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An inspired team with the wounded but game Bo Nix struggling to get thru it. AND, much better matchups with their WR's. Sans TE Duncan Kincaid this game wouldn't have been this close. Lanning has Oregon playing much more physical than the self-declared "Master of Physicality" Mario Cristobal ever did. Just my lousy 2 cents worth.

There are actually some (not many) fans saying that IF USC should make the Championship game it would benefit the Pac-12 for them to win it and go on to the Playoffs. Banish the thought! They're leaving the PAC. Send them off with a loss and ruin their high hopes of a Playoff berth. But I'm warning my friends, whomever USC faces in the Championship game, (Oregon or some other team) expect the Referees to lean USC's way. It's just the way things work in this crooked Playoff system we have where $$ drives everything. GO OREGON!

It'd be easy to put the blame on Ty Thompson for that play but honestly, I can't think of a worse play call for a cold QB with little Big Game experience down inside his opponent's Red zone. I don't put that one on Ty, the hand-off (or whatever it was) wasn't his fault. It was a play with too little upside gain for the huge downside potential. I doubt Oregon fans will ever see anything like that again in the "Lanning Era".

Yeah, it made me mad when I saw it but at this point, whether or not they said it, they all thought Nix was dun! Or, at best, he'd make an attempt at playing before bowing out. And rough, tough, physical Utah would be too much for O with Bo hurt and unable to go 60 minutes. They might have been right, except they didn't now how tough that kid really is and how he lifted and inspired his team to play just as rough and tough as they did. You can't bottle that.

I know what you mean about the Championship game & then the bowl, but this team has to focus one game at a time, just like Lanning stresses. One game at a time - or else there is no Championship game for Oregon. OSU will be ready, cocked and locked for this one. They always are. The more there is on the line for Oregon the more they're motivated which is what rivalries are all about. GO DUCKS!

I'm certainly not a great defensive mind by any stretch but I have to think that Jonathan Smith, having been a rather successful QB himself, will know how to put the right pressure on Nix to aggravate his injury. Where to rush from to force him to move out of the pocket and how. Who would know better than a former QB? I hope Nix is a little better next Saturday then he was last night.

Ah... it's Civil War time. Pardon me, 'Rivalry Game'. I can't help but think the name change to 'rivalry' diminishes things - all for a silly political purpose that almost no one likes or understands. Rivalry is what we call the UW game. Civil War is what we should be allowed to call the OSU game. Be that what it may - this one, this year, is going to be a real doozy (as if they aren't always anyway). And with Bo Nix nicked it's going to be a bigger dog-fight than it already was going to be. The Beavs smell blood in the water and they have some real sharks circling about. I'll let those with more football smarts weigh-in on this one the about X's & O's, schemes and strategies. I just know it's not going to be anything less than a brutal fist-fight next Saturday. 12:30 PT. What say you guys on how this game is likely to shape up or shake down?

I'm guessing it's $$. Right now, the SEC and the Big 10 (or whatever it's called) command the most $. That's why USC & UCLA have been lured into that mess and out of their historical membership in the Pacific Athletic Conference. And it's a dirty, rotten shame. It's the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' as it always is, I guess.

Good points. And one extra week will not likely make much of a difference in how his leg feels. Did you notice how hard it was for him to get back up after that QB run at the end of the game? It hurt and he knew it was gonna hurt when he did it - but he did it anyway. That's the competitive spark that he has that, alas, that seems to be missing in the rest of the QB stable. OSU is scheming as we write to take advantage of this injury and it's not like they weren't already going to be a tough opponent with the way they can cover WR's and TE's.

All the inherent differences, league to league, make a national playoff system inherently unequal. 9-game conference opponents vs 8-game conference opponents, 12 team conferences vs. 14, 16 or whatever team conferences. Early season O.O.C. opponents vs late season O.O.C. opponents. Teams in conferences vs teams as Independents, etc. etc. Until the NCAA & CFB gets things standardized and equal there will never be true fairness (imo) to this whole CFB Playoff system. It's just the way things are right now and there are certain teams (we all know who they are) who want the status quo to remain for as long as they can manage to keep it that way. I guess I can't blame them - but it's not fair.

They did, indeed. And how refreshing was that to see, where the D gets the win instead of O outscoring the opponent a gazillion + one to a gazillion? Gotta be able to win both types of games.

Play didn't work = bad call. Play works = great call! But go back and watch the play again, it was a poor time to try it and an even poorer execution. What was Lanning thinking? Did he expect Utah to expect TT to throw the ball when he hadn't been all season, or at least not in a game where the outcome wasn't already decided? Whittingham's not that silly.

The reason I used the word 'solved' was because O (which had been averaging >200 yds/game ended up with about 65-70, give or take. Bo's clipped wing took about 45 off the board but there were plenty of tackles made by Utah for loss or little gain. I think I heard Bucky ended up with 10 rushes for 20 yards or 2/carry. He had a few longer but the tackles for a loss subtracted from that. All-in-all, I think the yardage given up by Utah was what Whittingham was hoping for and Utah very nearly won it. OSU will prove to be just as difficult, I think, to run against.

And that's been the case so far or this entire season. As much as we like Lanning & staff, he has a LOT to learn about being a H.C. and winning games in this conference. Last night we saw one area where he's learned a lesson - his taking the FG instead of going for it on 4th down in the 1st Qtr to put Oregon up by 14 (17-3). That 3 pts ended up being the winning margin even tho it was the 2nd FG that won it in the end.

Not if Oregon could win out. O has only one loss in conference. Fuskies have two. I'd still root for the Cougs to beat them just because.

Not sure of your contention here BUT, I won't rule it out either. As far as TCU losing to K-State, now ... there's a real possibility. TCU has been dodging bullets all year and it could come down to haunt them finally. I also believe (in my conspiring little heart) that the CFB Playoff Committee is looking for (praying for!) some excuse, ANY excuse, to rule TCU out. And K-State right now is playing good defense having smoked Baylor and very nearly beating Texas.

Matchups. There wasn't enough time to completely re-make the Defense or completely re-scheme it. And, I'll probably get beat up for this, Cam Rising wasn't "on" last night. That's partly due to some hands-up last night deflecting passes (at least two INT's were cause by that) and partly because his receivers dropped a couple balls at very crucial times. Not to take anything away from the Defense - they did step up last night. But they also matched up against Utah's receivers a whole lot better than they did against UW's.

They may be running out of willing opponents - opponents who are tired of taking a beating in front of a national audience just for a nice "pay-day". At least I hope so.

I absolutely agree with this. Enough, already. Our opponents are now looking for these and when the botched toss by Tye turned into a sudden TD (when Utah's offense had been stagnate) it very nearly ending up costing Oregon the win last night. I can't stress how fortunate Oregon was to win that game against one of the conference's best teams with a lame Bo Nix last night. Those types of plays need to be put back in the bottle, Kenny D, until such a time as O really and seriously needs one.

As per the billboard thing (Joey Harrington) I heard more negative comments on that from friends around the country that weren't particularly O fans (but not O detractors either) about that. I don't think that expensive purchase swayed one single vote for Joey even if it did get his name out there, "in Lights". And I remember just cringing when I saw it. Talk about commercialism! I thought it was a mistake.

And, it wasn't just the running game that Utah had figured out (yes, they knew Nix was hobbled but he'll be hobbled next week too, somewhat). It was those formerly productive slant screens and RB passes out to the flat as well. Everything was tough for Oregon last night and nothing was working like it had before (also due to Nix's injury) as Oregon was under 400 yards of offense where they had been pushing 600+ each game. Give Utah a lot of credit - they're a tough, physical opponent, well-coached and without some uncharacteristically bad play from Cam Rising last night (give Oregon's Defense credit here) well - let's just say that Oregon finally caught a few breaks last night that they hadn't been catching all season.

You've got it jrw. The SEC does this intentionally. I mean, wouldn't you if your team could get away with it? I'll bet a-dollar-to-a-donut Tennessee wishes they had scheduled one instead of South Carolina right about now too!

No, not at all. Colorado is a legit Conference opponent and one that just happens to be down right now. Austin Peay is a patsy not anywhere near the level of a school like Colorado most years. It's blatant, all right. But it's also smart - for as long as polling committees continue to not punish Alabama for it. It stinks to high heaven, if you ask me.

Not sure the exact number of yards O posted on the running side of the ledger last night, I'm sure it's on the board here somewhere. But Whittingham and Utah certainly game OSU (and everyone else) the blueprint on how to stop O from running the ball like they did against UW and just about everyone else this year. That's the 'good' news for other teams. The bad news is Oregon still found a way to win and the beauty (and sweetness) of it was it involved the Defense!

This has been going on for a lot of years, in case you didn't notice it. Alabama schedules these schools (like we do with Eastern Washington) for similar reasons but they do it at the end of the season to allow their tam to heal up AND put a smack down on the board for the committees voting. I don't know how much affect it has on the committee but it does take all pressure off the team at the crucial point when most teams like Oregon are battling injuries and struggling to win their toughest games. Nicky Saban's no fool. And the CFB Playoff Committee seems to care less about it.