Mike West

I believe we all tend to expect perfection, because frankly, it damn near takes perfection to consistently defeat the elite. I was looking for the ability to adjust real time to what is happening on the field. I saw that today on both offense and defense. We quickly took them out of their gameplan-or actually, we exploited their obvious weaknesses immediately. It only took the defense a couple of series to shut down Utah's adjustments. It only took one additional series for the offense to do the same. I only saw three breakdowns in responsibilities on defense. The players were playing football as much as they were executing a strategy. By that I mean on defense, the players did what they are generally responsible for at each position. This was on top of being physical. The focus on really improving is there. The players get it. They have to bring it every down, and they have to get better every day. The UW loss put a fire of urgency on this team. They are playing like every play counts. That is a first. It is becoming an expectation. I don't see complacency, or general satisfaction with a good play here or there. These guys are looking to be flawless. As close to it as possible.

Hate to say it my friend, the Fuskies were the better team that day. They made all the key plays (2/3 on 4th Down, ridiculous last minute 4Q TD pass against tight coverage-followed by our missed chip shot FG). It goes to show better talent doesn't always beat close to as talented teams. We've played better since, but they made outlandish plays to our steady as she goes playmaking skills. Their strength-throwing into tight coverage and well designed middle of the field plays match a weakness we better solve-Safeties that vacate their area of responsibility on said well designed plays (and just looking at that damned QB too much instead of taking away the deep shots by finding and covering open WRs downfield). If the Safeties boost their coverage skills, this defense is as elite as everybody else. Hopefully, this isn't a design flaw. That is, I hope it is the Safeties, and not the defensive scheme. We have a ball hawk run coverage Safety. We need ball hawk passing Safeties now. That's our Achilles Heel. If I want to beat OBD, I'm going after the Safeties.

I hope Cal wins...It will keep OBD focused

That was the most complete game I've seen ODB play in a long time.

I think it's a though call period. Pressure on the line, reputation, titles.... These were game planned. I think Washington's 4th down calls were too. The play choices were accurate. So it boils down to do you follow your game plan or not. Given the facts as Lanning explained them, I'd take at least one shot. Not punting made me fret. Then our safety ran past a sure INT. Then Penix hit Another ridiculously covered WR. What are the chances he drives a full field? I just don't know. What were the chances we erase an 11 point deficit? What are the odds for anything lol. I kick the first FG. But man, a wide open WR as the second progression? Nix hardly forces passes. What are the odds he does that twice in a game? Those damn odds. Are they even reliable. What are the odds of that. My head hurts. Where's Han Solo and 3P0 when you need them? And the million dollar question is: will Lanning game plan 4th down calls anymore?

I don't know how we could get much better. This loss is no indication of what Stein has done. Decisions aside, the players have been given every opportunity to succeed. Especially in this last game. Stein erased an 11 point lead against a defense pundits underestimate. You know LSU's offense overshadowed their defense the year Joe Burrow shattered college football. That's this year's Washington Huskies. We nearly dropped forty on them. Would have with two key executable plays going our way. I'm hoping Stein sticks around awhile. We lost Dilly pretty quickly. If we lose Stein, this past game tells me Lanning not only knows what he's doing, he knows how to find the right guys to make sure it gets done.

I actually feel sorry for WSU. The players know they didn't execute enough to win, and they're going to punish the Cougars for it. I actually think Utah is going to beat the brunt from this too. I think a nuclear bomb is about to drop on Pullman and Salt Lake. Lots of carnage is going to be left behind.

Screenshots show he was correct on trusting his Team. The shot was there, the WR was open. Bo didn't see it. Twice. So it's comes down to does he trust his players or not? They didn't have a problem with it. It's their team, not ours. What I will say, is Lanning is agressive period. He was damn aggressive on defense too. It's his DNA. I feel like you're questioning his DNA right now. Not that you are, it's just how I feel. He needs to calibrate, that's it. He doesn't need to change on atom. And I'm certainly not going to let the players off the hook. Washington executed on their Risky fourth down shots. Both of them. Lanning said they prepared the fourth downs all week, for obvious reasons. They got what they looked for, failed to execute. I wanted the first FG. Changed my mind when I saw the screenshot. Fretted the punt call, but it wouldn't matter anyway. The analytics and the flow of the game proved that. And nobody questions the call if it hits. And nobody should as far as I'm concerned. Life suck sometimes. Winners press on, and do their best to never have the damn situation again. He's going to do it again. And I would too if I knew my team is capable. I think enough objective heads have called it like it is. Just my opinion.

I'm with you on that. I didn't like the look the Fuskies gave. Hard to say what to do with it- they know the team better than we do- but I felt dread before the play started.

I don't know. Those were precision passes in extremely tight windows. The kind of precision that requires muscles memory. More like "don't think about throwing"those types of passes, just throw them because you've done it hundreds of times. I think USC's Williams can throw those type of balls, but I'm not seeing many other college QBs completing as many tight window throws as we saw yesterday. That was ridiculous yesterday. Not the poor coverage, but the sheer number of throws where the CB is all over the WR and is turning around as the ball arrives in just the spot and at the right time, that they can't defend it. They made us look bad, but I was thinking damn, I can't believe they hit it just right again. They did it way better than last year. Not only that, the DBs that got burned last year covered way better this year. We are not giving them enough credit. They took this game away from.us. We didn't give it to them. They had more outstanding plays than we did. And I feel totally confident we not only won't see that from anyone else, USC won't do that to us. I could be wrong. I don't feel that way though.

Excellent takes from both of you. I thought Bo rushed the 4th and three opportunity. He didn't have a lot of time, but he had enough time to set his feet, and he didn't. UW was giving looks and forcing adjustments the second to last drive. We wanted to run and they weren't going to let us. I thought Stein was running out of options to run, and they were crowding the box. Deboer said they figured some tendencies out, and I think they were well prepared. Both those screenshots show open guys, the second one a much more difficult throw. I love this forum. Talk about providing facts to support opinions. Takes some if the sting off the decisions. But ultimately, sometimes the safe route is a better route.

That's a great take. The number of playmakers on the field this year, and their experience is huge. Are those waiting in the wings going to get developed? Will the newbies have an impact? Is there enough talent in the portal to make a difference? Life with high expectations....sigh

Let's try this for size also. The players need to execute when the chips are down. Several time outs were called when the heat was turned up. They blinked. Decisions notwithstanding, they blinked. Two shots at TDs inside the ten. A third and fourth down to seal it. A simple interception, a routine FG attempt. Any of those "hits"... The Huskies failed one time when the chips were down. Forced us to take it from them immediately after. We failed. And then again, and then again. This game is a lesson in playing every damn down like it's the last breath of your life, because that is exactly what it takes to win a title- situations like OBD were in yesterday. I am proud of this team. They are growing. But they are not Jedi yet. Most especially the head coach. It takes losses like this to become a Jedi. Maybe we're spoiled. Maybe we're scared we'll never see a title in our lifetimes. We have seen a bad ref call ruin an OT shot our first Natty appearance. Injuries killed a shot against an NFL-esque team our second Natty. Keep this in mind, we are ahead of schedule this year. Until this spring, and then the way we finally dominated bums on our schedule, we didn't really believe we're on the cusp of greatness. We ran into another freight train yesterday. We thought it would be easy peasy. I saw the posts. We feel entitled to great decisions and great play. The process doesn't go like that. Bama didn't just show up and start winning titles. Ohio State right this minute faces the same doubt, criticism and angst. Michigan fans love to loathe mistakes, and jab at Harbaugh. Georgia fans are worried they can't threepeat. Every mistake is magnified, every loss feels fatal. But the sun came up today, and I'll be damned, we still have a path to the playoffs. Even if we won, we'd still stress out. Welcome to the life of being a title contender. I'll take these hits any day of the year.

I do not see this game as program defining at all. Nor last year's or the damn Beaver game (almost pun intended). We just witnessed a duplication of last year's game on steroids. It is absolutely improbable that Penix would not only duplicate the TD fest, but against in your face pressure and on your WR's sleeve coverage (several times). Against a far better defense than last year's. I am proud of this team, this effort and though I would have punted and taken the two FGs, I am going to give the Fuskies their due. They earned this victory. That is going to tick some people off. Well I say this: The Fuskies had to convert TDs and third downs with guys all over them, and Penix had to gut up and execute in pain. There are a handful of teams capable of coming close to what the Fuskies did today. I don't see Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State or Alabama putting us under that kind of duress all game. Not one iota. I do see us hanging with all four of those teams RIGHT NOW-in spite of Lanning's aggressiveness. We passed the eye test today. Offense, Defense and Special Teams. I do not see any coaching disadvantage -point blank. The five teams not called Oregon in this post will have to play exactly like the UW players did today to beat us. They will have to catch passes well defended. They will have to pressure Nix into an imbalanced throws enough times to slow us down. They will have to play damn near flawless, because it is obvious the Fuskies played a damn near flawless game (and we still should have tied it). I believe this team has a high probability of reaching the conference title game, and the playoff. They are playing championship quality ball in the face of massive pressure against an opponent that forced them to play a perfect game.

Let's also consider this: They throttled down when they were up 11. When we caught up, they dialed up like they had never slowed down. In other words, those two FGs result in a loss if they kept the pedal to the medal. Lanning assessed this correctly. We were in perfect position 100% on those outside TDs. The first TD was a mental error, but the rest were pure skill on their part that is difficult to practice for. We are assuming we could stop them if we had the FGs and the game was still close. What happened when the game was close (all game)? They dialed up plays that are extremely difficult to defend, and they practice those like there is no tomorrow. We don't. Our interception was unforced. Their TDs were forced. This wasn't going to be a game we pull a clutch play (obviously-we win the game with simple coverage rules-but didn't when it counted most). We never stopped them when they wanted to score. That is the bottom line in all of this. They dialed down, we exploited it. When they dialed up, and whenever they were aggressive, they made the plays. I challenge anyone to show me they were still aggressive with that 11 point lead, and mind you- I would have kicked both FGs and punted too. I didn't like that last drive, but they scored so effortlessly, I doubt a punt would have made a difference. Neutral Field and another shot at them, I'm finding ways to score 100 on them. They are scary awesome, and damn near unstoppable.

You are absolutely correct about everything you said. Did it matter? Would we have stopped Penix from starting where the Pacific Ocean and Pugent Sound meet? The way they practice those special throws you mentioned, I don't think they could have started on Alpha Centauri and failed. I honestly don't believe we hold them to cover those extra six points. These two teams are so equal in talent and coaching that it will ALWAYS come to executing on the very last drive of the game. Keep in mind they couldn't hold their 11 point lead. It just goes like that between these two teams. No lead is safe. Period. I believe you could play this game a hundred times. Even simulate it in Madden 2099 (lol). These two are unstoppable enough that it comes down to who has the ball last. I didn't like the decisions either. But I have major doubts it would have mattered. They play the game differently than we do, but there is no separation between these two. They have damn good defenses, and both offenses are too explosive to contain. We better start practicing those 50/50 throws though, they have that down to a scientific art. But I'll stick by this- Williams had the game in his hands.

I believe Stein took what they gave him. He did throw to Franklin-almost a desperate play near the end at that. They made more plays than we did. Heck, I've already pointed out 14 points from SIMPLE mistakes. Could it be Lanning had to outscore his defense, hence the risky decisions? They took Franklin away. Their NT blew up a one on one matchup that forced the 4th and 3. That is called making a play. I don't believe that run on 3rd down was a mistake. Analytics would back me on that. We ran for nearly 200 yards. That is well above average. We executed clutch more than 60% of the time in that very situation. This came down to the players. Plain and simple. They are as good as we are. They made more plays today than we did today. Nobody wants to give them credit. They stopped us after an unforced INT for crying out loud. Play calling didn't make that happen. They executed. In fact, Nix directed a covered Franklin on that play. On the kind of call you asked for in fact. I am going to run the ball when I average 6 yards a carry through most of the game. I will call play action (Stein did several times) when they crowd the box. I will throw to my go to guy in clutch situations (Stein did in the 4Q). Everything you mentioned was done. Except kicking and punting in typical situations most coaches would take. I say those coaches lose because quite frankly, they are even more explosive than we are. They scored their final TD in two plays. Just like last year. Is there any logic in thinking you might as well trust your explosive and reliable offense when your defense is getting served the same dish as last year (with better players on defense at that)? I don't see it. They would have driven 99 7/8 yards for a TD the way the Safeties gave up the middle of the field, the advantage they got from both the refs and clearly plenty of practice at 50/50 balls in tight coverage. They were making plays we weren't making. It really, really, did I say really? came down to that. Second guess Lanning all you want, but give them the credit they deserve. We missed a tying FG -did you forget that?

Yeah, You also don't let a WR run into your area of responsibility, and let him catch the ball because you got caught looking at the QB. Nobody should ever catch a pass in the area you are responsible for-especially if he is running right at you. That pass should have been intercepted anyway, but it is worse when you start running to the area you should already be in because that is your job. When you look at the QB, you are automatically out of position. Williams ran out of position on top of being out of position. There is no excuse for this-the pass was thrown exactly where Williams should have been. Exactly. I have said this for three years. THREE. Lanning trusts his defense. A simple task backs up his faith and confidence. Williams does his job? GAME OVER.

If Bennet covers the WR, he picks off the pass. That is why I would never let a player play if he looks on the QB. That is the only reason they got inside the RZ so fast. I do not EVER accept a player looking at the QB when he is defending WRs/TEs/ RBs

Another Pass Interference not called. He yanked on Franklin's arm. That is an obvious call.

And they get another call, followed by a hold inside the 5 yard line. The refs are giving these guys an unjust advantage. Good bye PAC12. Your incompetence reeks. Another reason to despise the leadership outside of rendering WSU and Oregon State orphans.

I don't see that. I do see the energy. They're at home. That energy is called home cooking. Controlling the LOS means tackles for loss and ten yard plus run plays on offense. Not seeing that happen at all. They are making plays at key focal points. Again, home cooking helps. Both teams are excellent. Playoff caliver excellent. On both sides of the ball. This is the kind of game where execution, and making difficult plays under difficult circumstances make all the difference.

Not liking both RZ decisions, but THAT WAS A HOLD. The Refs are giving the Fuskies more advantages on those kinds of plays. That is two PI calls they refused to call on conversion related plays. Should be first and goal right there. Same as last year.

They are making more plays, and fewer mistakes than we are. They are taking the edge, a mistake I don't quite understand on our part. No defense is sound if the DEs/OLBs do not seal the edge. The defense must now win this game since OBD wasted two scoring opportunities in a row. The victory is all in the hands of the defense. They are playing fine. Now they must make plays. Stops, and turnovers. It all comes down to that.

Three plays on that drive we didn't set the edge. Nice adjustments by the Fuskies.