Mic

I guess we should have been more prepared for what happened ouselves. It's not like Georgia hadn't seen this type of defense before. They practiced against it everyday last season and probably everyday this one as well when the O's go against the D's. It was Oregon's (and DL's) bad luck to go against the one team in America that was most familiar with and best prepared for our type of defense.

We all knew Dan Lanning was reputed to be one of the game's bright, young minds making his way up the coaching ladder like a comet. But with this loss, in front of a National TV audience, I think we are about to see what kind of stuff this young man is made of. He has big task in front of him - rally a demoralized and thoroughly beaten team to make them competitive again. He has less than one week to do that it. He's not alone in the task but he's the Leader, the Head Coach. Welcome to the world of Head Coaching, Dan Lanning. We're all pulling for you and for our Beloved Ducks. Go get 'em!

Dan Lanning is going to do a lot of growing up in the next few weeks. Being a Head Coach is a lot more than about knowing X's & O's. Now he's got to rally a team that has just been crushed and demoralized in front of a national audience. O will likely slip out of the Top 25 (way out). He's got his toughest coaching week ahead of him and I wish him all the good luck in the world. Now, we'll see what kind of stuff he's made of. Go Oregon!

It'll need to be quick. With BYU coming to Eugene in a couple of weeks, Oregon doesn't need to see a 1-2 start before the Pac-12 season opens on the road. I'd be a little more optimistic had I not just witnessed 7 straight TD's by Georgia without a single 4th down or punt. Has that ever happened to Oregon before?

For sure. Not even Kirby's comment earlier in the week about O being the best team in the Pac-12 can help us now. I'd say clear out of the Top 25. It'll be up to Lanning and his staff to see if he can claw Oregon back into at least bowl eligibility. A loss like this can demoralize a team. They can still play for a Pac-12 title but at this point, Utah looks to be a lot better team than O.

I'll be thinking of you next Saturday. I just came from the pizza parlor where there were a bunch of Beaver fans having a walloping good time watching Oregon take this walloping.. It was so annoying, I left when Georgia scored their 7th TD in a row. They were giddy with merriment!

Don't beat yourself up Charles. I too thought it would be a low scoring game because I knew Georgia had a good defense. I just over-rated Oregon's by a country mile. And you're still right when you said "The surprise of the Conference will be Oregon's defense". I think 11 coaches in the Pac-12 right now are as surprised as you and I. are..along with about 99% of the rest of the OBD members.

I'm not sure they deserve even that. I guess the 'good news' would be that it's just got to be all up from here on, right?

I'm seeing polls that say they finish 3rd in the Big Sky. Regardless, you're right - the talent difference should be much better for us. But that talent difference between O and Georgia wasn't THAT much. But the coaching apparently was. Oregon had better punch EWU in the face early and keep on punching.

We can thank Kirby Smart for not making this worse than it was. It could have been 63-3 if he had felt it was necessary. Maybe he likes Dan too much to pull a Bob Stoops stunt. I see Oregon dropping clear out of the Top 25, down to <30. It's going to smart (no pun intended).

I know the question sounds incredible but... sadly, this performance against the Dawgs was pretty dismal. I can't remember the last time O's defense looked this porous. In my mind, the question bears some merit. EWU finished 10-3 last year and they are pretty good team. They're well coached. This game might be a lot closer than we thought just 2 days ago. Will Oregon shake off the wood-shed spanking they just got, and will Lanning & Lupoi be able to plug the holes in the worst defense I can remember at Oregon since before the Alliotti days? Defensive guru or not coach, that was embarrassing. But, let's give credit where it's due: Georgia looked (and played) terrific. Congratulations to them. Go Oregon!

Both.

Apparently, the heads of the CFP committee voted on Friday to expand the CFP to 12 teams (good!). The format will be defined by the "highest ranked" conference winners (6) and 6 more "at large" teams, based on final season rankings (and other esoteric mystery). OK, fine. Then, for this to work the NCAA has to stop major CFP teams (like Miami, for example) playing completely inferior teams and demand the 'Big Power 5" teams (and others) start scheduling appropriate, quality opponents. If this much emphasis on rankings is to work, team schedules have to start being more equal across the board. Taking Miami U. as our example. Tomorrow UM plays Bethune-Cookman Univ. Not to disrespect B-C, (by all accounts a fine school) they have a total student body of about the same size as the faculty at Miami! And Miami has about 6x the student body enrollment as B-C, meaning (probably) 20x the football budget at least! To be fair, Oregon plays Eastern Washington next weekend. But EWU is about 3x bigger than Bethune-Cookman, with a decent football program. All one has to do to see what this means is to check out the betting odds. Miami is -45 of B-C. (And that's being generous). O will likely be < -20 over EWU, at best, depending on tomorrow's outcome. Fans are going to have to demand this scheduling bias get cleaned up. We can't keep justifying it by claiming this "helps the B-C's of the football world". Not if this new College Football Playoff system is going to work the way it should, with rankings based on meaningful win/loss records and strengths of schedule. What do you guys think about all this?

It's changed again. Settling it at +16.5, 54 o/u. That's probably solid. I'm going with my 20-17 Georgia. 37 points.

LOL Naw... I'm thinking somewhere between your prediction (I did check it and the others) and mine. Because I think this could be a slugfest rather than a track meet. Oh, there's speed on the field, all right. But both coaches want their defenses to control the game. I think the 55 o/u is a bit high.

Vegas VegasInsider.com has Oregon +16.5 now (4:15 pm Friday) That's a 1 pt move. Things have settled down. This looks like the line to bet on. 54 pt. o/u

good point. I remember that game like it was yesterday

Georgia, 20-17, 2, 2, 270

Yep!

I'm pretty sure it was 4th and inches. And as Drake mentioned above, their big RB was ripping yards at that stage of the game. Pitt looked gassed and it took a freakish pick-6 to beat WVU. Playing not to lose when your up 7 against a ranked team, on the road and you've just scored on back to back possessions...

After our forum discussion earlier about Scott Frost taking a big risk with an on-side kick, West Virginia takes their own non-risk which might have cost them the game over Pitt. For those who didn't see it, WVU had a 7 point lead with around 5 minutes to go in the 4th when their coach opted not to go for the 1st down on a 4th and about 4" somewhere inside the Pitt 40. WVU had just scored 14 straight points to take the lead. They had Pitt on their heels and their run game was rollin'. Instead, he ordered a delay of game, (to try and draw an off-sides penalty) took the penalty and then punted. Pitt got new life, ended up scoring 14 points in the last few minutes to tie then go ahead. Then the game ended with a near miss on a 4th down pass play by WVU to the Pitt 1-yard line. Incomplete, barely, with 22 seconds left. Game over. Should the WVU coach have gone for the 1st-down earlier and continued to run the clock down on Pitt, maybe kicking a FG to take a 10 point lead and more time off the clock? Well, he'll probably be criticized tomorrow for not doing so, imo. And that's football. Damned if you do and damned if you don't - when things don't work. Football genius when they do.

That'd be one heck of a punt!

Yeah, but it's Bethune- something or other. Not to dis that team but are they even Div. I? If they don't cover it might be Mario taking several knees just to be kind. I

Somebody kick that guy!

It'd be foolish not to expect DL to have TL inserting wrinkles himself in the Duck defense, I guess. The real unknown here is probably what the Oregon Offense under Dillingham is going to look like. Perhaps Kirby has been pouring over the Auburn tapes (when Bo was a Frosh) - and there might be another reason no Oregon QB has yet been announced. 7-3 Bo starts. But Lanning's making Kirby guess.