Grandpa Duck

Ducks win 38-7 2 TO 4 sacks 276 yds passing

Oh, Quack, strength of schedule is still a major factor for teams that win their conference championship. Here is the protocol the committee uses to rank teams: "From the CFP website: "The selection committee ranks the teams based on the members’ evaluation of the teams’ performance on the field, using conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, and comparison of results against common opponents to decide among teams that are comparable." When the committee seeds the bracket, the team ranked #1, in theory, will have an easier route to the championship than the teams ranked below them. In the quarterfinals, they will play the winnier of the the game between the teams ranked 8-9, avoiding teams 5,6 and 7, assuming the lower numbers (higher ranked teams), win in round one. Also for the quarter-finals, immediately below #1, in their half of the whole bracket, will be the conference champion team ranked #4, avoiding the teams ranked 2 and 3, again assuming the lower numbers adveance to the semi-finals. So, in the semifinals, #1 plays #4. If the lower numbered ranked teams advance to the finals, #1 will play #2. So strength of schedule is used in the bracket seeding, and being #1 means, in theory, you will be paired against teams with poorer rankings than the team ranked #2, and so forth.

To Lanning it’s probably: “So what?”

Yes, the Ducks are boring . . . until they wil not be boring. To start, winning is not boring. But, with a purpose, the Ducks appear to get boring , particularly in the second half. The "Why?" of that purposeful boredom is not so obvious, but here's what I think is happening. All four games remaining on the regular-season schedule are important, but there is one highly important game left that is not on the schedule. That is the B1G championship game. That game is important because the winner of that game is exempt from round one of the 12-team playoff. The likelihood is that the survivors of the quarterfinals, and semifinals who play in the finals are highly likely to come from the four conference champions who do not have to play all three of the elimination games because they will be exempt from the first round. Every game at the end of this greatly extended college football season will take a greater toll on the players than in prior years with far fewer games. There's a reason our starting linemen on both sides of the ball are on the field only 43 or fewer plays a game. Lanning does not want another Jordan Burch injury. An injury can happen anytime. But the odds are, if a player plays fewer plays, he is less likely to be injured. If OBD can go into the championship game fully healthy, it will be won. Lanning also does not want to wear his players out. That's part of why he starts running clock early in the second half, once the game is out of reach. Running clock makes for fewer possessions and fewer plays. He wants the game to get over as quickly as possible, and cares nothing about running up the score. These are the same reasons our tight ends are playing a fewer number of plays than in prior years, as are the running backs, linebackers and defensive backs. Only Dillon Gabriel is exposed during every significant play, and if Dante Moore's red-shirt was not at issue, he would be on the field more and DG less. Moore may well be on the field more in two of the final four regular season games. Lanning's team has been able to win the first half with vanilla plays and nothing fancy. He can save his players and hide the play-book for that most important game. He'll do enough to make sure we win out so that we're in that game, putting OBD in the best possible position to be the B1G champion and miss the first round of the playoff. So, get used to boring wins that conserve our best players' health and hide as much of the play-book as is reasonable.

Ducks win 45-7 3 turnovers 6 sacks 378 yards passing

Thanks for posting the statistic comparison over the years, cartm25. As David Marsh points out, playing a team like PSU can greatly skew the stats for a whole year. Scoring 80 against them raised the average of the other 11 games by nearly 4 points. Another consideration is that comparing stats for just one side of the ball, offense, from year to year assumes that opponent defenses are all the same throughout the years. We know that is not the case.

Fun game to watch today is Michigan at Illinois. OBD opponents the next two weeks face off at 12:30 on CBS. Michigan is favored by 3 points. Massey composite ratings have Michigan at #25, and Illinois at #36.

Ducks win 38-07 3 TO 5 sacks 363 yds

Yellow, yes, a color Dillon Gabriel can easily see down field between the onrushing defenders with upraised arms.

As to a crew of officials conspiring to impact the outcome of a game, that’s laughable. By my recollection it happened once, about 40 years ago, in college basketball and they got caught. It was a huge scandal. I vaguely remember an NBA official who was paid by gambling interests and went to jail. If officials did conspire to throw a game, it would not happen only once for one game. Consider how many knowledgeable people, coaches, sportswriters, other officials, fans and players there are to recognize a trend. One of the crew would get drunk and talk to his buddy. Another would brag to his girlfriend. Or, as happened 40 years ago, there would be payments and disputes over money, or disputes about who to include in the take. Someone on the inside would be miffed and sell his story. It’s really hard to become a major NCAA official. It takes years away from your family at night doing high school JV games, moving up to varsity games, then playoffs, small college games and a very few get a shot at the big time. For the few who make it they have to balance the part-time officiating job with a real career. Then there is the wear and tear on an aging body. Guys who do that are extremely unlikely to risk what they earned by hard work for the ignominy and disgrace that inevitably would follow when they got caught, which is a certainty.

The B1G teams are capable of beating any other team in the conference. No team has ever “owned” it, and no team ever will.

Ducks win 24-21 1 turnover 3 sacks 215 passing yds

DanL is right about breathing from the diaphragm, which takes a bit of technique. When you inhale, extend your stomach, allowing the diaphragm to drop. Then when you yell, the stomach muscles contract, pushing your diaphragm upward and forcing the air through your vocal cords. Do not expand your chest on inhaling. That will occur naturally when the diaphragm drops.

When I was age 15, some 70 years ago, my Dad bought an old professional pool table for the family room and had it refurbished with new bumpers and felt top. He had been a champion at pool before Mom captured him at age 31. Dad taught me to play Stars and Stripes, where one player had the seven solid colored balls, and the other had the seven striped balls. The object was to shoot all of your own balls into a pocket using the cue ball to knock them in. After making all of your balls you could shoot the black eight-ball into a pocket and win the game. On the rare occasions when Dad would let me reach the point of shooting at the eight-ball I had a great deal of difficulty making it. I asked Dad why that was. He explained: “Michael, what you see when you look at something is the light reflected by the object you are looking at. Black does not reflect much light, so it’s more difficult to see.” Think about a QB looking downfield between the upraised arms of onrushing linemen while searching for a helmet that doesn’t reflect light. Not good, unless you’re a Duck DB.

You say: "hack-analyst"? And a few days ago your article was: "too long"? At the risk of violating the rule pinned at the top of the page, your self-deprecating comments reveal that: "Thou dost protest too much." Thank you three times over. You simply are the best sports writer covering OBD, maybe the best covering any team anywhere. Happy's second sentence above well-expresses the appreciation we readers feel for the time it takes to put together an explanation that lets us understand what you knew when you first saw the plays. When I saw them executed I knew that I had not seen that before, and not much else. After reading your dissection of Will Stein's work I have a much better appreciation for what he and his players are doing. This is why I read FISHDUCK.COM!

Regardless, I feel that we need to exercise our home field advantage. Sagarin says it’s worth three points. So if we don’t win at home, . . .

What can I say? I guessed.

Ducks 31-14 2 TO 4 sacks 297 yds pass

In Saturday night’s contest with UCLA, the home team has the ball on the visitor’s 44 ½ yard line, 4thdown and 3 yards to go with 02 seconds remaining in the 3rd quarter. The Ducks are leading 28-13. UCLA’s quarterback passes to a receiver falling backward who tips the ball. Duck DB, Tysheem Johnson, dives for the ball extended full length and snatches it a few inches from the ground for an interception inside the Duck 40 yard line. Johnson leaps to his feet, raises his index finger into the air and races for the sideline with the ball safely tucked under his arm. His celebration is much congratulated by his defensive teammates. The Duck offense begins the 4th quarter from the Duck 39. If Johnson had done nothing on the play and let the ball fall to the ground, as it clearly would have without his action to intercept, the Ducks would have had the ball some five yards nearer the UCLA goal. I first witnessed a similar circumstance in 1951 at Hayward field. I was age 12, there with my parents. We were in Eugene to visit my brother John, a sophomore pre-law student at the University. George Shaw, the Duck QB and defensive half back (positions were named differently in those days and players played both sides of the ball by rule) made his 13th interception of the year to set an NCAA record. After the game we got together with John who pointed out that because Shaw’s interception was on 4th down and it was a deep pass that he could not possibly have returned to the opponent’s line of scrimmage, he should have knocked the pass to the ground. That experience registered on me because I played defensive halfback on my grade school tackle football team. Playing the same position at Marshfield High we were coached to call out “4th down”, much like baseball players signal the number of outs. That call was made so that we would know that we should never intercept on 4th down unless there was a clear path to return the ball beyond the line of scrimmage. I’m left wondering whether football coaches no longer teach what I learned 73 years ago. What do you think?

Ducks win 38-10 2 turnovers 3 sacks 267 yds passing

Yes, Annie, B1G network has “Final Drive” for conference recap, plus individual games in 60 minutes.

So, I’m wondering whether all of the negative posters above in this thread are going to come back and compliment the defense for their performance now that the sore is 46-14?

Ducks win 31-14 2 turnovers 2 sacks 292 passing yds

Thanks, Charles. An analysis that we can get only on FishDuck, the forum with decorum.

Not sure of this but didn’t we lose last year’s o-line coach?