The Kamikaze Kid

I saw a pregame video about Oregon's finesse going up against Michigan's power and just shook my head. You keep hearing about Michigan's stout NFL level D. They've given up 113 conference points. The Ducks have given up 63. tOSU has also only given up 63 and Penn ST 61. Pretty impressive except those two have only played four games compared five by the Ducks. The Ducks have the best D in the conference with a head coach that's also a defensive mastermind with the ability to out recruit almost anyone. Oh yes and I almost forgot, they also have a dominant offense with a Heisman candidate QB. It's fun to be the villain.

You know you're in trouble when you have to spend valuable practice time on defending sweeps to the tight end. And defending against sixteen yard screen passes to the tight end? Ya, that's a thing now.

Article states OBD have two wins over ranked teams. I count three but whatever. Sure let 'em have No. 1 if they want it. The Ducks have bigger goals.

Don’t know if this counts as spooky but this was today’s work site.

Yes. Keep the Ducks in front of you. Brilliant plan. Illinois used that strategy to perfection. They kept Tez in front of them until he wasn’t. They kept Whittington in front of them until he wasn’t.

USC hired a coach that can score 40+ in the no D big 12 at a school that recruits itself. Now SUC is learning what that means in a BIG new world.

For me to root for Penn St someone better triple dog swear the OBD wins a three way tie breaker if it happens. It would just be our luck to be the first undefeated number one team to be left out of a conference championship game. If not, tOSU over PSU and Indiana over tOSU works for me.

I don't even want to think about either team getting a victory but the longer and brighter that dumpster fire burns in SUCville the better for OBD.

Three undefeated teams makes me nervous. I guess that makes me root for tOSU but if I had to bet I'd pick PSU to win. I think tOSU lost their mojo at Autzen. I'm also hoping that tOSU does just good enough every year to not fire Day much like SUC did for those glorious Helton years.

To paraphrase Lanning, the standard should be the standard. How much holding and grabbing is pass interference and how much is “just letting them play”? How much holding is holding and how much isn’t. When the standard changes from game to game, play to play or even worse which team, that is when it becomes a problem. In hoops I’d usually push it till the edge to find out where the line is. Then after a foul call I’d have a good idea how those refs interpreted the rules. Watching football, it seems that what’s just fine on one play is a penalty on the next. That to me is the problem. Missing calls happens and I don’t really have a problem with that but fluid rule interpretation doesn’t look good. When it happens at key moments or tends to favor a particular team, it looks much worse.

Hard pass on Riley. Let him go back to the Big 12 where he belongs. Stein looks great with a top caliber QB behind the best O line in the country handing the ball off to elite running backs and passing to future NFL receivers, He should stay right where he's at and thank his lucky stars. He's a great OC running a great system with great players. If I were him, I wouldn't rock that boat.

If Lane Kiffin goes to Florida and Coach Prime takes over FSU, Miami will instantly be in a very distant third in the state.

Another key to the game is having a turnover they cause actually count. So far, an interception against tOSU and a fumble recovery against Illinois have been taking away. That means that 40% of OBD's BIG games so far have had the opponent continue drives after turnovers. I'd like to see that stat improve this week.

To not spark a conversation that gets to far off topic, let's just say Eugene's official elevation is somewhere between 419 and 421 feet.

The broadcast booth at Autzen is just a little over 1 1/2 football fields above the ocean. That would be about two football fields lower than Champaign Illinois.

I can't be the only one that thought it looked like they were playing a high school team. It seemed like it was always a Duck initiating contact. It seemed like it was always a Duck driving the other guy backwards. Our fifth string running back looked like he would start for Illinois. Tez mowed over a defender at the goal line and Noah looked like Earl Campbell out there. The D line looked like they were simply doing sled drills. All against a top twenty BIG team. Wow.

All three are bad but the picked up flag is the worst because they saw it then went eh never mind.

Lanning: Who cares. (When asked about being number one.) Mario: Hey everybody look at us being better than two dumpster fires!

And remember kids, over half of those 13 first half points against four BIG teams came on a bad pick six just before half! Gabriel alone on one bad play gave up more first half points that our D did in eight quarters!

Just like Arnold in the movie, the Ducks are methodically taking out one team after another on their schedule. Every game minus top five tOSU has played out almost identically home or away, top twenty or bottom feeder. Final scores don't even look all that impressive because they simply hit cruise control for the entire second half. Just take a look at what they have done to date. Below are the first and second half scores in the BIG so far for the Ducks. UCLA 28-10 6-3 MSU 21-0 10-10 Purdue 21-0 14-0 Illinois 35-3 3-6 Total 1st half: 105-13 2nd half: 33-19 Add in tOSU 22-21 10-10 and the total is still 127-34 43-29 It appears to me that Lanning seems to going for three score separation by half, put the starters in neutral in the third qtr, then let subs finish out the fourth.qtr. These scores are just too similar to be random chance. I think this is helping him keep the starters healthy and reduce the amount of meaningful tape for coaches to game plan against. It's still too early in the season to make playoff plans but it appears more and more likely that as to playing in the championship, 'We'll be back.".

Great article and special bonus points for the fuskie burns! I posted earlier about this being a complete game by a complete team. This may have been one of the most complete games I've ever seen the Ducks play against a top twenty team. This one was never in doubt from the opening drive. It seemed like on every offensive and defensive play it would be a Duck that initiated contact and drove the opponent backwards and that includes the running backs. Even Tez lowered the shoulder and delivered the boom at the goal line on that incredible opening TD catch. The Big Ten should be very concerned with what they let in the door. Lanning in year three has assembled a team that looks and acts like an SEC super power on a mission. You know when the season started, Michigan had this game circled and licking their chops. Now, they're searching for the white out and just hoping to survive injury free. This morning on their boards, they are already bracing for a twenty point beat down on their home field. Be afraid Big Ten. Be very afraid.

If Harmon doesn't get that silly personal foul after that third down stop, the score would have likely been 45-3, a truer reflection of the domination we all witnessed.

This team would have smoked Auburn.

What an absolute dismantling of a top twenty team that was. What a complete game by a complete team.

Indiana with another interception followed by a TD throw. Now up 14-0 2nd quarter.