David Marsh

Who are you and what did you do with Jon? That seems overly optimistic for the Jon Joseph I'm used to. The UCLA game didn't end with a final score I wanted to see but it is the most optimistic I have felt about this team since Ohio State. So I think they will grow and I am expecting a multi-touchdown victory over Colorado this Saturday... I just hope they prove me right.

Relying on the defense isn't so much the problem.. but relying on an up-and-down defense to make a stand on the FINAL drive of the game which is a bit much.

Credit to the defense... That's a lot of plays they needed to defend. Again the 2 turnovers in the fourth made it super tough on the defense. However, the offense was pretty efficient at times which also led to more time for the defense to be on the field. We got a nice glimpse of what this team really can be... Just need it to all come together.

The defense looks good and is really coming together. I have said it multiple places at this point but in the fourth quarter it was the offense that let the defense down and put the defense in the position where they had to win the game which isn't fair. The offense needed to take care of the ball better. However, on a positive note ... I think this is the offense coaches see in practice and the Brown they see in practice. Which is pretty good when they are all clicking.

For the majority of big games this team comes to play. The downside is they need to show up out the gate against lesser teams. I really loved the fire and passion from Cristobal and Mirabal today. Really made Feld work to keep them on the sidelines and not scratching out the refs' eyes with their duck fury. That energy is what is needed from MC to get this team going. Let the coordinators run the offense and defense ... But he needs to fire his team up.

By the end of the game they just looked dirty. Like they were covered in mud all over. Not a great look. An interesting expirement but not one I'd like to see again.

This team finally looks like they are coming together. Defensively they were on the field for too long... Offense needed to end the game much much better. Don't put your defense in the position where they need to win the game.. period! Dye has been stellar and impressive. I was actually pretty impressed with the offensive line today... Considering the injuries they look like they are really working well together. No massive holding calls today... A few false starts but no where near as bad as it has been. Brown showed off what he can do today... Also continued to show off what he is very bad at ... His decision making is still suspect and he can't throw a deep ball. He had some very nice runs but that was because of Dye and how Dye managed to draw the attention of the defense every play. Browns best blocker today was Dye hands down. Maybe the coaches and Brown have learned they need a quarterback who can sit in the pocket and pass rather than constantly try to run it.

The 2nd and 3rd quarters looked good... The fourth didn't look so bad until the two interceptions. The defense did a great job but yet again they were put in the situation where they needed to get a stop. That is on the offense to make sure the defense gets to stay off the field. Instead the defense spent most of the fourth quarter on the field. We saw the Brown the coaches see in practice and for half the game he looked pretty good. But when he was cold... He was aweful.

I would have liked them more if we won by at least 10 points instead of the defense needing a stop on the last drive of the game.

Jus think of this as well... Oregon is basically the ONLY non-blue blood team to even reach the national championship in the last decade. The trajectory of Oregon i such that we are competing against some of the best teams out there but don't have the pedigree they do and we still don't. That is very unique in college football but the fan base on the whole feels entitled to being in the national championship conversation even if we haven't won it yet. Which is again.... Very odd.

And 2015! With so much power in the north the divisions only punish the no. 2 team which has been in the north a surprising amount of times... They are usually eliminated from championship race because they lost to the north champ... Often the south champ has dodged the north champ only to get beaten by them in the champy game.

Some great comments... I do think that fans have very high expectations. I even addressed some of these in an open letter at the end of last season. We really want to see an offensive juggernaut. Instead we have something pretty anemic and it is difficult to watch. Though so much of my emphasis is how well Cristobal navigates the off-season. He is an incredible off season head coach. He brings in great hires (at least on paper) and has brought in some of the most star power we have ever seen. On other forum boards I have also read how they want certain coaches gone so they can be replaced with better recruiters. There is certainly a portion of the fan base that is more interested and obsessed with recruiting than the product on the field. We do live in the off season far more than we live in the season. We just want to see more production on the field. We will just have to keep waiting at this point.

Cristobal does such a great job in the off-season that fans do get super hyped for the season and really do expect a dominant team. I think MC has at least two more years with the program before Mullen's even considers a change at the head coaching position. The bulk of this team needs some time to mature... I'm looking at the quarterbacks in particular here.

Building continuity is incredibly difficult and for the vast majority of programs critical. The one program and the one man that are the exception is Nick Saban and Alabama but he is the exception to basically everything in terms of college football. There is a foundation that is being built... I'll leave it to others to determine whether or not that is a solid foundation but Big Joe and Mirabal both received contract extensions last year and would appear to be two of the pillars that Cristobal is wanting to build the program around. I think DeRuyter will become a stable long-term guy in the program as well.

They are interesting. I don't hate them but not sure how much I love them. The nightmare green helmet being back is cool. The numbers also being that dark green are cool. Overall... I think I'll go with a B But they will grow on me real fast if we win on Saturday.

I'm going to say yes... But the biggest problem is that there isn't a QB on the field that can get the ball to them over the top of the defense. Dye has some nice speed but really lacks that extra gear that DAT had that would get him into the end zone on a big run. Dye gets a nice burst and gets down the field but had been caught from behind a few times instead of making it all the way. Seven will be one to watch.

The fans need to see a solid win by Oregon here... I'm really getting tired of having to sit on the edge of my seat until the final whistle blows... And even then last week I was scouring the field to make sure no ref threw a flag just because...

He didn't want to move his family to Eugene ... I doubt they will want to move to Pullman. Now it isn't a requirement to move the entire family to the team's location but it is just weird and screams short term.

Yeah that argument doesn't work.... By this point in 2019 Herbert had at least 2 games where he threw for 5 touchdowns and was definitely averging more than 200 yards per game.

Herbert willed the 2019 team forward because he was that talented. He made the players around him better and got everything he could out of them... Which at times wasn't much. Also 2019 had probably the best defense in Oregon history. It was loaded with juniors and seniors with some incredible freshman talent sprinkled in... Note... Sprinkled in... KT was a freshman and he did have a good season but he wasn't the leader and he could grow and make mistakes. Our defense is still growing up. Sewell has only now played a full seasons worth of games! However, offensively this year Oregon has the athletes to kick this offense up a notch but lacks a quarterback who can run it in top gear. We are basically stuck in second right now and occasionally make it to third gear. (I may be young but I do actually drive a manual... So I'll stick with this analogy... Haha! Stick.. it's a pun!) The Moorhead system is slowly....SLOWLY emerging... Again the pistol is basically gone at this point. The hardest thing for college athletes isn't always the physical... They have that... But the mental aspect of the game. This could be the thing that is holding Thompson back... Not an excuse but maybe an explanation.

I agree... The offense needs to get out of its own way and get a QB who can run the offense at 100%. The defense has been making improvements but just isn't consistent at this time. They can go from an incredible set of downs to another set where they implode.

Feld is what is called a "belt coach" where part of his job is to keep the HC off the field. There are quite a few pictures of him pulling MC back. Lots of coaches use their strength.coaches in that way.

Rankings this year are all over the place without having a normal high school season last year and the evaluations that come with it. Quite a few recruits will get bumps, while others we will just have to see if the coaches did a good enough job in the evaluation to see what these players can do.

USC has a knack of firing their head coaches mid season... They have fired their last three head coaches during the season. Orgeron was the interm HC after Kiffin was fired. The players loved him but USC hired Sark instead. A year and a bit later they fired Sark and then Helton became intern head coach... And was then hired as full time HC. Don't know how I remember all that..

Absolutely on defense... KT really makes everyone look better out there and brings some great energy and encourages energy out of everyone else. Sewell also has great energy but it doesn't always translate to the team.