning program AND Spring ball. There are two weaknesses that need to be addressed the way I see it... there are more that need improvement but these two are critical. 1. Need a starting quarterback. 2. Need a run game that churns up yards. This may need a young runningback displacing Verdell from the rotation and Dye moving into a swiss army knife role where he is deployed all over the field... like he kind of was through out last season.

Quick Pick Predictions... OREGON FOOTBALL 2021 SCHEDULE Sept. 4: vs. Fresno State W Sept. 11: at Ohio State L - I really want to give Oregon the W here and I do think Oregon has a good chance... just can't at this time. Sept. 18: vs. Stony Brook W Sept. 25: vs. Arizona W Oct. 2: at Stanford W Oct. 9: BYE Oct. 15 (Fri.): vs. California W - REVENGE! Oct. 23: at UCLA W - Honestly... I think Oregon could lose this one... but I want to live with some Green colored glasses right now and see a playoff berth! Oct. 30: vs. Colorado W Nov. 6: at Washington W - I feel really good about this one at the moment... the talent gap is widening.. the coaching gap is widening ... and players are going to want it! Nov. 13: vs. Washington State W Nov. 20: at Utah W - Utah has some nice pieces but I think Oregon will be the more veteran and better team. Nov. 27: vs. Oregon State W - REVENGE! Pac-12 Championship Game: Oregon v USC - Oregon Wins! Oregon wins its 3rd consecutive Pac-12 Championship and gets a playoff berth!

Some of the inspiration for this article came from the divergent hiring plans of Oregon and Washington. Right now Oregon is making some if the biggest moves and splashiest hires. Over the past two years they have brought in names with significant weight: Moorhead, McClendon, DeRuyter, and Yates all have coached at positions higher than the jobs they have at Oregon. We also expect them to have a significant impact on the program and bring something to Oregon that Oregon didn't previously have. Meanwhile our hated neighbor to the North, Washington lost their venerated defensive coordinator. Their response was to promote from within, in this case it was someone who had some expirence with the defensive coordinator job. Then to fill their open position coaching job they hired an analyst. Two jobs two internal hires, no new blood and ideas. Obviously at some point every program is going to have to make a hire from without. Washington hired a new analyst. I do think Cristobal wants and values new ideas flowing into the program. His reluctance to promote from within is a sign that he wants expirence filling the voids. Though there is also a sense that Cristobal believes that coaches should move on and expirence and learn from other programs. Staying in one place will limit their growth as coaches. Though keeping coaches around longer than two years is a must going forward. The turnover at Oregon has been a bit too much. Players need the consistency more than anything else.