Desert Duck

It's time for the Festivus Feats of Strength! (that entire Seinfeld Festivus bit is so hilarious)

Great article. Nice to see that the WSJ still have some excellent writers. While the WSJ is not as good as it used to, I had a political science professor back in the early eighties who was a self-described Marxist -- and a reasonably decent person. We certainly didn't agree on much regarding politics and human nature, but he was actually a fairly rational individual. I once asked him if he could only read one single newspaper, which would it be. His reply actually caught me quite off guard as he said: That's easy... The Wall Street Journal.

Hallelujah! What a fabulous Duck Christmas present. I get praise to the Gawds of College Football for NIL, and of course, Phil and Penny Knight.

Great article, Darren. And yes, I care very little about what our defense allowed in the second half. As you point out, this might actually be what I would call a 'blessing in disguise,' as it gives DL something to get on them about. But I am a bit concerned that in the first half, our defense gave up 189 yards -- while fortunately, only giving up 6 points. JMU had a couple early solid drives, but thankfully our defense quickly stiffened, resulting in JMU ending up with a FG & an INT. I doubt TT would make the same mistakes. And hopefully, JMUs offense is just better than I realize. But speaking to your article title, the bottom line for me is either we peak now, or we likely will be, once again, talking about the season that could have been.

TNT & TruTV.

That's the sign of a highly experienced sports sideline photographer. Chances are quite good that if he tried to avoid Dante, they would have collided. But that takes some serious courage & experience for Gary to believe in his QB, and to stay in the pocket.

Hmmm... I suppose you might have an excellent point or two here 😉. The only point I was really trying to make is that it seemed strange that we appeared to abandon a run game against IU. At this point, I have almost zero concern regarding our offense. Even though we were playing against JMU last week, what our offense did in that first half was just unbelievable. My best guess is that will carry right over into the TT game. My concern following the JMU game is that our defense gave up 189 yards in the first half. On the other hand, perhaps JMU's offense is better than I have given them credit for.

Nailed it. In the end, USC's decision is about survival, and what is best for their football program. Whether USC's Administration knew about their commissioner signing a deal or not, or whether they're a bunch of morons, is just noise.

Any idea if ND could allow only their football program to join the Big Ten (or could/would the Big Ten allow it), while all of their other sports programs are part of the ACC? ND in the B1G would be fun... as it would be a pleasure to kick their butts on a semi regular basis.

The Pac12 was destroyed over decades by an almost untold number of self inflicted wounds by lot of different sources... and IMHO, starting with the Pac12 university presidents who primarily sat idly by as they watched our once great conference slowly sink like the Titanic, while they played their violins on the deck. I can't stand USC as much as the next guy, but they were smart to jump when they did -- while good options were still on the table. In the new world of college athletics, and especially College football, after decades of a slow demise, it was not a question as to whether or not the Pac 12 was going to die. Sadly, and especially with the clarity of hindsight, it was simply a matter of when. And we were fortunate to get on one of the last remaining life rafts heading to the Big Ten... even with only a half share of revenue through 2030.

Luv that kid.

Smart move by USC.

Before seeing youre comment, I basically made the same observation. Different geographic location, but same result.😅 I would guess that he already had his reservations made months ago to get away, out of country, after the season

Yeah... leave the country as in go to Bora Bora on holiday for a couple of weeks.

I believe we are talking about two specific and different games. Yes, 51 against JMU was fun. But seemingly abandoning our run game against IU still seems odd to me. However, with that being said, Stein knows about 1000x more about football than I will ever dream of knowing. Any he certainly knows more about what was going on at that time during the IU game than I do. But, from my cheap seats, abandoning the run game against IU was strange. But I'm hopeful Stein must have had a very good reason for doing so. And after the IU game, our running game was back and punished our opponents throughout the rest of the season. So, with that being said, I'll rethink making comments that swim against the home town prevailing winds.

Great comment with excellent data to back it up.

The thing that particularly concerns me is that we gave up 189 yards in the first half -- with JMU getting drives of 63 & 53 yards before our defense stopped them for one FG. But regardless, I am confident that Oregon will handle TT.

I am confident that these guys will not stop our running game.

Yes, and the fact that Stein seemed to have forgotten that we have a fabulous running game and abandoned it for the pass.

Ah-hah! So allowing mighty JMU to put up 509 yards on our defense was our genius Rope-A-Dope plan all along. I like it! I'm going with this and heading over to my happy place 😉. Regardless, I am still confident that OBD will beat TT.

After seeing Oregon give up 509 yards, and 2 TO's, to... wait for it -- JMU, Texas Tech must be eager to play the Ducks.

JMU put up 500+ yards against Oregon. I'm not sure there is a lot to say following that.

It never rains at Autzen Stadium.

OBD 49-20 1 3 291

Okay... weather .com forecast for Saturday is predicting 5% chance of rain by day, and a "few showers" in the evening. If this forecast holds, here are my early score predictions: 1) If we get two of our three stud receivers back, and the weather forecast holds, I've got the Ducks spanking JMU 50-20. If no stud receivers, plus serious rain, Ducks 38-20. How's that for hedging my bets.