Mic

Holding at #6 with UW holding at #5. No surprises there. This is why I have to hope for (never root for) UW to beat the Beavers. Sorry, OSU, this is business. Oregon needs to win out and face an unbeaten UW if Oregon is going to make the CFB. We all know this, it's been talked about for weeks on this site. I only bring it up because the Beavers are in major upset mode right now. They still have a chance to upset the apple cart and win the Conference Championship by beating UW this Saturday and (worse) beat Oregon the week after. Heaven forbid! NO!!!!!!!!! What an exciting two weeks this is going to be. GO DUCKS - BEAT ASU! There's a lot on the table as the last Pac-12 season comes to a finish. Wow.

I always thought Chip Kelly was an Offensive genius and would have been one of the all-time greats if he hadn't reached too far. He just isn't Head Coach material, evidently. Should have stayed an O.C. Maybe he's figured that one out himself by now?

It's worth this: the odds makers are seldom very wrong. Home field is usually worth about 3 points. The 2 points is about a toss-up. Even the odds makers aren't certain how this will end. I'd stay away from this one if I was a betting man. My guess his OSU wins it taking some of the luster off the Conference Championship game. Just like the Beavs to do this - just to spite Oregon. btw, the Beavers are not out of winning the Conference yet. Comes down to these last 2 games for Oregon & OSU.

Might Moore, should he want to transfer, choose ASU and reunite with KD? Just wondering. ASU is starting to show some life.

IF Kalen DeBoer (and that's a big IF) is half the man Dan Lanning is why would he want to leave UW? He's practically worshipped there right now and Penix has one more year of eligibility (assuming he doesn't leave, which he shouldn't if he's smart). But even if Penix does declare for the draft DeBoer will find or develop another QB. It's a hard thing for me to say but DeBeor is a darned good football coach and if given the support at UW that Lanning's getting here at Oregon, UW should be just fine with him at the helm. I think if another team like A&M comes knocking (or even if not) DeBoer is in for a very nice compensation package regardless of whether or not UW wins the Conference Championship. The UW program is in a place right now it hasn't been for a very long time. I hate the Huskies but I respect them as a football team and DeBoer as a coach. I don't think UW will want to let him get poached.

Best not mess with Nick Saban - could start another civil war - this time 'twixt Alabama and Texas

It's up on YouTube for everyone to see. The view starts about 4 minutes into the video when Dan comes out, makes his statement on how the game went down Saturday night and then takes the 1st question. He was ready for it and it took him < a minute to end all speculation. I won't try to quote him because you're right, it's better to see him say it than to read what he said. Dan is a man of passion and he brings it to the way he coaches and the way he speaks about the program. The Duck program, I might add, under his leadership. He knows what he's got here in Eugene and he wants to keep it.

I just watched the live feed on YouTube. Dan couldn't have said it better or more clearly. He's not going anywhere. Bless Dan Lanning.

Stein vs. Dillingham. This should be interesting.

I'm glad all this distraction came now and not three weeks ago. This is bad enough. FOCUS, Focus, focus.....ASU awaits the Duck in Tempe.

Actually, the Army-Navy game is the one game I never miss, outside of Oregon games. When I was in the Navy 'Army-Navy' day was THE most important day for our sub captain. He was a TE on the 1973 Navy team that beat Army 51-0. I still have in my possession a splinter of the goal post (they were wooden back in those days) from the game in JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. My son-in-law found it on a plaque with the newspaper story of the game at a garage sale in Medford about 10 years back. I understand why they're no longer the football powerhouses they once were, the academic standards and the after-graduation service requirement. But I love watching the academies play, esp. Navy. I figured that if the old Soviet Union had wanted to attack the United States preemptively that would have been the day to do it! (just kidding). Everybody that could was in front of a TV. Underway at sea under 300' of water it was the ELF radio broadcasts throughout the Pacific & South China Seas with updates beamed over the IMC for the crew to follow. GO NAVY - BEAT ARMY! GO OREGON - BEAT ASU!

I wish I had recorded the UCLA-ASU game so I could watch it. How ASU was able to stop a Chip Kelly offense would be an interesting thing to watch. Oregon has at times seemed unstoppable, but not all times. Hard to imagine how ASU could upset O but this is the Pac-12 and stranger things have been known to happen. As far as offense goes, the Sun Devils did manage 17 points against what we've been hearing as a darn good defense. To have won this in Pasadena is also interesting. Kudos to Kenny D. and his team. But when the Ducks go down to Tempe all good will goes aside. It's business.

I didn't see the ASU-UCLA game Saturday but I know I was darned surprised to see the final score. Kenny's getting the ship righted so quickly? Or UCLA is withering on the vine? Or both? It was even more remarkable in that the game was in Pasadena and not the desert.

It's great the things you learn on this site. I didn't know about Will Stein's connection with Jeff Traylor. Yeah, I'd say this is a worry but one that Dan' will deal with when the time comes, if it does.

How refreshing is it that when a couple of plays don't work and/or a penalty is called against the Ducks and they find themselves in 3rd and long situations there's still the expectation the Ducks are going to make the 1st down? OR, the Ducks might just score on the next play? I've always thought the statement "there aren't any plays in the playbook for 3rd and, say, 20 yards or more, in the playbook." Why not? That wasn't Chip Kelly's attitude nor was it Kenny Dillingham's nor is it Will Stein's. Do what you have to do to make the 1st. Or, better yet, score. It's kinda what makes the Ducks special.

What's this? Taggert A&M?

If I were Dan Lanning: I'd stay put. Dan's become akin to royalty here and probably has everything he wants and needs from both Phil and the University to succeed. A&M would be like starting all over again from scratch. A&M is one of the largest universities in the nation (student body wise) but it's arguable which brand is larger right now: theirs or O's.

Monday morning and now we can look back and summarize. It turned out to be anything but a rout, tho it certainly looked like it might be after those 1st two possessions. Williams did keep the plays alive for way too long, though O did get some good sacks and forced a few throw-aways. And to your last line, the Ducks did have control for the last Qtr. although if Camden hadn't missed that FG it would have been a lot more comfortable for fans. This is the 1st game in a while the Ducks failed to cover. I see a difficult game ahead even though ASU has been struggling (but on a roll beating UCLA) and I see a Civil War game that is going to be a toss-up. If the Ducks are favored by more than -3 I'd be skeptical. OSU could definitely ruin Oregon's playoff hopes if Oregon doesn't clean up the penalties.

Neither by me. I see the Beavers are currently favored slightly (-1) over UW. As much as I dislike the Huskies, I gotta hope they beat the Beavers this go-round for Oregon's sake should both UW and O meet in the title game. Sorry Beavers, it's business.

Fortunately, Camden's miss didn't cost the Ducks the game, just 3 points. Bo Nix also missed Terrence Ferguson wide open heading unimpeded for the end zone and threw to Tez Johnson instead, who muffed the catch. This game was never gonna be a "slaughter" because the Ducks themselves weren't up to the slaughtering. Maybe they'll be in the mood for one against ASU but ASU might not be in the mood for it any more than USC was. Football is funny that way.

It's in the DNA of all football fans to worry about 'next season'. Winning is hard and history has shown us that even the best teams don't keep winning forever. Why, I recall the service academies (Army in particular) being among the best teams in the country. Imagine Army or Navy winning a National Championship today!

schadenfreude. Isn't that what fans of sports feel for the other teams?

I've had this sneaking suspicion in the back of my little brain that USC and UCLA both thought since their once dominate hold over the conference had slipped from their grasp that moving out and heading for the Big 10 would somehow help them "regain their prestige". How, exactly, was lost on me to ever figure that one out. I wonder if seeing Oregon & Washington suddenly come in to the Big was ever in their "plan"? Did they fall prey themselves to false promises offered by the Big1 of did they ever really think O & UW would soon follow? Whatever, it's a crying shame the Pac-12 dissolved. I feel confident it would have survived the loss of both USC and UCLA and been able to pick two other good programs up if they had wanted to remain at 12. AND, rival the new Big1 for talent, wins and championships.

I sure hope Gaitin got to see Tez Johnson & Troy Franklin score their two TD's last night. Those were impressive as all get-out. And to think, we had been hearing about all this "speed" in the USC lineup on defense. Uhh.. no, not entirely.

Well, I'm pretty selfish in this regard, I admit. I certainly hope you're right. That said, IF Dan were to accept another position somewhere, I'd still respect him (and miss him) a heck of a lot more than WT & MC both put together. Onward to better thoughts: ASU may offer O a bit more of a challenge being on a bit of a roll themselves, next week. Whatever's in the works, I expect Oregon to be focused on that game if Dan has anything to say about it, which he does.