David Marsh

I've never been good at spelling personally. But I'll say spell check and more importantly auto correct has made at least my high school students really really awful at spelling.

If the athletes like I'm for it. In the end this is something that isn't about us.

I have thought about this as well ... The conclusion I've come up with is that I think Lanning went "easy" on PSU. Not that 81 points is going easy on any team. But Lanning didn't want to risk his starters so his starters didn't actually play that much. I think he also wanted to reward those who have worked hard in camp and give some starting spots to players who have earned them. I'd be a bit surprised not to see our typical starters start against Texas Tech. There was never any doubt Oregon was going to be PSU so they put some players on the field at least definitely at first to get them some live and good snaps. Probably won't see this to the same extreme going forward.

I do like the shinny helmets. Grants I tend to like them in shinny green more... But the chrome is good. I do like those uniforms in white though. They are very clean.

Ducks 52-17 2 2 257

Clemson just seems to have lost its it factor. They had so many good quarterbacks and then all of the sudden it feels like the QB coaching disappeared. DJU seems to have found a solid fit at Oregon State and is getting the coaching and system he needs. Not unlike what happened with Nix coming to Oregon. And... Oregon hiring two OCs that seem to actually coach QBs up. Clemson has the talent but it really feels like it is being under coached. I wouldn't be surprised if Dabo guts his staff for next season if this season doesn't turn around in a hurry.

Keeping Irving fresh and injury free is always a must and a bonus. But sometimes it really feels like last year the coaching staff pulled him far too early when he was still running with success. When he's the hot hand they really need to let him continue to roll out there. Now against PSU I think he did plenty of work and keeping him healthy is far more important. The game wasn't on the line and he already had over a hundred yards rushing. But later in the year he'll be needed more so best to keep him healthy right now but when he needs him, he needs to be out there.

Two things... 1. Thompson looked comfortable out there. He knew what he was doing and how to operate the offense. He didna fine job in running the offense for the snaps he got as well. But again, the most important thing was that he didn't look lost out there, he was in control. That doesn't matter who he plays against because that is confidence that he knew the playbook. He may look uncomfortable for other reasons but last year he stepped onto the field and just looked like a deer in the headlights. 2. I remember reading somewhere that Stein has given Thompson a tweaked playbook that is designed for him and his skills. It's probably a bit smaller as he doesn't have the experience that Nix does and there are probably plays that give him fewer reads. There was one play that was a screen pass that was blown up, which was poor receiver blocking, and Thompson out the ball on his receiver just fine and though the play was for a loss, it feels like that pass was designed to go there no matter what. That sort of thing has probably helped Thompson play with more confidence and better.

That's where the backups come in... Oregon looks pretty deep in terms of their back ups and getting them on the field with little drop off will allow Oregon to weardown TT.

Defensively TT may still be gassed against the Ducks because they'll have to deal with that offensive line and run game. That is power on power on speed. And Lanning seems to have a typical flow through a game. 1. Get a feel for the opponent and get comfortable with solid drives. 2. Go fast and score boat loads of points. 3. Lean on the run and drive the whole thing home while burning clock. Dan Lanning is Embracing the Middle Eight Theory FISHDUCK.COM Football is a sport of bizarre statistics that mostly seem irrelevant, but if you dive into them, they tell a greater... TT will need to survive that middle game to stand a chance at the end. But even if they do... Are they going to have enough energy in the tank to hang with a power run down the stretch? Especially if Oregon rotates in backup linemen and those back up runners who would be starting at almost any other program in the country?

Ohio State should have a high flying offense as that has been their thing for the past decade-ish. But I'm not an Ohio State fan. I'm and Oregon fan first and a pac-13 fan second... But this is the last year of the PAC and it should otherwise be a special year but the fact that it's the last year seems to diminish all those relationships.

It's all about the team... if they have great team work I am sure the OC can be sitting at home watching the game on the TV and call plays. I wouldn't recommend that... but I think they have a well oiled machine on the offensive side of the ball. On the defensive side I think they are still ironing out the details. I think that was part of the problem with PSU's scoring drive was that the box and the sideline weren't in sync yet. Keep in mind that it's not just the players on the field that need to work as a team but the coaches on the sidelines. This first game is big for them as well because they get to figure out what they can do better as well.

I made one using one of Craig Strobeck pictures against Utah last year... I think it needs to be plastered all over LA. That will give them some nightmares!

Can they put one of Irving up as well? Something perhaps with a tag line of... "how are you going to stop me?" Because I don't think that USC defense is going to be able to stop Irving.

I'm finding my typical back-the-Pac feelings are not quite here this year... it's so weird to think that next year all these teams are going to be somewhere else. It feels a lot like the end of high school in the regard, we've been stuck together for years and next year we are all going elsewhere. It's been nice knowing ya... but onto the next thing. I will also say this... I haven't had much interest in the B1G either. I've seen some scores but I haven't had a strong desire to watch any of the games. I was at the Duck game with Charles this last Saturday and I watched a few of the games that were on the big screens around Autzen but once I got home I didn't have a strong enough desire to watch other games. I am more interested in the outcomes at this stage in the season. I'll probably feel differently in a week. I'm kinda feeling lost without a conference at the moment.

I just looked at the snap counts... Many of the big defensive starters were on the field for less than 25 snaps. But I am looking for improvement on the sack front. Need to get to the QB and take him down. I know I saw quite a few throw aways from PSUs QB which are some pretty smart moves. But need to get to the QB faster moving forward.

Right there solved the mystery of the lack of sacks. 20 passing attempts. The rest of the plays were handoffs to run. You can't sack a runner ... It's a TFL. Granted... Yeah 3 TFLs isn't great. But the dress was also pretty bland. And keep in mind the defense also held PSU to 8 first downs. That's not a lot of plays. Not trying to make an excuse... But we also don't know enough yet to judge. The biggest jump in development happens between games 1 and 2. So here's hoping the defense makes that jump.

Again... I watched an Oregon team in the second half that was trying to run out the clock but the talent differential was such that even doing that resulted in massive explosion plays. Oregon was definitely going into the bench. Something like 23 freshman played yesterday! This wasn't a team piling in the points because they wanted to (after the first 50 anyways) but because they simply couldn't be stopped.

The media hype and love of Colorado will probably see them ranked this week. Next week Colorado has Nebraska... It will be interesting to watch that game. Is Nebraska good? Probably not ... They are always good about finding creative ways to lose a game though. So we'll see. But we could have half the conference ranked this week!

New playing together... But as most of the roster is from the portal not sure if they are really new to the college game. Some are new to D1 for sure but not all.

Prime is a State of Florida guy... Wouldn't be surprised if Florida goes after Prime in a year or so. As Oregon fans we are familiar with Taggart. I think Prime might be a better coach than Taggart but we'll have to wait and see as we don't have the same sample size yet.

Scheme wise everything looked very vanilla. But the important part was that after some initial problems the defense settled down and got insync with each other. When our 2s and 3s were on the field (at first against their 1s and then against their 2s) we only gave up 1 fist down. The ducks only gave up 8 first downs the entire game! PSU earned their one score... But they weren't going to get a second that's for sure.

Colorado is a bit of a mystery right now because we also have no idea how good TCU actually is... they were good last year but have they lost too many pieces? Also... Big 12 doesn't play defense so Colorado will fit right in there next year. I don't think Colorado can stop Oregon's run game... I'm also not sure they have enough firepower to keep up if Oregon is able to get some solid stops. All I can say about Oregon this week is that the Ducks looked DEEEEEP in terms of talent. Definitely the deepest team in the conference.

Cristobal seems to have a scoring roof on his offenses. It's like his offense hits 35-38ish points and is like.... "We've scored enough points, all done" EVEN if it's a shoot out.

Yep... I'm ready for football season to start. Additionally ... Just started the school year and I remember now why I hate the beginning of school as a teacher. And the only thing that makes that better is the start of football season.