Mic

Guys, if I didn't know better I'd have thought that Johnathan Smith had decided to channel Mario Cristobal there in the 4th Qtr. last night. OSU almost gave that game back to a teetering Colorado. It wasn't one bad decision, it was a host of 'em! Didn't he learn anything from last week's fiasco? Or, am I all wet on this? Because you just know OSU will play their very best game of the year when they come into Eugene at month's end.

I didn't know that (I heard the announcers talking about something along those lines) but if that's the case he had better re-think his position quickly. Although, the silly Beavers almost made him look like a genius in the last half of the 4th Qtr. The in-game decisions made by Smith were reminiscent of what Mario Cristobal would have done. What the heck happened to Johnathan Smith all of a sudden?

The interesting thing about the Pac-12 is that there are actually a lot of good choices (assuming any of them want to transfer). The Pac-12 is probably the best conference in the country right now and loaded with talent at the QB position. We may not be THE strongest conference but from top-to-bottom I think the Pac is right there.

Me too. Yeah, he did OK last night, but it was a pretty short outing and the game was already over for all intents and purposes. Plus, by then the zip had gone out of Cal due to the score, the rain, and (sadly) the horrific injury suffered by a team mate. Lord knows how things might have gone had Oregon been down a score or two and needed to get caught up. Ty will get his chance to make his case next season - the coaching staff will give him every opportunity he needs to succeed. But I will not be surprised to see either Austin Novasad or some other (possibly a transfer) come in and snatch Ty's starting role away. I just don't think he's solid or has that "it" factor. I'm perfectly willing (and hoping) to be wrong.

I guess I'm one of the minority because I thought (and still do) that Wilcox would have been good here - certainly better than Willie Taggert or Mario Cristobal. It had a lot to do with loyalty, I guess. He was a great Duck player and so was his dad. They were locally born. And who knows how well (or not?) he would have done here with the talent O has. That said, all those struggles with Helfrich, Taggert and Cristobal ended up worth it if what O finally secured was Dan Lanning. We have one of the best Head Coaches in America, imho and yeah, I too think he's probably a lot better than Wilcox. But most of my thoughts were towards Wilcox as the Defensive Coordinator, not Head Coach. I'm grudgingly giving Tosh Lupoi my kudos. It's hard to fault success. GO OREGON!

OK, Log Haulin, you got me here! I was hoping for a real embarrassment for Miami next week but now that you put it this way, I'm re-thinking my position.

I've already revealed my hand last week. Mendoza from CAL if for no other reason than he has some serious ability and is only a Freshman. He'll have 3 years of eligibility left and will likely have 8 starts under his belt by the end of the season. Ty has what, 1 or 2?

Face it. Past Oregon - USC history , for the most part, doesn't translate to 70 points, even against a defense-less team like the Trojans if for no other reason than USC should be able to use up a good amount of clock themselves and maybe score 30 points. (Maybe). The number of possessions for Oregon should be way down as compared to CAL. Caleb Williams has my respect, even if I don't like Trojans. He can wing the ball from any position and his receivers are awfully darned good. But like I posted elsewhere I'm done with underestimating this Lanning-coached team. Who knows what they can do if they feel they have a need to do it? Charles wants 70? I wouldn't put it past the Ducks to do it, not any more!

My 1st reaction to this post is "Are U kidding?!" Then I remember last night's duel in the Duck Pond and I'm no longer gonna say that's a bit too high. I still kinda think it is because USC will be able to eat up some clock with time of possession but I'm done with underestimating this Lanning-coached team.

I guess I have to agree with David on this one, not likely to solve much (in one week) and might even make things worse. Riley must have been under a LOT of pressure: a 'Fire Grinch or you go too', sort of thing. If the Ducks hang 45 points on 'em who's Riley gonna have to blame? They may play better next game but I imagine morale in the locker room is pretty low right about now. Go Ducks!

And here I was thinking the rain would dampen things down (pun intended). I thought my guess of 38 points for the Ducks was a bit optimistic!

My old sub mate lives in Union Mo and is a huge Tigers fan. He roots for the Ducks and I root for the Tigers. I can't think they have much of a chance tomorrow but they are -15.5 vs -24.5 like the Cal Bears. Always a punchers chance. Maybe Georgia will overlook them?

Maybe not but the Babe, the Mic, the Clipper, Yogi and the Jeter/Rivera duo made things fun for a lot of years and the only part of NY I ever longed to see. I hear the pizza there's pretty good, tho.

I'm not at all certain Oregon is the same team without Bo running the offense. Will Stein is proving himself an outstanding Offensive mind but he only schemes the offense, designs plays, figures out how to attack each team's weak points. Bo is the one running the schemes, calling the audibles, making Stein's plays work. It's one thing to design a play. It's quite another to run & execute it. We've not yet seen if our 5* Junior can do this in a whole game or when a big game is seriously on the line. So no, in my opinion we can't yet say we have real 'depth' at the crucial position of team QB. I wish we could.

And Matt's hoping next week's Power Player of the Week will be......drum roll, please.......Caleb Williams! (Trojan to Trojan) LOL Penix might have something to say about that, tho. And then Bo on the 11th....

I'm reminded of that Playoff Series when the Yankees (my favorite MLB team) led the Boston Red Sox 3-0 before Boston came back and won 4 in a row to take the Pennant. Of course, this had nothing to do with 'trap games' but it does illustrate your point about one game at a time. However, I'm still not sure the Red Sox exhibit much 'respect' for the Yankees - or vice versa! (speaking facetiously, of course).

The TT-TCU game and the Duke-Wake Forest games yesterday proved the oddsmakers right - and both games were close and fun to watch. There's good games all over the place tomorrow and almost all of them are predicted to be close. Oregon is one of the few important teams to be favored big, but then we've been discussing that on another topic: Here's How: Oregon CAN Lose to Cal Easily the best weekend of the season so far, after the 1st one of course.

No, I haven't seen Arch Manning play. But players like Bo aren't many and certainly aren't available easily if at all. I have seen Mendoza play and for some reason I just think he would be a good one to get IF he were to decide to jettison Cal for O. He has 3 years of eligibility remaining and I think O could make him into a great QB quickly. Bo was probably a once in a program history acquire for Oregon

Lanning has proven a number of things to fans since coming to Eugene, not the least of which is his ability to consistently motivate this team to perform each week. With Lanning, "trap games" might very well be a thing of the past for Oregon and I mean this sincerely. Great teams don't fall into 'traps' and I don't ever see Oregon falling into them either. You are 100% right on this Baby.

It's certainly nice to hear the pundits recognize Oregon but they'll jump ship the instant any little glitch comes along - like a close win over Cal, ASU or OSU. They're that fickle. They'll be expecting a win over each of them like the one over Utah. A close win over USC wouldn't shake them too much, they've already wasted a lot of "street cred" on propping USC up for 9 weeks and won't want to admit they were wrong. So Oregon has a bit of lee-way with the Trojans - as long as it's a win. Funny, tho. The closest game I see ahead is the Civil War where even a 1 point win would tickle me, as long as O is up in the score column. The same pundits aren't as willing to admit the Beavers are a good team too and any win over them is a good one. GO OREGON!

38-17 Oregon 1 TO 5 Sacks 250 yards passing 200 yards rushing

Maybe it's just my wishful thinking but Dan Lanning seems very happy and satisfied to be here at Oregon and if he proves to be the 1st coach to take Oregon to a National title, he'll become the Nick Sabin of Oregon if he stays put and wins another. If goes back to Alabama he will always be compared to Sabin regardless of the success he has. His chance to build his own dynasty lies here. In Oregon.

My favorite (Yellow w/black numerals) would be nice. With the Chrome-winged helmets. Hopefully not eggshell again, tho of all the things to consider, the color of the unis is the least important. O has so many choices maybe they'll surprise us.

One measuring stick we have is Cal's loss to Utah (34-14) the team O beat by 29. However, even this is misleading due the fact that Mendoza wasn't the only QB in that game, sharing time with Ben Finley while Cal was still trying to figure things out at that position. Jayden Ott had only 8 rushes (of 24 total) for Cal. But Utah did manage to score 34 points and there's that to consider. Both games were in Utah. I'm gonna guess Oregon will win this game 38-20 which is still a good win. What I fear is if they don't cover the 24.5 points critics will try to use that against any argument for Oregon's position at #6. I think it will fall on deaf ears. Unless Cal seriously threatens O with a loss, Oregon just keeps on marching. This is why I hate to see such wide point margins by the odds makers. Oregon may well win by 24, maybe by 31. But it's a lot to expect against any team in this conference, especially when the average point difference in this series (last 10 games) is 15.4. GO OREGON!

I wouldn't exactly call him a moron. Anyone heading up a program like USC (the University of Prima Donnas) has a tough job cut out for him. I just know that I think Oregon has the much better coach and hope to heck that USC and everyone else keeps their greedy mitts off him. I absolutely cannot wait to see the game in Autzen on November 11 - AFTER Oregon dismantles Cal.