MikeJ

Wow, what a day. I watched Autzen Audibles last night and a big topic was whether any difference-makers on defense could still be added. Lanning delivered on that and then some. It seemed like more good news every time I refreshed the browser at work. Huge day.

Well, I'm happy with the result (went to Utah after graduating Oregon and live in SLC). But it would have been us lighting up USC tonight if we could have maintained some semblance of focus and effort in the 4th quarter last week. What should have been.

That thought bothers me a bit too KK. Another ending to a year where you have to wonder where a departing coach's head was at the end. We need some stability.

We looked afraid to tackle on most of that drive.

We're going to run out of time to make a defensive adjustment.

The interception play call was questionable not just because we were repeating a play and increasing the likelihood it would be sniffed out, but honestly at this point I think Dillingham has to account for Nix's bad tendencies. That's not the first time he's thrown a pick in similar circumstances this year. That was to a side of the field which, if picked, was likely to be returned for a TD. It just felt like an unnecessarily risky play (given Nix's issues) on 1st and goal. I feel like Dillingham shares in the blame for that one.

I'm a '90 Oregon grad and die-hard Duck fan, but went to grad school at Utah have lived in Salt Lake City the last 31 years (and I'm a Ute fan except when they play the Ducks). I would say Goutes18 and savagefund have it right. Oregon is a pretty well-liked team among Ute fans. Ute fans are pretty passionate, and a greater rivalry may be developing, but there is little hatred there at this point. Ute fans' ire is directed towards BYU for the most part, with USC probably leading among Pac-12 schools.

Yikes, terrible decision. I feel bad for him. .

Thanks Charles for putting that in writing. I believe it did hinder Oregon's progress and now I feel slightly less crazy for thinking so. I'm a longtime (35 years) Duck fan ('90 grad) who has lived in Salt Lake City for the last 30 years, so I'm very familiar with both teams. I actually said to a few Ute-fan friends of mine in the week leading up to the game that beating Ohio State might have been the worst thing that could have happened to Oregon this year. That drew some puzzled looks of course but I was only half joking. It has been pretty apparent to my eyes at least that our limited passing game was going to become a problem at the end of the season and certainly if we had made the playoff. I would have rather risked losing an extra game or two and taken the chance on developing Thompson during the season so we had more options now. Even if the playoffs were our focus after the Ohio State game I still think taking a chance on developing Thompson better during the year would have been smart. Even now I'd like to see if he could be worked into the mix a bit before we (hopefully) face Utah again in the title game. If we get beaten badly by Utah again it will put a pretty big dent in our reputation as the top program in the conference.