Desert Duck

Great stuff here from Canzano.

It's time to lay down some Oregon Lumber on the Trees.

For me, the Buffs may have just stepped off the hype train. Hype doesn't put up 41 points, even on an overrated USC squad.

I'm just downright impressed with the Buffs response today, especially given the merciless abuse we joyfully laid down on them last week. That appears to be one resilient Colorado team. And USC is gonna lose some games this season. In 2 weeks they're @ Notre Dame, then they've got Utah, and wrap the season up with UW, @ Oregon, & UCLA.

Or, if Colorado coaches hadn't screwed their team over on that last offensive series by blowing at least 2+ minutes off the clock.

How Cows! I don't care what the actual outcome ends up being, hands down, this is a Colorado win.

Exactly. And even with our 2nd and 3rd D in, Colorado didn't score until there was less than 3 minutes to go in the game.

Fox Announcer: "That USC defense is just rock solid." I believe that he's referring to the same defense that with 10 minutes to go in the game, has given up nearly 500 yards to Colorado. And Colorado currently has more total yards than USC.

LOL. I hope you don't mind, but I'm flat out stealing this line

With 12 minutes to go in the Colorado game, the Buffs have put up 34 points on USC. Last week, the Buffs didn't score on Oregon until we had our 3rd & 4th string players in with 2:51 to go in the game. Right now, our defense might just be downright scary. We'll certainly know more in a few hours.

That's why I like it. The Buffs, whom we abused last week, are exposing USC, while making our win over Colorado look even better... and the job our defense did, look even more amazing.

Williams - 28/35 - 374 yards - 6 TDs - 1 Int And that's after only 3 quarters. And since Colorado continues to score, I'm guessing that, unlike Bo last week, Williams will continue to play fairly deep into the 4th quarter. He's already put up ridiculous numbers, but they're gonna continue to pile up.

Well... so far, this Buff "bad" offense has put up 21 points on USC with nearly 6 minutes left in the 3rd. I like it.

After blocking out all of the CU media, noise, flash, etc, and strictly looking at the data and facts, I had the Ducks winning last week by 26. I also said CU would likely finish the regular season 6-6, or with some luck, maybe 7-5. Relative to last year's Buff team and their 1-11 season, Deion has pretty much already exceeded preseason expectations. A lot of people just got temporarily blinded after they started out 3-0, plus all of the media insanity. 6-6, plus a bowl game, would be a huge turnaround season for them. After this season, if Deion sticks around, I wouldn't be surprised if they developed into a strong program in the next 2 years.

Sorry, I mis-read this earlier. If they beat the spread do they rush the field? Hmmm... maybe

I knew I'd have at least one error in there somewhere. Good catch. Thanks.

If CU were to be remotely competitive, which I knew would not be the case, it would make our beatdown of the Buffs more impressive. And who in the world ever would root for the Trojans? That's about like rooting for the Huskies. Plus, say what you will about Deion, I love what he doing in Boulder.

100%. And if I was a Buffs fan there, I'd be in the middle of that. But CU situation is night & day different than the Beavers. The Beavs have gone 10-3 & 10-4, respectively, over the last two seasons -- while winning last year's Holiday Bowl. For the last 6 seasons, the CU Buffs football program has essentially been dog-poo-poo, wrapped in cat crapola --- going 22-42, culminating in last years' cherry on top 1-11 season. Say what want about Deion & Co, and while USC is obviously going to simply rock their world today, if they were to pull out a win, to me, that would be semi-close to the NCAA Football equivalent of the 1980 US Olympic hockey teams' "Miracle on Ice." So yeah, I'd be rushing the ice... I mean grass, too. Is it a big deal that OSU fans rushed the field last night? Of course not. But I just think that it's become nowhere near as special as it once was. And again, maybe that's just my old-guy-ness talking.

4-0 Duke is quite impressive... for sure. Especially with that season opening win against Clemson (who last week lost in OT to #5 FSU). But Duke did finish last season 5-1, while winning their bowl game, and going 9-4 overall -- so their early season success surprises me a bit, but doesn't "shock" me. 4-0 Kansas... nahhh. They haven't played anybody and 3 of their wins are closer than they should have been. 4-0 Syracuse... Not to be repetitive, but nahhh. The Orange Dudes haven't played against a serious program either. Arguably, their best win is over a 1-3 Purdue -- and if not Purdue, a 2-2 Army. 4-0 Courgars - They've notched one very impressive OT win over a strong and soon to be ranked about #14 Oregon State. They also traveled out to Badgerland and beat a sort-of-decent 3-1 Wisconsin (and Randall Stadium is a tough place to play). Over the past 4 seasons, the Cougs have stunk and had a cumulative record over this period of 21-22. Plus, with all of PAC 12 conference insanity, this serious distraction would have derailed a lot of teams, but if it's had any kind of impact on them, it's been the absolute opposite (and props to OSU in this regard as well). So... short question and wayyyy too long of an answer --- but absolutely, of the 4 teams on the table, the Washington State Cougars.

I'm glad the RiverRats won. Definitely a big win for them and hopefully they will continue to do well until we spank them at the end of the season But they're now 4-1, and the fans rush the field? Maybe it's just me, but really? Or maybe if it was a late, dramatic, come from behind win, which it wasn't. I'm wide open to being corrected here, but rushing the field used to kinda be reserved for things like winning a championship, or a big win over your in-state rival. And, of course, it's not just OSU fans doing it. And then again, maybe I'm just old.

Beavs 31-17

Oregon 44-10 3 5 335

River-Rats 31-17

That fake punt was stone cold and oh-so bold. One item about the fake that I just thought about is Casey's hands. Most people have no idea the speed and velocity at which a Tier-1 D1 longsnapper is hurling that ball. A standard 14 yard long snap to the punter should be in his hands in about 0.72 to 0.76 seconds... at 14 yards. At 7 yards, which is where Casey was lined up, that ball is arriving in about 0.37 seconds. That's Bo Nix like passing speed on a dart. Casey just happens to be a 300 lb defensive lineman. Even guys who regularly practice catching hot passes at 7 yards can have a tough time hanging on to that kind of speed. But Casey caught that rock like an old pro, tucked it safely under his right arm, and took off while following his blockers. But, as I was watching the replay again this morning, he did one more thing that I missed earlier. As he took off running left and saw the defenders on his right, he swung the ball over to his left side like he was a friggin' running back in order to protect the ball. So, huge props to Casey, and the entire special team, for doing so many impressive things all in the span of about 7 seconds. And a shout out to all of the unknown and unheralded long snapper specialists out there. And they prefer it that way because if you know their name, 99.9% of the time, it's because something went horribly wrong.

Great-great point. You're absolutely correct. We really pretty much locked them down, and we came so close to winning.