David Marsh

The biggest loser of Cristobal leaving for Miami (arguably more so than Miami)... Stanford.

Not for a Pac-12 school at an 8pm pst kick off time.

I'm starting to think Nix has a vendetta against Stanford's best corner... First sneaks a pass into Franklin for a touchdown and now ran on him for one.

These are refs at an Oregon v Stanford game... You can go back ten plus years and find a Stanford bias in the reffing. Besides that... We are playing pretty sloppy right now.

So we all just learned the lesson... Get around the red zone woes by scoring from outside of the RedZone.

And again the offensive line makes a big mistake. Also what's up with the recievers not catching the ball?

Talk about the offensive line killing that drive with penalties. Super disappointing. Also more Irving!

Is Mizzou beats Georgia that is going to make our dreadful loss look even worse. Come on Georgia...

It's far from universal of kick off are irrelevant but it's a growing trend. If everything aligns they can still be incredible special teams plays.

Two out of conference wins looking less good for the PAC, but still very good we have them. Wisconsin gets beat by Illinois... The funny thing is that Oregon has beaten both of those head coaches at the Rose Bowl as head coaches or Wisconsin. Unrelated but getting Oregon involved here. Then Michigan State is down at the half against Maryland.

I feel punting is fine for now. There are times you need to punt... Basically being on your side of the field and a long fourth down. I think the kick return is under more threat of disappearing because it's the most dangerous part of football with players colliding at full speed. With so many touchbacks and now fair catches to start at the 25 fewer teams are even considering the risk of a return. The only real argument for keeping kick returns is the need to still have on side kicks. Punts still need to be an option for certain situations. Now having a good oubter can make a huge difference in those situations where a bad or mediocre punter doesn't help much.

Michigan State hasn't looked good this year. And we'll get a sense of how well Stanford stacks up against us tomorrow.

They look exhausted and defeated right now. I think the travel element is playing a role here. Washington hasn't had to travel too much for the past two years and I think that's hurting them. Also... They aren't that deep of a team and now UCLA is just ramming the ball right down their throat.

Feels like Washington is getting exposed right now. They are definitely a different team home vs away.

Definitely a strategy. If the opposing team waits too long to sub you can get them to burn a time out or get a delay of game. I honestly find it all frustrating but if it's legal use it.

Both of their lines looks suspect. Oregon has three weeks until UCLA and will be much improved on defense. Washington is later in the season. I feel Oregon will have some line play that will make them both miserable. Now we need our backend to hold up against the passing attacks.

So... Out of boredom right now I'm watching Boise State v San Diego State. It's at Boise State and they have that obnoxious blue field. If Boise State were to be invited to the pac-12 should they be forced to ditch that field? It is certainly a psychological barrier with it being a weird color. But there is something dare I say amateurish of having a odd colored field. But then again our field is our team color so that's all good with me. I say if they join ban the blue field!

Well in fairness half of what is going on these days has next to nothing to do with football and everything to do with business and media rights distribution. So we all get to get to learn about things most of us have never had to think about before.... ever. Oh how we love to learn about ... Media Rights... wait that doesn't sound right...

That is going to be a huge test for Washington. They have not traveled well the past two years... and in 2020 they didn't even have to travel at all! Does Washington travel well? We'll have to find out.

I find myself in the same boat... I guess I hate UCLA less than USC for sure as I see UCLA as USC's patsy. I guess I just hate UW more than UCLA. If it was USC I would suck it up and back the Huskies but thankfully I don't have to.

2019 saw the Avalos defense, one of the best defenses in Oregon's history, also employ a bend-but-don't-break mentality and it worked. The Cristobal no-score offense with Herbert at the helm put up just enough points to win a game as the defense was able to stop opposing teams from scoring. This method won a Rose Bowl for Cristobal. Bend but don't break works... but in truth it isn't that flashy and is rather annoying for fans as we really want to see our defense crush the opposition and get the ball back.

The big thing that Oregon will need to do is just use some offensive firepower. Stanford's overall offense is not as good. Oregon will get enough stops and just needs the offensive points to ensure the victory. Last year Oregon's offense did the Cristobal thing of playing to not lose and went run heavy and burn out the clock. Instead it shot itself in the foot with penalties and was forced to punt. Stanford got some very lucky penalty calls along the way and Oregon's defense was just not a stout enough unit to be dependable for a final stand and they failed. Lanning will have the offensive firepower. He needs to use it to put Stanford away without the opportunity of coming back, because Stanford will come back and bite us if Oregon leaves the door open even just a crack. Slam the door shut with points and get as many stops as possible defensivly and we will be ok.

Not going to lie... I still get pretty nervous when he is kicking. I am also glad we have a kick off specialist that is not Lewis this year. I love seeing our kick offs consistently be touchbacks. Lewis couldn't get it into the end zone last year it seemed and gave some easily returnable kicks.

In last year's disaster of a game Bridges was supposed to be a weapon to stop these Stanford receivers... but in opening kick off they called him for targeting. Which was an awful call because he got himself low, as you should, and then the Stanford player lowered his head into Bridges. But because this targeting rule is not about the player's safety Bridges was flagged for targeting. The Targeting Rule is Not About Player Safety FISHDUCK.COM The NCAA recently announced changes to the targeting rule. These changes are not yet in effect, but there will be a vote in April to...

Can they both lose? Is that possible?