Desert Duck

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.

Come to think of it, actually, I did notice that it was a fake punt... right after I realized the snap did not sail over James' head, and once I saw Casey about 12 yards downfield on his way to a 23 yard run. At that moment, I saw the fake punt coming

Great that they picked Casey for the reveal this week. And the Vangelis Chariots of Fire soundtrack is absolutely perfect (not to mention that Chariots of Fire is one of the greatest and most inspirational movies of all time... but turn on the subtitles). And I'm also pretty sure that gummy bears actually are the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions!

I definitely did not see the fake coming this past Saturday. Given that we were up 13-0, backed up deep into our own territory, still early in the game, it did not remotely cross my mind that Lanning would entertain a fake punt. But what an early dagger to strike them with. And huge kudos to our punter, Ross James, for totally selling the seemingly inerrant snap, as I absolutely bit on his fabulous acting job. Although I did not remotely see the fake coming, it definitely reminded me of Chip Kelly and his sizable coconuts during that era. In fact, last Saturday's game just reminded me of those Chip Kelly Oregon teams from that crazy fun four-year ride that he took us on. Only, I think this Lanning team may have a better defense to go with our offense.

That was a great game. Stanford went onto a 12-2 season and it was so sweet to serve them up with one of those losses. And I must say that Stanford represented the PAC 12 well in the Rose Bowl as they smacked Iowa all over the place.

Most fun -- 2011 @ Stanford. We were 8-1 going in and we scored at will on the Tree. Final score was 53-30... but it was nowhere near that close as they got some late cheap scores after we went deep into our roster. The weather that day was sunny and warm and the outcome @ Stanford was wonderful. Worst one for me was @ Stanford 2013. Ducks were 8-0 and putting up insane offensive numbers with Marcus leading the way. Stanford was 7-1. We ended up buying seats rather last minute and ended up on the 40 yard line, obviously in the Stanford section. The night before the game my phone started lighting up from fellow Duck friends with fairly solid rumors that Marcus was injured -- which turned out to be accurate. Usually Stanford fans are pretty chill, but we ended up sitting right in front of two of the most obnoxious guys I've ever been around during a football game. We lost 20-26 in possibly the most miserable game I had ever been to. In fact, after regularly attending most away games, we did not attend another away game for several years after that.

This might turn out to be a Ryder Cup for the ages. Can't wait to watch it.

The Cardinal fans will be quite sparse so stadium noise won't be a factor --- and it almost never is in Palo Alto. The following week in Seattle will be the polar opposite. I have Oregon winning this Saturday 44-10, and scoring about 35 points in the 1st half. If Oregon doesn't take their foot off the pedal this week, this will be another great opportunity for Lanning & Co to again give a lot of quality PT to our backup guys and younger players --- which is huge. If you can make it to the game, this should be a fun away game to go to, at a beautiful stadium, gorgeous campus, a rather friendly away game environment, the weather forecast looks ideal, and tickets will be easily and reasonably had. I've always enjoy making it to the Farm to watch the Ducks play. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to this one.

But if the "Could OSU and WSU Split $320 Million Next Season" is solid info, options just got very interesting, very fast, for the Cougars and the River Rats.

WowZaa... $150-ish million each would be one heluva PAC 12 parting gift. I wish them all the luck with this. Keep the PAC 2 alive for one more season and pocket lottery like cash, and then hopefully make the jump in the 2025 season. Or, leverage ESPN and the cash right now, to get into the Big 12 for next season. If this news is solid, I'm really happy for the opportunities this situation is going to provide the Cougars and River-Rats.