Haywarduck

I am pretty sure the main problem is they sing Kumbaya between plays too, unbelievable! It also makes the top ten reasons why Joe was in the hospital.

Another option is the give the vets the first half. If they put the game away then great, even if they don't the young guys are coming in. If Cristobal wants to start AB only give him the first half. Let's see what one of the young guys can do with a complete half, against a Pac-12 opponent. We can then compare apple and apples. I also want to see Dont'e Thorton play a complete half with somebody who can pass. Are his stats an anomaly, or is he the real deal, I want to know!

I like the program and what they stand for, the student athlete. The trojans, and the dawgs stand for elitist, enabled, petulant, whiny athletes. I want our program and academic climate to become more like Stanford, and never like the other two. So I admire Stanford, always have, and to say I dislike the other two is an understatement.

While I agree TT may not be ready, he isn't a souffle, we are waiting to get just right in the oven, going back the bakery analogy. These guys aren't delicate little tarts, or sweet little pastries. These guys need to see the field, make mistakes and grow from them. If we just allow AB to flounder and continue to be flummoxed we aren't going anywhere this season or next. It looks like the time is now, but I have been wrong before and will be again. I wish AB luck going forward, Go Ducks!

Don't ever underestimate the smart guys, but ASU, unlike Oregon, has a winning record against the Cardinal. For some reason Oregon just doesn't know how to beat the tree!

I will add one more point, the back-up is often the most popular qb to the fans. If the qb truly struggles this sentiment will infect the players. Cristobal can tell us "Brown is still the guy, gives us the best chance to win" and the players and some fans might believe, but for how long. As the practice report stated, Ashford "electrified the sideline," how long until the sideline starts turning on, questioning the outcome with the transfer? If we win big against Cal, the controversy will be put down, temporarily. This is a tightrope Cristobal is walking with more than the outcome of the game. He needs to keep the players on his side and AB's. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out through the season. Expectation are high, and dropping, along with the sentiment on our qb.

This from the practice report, and our young guys aren't ready? Ashford electrified the sideline late in practice with a series that included a pass feathered through the defense for a completion to Jack Vecchi, a ball down the sideline to Moliki Matavao and a deep ball over the shoulder and into the hands of Spencer Curtis. … In the final 11-on-11 period, Butterfield completed 7-of-8 passes to set up a final-play scoring chance from the 5-yard line. Butterfield took another shot into the end zone as practice ended but the ball was slapped away by Trikweze Bridges.

If not now, against a weak Cal team, then we should start one of the freshman next year against Georgia, in Atlanta, our first game? The next game would be against Eastern Washington, who are 5-0 right now. The following game would be against BYU who are 5-0 this season after knocking off 3 Pac-12 teams. If Cristobal isn't just looking at this season then look at what is going to happen next season when he starts one of these freshman. They will have to face 3 teams who are a combined 15-0 this season. One of these freshman isn't ready for Cal, but they will be ready for that gauntlet? Is he just going to bring in another transfer, because these guys aren't ready! I realize this is a tough decision, but the future is now. Many have wanted Oregon to become the Clemson of the Pac-12. Clemson is sticking to their Freshman qb, even though they have lost two games. This is the way a program recruits and develops talent, long-term. Anthony Brown was brought in as an insurance policy, against a disaster. We used the policy, now lets move on, and build the program. We aren't the Oregon Football Program under Helfrich who couldn't recruit a qb. We have 3 guys who are waiting to be developed and can run the show. This is Oregon's 2021 run it up the gut moment. We have moved on from the continual run it up the gut plays, congrats Cristobal. We now need to move on from the transfer qb decision. He is just an extension of the stubborn, conservative decision making process of the past. Time to move onward and forward, time to move on before next seasons start is doomed too.

I would argue Clemson is working through a freshman's difficulties. We, on the other hand are going to have to work through those freshman difficulties against Georgia in Atlanta! Who is talking about this? We either bring in our freshman now, or it will be against one of the best teams in the nation, on the road. You want to protect our freshman, then do it now!

I could see another loss, but I don't want to point it out...

The last item, I have eluded to before, is Cristobal seems to be like Ernie Kent. Without a good point guard, Kent was just an average, at best, coach. It is starting to look like without a great qb Cristobal is just an average, at best, coach. Stay tuned if Cristobal can actually win more than lose with a suspect qb going forward. I think there is an outside chance we struggle mightily through the rest of the season with AB. Without a massive turnover ratio we just aren't that good.

Condolences to Verdell as he is a warrior, and one of the cornerstones of this Duck team. He epitomizes 2021 Ducks, a team who has played well at times, and other times has been neglected. This has happened with little negative impact by the players, it is mostly the coaches who have missed it. It wasn't Verdell's decision to set up the qb to lead the team in runs. He just showed up and did what was asked, recently to do too little, until, like to many on the team, he became injured. One thing no one can take from Verdell, he came everyday ready to play, and gave it his all when asked, well done!

As long as the support of a transfer doesn't adversely affect our development of the young guys I am ok with keeping AB in. Seems to me if we had a competition between the 3 young guys and one was playing we would be better developing them, but what do I know. I don't want to see anymore transfers into position where we have recruited well, it just doesn't help the program longterm. When AB came in we had Shough, Butterfield and Ashford. AB came in and got 2nd team, then first team reps while taking away those opportunities from our young guys. I get it when you sign a Vernon Adams who has lit it up for his team. Bringing in questionable talent while our guys don't get the attention is bound to cause troubles with fans and even at the team level. My gut feeling is this will be a mistake when we look at the longterm effect.

The item that stands out to me, and is a cause of concern is the turnover margin. Without that turnover margin, like last week, we really aren't doing that well. Will we return back to the mean, or is this a turnover creating machine? This question, to me, will be the most important item, if everything else stays the same. Right now we are number 2 in the nation in turnover margin, down from a huge lead at #1. Will we drop further? I predict the same outcome if our turnover margin isn't high. The other question I had before the season was our 3rd down conversion rate. We are ranked 51st and OSU is ranked 6th in the nation. This is extremely concerning to me. This reflects the coaching and qb play. I don't see this changing without change!

Question on the hurry up, do you see a decrease in Ab's ability to make good decisions when we do the hurry up? Maybe this is also why we don't see the hurry up as much as we desire? Maybe we need a qb who doesn't just look cool under pressure, but thrives in dynamic situations. It seems AB just doesn't thrive under the RPO, or the hurry up?

Love seeing the defense read and the correct choice being made. I also love seeing how our offense can be creative, while keeping the defense on their toes. We have to keep the defense guessing, now if we can just add a little more hurry up the defense won't know what hit it!

Cristobal up in the press box, his assistants on the field. Maybe AB up there with him for the Cal game.

Agree with much of what you are saying, but I will also add this staff doesn't have what Bellotti, Kelly and Helfrich had more of, and that is continuity. With a new DC the processes and systems of training and coaching up players aren't in play. The is huge value in having systems in place the seniors have gone through along with the juniors and sophomores. You then just have to bring the freshman along and the other players are there to help. DeRuyter is building something, along with even Moorhead which takes years to complete, and we have to have faith the processes, and systems will be there in due time. In the mean time we can criticize, but we have to be reasonable. I do agree, the dynamic two, Flowe and Sewell were oozing with talent, but it needs better direction, and all in due time. As stated before, I often put out a take just to put a different perspective out there, this was one of them, great writing on your part!

Lane Kiffin would be hired right before Ric Neuheisel on my list. Kiffin has a complete lack of integrity and wouldn't provide any stability, two traits I value. If those two guys wanted to coach for free and guaranteed a national championship I would say it wasn't worth it. Leave those two and Sark for sc.

Sitting on the bench after averaging 30 yds a catch, and a td every two times he catches the ball. Also having balls bounce off the back of their helmet when they don't look for passes, and looking at balls thrown too far, or too high, frustrating for all!

Since we are talking about what isn't going to happen, but has an outside chance, I would hire Nic Saban as Senior Coaching Analyst when he retires. By the way, Saban will be 70 at the end of the month, Alabama is a Nike School so...... To make it to the elite level we need somebody who Cristobal will listen to on his ear. Have PK hire Saban at the Analyst level, and have him lead Cristobal to the top of his coaching tree. He wouldn't even have to move to Eugene, but who wouldn't want to move from Alabama to Oregon, I mean really. Just pay Saban to make a couple calls a week to Cristobal and set him straight! This is the only sure way to get Oregon to the top!

I was one of the few who wasn't drinking the Kool-aid on the AB article and it wasn't received well. I am now going to question your article on Cristobal's downfall in talent development. I am not and have not thought this was a playoff team, but it is a good team which can end the season surprising many people. Bottomline the qb position is critical. AB isn't and won't be a qb to lead us to the playoffs, nor probably the Rose Bowl. You can't have a qb who can't throw effectively, nor make decisions prudently, and he seems to have massive deficits which can't be protected anymore by surprising people with running. I said before he might turn out to be a Tim Tebow type talent, but Tebow was a winner at the college level, AB isn't. Herbert was a winner and an elite passer. The problem then was we didn't have the receivers who could catch his balls. Even in the NFL guys are dropping his passes, they're missiles. There was a reason Musgrave was so successful back the day, anyone could catch his passes, much like Johnathon Smith in the day, great college qb's. So we have had a great NFL qb and now a couple poor college qb's at the position. The big answer is to bring on one of the young guns. This might fail too as you have to let a qb grow into the position, if there is growth to be had, and I think all of our back-ups have talent to become very good college qb's. Just look at DJ at Clemson, struggling, but Dabo is in full support of his growing pains. That is what we need now, a young qb to grow into the qb position. The answer is Cristobal letting one of the young guys take over. He then needs to stay the course, take the flack he is receiving on his AB decision. The problem with AB is we don't have another season to let him grow into the position, we do with a young qb. The other issue is what others have highlighted. We need to get the young talent and receivers on the field. One of them is scoring a td every other time he catches the ball, but he is just sitting. At RB, it is time to put in one of the young guys too. The talent level is on the roster, waiting to be developed, but it can't happen while sitting on the bench, watching it all falter. As far as Noah being poor in pass protection, any program in the nation would take Noah right now. Attacking his pass coverage is going after low hanging fruit on a group who has been decimated by injuries. Noah is trying to do too much right now is the problem I see. If he had even Flowe to help we would see people talking about LB university, and the stats would show it. Joshua I love your writing, the time and research you have obviously put into it. I just come to a different conclusion, and respectfully disagree.

I suppose next critical question is, if none of the backups are better than AB who is going to lead us next year? We better have somebody who reads a defense, throws, and makes decisions better than AB or we are in trouble next season. It is time to find out if one of these guys is a better game time qb than AB. Anthony undoubtedly proved to be a better practice qb. Mr. Brown was able to become a leader before the season began. He has proven he can't lead this team to its' potential come game time, as the season has progressed. We need to find out if somebody else is a better game time qb. Some guys just light up when the whistle blows and other wilt. We need somebody who can light it up and keep it lit! If our next great qb isn't on the sideline, I suppose we have to wait for Tanner Bailey, and that won't be until next year. I have to believe one of these guys on the sideline is our guy, we just have to give him a shot, sooner than later. After looking at the analysis of AB's decision making, the one turnover doesn't matter. AB cost us the game with his inability to lead this team with his decision making process. We can't have that happening again with the guy who makes those choices every time he touches the ball. Turnovers are killers, but decisions are also a silent killer, often overlooked when you are the man with the ball.

It makes one wonder, what was he thinking? I mean when you have options, and you don't see how bad the option you are choosing is, what are you looking at? It also makes one think AB's self analysis was spot on, unfortunately.

Well done and the beavs win against sc in LA was huge too. The beavs are riding a wave, when it crashes, and can they ride it out are the questions.