David Marsh

I am aware I am posting this before game day... So the three of you who read this before Saturday, I apologize. For everyone else you're reading this on one of the biggest days of the season for the Ducks. I am feeling good about a Ducks win but they do face a big eyeball test, at least a score board eyeball test. It's a pac-12 after dark game which means the majority of the East Coast is going to bed and they'll only look at the box scores in the morning. And this game's box scores against USC is going to be huge because our biggest competition right now are those darned Huskies and they just played USC last week. Now if Oregon can beat USC by a wider margin and potentially score more points, I'm hoping for 60, that will go a long way to showing those on the east coast that the Ducks are currentlu the better team. Additionally, Washington plays Utah today as well. I anticipate Washington winning this one, it's also at Washington, but if the Huskies are in a close(r) game it will go a long way to showing just how much better our Ducks are. After all, the Ducks put Utah away so thoroughly that Utah looked like an unranked team. Can Washington keep Utah to below 10 points? Unlikely. Will they score more than 35, that's a possibility but Oregon put Utah away and just ran out the clock against them. The Ducks didn't need to score more points. So for the box scores eyeballs... Let's hope that the Ducks run up the score and that Utah makes Washington look a bit more mortal. I'm torn as to if I want Washington to lose or not. I always want them to lose but I'm conflicted in that I am unsure how it will or will not help us. I think Washington is a top 10 team but not top 5 and they've been very lucky to date. Oregon has impressed the committee in how they are putting away opponets like Georgia, Alabama and Clemson all did on their title runs... Leaving no doubt whose the better team. And Oregon should get another shot at Washington regardless ... Unless there is a major disaster somewhere. So go Ducks!

The short narrative comes from British propaganda. If you look at the political cartoons of the era from Britain they depict Napoleon as short and with what is now referred to as a Napoleon complex. See look how tiny he is in this cartoon. It's. Mostly the British poking fun at the French and Napoleon because Napoleon can't touch them due to the British sinking all the majority of their Navy at Triffalger. I like to think the Ducks make political cartoons making USC look short and silly. Probably could make char GBT come up with something.

Except Napoleon understood the value of defense.

I'm feeling pretty relaxed about this game at the moment. This was not the case before Washington. I think this new confidence I'm feeling is that the gams prep by this team both from coaches and players has been so much better since that loss.

If he stays with the Ducks through this season he may get a ring or two for being apart of the team. But I think if he wants to get the primary target or at least a top target for a team and make a run at the draft he may want to go to a team with a bit of a rebuild but with a solid quarterback and offense to get him seen. ASU wouldn't be a bad option for him in that regard.

Napoleon was also Corcican which was just added to France before he was born. Also... Leipzig didn't go so well for him as it marked the beginning of the end for his French Empire. Waterloo was the nail in the coffin during his grand comeback tour. No idea where I was going with this...

It took a couple of rereads ... but it does look like this is mostly in reference to looking at the USC-Washington film in particular. Basically... it went so bad that they can't bare to watch the game again. As a fan, I get it... but I'm not a player who needs to figure out what went wrong to fix it so it doesn't happen again. So they aren't saying they don't look at any film... but the film you learn from the most (like anything) comes from losses and mistakes and not successes. So it is still a pretty bad thing to put out there that he doesn't want to look at film and evaluate how he could get better.

Delgado has been injured by the sound of it. Hutson has appeared in three games. I think he wants to keep his red shirt so might appear in one more. I mean I imagine he's good enough to be in rotation overall but he wouldn't see a ton of minutes because of the overall depth otherwise. So I think it's red shirtinn related to transfer at seasons end. I could be wrong though.

Steve Stephens IV praises Kris Hutson's scout team looks in preparation for USC 247SPORTS.COM Senior safety Steve Stephens IV says Kris Hutson has done a great job with the scout team of preparing... Scout team apparently... He's played in 3 games so he has his redshirt and I fully expect him to transfer at the end of the season. But talk about the depth at receiver when a starter like Hutson gets lost in the depth. Hutson has been fairly solid the past few years and he just disappeared from the rotation this year. Probably in part his own decision in wanting to transfer after being beat out in the rotation. But also look at his continued buy in this season. He is working with the scout team when he was a starter thr past few years. If his intention was to transfer then he could have easily.just given up on the team but he's still there working and working a job that doesn't get noticed.

Penalties have been so up and down this year. It really makes me feel it's more about the ref crew than anything else. It wouldn't be a shocker if the pac-12 refs lack consistency among themselves. Here are just some examples I can remember off the top of my head. Against PSU we had like 1 penalty and it was like the 3rd string. Against Texas Tech boat loads. Utah... Relatively few from the Ducks. Cal... Loads of stupid stuff. It just doesn't feel consistent and it's difficult to predict how any ref crew is going to react to certain things. There also seems to be an on going trend that smaller offensive lines seem to get away with holding at a far higher rate than bigger ones.

More importantly... Lanning's culture wouldn't allow it. Coaches can't make players do anything. But they can build a system of encouragement, culture and punishment to get players to do things like film study. I think the biggest thing is that in Lanning's culture at this.point it's not about what he will or won't allow, but more importantly it's about how players hold each other accountable. Nix wouldn't stand for anyone in that Oregon team not studying film. Doralus wouldn't tolerate anyone not preparing for the game. I also think that Lanning and co are savy enough in meetings to know who is and isn't doing their homework and those who are not doing it don't see the field and won't be with the team next year. Part of success is two fold.... The starters need to watch the film to know what they are up against and scout team players need to know what to emulate. This is telling that USC probably doesn't have an effective scout team as well.

Like any team we've had issues in the past... But Dan really has this team disciplined right now that we rarely hear anything other than good things.

I'd love to see Oregon do a full on night version of the Michigan maze out... It would be with highlighter yellow. We've gotten kinda close at times.... But most of our yellow games tend to be at the begining of the season during mid day when it's hot and the yellow is good against the heat. But just think Autzen with highlighter yellow for a night game with a level of coordination that you see in B1G stadiums... It would be pretty cool.

It's just a Duck store now with art supplies in the basement now. It doesn't have any books! I was with a high school group at UO last year and I found it so weird that there weren't any books on the top floor anymore. Most universities have moved to online book stores.

And I'd you do key in on him, he'll still get over 70 yards receiving and a touchdown. It kind of reminds me of the Justin Herbert and Dillon Mitchell connection in 2018... But Herbert didn't really have anyone who could actually catch his passes so Mitchell was double or at times tripped teamed. Can't do that with this team. Well you can... But you'll lose.

Nothing has changed the equation is still the same for the Ducks... JUST WIN!!!! Let's go Ducks!

That is a big ask... In large part because he will probably have to inspect how his offense functions. You look at Oregon and how both sides are in sync with each other and work to help the other one out. The defense is disruptive and works to get the ball back relatively quickly. And just as importantly the offense is efficient but also eats up some clock to let the defense rest. The Oregon teams of the blue era with Kelly and Helfrich both required better conditioned athletes and actually more players on the defensive side of the roster to compensate for the defense being on the field longer. Bend but don't break was the solution at the time to deal with an offense that got off the field quickly... Usually with points but not always. But those defenses were also designed to be highly opportunistic and get turnovers knowing the opposing offense would be taking some risks by playing from behind. It's easy to build one side of the ball ... A lot more difficult to build both sides up to be elite. Riley is focused on the offensive side and unless he starts thinking of a defense that compliments his offense he is going to be right back where he started.

Other thing that just came to mind... It's less on the offensive side of things and more defensive. But Oregon has a coach on staff who beat Riley's USC team last year in Chris Hampton. He was the DC at Tulane last year. I'm sure he has a few ideas for this USC offense.

Starters are pretty even I'd say... But the depth is completely different. Washington has been very lucky that their lack of depth hasn't hurt them just yet. Something I came across recently was also looking at how Oregon is starting to plan around match ups and personal more than just the scheme. I feel this Oregon staff is growing at the fastest rate in the country. They're young, smart and hungry and it's showing. Washington has a good staff but I think Oregon has a far higher ceiling. The question is can they surpass Washington's coaches and scheme fast enough this year? Based on what I've seen following that Washington loss... I think that's more than possible. Again in every stat but the scoreboard, yes the only stat that actually matters, Oregon beat Washington. So what really happened was Washington played out of their minds against Oregon and Oregon beat themselves a bit as well. Two of those fourth down plays come to mind. The first being the series at the end of the half where the Ducks decided to not go jumbo for a down or two and power the ball in ... And then the four down play that had Nix roll out and in that roll out eliminated half the field as a threat. The other fourth down play was the one that if converted would have iced the game.... Probably could have considered the jumbo run package for at least 3rd down on this one too, only 3 yards to gain. But on 4th Nix rolls out to his left this time and if you look at the play developing on the far side he really had a few open targets. But due to the roll out design hitting those passes is difficult and a bit risky. Change those play calls and Oregon could have, should have, won that game. Also... After the Washington game we have seen a significant uptick in Nix running the ball. Before the Washington game Nix had 1 rushing touchdown.... Nix had 2 against Cal alone... Sure both were QB sneaks but still. Changes in the game plan.

I was about to make this article broader and talk about the defense as well... But that would have at least doubled the length and for topic focus just looking at the offense was ideal. But the defensive side has done a fantastic job limiting opponents as well. I really felt Oregon didn't do a terribly good job planning against Washington. On the offensive side they got too cute with some critical play calls. Defensively didn't feel well planed against Washington either. The pressures didn't get there consistently and the backend couldn't seem to lock down any options. It might have been a bigger problem of execution against Washington but I feel they just didn't game plan that one as well as the games we've seen after that loss.

Washington has looked a lot like last year's TCU. Good and with a solid offense but a whole lot of luck at times to get them a win.

The big thing for Nix at Oregon is that the offense is built around giving him the tools he needs to succeed. He's got a monster on-line and a fantastic run game. Then receivers for days. He gets to play and excel within the system and not need to play hero ball. He has two interceptions on the year.... But that second one is technically an interception but it wasn't on him. I feel there needs to be another statistic for what happens if the ball is touched by another player while in the air before it's intercepted. His pass to Johnson was right on him and beautifully placed but Johnson couldn't bring it in and it bounced into the arms of Cal. Nix will get his chance to get revenge on Washington... Unless the Huskies melt down down the stretch which means we play someone else.

And with Bucky Irving... Will he even go down? Sometimes it takes like 6 guys touching Irving before he actually goes down.

The problem as USC is probably a bit schematic... But the bigger problem is not lining up properly, maintaining gap integrity and tackling. Last year opponents just seemed to give them the ball with a super high turnover margin. That hasn't happened this year and it's falling apart. You can't fix most of what is wrong with USCs defense in a week or a month. It's an off season. Best thing they can do heading into a game with the Ducks is simplify their defense and really sell out to stop something whether that is the run or the pass. They are no where complete enough to stop both. They'll sell out to stop something. Granted they basically sold out to stop the pass against Washington and that kind of worked in that Penix had a down night... But washywas happy to run all over them. I don't think USC has the players needed to stop the Ducks and this has been years in the making. USC has ignored the lines both offensive and defense... And the Ducks have focused on them. Cristobal recruited some good linemen for us of which I am thankful. But under Lanning those linemen have been elevated to another level. USC Football Is NOT Oregon's Equal FISHDUCK.COM Oregon and USC seem primed to be the top two schools in the Pac-12. Both have top ten recruiting classes...

Appeases the fans... But unlikely to solve anything by next week.