noDucknewby

Us longtime fans know that November has not been kind to us on more than one occasion. It's OK to be a little nervous. I'm not going to jinx anything by even talking specifics, yeah I'm superstitious. That said, I have no doubt there's a method to his madness, no point in stewing about it.

Well it's a better look than getting so drunk you eat your napkin in a restaurant.

Well maybe, but first they have to make it to the B1G Championship. They still have to get by Indiana and Michigan, while we only have to get by Wisconsin and Washington. Personally I hope Indiana wins out as well as OBD, I think that would make a great championship game (and story).

Couldn't agree more. Sure if you have a Flintstone offense, the defense stacks the line and it's the proverbial "3 yards and cloud of dust". That couldn't happen in the Pac-12 because you would just get scorched deep all the time. Even going back to Chip's "finesse" teams, you couldn't lead the country in rushing without pushing some people around.

Obviously this is a really good team. This is also a good year to enter the B1G. Michigan, USC and Washington are all down and Maryland, Purdue and Rutgers are just plain bad. Had we played last year's Michigan team in the Big House we may have had our hands full. Let's face it, the B1G top to bottom is not that great this year. Sure there's four solid, perhaps playoff level teams at the top, but that's out of 18 teams. That said, I don't see Michigan and Washington staying down for very long. USuc who knows, but they're in a death spiral for the foreseeable future. My point is that this could be a really tough conference in a year or two, especially if Indiana's run has some longevity. Fortunately we're well positioned going forward and I like our chances.

There was a silver lining to Holden's ejection and consequent suspension--the emergence of Justius Lowe. Not saying he makes up for Tez, but certainly he softens the blow if Tez is out for a while. Even with Tez out, we'd probably still have the best starting lineup we've ever had with Stewart, Holden and Lowe, not to mention our TE depth. McClellan looked good in the spring game and Dickey was a coveted 5* who's battled injuries, maybe he'll get his chance to shine. Hoping for the best with Tez, but the cupboard is hardly bare in the receiver room.

I understand the strategy when blowing out inferior teams--dumb down the offense, milk the clock and rest the starters whenever possible. The problem I see is that it seems to be leading to a third quarter letdown regardless of the scenario. We score a TD on our first drive against Michigan and that game is essentially over, but we let them hang around and their QB starts to get in a rhythm. Of course a third quarter TD in the Ohio State game would have been even bigger. That said, it's clearly become a point of emphasis for DL and when he attacks a problem like that it usually gets solved (see OL turnaround).

One thing I see is that the home field advantage is not as big as it was in the Pac-12. Every year a mediocre team wound up knocking off a contender at home. Despite the Bay Area and LA schools, places like the Palouse, Rice-Eccles, fusky and bean dip stadiums and the desert teams at night can be very difficult road games. Of course the rest of the conference absolutely hated coming to Autzen. I just don't see that in the B1G as much. Maybe Camp Randall or Happy Valley, otherwise I'm just not seeing it.

Besides the fact that I generally root against tOSU, a Penn State win serves us better IMHO. Currently there are 4 teams vying for 2 spots. A Buckeye loss pretty much eliminates them from the B1G Championship. For me the best scenario is for Penn State to eliminate tOSU, then the Buckeyes knock off Indiana at home. IF Oregon and Penn State win out then that gives us a top five matchup in the B1G Championship game, the winner then would have an excellent chance at the #1 seed in the CFP (certainly no lower than 2). That said, if we take care of our business then this one game probably won't matter either way.

The Ryan Day whinefest after the Oregon game is just embarassing. I don't hear him complaining about the officiating in the Nebraska game that went his way. I'm pulling for Penn State to put a whooping on them. In the B1G right now there are three deserving teams to fight it out for the championship. Ohio State isn't one of them.

College football is a multi-billion dollar industry. Pay the refs well and hold them accountable (that goes for the replay officials as well). Managing officiating at the national level would probably be desirable, but IMHO just too unwieldy with so many schools and conferences. It probably makes the most sense for the conferences to police their own, but they have to actually do it. As with the rest of college football, if the B1G and the SEC take the lead, the rest of the country will follow. As for rule changes, I like the NFL system for reviews. All turnovers and scoring plays are automatically reviewed, the rest are coaches challenges. College views targeting differently than the pros, so having targeting calls automatically reviewed makes sense, since these can be difficult to judge in real time. What I hate is the booth reviewing a play for targeting when it wasn't called on the field. The refs are pretty flag-happy with targeting as it is. Also--Put a time limit on reviews for criminy sakes. If it can't be decided in the first minute or so, then there is no incontrovertible evidence to overturn it and the play should stand.

At this juncture Cignetti is a no-brainer. That said, their schedule gets tougher with Michigan (still no pushover, ask Smitty) then a trip to the Shoe. They make the B1G Championship game it's a done deal win or lose IMHO.

Agree on your observations, not so sure about your conclusion. There may be better ways of getting him the ball in space (wheel route, screens, etc.) than lining him up as a receiver. This one is a bit of head scratcher to me, but clearly he is not the back he was before the injury, despite DL/WS efforts to get him back on track. Really liked what I saw from Harris (granted in garbage time) against Purdue, personally I would like to see him in relief of JJ a little more. IMHO Limar doesn't have Harris' upside, although he is rock solid and a great special teams player.

I don't think you can overstate the importance of this win, which is clearly Lanning's signature win up to this point. That said, it's ONE win. Can we check a couple of these boxes before we get out the annointing oil? 1. Win against the fuskies!!! 2. Win in the Big House, the Shoe or Happy Valley. 3. Conference title. 4. Playoff appearance 5. NATTY!!!

Personally I'm loving the poetic justice in the LA teams becoming cellar dwellers in the B1G.

Can't say they don't represent.

Urban Meyer admits to Dan Lanning’s late-game brilliance: ‘I’ve been playing checkers’ SATURDAYTRADITION.COM Urban Meyer had to admit there was some late-game genius on the part of Oregon's Dan Lanning in the win over Ohio State. “If that’s true (that Lanning did it on purpose), then for 38 years of my career, I’ve been playing checkers,” Meyer conceded. Love this!

But of course it's still perfectly legal to purposely take a delay of game to give the punter more room, or to take an intentional safety to run out the clock. Not to mention all the times a beaten DB intentionally commits pass interference to save a TD. For better or for worse, intentional penalties are part of the game. It's kind of funny though, even in the few instances that this situation actually arises going forward, you have to concede the five yards and make damn sure you get a stop. It could easily have backfired on DL if Chip would have run the ball and gained even a couple of yards. It's a risky move.

Cowherd is a notorious blue blood apologist. I was a little disappointed in Klatt though, Smith certainly did extend his arms and the play was called correctly IMHO. Of course the total whiff on the Bassa interception always seems to get glossed over with these guys. Listen to Josh Pate's last show for a more objective viewpoint. He has no dog in the fight whatsoever and he raved about the game and Autzen Stadium in particular. Also watch the BIG 10 Today show, they are very complimentary of Oregon despite the fact that the B1G newbys just beat one of their most storied blue bloods.

No doubt this is his team now. The whole team has taken a while to develop chemistry, but they certainly have found their stride. Great teams peak at the right time and granted there's still a tough road ahead, but this team was tasked with probably the biggest game in Autzen history and they met the call.

Ok sure, but the OSU-CSU game was the highest ever CW broadcast at a whopping 568,000!!!

Classless act followed by a somewhat insincere apology (not the content, the writing of). That said he's already missed most of the biggest game of his life so that's probably punishment enough and I'm guessing there's probably some internal consequences as well. Move on and for criminy sakes learn something from this.

I watched the full replay as well. I'm not saying those mistakes weren't made, but intentional bias is a pretty high bar in my book and officials deserve the benefit of the doubt on this one. If there really were a concerted effort by the officials to favor tOSU, they could have easily kept the flag in their pocket on that last offensive P.I. call. Agree to disagree, but yeah I too am damn glad it didn't affect the result.

I've been a season ticket holder since 2002. I don't remember a game as loud as this one. Fright Night was wild, the OT win against the fuskies and the Civil War for the roses were all electric, but this one just felt different. Holy cow tOSU fans showed. Buying season tickets for just this game? That's some serious committment. I'd also note the ones around us were good fans, not obnoxious jerks like some some (Boise State for example). That said, when it came down to decibels it was like they weren't even there. Duck fans are on another level when it comes to crowd noise affecting the game.

The refs made and mistakes and could have called a better game. That could be said about nearly every college football game. Did they change the final outcome in this one? I agree with Josh Pate, there were bad calls/no-calls on both sides so it's "a wash". It sucks for tOSU that a penalty probably cost them the game at the very end, but guess what they committed it. Blackledge agreed, calling it "a freshman mistake". The most egregious officiating error was made not so much on getting the Bassa interception wrong, but in not reviewing it (I have no idea why DL didn't call a time-out to challenge this one). The correct call would have taken a Buckeye TD off the board and it's very likely Oregon would have scored with a short field, potentially a 14-point swing. If you're looking for bias and cospiracies you can always find them. I'm not saying they don't exist, but I don't think there was definitive bias for either side and fortunately the officiating didn't affect the final outcome of the game.