Desert Duck

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.

I had Oregon beating the Buffs by 26. With the possible exception of TT, I still say that we haven't faced a good team. However, if the Ducks continue to stay thirsty, hungry, keep injuries in check, and playing politely nasty like they did on Saturday, this team will do a lot of damage in the final year of the PAC 12 remnant.

I'd love to see OSU & WSU get picked up by the Big 12.

That's very nice. Hopefully, in 3 years, we'll see him out there in a Duck uniform making it happen.

- “I’ll beat the %@!* out of everyone of y’all and your coach.” - “Why y’all so little?” - "We fittin’ to run through y’all %*@.” It might just be me, but I'm fairly sure that Shilo Sanders pre-game on-field trash talk did not age very well.

After looking at the facts and data, and eliminating the media noise, I went out on what I thought was a bit of a limb and predicted Oregon would win by 26. By just looking at the data, I thought the Buffs were a very average team. But my predicted score was nowhere near close. I had Oregon winning 54-26. I never thought that we could hold CU to 6 points. Our defense was just nails. I thought we'd end up running them out of Autzen... but that their offense would chase after us at least a little bit, requiring us to keep most of our 1st & 2nd string offense in the game. But nope. I'm hoping that CU is a decent team, and that our guys are, in fact, way better than I expected them to be. A couple more weeks of play will provide the answer. But regardless, Saturday was a wonderful "OH WOW" moment.

Here-here! 100%. Thank to Charles & his team.

Sad to see this happen to Tyler. He's a good kid and a fine QB. He represented the Ducks well while at Oregon. Hopefully, he will be able to bounce back and ideally return next year.

LOL. We're both fortunate to have wives who help keep us grounded (at least that's what I tell myself on certain days ).

TCU, who I argue is rather average this year, still hung 42 points on CU, while committing slightly more than average penalty yards, giving up -1 TO, and managed to pile up 541 total yards on the Buffs -- while doing it with very balanced passing & rushing attack. CSU is what I would argue is an average-at-best team (WSU @ CSU the week before, hung 51 points on the Rams and won by 26). Nevertheless, CSU dropped 28 points on the Buffs in regulation, racked up 479 total yards in regulation, while giving up 178 yards in penalties, and committing 4 TOs (-2 total TOs). With these kind of numbers, frankly, I have no idea how CSU was remotely even in this game. So far for the season, 88% of the Buffs offense comes in the air, and this number has played out quite equally in all three of their games. So, obviously they have been/are rather one dimensional. If: 1) we don't get caught up in the insane hype of this game, 2) our defense can get some pressure on Shadeur... especially early in the game, 3) our secondary can provide some reasonable contain 4) we reduce the number of penalties by about 30% vs last week, for a game total of about 50 yards, 5) we don't give up a bunch of TOs (CU is averaging +2 TOs per game) 6) And the Autzen crowd does their Crazy-Rabid-Duck-Fan-Noise-Thing, thereby ideally rattling a few of the CU O-line guys just a bit... I've got the Ducks winning 54-28, while providing a very balanced pass and run game. And yet, I have to keep in mind that I've come up with these awesome and amazing observations and predictions (that's meant as humor), as I sit here in the comfort of my office, about 1,200 miles south of Eugene, and nowhere near the playing field on Saturday at Autzen Stadium. But, far away, Thursday at around 1:20 PM, and on paper anyway, I feel rather good about drinking my own kool-aid today .

On paper, 21 points is about right. "On paper."

I'm not suggesting it will be close at that point, just that I think their starting O-line will have no gas left in the tank by that time.

For sure. And I'll be rooting for them after Saturday.

Interesting observation, Charles. But I wonder if they have gelled as a unit. Looking at the number of sacks they've give up so far, tells me no. But that can quickly change. However, as so many have pointed out, where I think we will eat them up, is with our depth, and their lack of it. By the time late Q3, and definitely Q4, rolls around, I'm betting CUs O-line will be absolutey gassed, and our RBs will then likely have a field day.

Of course

I certainly get GameDay going with ND & OSU. But the better storyline is 2,000 miles west with the Buffs & Oregon. And I bet the ratings will be higher for our game too.

The wheels on the Prime Love Train begin to come flying off the rails this Saturday in Eugene, as reality comes calling... fast & furious. Followed by USC @ CU the next week. At the end of week 7, the Buffs will, however, be 5-2, just before the rest of reality, aka, the rest of the PAC 12 power, sends them down into a 7-5 or 6-6 regular season, and then onto a bowl game. Which, considering they were 1-11 last year, will still be an impressive turnaround season.