David Marsh

Yep the path has opened for us... and now we have to take this gift and run with it. None of that 2013 crap where Stanford does us a favor and we repay it by losing and giving the tie breaker back to Stanford... ugghh that was not a good game. Here's to looking forward to next week and Oregon v Cal to see what the coaches have cooked up for us. With some hope that it actually looks good!

I am happy that TAMU won... always nice seeing Bama knocked down a notch. I do think Georgia is now solidly the No.1 team in the country and it isn't even close.

Watching the last five minutes of the Alabama v Texas A&M game where it has some similarities to the Oregon v Stanford game. Bama has not played well this game and it is close. However, there is definitely a difference in reffing. The SEC refs are either protecting Bama or just letting things okay out. They didn't flag a play that may have started early and it resulted in a touchdown... It looked like there was some movement but that's just my perspective. The 2pt conversation had a look that the receiver may have pushed off the defender... Would have been flagged in the pac-12 but not this game. Then there was a play that had a bit of a late hit where the Bama defender clearly lowered his head but due to a height difference it wasn't crown of the helmet that made contact but the face mask and maybe part of the helmet. Targeting was called and then over turned. That would have been targeting in the pac-12. KT was in the air and coming down with his hands out and there was incidental contact that was deemed targeting. From an Oregon and Pac-12 fan perspective the refs are protecting the crown jewel of the SEC. Just some observations. Reffing may be bad in the Pac-12 but the bigger problem is that reffing solid different in every conference and isn't consistent across college football.

Thank you for your kind words. I think this is an interesting example with what Oklahoma did to beat Texas. Bama did it against Georgia a few years ago with Tua as well. Though we can point to examples this has worked in the past the question is, does it apply to THIS Oregon team? I want to say... Yes it absolutely should! But the reality may not be so and we don't have access to all that practice time. We will have to wait a week to find out if the coaches think it's time or not. The fans think it's time, that's for sure. Also remember this team is 50% freshman and we are expecting them to play like seniors.

True... Though again MC said what he said because there really wasn't anything else to say. It was all pretty boiler plate stuff.

The Oregon fan base on the whole is very negative right now, unbearably so at times. This forum has been mild compared to the other ones out there that I browse. Fans have been screaming about a couple of quarterback related things this past week, especially around why Brown is still the starter which is justified. First off, Cristobal said to the media a few days ago that Brown is still the starter. This is a bye week, there have been a few practices but a whole lot of time where coaches haven't even been in the state of Oregon as they have been out recruiting and visiting recruits. Also the players are in recovery. In short this isn't a normal week and though there are certainly discussions going on behind the scenes amongst coaches about the QB situation. Though at the end of the day there is NO POINT for MC to say anything besides Brown is still QB1 right now. They haven't had time to fully evaluate their options and why should MC appease the fans and tell us they are opening the QB competition and give Cal a helping hand? Second, let's not forget Moorhead had surgery before the Stanford game and was unavailable for that game. That hurt the play calling, no matter what is said and something like that probably had the players a bit rattled and players get used to their coaches and what the play calls look like. Changing this up right before the game would have had an effect on the players and this is an anomaly and the timing couldn't have been worse but it is what it is. Furthermore, Moorhead is not only the OC but also the QB coach. When things were looking bad at Stanford and Oregon is without their QB coach any idea of putting in a backup QB would have gone right out the window, unless of course they had to put in a freshman because Brown went down. Moorhead would be involved in any change in quarterback decisions coming up, especially next week. Hopefully Moorhead is back at practice in some way next week and I am sure he will be involved in the conversation about quarterback. As Moorhead is still recovering, MC is probably telling the truth that Brown is still QB1, but mostly because there probably haven't been any official changes made at this time. The team really needed this bye week to get healthy. However, the fans really didn't need this bye week, this is probably the most negative I have seen the broader Oregon fan base in a very long time. Remember we only have 1 loss and it came with numerous factors, the reffing being a large factor as well, and many media pundits have said as much as well. I'm channeling Jon Joseph's optimism right now but Oregon is still in it for another Pac-12 championship and maybe even a playoff berth if they take care of business. Stanford lost last night to Arizona State which helps out Oregon a lot. I think I just needed this rant probably more than it needed to be heard. I think there are some problems at quarterback and I do believe that we need to see one of the freshman play to give us all some hope of the future. But for now we just need to be a bit more patient and wait for next week. If things don't change next week then I feel the negativity is more warranted.

Hopefully just that Oregon is a horribly injured and depleted team that after a bye week Oregon looks a whole lot better. At least that is what I am hoping.

Oddly enough I think Helfrich would have held onto his job for another year if he played Herbert from game one. Fans would have been appalled by the defense but the bigger question around Helfrich was could he replace Mariota without a grad transfer? The answer was yes, with Herbert but too late. Not saying Helfrich would have lasted much longer regardless but just a thought.

My friend I find myself conflicted... In all our back and forth over the last few years I have always found myself the optimist and you the realist. On this occasion I feel our roles have been reversed. I am finding it difficult to find any confidence in the current state of the team... Though there is a small part of me that is hopeful. I just want to see growth from this team and coaching staff.

I said it in another forum post somewhere... but this is completely the right thing for Cristobal to say regardless of what the decision is behind the scenes. There is no reason for him to give away a quarterback change, if one has occurred, until the game itself, especially during a bye week. No need to give Cal any information they may use to better prepare themselves for next weeks game. I'm still hoping we will see some changes coming because Brown isn't cutting it.

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.