David Marsh

The crazy thing is that we only have ONE loss! We are still in the playoff running. Win out and we're in, it's as simple as that. Also... I would be thrilled with the six seed. It puts us on the opposite side of the bracket from Ohio State and we get a home game at Autzen and a favorable match up in round two. I'd take the six seed over the five seed. I'm not afraid of Ohio State but I don't think we are ready for them at this time and delaying that match up would be best for our post season goals. So much of the anger right now is that Oregon is not winning by enough at times. Sure, we laid an egg against Indiana but its an opportunity to grow. Bama got demolished by Florida State and FSU doesn't look that good anymore so keep that in mind. We are all striving for perfection but perfection will never be attained.

James had some speed that could get him around the edge faster than the linebackers could fill the gap and he was paired with offensive linemen who were built for speed to seal those edges off to make a lane for him. He was also working in an offense that most defenses didn't know how to effectively defend yet. Now most defenses know how to defend against these outside runs and zone reads better. Wisconsin and Indiana defended the edges well early on and actually had the tackles on their heels. But it was up the gut that Davison found success and forced Wisconsin to adjust by not just recklessly attacking the edges because if they did that then Davison was going to rip off too many yards up the middle. This did open up some runs for Whittington along the edges later in the game. I love LaMichael James and what he did for the program but I'm not sure he would be as effective today as he was back then.

Only problem with that is they set up every game's uniform in the spring and early summer to ensure they have enough equipment. Though I will say that I am absolutely tired of the black uniforms and the white and the white and black. I am so ready for some green and yellow. It feels like there has been a general lack of green and yellow this year.

This is absolutely the case! Davison forces the other team to back off its edges and gives our tackles time to settle-down. World and Harkey are good but not great, we are certainly missing the Connerly and Cornelius combo of years past. But if both have time to settle they are both significantly better. The middle of our line is where it's strongest with Poncho and Pregnon opening up solid run lanes. I don't know if there is a way to fix our offensive line pass protection from the tackle spot besides running the ball up the gut and hitting the opposing team in the nose.

I can see shoes on my phone!

I'll add this... I have been critical of Whittington in the past. I can probably go through and dig up all the articles I have promoted runningbacks over Whittington. Last year I know I was saying Whittington needed to become a receiver instead. The funny thing is that whenever I make an article like we seem to get a great game out of Whittington. Almost like he is trying to prove me wrong. Whittington is a good Runningback but he is not an elite back. He lacks the size of Davison and that size and physicality makes yards. Davison has a level of physical running that outstrips Jordan James from last year to be honest and I think he is a bit faster as well. Davison is a truly special back and he can be a tone setter for this team if they let him and this team needs him to be that tone setter. Iowa is up next, after a bye, and Iowa has had good defenses and if the Ducks want to get some early points on the board they are going to need to let Davison get some early carries and gain some solid yards to set up Moore and the receivers. It's an added bonus that Davison is also a fantastic blocker which is part of his size advantage. At best I have seen Whittington delay good linebackers at worst he gets thrown aside and doesn't impede them at all. I have seen Davison destroy linebackers as both a pass protection blocker and a run blocker.

True. But... and it's a big one. How many Lannings and Cignettis are out there waiting for their opportunities to be found? There are some for sure. The reality is that all those programs aren't in search of a new head coach but a new head coach and program manager. The expectations have never been higher and the job has never been more difficult in terms of all the moving pieces. A head coach now has take care of: all the duties of head coach for game day, recruit, be in contact and work with NIL programs, recruit their own team, and soon will probably be in on negotiating salaries for players. Oh and they're expected to have their program in contention to make the playoff right away. There is no patience anymore. We are about to witness the biggest coaching carousel ever and many programs will hire a WORSE coach than the one they just fired.

Something is off for sure. I have my own theory of how to fix some things but I'll save that for my Monday article. I do think it comes down in part to the offensive line and not pairing early game plays with getting the offensive line settled. The line did better as the game wore on and leant on the lien's strengths. Pass protection is certainly a worry especially at the tackle position as both tackles were retting worked early on against Wisconsin. They were consistently out worked against Indiana and struggled at times against Penn State, though against Penn the refs really didn't throw many flags where they have been more flag happy in the other two games. I want to see the coaches work on some strategies to settle the offense early on in the game. That might also include rolling Moore out of the pocket more, he did a lot of it against Penn State to avoid their good edge rushers. (Yes, Penn State still has good edge rushers who are getting drafted).

Absolutely. Need time for the vertical passing route to develop AND time for Moore to see it. Against teams with good defensive lines we are seeing Moore's eyes get dragged down and he isn't looking at the deeper routes. Establishing the run will force the defense to back off a little bit and give the vertical passing game time.

Those are rare... The last one I can think of was Caleb Williams. He basically played without an offensive line. However, he couldn't win the conference so there's that.

Sadly I think he may have stuck with the ground game because they had a backup qb in there. It worked but they need to use the run to open up the pass more.

Cignetti is always going for style points. The Indiana stat is what it is in part to running up the score. They are still a good team and beat us so I am not trying to throw shade at them but they are absolutely running up the score on their opponents.

Thank you Mike for making me feel better. I usually find myself to be one of the sunshine pumpers and right now I am finding I have quite a bit of continued frustration. More on that on Monday. But still it's nice to have a positive take on everything.

https://fishduck.com/2025/08/oregons-top-five-new-rivalries-in-the-b1g/ I was already alluding to how Oregon v Wisconsin has a potential Rivalry written all over it. When the Ducks play the Badgers it has tended to be a close ans brutal game. This game was brutal but despite the score it wasn't all that close after the first quarter.

The offense NEEDS to run through them.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm feeling it right now that we are looking at a loss. Ducks just not playing with any passion on offens right now.

Ok.. I'm going to start bad mouthing Whittington again... Because for whatever reason he seems to do better to prove me wrong.

Our tackles are worked at the moment

He makes Moore look small. Moore isn't the most build quarterback but he doesn't normally look that small.

It's called desperation.

Or.... Good news? Did they want that coach? I haven't really followed the Blazers since Maurice Cheeks was the head coach. So that was... early 2000s

The way trainers and physical therapy work now will have him ready without as much lag time between injury recovery and physical fitness. In one of the earlier Ducks vs Them we saw McNutt working with trainers on rehabbing his leg. They were really working his muscles in some low impact ways. Such as the blood flow constriction where he had a strap around his leg restricting some blood flow and he was doing some light exercises but his muscles were working extra hard to build strength when he couldn't do any impact on them. That is really the modern physical therapy is to start the strength training as soon as possible because that keeps the body healthier. They aren't overworking him but they also don't want there to be a massive gap where he will need to work really hard to get into shape. Which could absolutely lead to him over doing it. The goal is to guide his workouts as they go and ramp him. So when they say he'll be ready... he'll be physically ready. I am sure he is working on the mental side of things already so once he is able to take reps in practice he'll be able to do so mentally as well as physically.

That was basically life under Cristobal. We were howling that we were bringing in great recruiting classes but always lost one or two games we had no place in losing. When Cristobal announced he was leaving for Miami that was one of the strangest feelings we have ever had as a fanbase. On the one hand we were losing someone who had gotten us close to the playoff, had won a Rose Bowl and two conference championships. Cristobal was and remains a good coach but he wasn't going to be the coach to bring the Ducks a national title. We'll continue to see how he does at Miami. He has this strange way of winning enough, and often winning some of the big games to keep people happy but he always finds a way to lose the games he's not supposed to. Cristobal is kinda the opposite of James Franklin. Franklin wins the games he supposed to (until the collapse that is) but fails to win the big ones. Cristobal will win many of the big games but lose some head scratches.

There was certainly special, though completely underestimated about the Pac-12.