Jon Sousa

Good interview. Thanks.

Maybe MC is getting the message... we need to win bigger than one score games. Is that why the Ducks were trying to score one more TD as time ran out???? I think maybe so. If so, this means that they will try to do the same from here on out. Try to win by more than a touchdown.

Notice he did not say, "We threw the ball pretty well too." MC said, "We throw the ball pretty well too." If he used the past tense it would mean that he was talking about the game that just ended, but he wasn't. He used the present tense "throw" because he was talking about the last few games in general. We "throw" the ball well is a general statement. We "threw" the ball well is a specific statement about a specific circumstance. His statement was correct. The previous three games, the passing game was improving each week... over 80% completion rate the week before... That's throwing the ball pretty well.

The O-line is sure looking better every week. With everyone cross training and becoming good across the line, one would think that playing for Oregon would help one's chances at a higher draft pick. That and MC being an O-line guy... I think we have a good chance of keeping Banks in the flock.

The first thing I noted last Tuesday, is that, for the first time it seemed, the Playoff Committee did not play lap dog to the AP. Seems like every year the committee just follows the AP's lead. This year they bucked the crowd and put Oregon in front of tOSU while the AP had the Ducks two spots behind them. This week, it looks like the roles are reversed. The AP followed the committee's lead and put Oregon in front of the Buckeyes, ...a refreshing turn of events.

A LOT! you can see it in the way he continued to innovate after CK left... always putting in a new twist. If he didn't change anything, other teams would have figured out how to defend it. Offense was NOT the problem under Helf... and he LOVES Oregon.

One thing I noticed was TT's eyes... they were not scanning the defense over and over like you see every other QB's eyes. I thought right away that this was not good. Maybe he was looking a lot more at the defense when the cameras were not on him, I was surprised at the time. He didn't look at all like he looked against SB. He had a little "deer in the headlights" look to him. He very much looked like a frosh.

I totally agree with the time element that running out the clock was easier than scoring a touchdown to win the game. Just want to make one comment to the contrary. Fans here and everywhere have been criticizing MC for four years about his lack of keeping the "pedal to the metal"... playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Above you see comments of surprise that MC wanted to score?!?!?!?! I'll take this as a positive development in MC's thinking. After the game last week MC mentioned the need to play a whole game and put teams away. So.... maybe today the Ducks will win by more than a touchdown. We will see.

Somehow I doubt that Mario Christobal obsesses about uniforms. It is part of the national brand... and the athletes like it.

...and Kudos to MC for letting them do it!

I think what we saw last Saturday was MC doing just that. He allowed Moorhead to go a pass heavy offense. It was a masterfully planned and executed game. MC also let DeRuyter plan and call the defense. Again, a great defensive plan that was well executed. MC is growing.

You could add that whether or not he redshirts, he will probably spend the same amount of time at Oregon. Why not give him an extra year actually pulling the trigger?

I hope that the top guy will be a four headed monster with eight very sticky hands. We have the talent to spread it around and keep the defense from putting their one best corner on our four best guys.

You can't fault a guy for backing his conference.

If the men play like they did against OSU, the party is over. IF they play like they did in the previous 3 games, they will survive opening weekend.

Graves is a great coach and I can't see anything to complain about. No team can take the massive turnover from last year to this... add a ton of freshmen who have never played at this level... add the chaos of COVID... subtract a whole bunch of non-conference games to get some kinks out... add the fact that this team lost to no one outside the top 15 in the country except the Beavers who were inside the top 15 before COVID turned them on their heads... I don't think we have any reason to question Graves as a coach. Take a look at his very long history of coaching women's basketball. He is one of the best.

I've been hoping all along that the practices and the spring game would be as late as possible. Better chance for a "normal" spring. Numbers have been steadily getting better since December.

I don't have expectations. Just a "hope so" optimism. Anything can happen. I always want the PAC 12 to do well, even when it is totally unrealistic..

Not a lot of love for the rest of the PAC 12. 2-3 after the first game?

I thought it was fun to wear all black at the Halloween blackout game... but that is only once a year. And if it doesn't fall on Halloween what is the point of having a blackout? I don't know why black is so popular.... Just because Oregon does it??? Everyone wants to be like the cool kid??? So, I guess this puts me in the black isn't my favorite color category. I am interested in the national marketing of our cool uniform combinations... because it is something the athletes talk about. High school kids where the same uniform for four years. Coming to Oregon and wearing a different combination every week is appealing. I can see why.

After the Beavers beat the Ducks in the tourney, they were the only team to root for to win it all. We are all Oregonians, and what is good for one is good for both. Now, it would be nice if they could tie up the 20-21 series in the Dance.....

There should be a league champion and a tournament champion. In any power 5 conference, both the league champion and the tournament champion will always get in... usually along with one or two others. If we were in a minor conference that is only going to send one team no matter what, taking a tournament champion over the league champion would be a miscarriage of justice. A couple years ago, when Oregon needed to win the the tournament to get it, nobody here was crying that it shouldn't be the case. On the last game of the regular season, I remember watching and Bill Walton was making a strong case for the Ducks being included based on how well they were playing at the end of the season. The other guy in the booth said the Ducks wouldn't make it because those are the rules... they won't make it unless they win the tournament. Bill said that if the committee had any eyes and brains the Ducks would be in no matter what. Walton was wrong and the other guy was right. The Ducks had to win the tournament to get into the dance. They did... and made quite a run of it.

Anything positive is good news. 12 wins sounds positive to me. VA probably wishes he had another year of eligibility. Cant wait for spring!

That was an impressive catch! And he made it look routine.

OK, I'm a little late to the party here. I read this earlier in the day and have been chewing on it for a while. When I first read down through the information here, my only thought was that since the forum started it seemed like people were trying to start a bunch of threads just to start threads. I see now, that this was by design. Charles wrote in the original thread: --If a ton of new stuff is not posted every day, then readers go away nearly overnight; we saw this earlier this week when I took a few days off from this forum. (So somebody has to be posting stuff throughout the day) I disagree. When you have a bunch of new stuff that is posted throughout the day you have looks but you don't have interaction because it's stuff that people aren't that interested in discussing. Look back over the last couple weeks and see how many posts have 60 to 90 looks but there are no comments, or maybe just one, because someone feels they have to "prime the pump". Posting stuff throughout the day just to hold onto readership is trying to "prime the pump." In my view, it's not very smart way to build what we all want here, which is a safe place to discuss Ducks stuff. The fact of the matter is, we don't have to "build" the safe place to discuss Ducks stuff... because it is already built. It is what we have right now. It seems that Charles thinks that we have to have zillion hits every day to be successful, and we don't. We don't have to try to "hold on to" readers and contributors. If Charles puts the site into "moth balls" for an undetermined amount of time there will be exactly zero readers and contributors. Charles states that his volunteer moderators all resigned. He didn't say why, but I am guessing that the job required more time and energy than they were originally envisioning it to be. One thing I have noticed is that the moderators were often the people posting a bunch of new threads and were often the only ones responding to the threads that no one else was commenting on. What is wrong with not posting anything unless you are really interested in posting it... to share valuable and fun information and/or to get feedback from others? What is wrong with allowing the forum to grow naturally over time as likeminded Duck fans gather to share their thoughts without the vitriol that is present on other sites? What is wrong with having fewer threads and fewer comments if that means we won't wear out our valuable volunteers? On a normal day, when I am not too busy, I check in here 2 to 4 times a day to see if there is anything that interests me. I have only posted a new thread once, and I don't usually comment on even 1/5 of the threads I read. I do try to give a thumbs up or a "thank you" to encourage some of the posters who have no comments or reactions. Most people are too busy to hang out here just waiting for someone else to post something new... so, why do we want to keep posting new things throughout the day just to keep people here??? We don't have to be the most visited Ducks site in the world, we just have to be the best... and that is what Charles has created here.