Haywarduck

I remember people who started life with an A, never had to struggle, and often ended up worse than most. Programs like sc, the dawgs are programs that use to start the season with an A kept it until it all fell apart. I hope we don't become the program who relishes preseason rankings and then flounders from all the acculades, like so many programs do. I think it actually might be great Oregon is stuggling. It is taking up back to our roots where we often started worse than we ended. This, of course, was if we didn't suffer to many critical injuries. Life is a struggle, not a position one just has. I hope Oregon realizes this fact, and embraces the struggle they are in and forgets about that ranking they started with. They need to go back when they earned a high ranking at the end of the year. I hope that continues tomorrow with better play, effort and outcomes. I hope the Ducks show themselves and the fans they are building something special as they thump the beavers. At least show continued improvement as they move along this very long season ahead!

Great, I mean amazing analysis which makes it easy for anyone to see superb blocking. You also highlight the timing of excellent blocking which is critical. One thing I noticed is Jordan James seemed to go down, just about every time, with the first hit. Maybe I am just missing Bucky, but James doesn't seem to have a stiff arm, or the ability to bounce off tacklers like some of our past RB's. I wonder if we will get to see any Jay Harris or Limar getting some touches. It takes blocking, but also elusiveness and power at this level of football. The running game needs to be a big weapon and hopefully it continues to develop.

What they are trying to explain is football is just a math problem. Yea football is a simple exciting math problem. 'Wow honey did you do the math 3+17 =20 7+7=14, isn't this exciting?' 'Should we stay for the second half and see how many more numbers we can add up, sure! Ok look at that 20 and 13 is 33 and we got 13 on top of the 14 so that is 37, yea we won.' If it was that exciting and it was simply a game of adding numbers, football wouldn't last!

No orange, no blue I am all good. Green and yellow more than good! I will agree there needs to be an eggshell, or something a little wild at some point.

Better O-line play, a few long balls and the season becomes much brighter. I still think the wide receiver weapons are still the magic sauce we haven't seen laid out on anyone yet, but soon. Once DG hooks up with a few longer balls all will be good. I have a feeling the beavs may be seeing the backside of our receivers heading to the end zone this weekend! That will be a sight for sore eyes!

Agree there is a positive culture, but is that enough? Lanning is still getting his wings as a coach. Those wings may get clipped a few more times as he develops his on field chops and the culture needed in the program. The direction he is going is up, but the road to success is seldom straight up.

It better not be Dorfman's given name, because that seems to be where they are headed up to this point, and that would be lame!

I suppose the weather won't be a factor, but in some parts of the state the civil war will have the flavor of a battle going on with smoke at unhealthy levels. That smoke might signal the potential for an unhealthy outcome for Oregon. The smoke at Reser may come from one team becoming the tinder for the others effort. Maybe this is what our Ducks need? So far we haven't truly seen them rise up and show what they can do, who they are. They have mostly just showed up and expected to win based on what the pundits have predicted. I have a feeling there may not be a weather issue, but where there is smoke there is fire. This might be the game where we start to see some fire from our Ducks. I sure hope so because they will need some to win this game. Pundits predictions won't get you wins if you don't show some real defining effort. The beavs are burning through our money from the old Pac. I just hope they don't burn through our teams lackluster play. It is time to play with a purpose, and start define this team. It is time for this team to get a name and in honor of that I give you.

It seems there is a lot of talk about Smart, and Georgia, but are we going to be more like Dabo and Clemson? I know we want to win now, and climb out of the MariØ years as soon as possible, but..... Might we be on a longer path to the top, or maybe just our own path? I tend to see more growing pains, but Lanning is headed in the right direction, just maybe not straight up. Are our expectations based on another program, Georgia, Clemson, what Saban did? I tend to side with it being Lannings route, and a route that may have a few more bumps. Maybe I am wrong and the game this weekend will show the edge I would expect if we are to go straighter up. Is there a program the Duck faithful most see Lanning building our Ducks like?

I only hope the cup will runneth over soon, and the sips become sweet gulps! Those were wonderful sips, but it is hard to tell if the cup is half full or half empty at this point. This team has the potential for kegs full of Charles's favorite IPA, let's getter done!

Wins are wins, games are game's and then you play the beavs in Corvallis. We are going to see if this team can rise up and meet the relentless effort and execution we will see from the river rats. I agree at the end of the season early wins are just wins. The problem with this weekend is an uninspired Duck team won't be able to get it done against a real rival on the road. What I saw against BSU probably wouldn't get it done in Boise. I think we see the first real test this weekend, and we will see if Lanning can turn the players into a team which knows how to get it done, as a team, against a rival? We definitely can't see a repeat of 2022 because losses aren't just losses. That one still hurts as a fan, we will see if it still hurts as a player, team. I think that will speak volumes about the season ahead.

One play spoke volumes for me and it will define how I look at this team. A d-lineman six and a half feet tall almost 300lbs. hit the opposing RB extremely hard and the RB kept going. This lineman could have wrapped the RB up and probably hurt the guy if he had an ounce of killer instinct. This team seems defined by this type of play. When I see opposing players lose their fire because they are blown away by the latent talent coming alive, I will come alive as well. Maybe coach Lanning needs to check the levels of thc and just have a heart to heart talk with the players. All I know is something is wrong with this team, group of players.

If the talent is there, failure may be the best medicine. These guys may have needed a wake-up call. The game reminded me of when we didn't have our back-up center ready and we lost the game as the O-line imploded. I know, remembering the Alamo isn't fun, but in that game the coach basically lost his job. A great O-line is something few notice, a bad O-line is something everyone notices, sadly. Hopefully, going forward, we will notice the RB's gaining yds, the qb throwing deep, and the O-line will just get it done.

Another great article and observation. I will leave it to others to consider the practicality of what is mentioned. One thing is for sure we need to see a difference out there in their play. I would say the bench is the next stop if the mistakes keep happening.

One stat, 41-49 says it all. He was told to make the easy pass, get in a groove in a game day experience at Oregon. From there extend the 7 yd. average, and take some shots in the coming games. Great observations and screen shots of the misses. He is also a short qb, and may be missing some receivers as he can't see over the o-line at times. Those pics show the receivers were open, and we have all seen DG can make those throws. I bet Stein sees what we have seen and comes to similar conclusions.

If you think Oregon is alone is getting too full of itself and playing a poor game, wait until this sc team gets all fat and happy with their position in the polls. I can also see them continuing to hang their hat on the LSU win, even if the tiggers struggle. SC could have lost that game as easily as they won it. My bet they call it a tough road win too. I am glad our Ducks had a wake up call early and hope Lanning can keep the young men focused from here on out.

Schedules, who cares about schedules, it was 2021, Husky Stadium, Washington 7 Montana 13. The huskies are one coaching hire away from losing to FCS schools again, makes my heart flutter.

Games, wins and even losses don't matter too much in early September. Most games don't add up to much until mid-October. Once we play tosu we will know how good we are, and will be taken seriously by the smart pundits. If we lose any of the games up to that point what we saw Saturday becomes more concerning. This wasn't a good start, but there is still much time to build and grow. The talent is there, but weaknesses were shown against just an ok team. That has to be concerning, and needs to be put to rest in the coming games. Our first game was a blip on the radar unless that blip starts to grow. Lanning and his team of coaches need to clear up that radar, and get to knocking out some opponents. What Lanning saw in his first head coaching game he still hasn't replicated at Oregon. Georgia still knows how to win big in most any game. Oregon and Lanning are still finding their way. The coming games will show how far along he is, after Saturday there are still some pretty important questions.

Two ways a team can lean overconfidence or the imposters syndrome. Well the team needs to start asking themselves if they are imposters and push the effort button a little harder. It seems like most think the next level recruiting and transfers will help us make the jump. I agree, but maybe Lanning needs something else? There has been much talk about derecruiting players. You tear them down so they can prove themselves all over again. Urban Meyer came up with the black stripe coming off for the freshman players, brilliant. Players had to earn the stripe coming off, and it is a tradition which continues today. Maybe we need something like that, for after the first game. Which players earned the membership of the 2024 Oregon Football team? Testing and giving feedback is an incredible motivator. Public notification of making the grade is an even stronger incentive. It might seem like gimmicks don't work, but maybe Lanning needs something new to inspire that next big step. What could it be?

Much love and respect, much like watching what once was, playing against version 3.0. Hopefully this is just the beta version, not the alpha version. We need to get the bugs out and Idaho was the perfect game for that. I also hope the coaches expected a few glitches and are ready to clean up this version of Oregon Football. Putting a beta version out there against real D1 teams might just cause catastrophic losses. Maybe, just maybe Lanning knew this team needed a wakeup call, and the troubles we saw were just what he wanted?

That was the old Oregon program playing a wily game against a BIG team. There was the Oregon recruit at qb, and smaller faster lineman. An under rated team with a fighters chance. Fortunately, like many times back when I went to Oregon, the bigger more talented team came out on top. I'll go back to what I said about how we should look at this game. Idaho isn't a bad team, but we got out coached. I would put this squarely on the coaches, and Lanning has to do better than that. He has all the talent, time to show he knows how to thump teams like Idaho. Like Georgia did in his first head coaching experience. This game proved Lanning has plenty of learning to do going forward. He is still our guy, but let's not anoint him all knowing just yet.

I am extremely impressed with our......punter. The problem, I don't ever want to see our punter in the game.

When talent realizes effort beats talent all day, talent begins to reach its potential. I think the ranking and playing a decent team is just what this Duck team needed to wake up. This is a talented team that was eating their own story before it was made. When was the last time, maybe it is the first time, Oregon was ranked #3 preseason? It takes a pretty seasoned team to not get full of itself when you have already won before you have even suited up.

It is nice to see what we all thought was going to happen, happen. Do I take great joy in it, no because Mario is a pretty good guy, just in over his head. I take great joy in Miami losing, not so much MariØ. Washington, USC and every coach they ever have, yes, much shadenfreude, actually never enough.

At this point, just having football on TV is enough, but, you're right, there are some great games on this weekend. Welcome back real football!