Mic

I wasn't a fan of the eggshell but these helmets more then make up for it. Go Ducks!

This is the 1st I've heard of any "question" about Dorlus' ability to go. But should he not, yes... the ducks have good depth at this position. But man! That would be a loss felt by the team for sure. Da_n injuries and everything they stand for. Glad to hear there's likely nothing to it.

How do the "melt down" fans feel now, Charles asks? For the most part they've melted themselves into the background. Gone dark. Disappeared. For now.... Every Duck fan I know personally, including myself, were upset at those two losses. But, only a very few (that I know) lost their perspective entirely. To not have been disappointed would make one a rare bird indeed. A true fan wants his/her team to win every game and hopes for that. A realistic fan knows even teams like Alabama, Georgia, Ohio St. have to come back down to earth eventually, and do. And here we are! Back on top (for now) and facing the very team that started he meltdown (for some) last year. U gotta love College Football. Has there ever been a better sport to evoke the wide spectrum of human emotions?

Here's my 2 cents worth: I'm sure most Husky fans are nice and decent people. But there's those in every crowd, usually fueled with booze, that are obnoxious and can be downright dangerous. Such was the case at last year's game in Eugene. There were several Husky fans seated just in front of us near the 7-yard line. Two males in particular, drinking smuggled cans of beer, got drunk and the drunker they got the more obnoxious they became up to the point where a couple of times a fist fight almost erupted. This despite being surrounded by Duck fans on all sides. No fight erupted, thankfully, but they did make one family with two small children leave the area and several others to move away. No one came to take those vacated seats which I think made them even happier. My friend and I (with the support of two stout young men behind us) offered to throw them out - but Security told us not to even think about it. Of course, Security was right - but they did nothing either!! Do I hate Husky fans? No, certainly not. Do I loathe the behavior of some of them? Absolutely. UW seems to be the school who's fans tend to get out of control the most. By virtue of where our seats are located other schools often get seats here. Never had a problem with any other school's fans. Just UW's. I caution any Duck fans attending the game in Seattle to be very careful and prepared to be accosted. May it never happen and may the Ducks take all the steam out of the UW fans with a sound throttling of the Huskies. Go Oregon.

That would certainly help reduce the stress factor a lot.

Regarding #3 above it will, in large measure (imo) depend on how closely the Pac-12 refs call this game for pass interference. The style of throws and the passing game differ between the two teams and I think UW will air the ball out more than the Ducks who rely more on the short stuff underneath with reliance on yards after the catch. Obviously, UW's style of throwing (if I'm right - big IF) offers a greater potential for the Refs to interject themselves in the game. How tight will they allow the Duck secondary to cover the three good receivers of Washington? Are we going to see a lot of yellow flags on the field? Let's hope not. A fair game is all we want.

Clearly Alex Heining knows his football and offers rock solid analysis of three keys for the Ducks to beat UW. No argument here. However, I offer my three keys for an Oregon victory (from a much less analytical point of view): 1) Score more points than the Huskies, 2) Hold the Huskies to fewer points than themselves, and 3) Have more points in the O column at the end of regulation, O.T. or after the last whistle blows. I believe if O can do any one of the three above, they'll be fine. GO OREGON! BEAT THOSE HUSKIES!

Gambling stat esotericism at it's finest.

Well, not quite. They do come to Eugene.

Strictly answering the question posed by the Topic, certainly Oregon is 'flashy' enough. I have friends and family from the coast of Oregon all the way to the Midwest (Mn & Mo) and states in-between that think Oregon is one of the flashiest teams in all of CFB. Are they showcasing Bo enough to get him the award, (ie letting him dominate the offense with either his arm or his legs or both) to win him the Heisman? Now that's an entirely different question, which is what I think Charles is getting at. I'd say no, Lanning & his O.C. are balancing the offense - and for very good reason. A balanced offense is much harder to stop. This isn't the Caleb Williams or the Shaduer Sanders show. This is Oregon distributing the ball to as many play-makers as it takes to keep the defense off balance and guessing what's coming on every play. This is sound offensive football. Couple that with a top-notch defense and what you have is a team that is in every game and winning most, if not all, of them. I think (I don't really know anything) this is not about winning the Heisman for Bo. This is Lanning football about winning games and winning championships. And I like Dan for that. I'm always for the Team and not the individual. Let the BO posters hang in every city for all I care. Let the emphasis at Oregon be on a total team effort to win for the team not any particular individual. My guess is Bo himself is down with all that. And he could still win the Heisman if the voters are truly savvy ad true to the criteria needed to win it.

It'll be very tough all right. And one never knows how a college game goes down. But to think Oregon (or Washington) doesn't have a chance in this one is delusional. Fan-delusional. I'm guessing the Texas fan is still smarting from that loss to Oklahoma

The Duck Defense is really beginning to shape up into a power house. Lanning & Lupoi are doing a great job.

Hey guy, it's only one loss! Yeah, let's hope it's followed by 6 more.

In Seattle, the individuals holding up Bodacious signs should probably get a little hazardous-duty pay. I'd not recommend it unless surrounded by Duck fans. Last year at the UW game, despite being surrounded by Duck fans in Autzen we still almost had a fist fight started by two UW fans sitting in our section down near the 7 yard line. Yeah, they were drunk. There'll be thousands of them in Seattle for the game.

I have to admit the Tanya Harding one was hilarious.

Thanks Charles. Your clearly better informed than I and after all, I'm just kinda going on my gut feelings here. I do so hope you are right about this being the best for Oregon in the long-run - there are a lot of supposedly smart people behind this move so let's hope. Go Ducks! ps: I'm already missing the former Civil War, aka 'Rivalry' game with the water rats in Corvallis. As I understand it, they aren't on the Duck schedule next season for the 1st time in ___ years.

I'll be willing to admit I was wrong if and when Oregon succeeds in the Big-10 in coming years. However, I still fail to see why Oregon and the other schools thought this was the right move to make. What was wrong with the Pac-12 - arguably the best conference in the country right now? It's been a long, hard struggle for the Pac to get to where it is now, one that took years. But they got there - finally. And now it's all been thrown away because of what I feel was a stupid move by USC, causing UCLA to make the same, causing the rest of the dominos to fall one at a time. As I said, I'll be willing, gladly, to admit I was wrong IF this demise of the Pac-12 proves fruitful I'm just not holding my breath. I think it a very bad move but so be it. It is what it is and life goes forward. GO OREGON.

You're kidding, Darren. Right? I mean, in this crazy world, who really knows?

True, Coach Cristobal made a bonehead mistake by not overriding his O.C.'s decision to run the ball. 99 times out of 100 noting bad happens but still, that was a dumb thing to do. That 100th time came back to haunt him. But last night I saw something worse when the Notre Dame Head Coach opted to go for a 4th down and (I think) 11 yards inside their own 35 yard line with Louisville only 8 points (1 score with 2-pt conversion) ahead. There was over 9:50 left in 4th, it was still anybody's game at that point. Later, he did it again; now down 2 scores (because of the score they gave up when they failed on the earlier 4th down try) and ended up giving Louisville the back back again - also in their own territory. And yep, Louisville scored again - now making ND 3 scores down. Game essentially over. I think HC Marcus Freeman is safe from the hot seat right now but not if he does something like that again.

All your points are very well-taken and you are 100% correct because the game as we knew it once (30+ years ago) has completely changed. There's little time left of studies if the athlete must put in the work to become elite and get noticed - leading to higher "earnings" potential. The better, more publicized athletes seemingly are semi-pro now. I guess the goal is to get more of them onto some sort of "payroll" - in the interest of "fairness". Or at least an opportunity to do so. 'Earnings', 'payroll'. Yep, semi-pro. It's inevitable I suppose.

Because the entire poll-thing is a rather esoteric, inside knowledge, coaching fraternity, you vote for us and we'll vote for you, tv deal mishmash of loose ends needing more flips of the coin to get things right? I don't know if anyone has ever explained it clearly or even knows clearly how the polls work, despite claimants to the contrary. At least the CFB is no linger VOTING the National Champs like they once did - for decades.

Regarding Jon's point number 2 above: Fortunately for either UCLA (or Oregon?) the two teams don't play this season. Nor do they play UW. I guess we won't know for sure how good (or not) UCLA's defense really is until they play Oregon State - the only team left on their schedule with a solid defense. Perhaps Cal will test them but no one else on the schedule seems likely to. Chip's team received a very favorable last Pac-12 season schedule.

Something about "athletic socialism" strikes a wrong chord with me, too. However, I cannot say that I like the idea of the regulatory body of collegiate athletics (NCAA) behaving like a government agency any better. Amateur Athletics. That's what it once was and what I (as an observer only) wish it could remain always. But nothing remains the same always - except human nature I suppose. They may as well change the name to something akin to NCFL: National Collegiate Football League; align it more closely with the NFL.

Oregon plays their "sisters" too - in fact, just about all universities do now. But your point is well made. In CFB, respect takes time, esp. if a team hasn't won a National Title yet (let alone 2 or more). Just look at what's happened to TCU's reputation in just one season. It took them years to get to a title game only to fall almost completely off the table after their embarrassing loss last year. Oregon is different in that while not having won a title yet they're still in the hunt for one and doing what they need to do to get that elusive title. They've remained relative and then some. Next week fans will know how relative. This game upcoming is huge for the program.

Possible Heisman alert. The winner of the O-UW game may take the inside track to the Heismann. Esp. if Penix comes out on top Caleb not-with-standing. The WSU kid's all but forgotten and so, it seems, is the Texas QB.