mikethehiker

With Brooks, Dorsey, Bell, and Boucher, the Ducks needed very little from Pritchard his freshman year. If Shelstad is this good this early, that’s a wonderful sign. I pray that he is as durable as PP. It would be a breath of fresh air if we could finally put a healthy roster together.

At this point, why not just drop the whole student part of "student athlete"? Really! Why even make the athletes attend classes? College football is now a marketing arm for the university to raise millions to offer other sports. Maybe that's the way we should be looking at this.

Personally - I don't like what the game is turning into and it all started with greedy coaches jumping from job to job and raiding university coffers along the way. I guess it's fun when you're on top, but this is as far from the amateur sport we enjoyed growing up and there is little to no loyalty anymore - not from coaches, not from athletes, not from conferences, not from television partners. If I wasn't such a Duck fan, I would be done with this. Practically - The trend is clear: where you start is not where you'll end. It makes absolutely no sense for 99% of high school athletes to sign with a top school because you will never see the field. Go to a school where you will get playing time and earn yourself a $1M-$2M deal to transfer somewhere else.

This has to be devastating to FSU players, coaches, and fans. Can you imagine this happening to the Ducks with Nix injured? If I was Florida State I would boycott the bowl game.

I’d love to see analysis on the contrast of defensive back play throughout the game which I saw as a huge disadvantage for us mostly in the screen game. Duck DB’s simply couldn’t get off blocks, waited vs attacking ball carriers, and consistently took wrong angles in 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 situations. Conversely, Washington DB’s attacked our screen game running and tackling downhill like no one else has this year. WRs and TEs missing blocks. Tight coverage and Nix throwing across Troy Franklin and not letting him go up. Husky DB’s came to play and our DB’s were physically no match.

Well, that sucked. Same play, pulling guards, over and over.

Lanning had enthusiastic praise for Cam Ward with the sideline reporter following the Washington State game.

Ducks 38-13 3 Turnovers 4 Sacks 325 passing yards Penix is hurt in the 1st half, tries to tough it out lending to more turnovers, backup comes in and leads to more sacks.

That hit by Evan Williams turned the whole Stanford game around. Woke up the entire Ducks' sideline.

I think the key to this game is going to be containing Dillon Johnson. It will be feast or famine between Penix and Odunze, but the Ducks cannot let Dillon Johnson get started. Washington's ground game is vastly improved since our first meeting, likely due to the injury to Penix. Let Penix and Odunze connect a few times, but don't let Johnson, Polk, or the tight end get any rhythm going.

This is how I watch every game. Start it one hour late and catch up by the end (ideally).

There was a bit of mystique with Washington the first time. They looked untouchable. I wasn’t terribly worried about losing the first game because I knew we’d get a second chance with one loss since we scrapped divisions. Oregon lost, but we proved they were beatable and left a blueprint for others. It’s like when Rocky finally hit Drago in Rocky IV - “he’s cut, the Russian’s been cut and it’s a bad one.” Now we go in and finish it.

I’m just not sure PAC-12 teams travel as well - even to Vegas. Levi Stadium was embarrassingly empty for the title games there (likely due to Fridays). Giving up a conference home game wouldn’t happen but you never know. If it makes even $1 more than a regular home game, all bets are off in this day and age.

I just don’t see Deion hanging around college football once his kids are gone. Not for long anyways.

Yes, this happens every year and also to the BIG12 for playing nine conference games. Nine games will not hurt Michigan or Ohio St. because no other B1G team can throw a vertical pass. SEC and ACC skate by every year with one less conference game and 2-3 additional teams who are able to stay in the Top 25 with one less loss. Voters don't care, CFP committee doesn't care, and PAC-12 presidents didn't care enough to do anything about it. It's as predictable as it painful to know Gus Johnson is calling all our games next year.

Well, I put in the work and might as well post it. Not the outcome I expected but razor thin nonetheless. Ground rules: -Only counted drives where Nix and Daniels remained in the game. -Drives intended to run out the clock at the end of halves and points were not awarded for defensive touchdowns. -QBs did receive points for PATs following offensive TDs along with FGs. -Additionally, interceptions, QB fumbles, and TO on downs were attributed as QB responsible turnovers. Bo Nix PSU - 8 drives for 57 points TTU - 11 drives for 31 points HAW - 7 drives for 41 points COL - 8 drives for 42 points, 1 INT, 1 TO Downs STAN - 9 drives for 42 points WAS - 11 drives for 33 points, 3 TO Downs WSU - 10 drives for 38 points UTA - 10 drives for 35 points, 1 RB fumble CAL - 12 drives for 49 points, 1 INT, 1 WR fumble (Cal returned for TD) USC - 8 drives for 36 points ASU - 7 drives for 42 points OSU - 8 drives for 31 points Total - 109 drives for 477 points, 6 turnovers (2 INTs, 4 on downs) Points per drive: 4.38 Jayden Daniels FSU - 11 drives for 24 points, 1 INT, 3 TO downs GRA - 6 drives for 42 points MSU - 8 drives for 41 points ARK - 9 drives for 34 points, 1 INT Ole - 13 drives for 49 points, 1 QB fumble, 1 TO downs MIZ - 11 drives for 42 points AUB - 10 drives for 48 points, 1 INT Army - 7 drives for 38 points ALA - 8 drives for 28 points, 1 INT, 1 TO downs FLA - 11 drives for 52 points, 2 TO downs GST - 8 drives for 56 points TAM - 9 drives for 42 points Total - 111 drives for 496 points, 11 turnovers (4 INTs, 7 TO on downs) Points per drive: 4.47 This is unbelievably close and at these rates JD scores 9 additional points over 100 drives. JD played the entire game again Georgia State and scored a TD on every drive. For Nix, the Washington game really hurt (3.0 ppd) mostly due to the 3 turnover on downs which is half of Nix's turnovers for the year. Hopefully, Nix and the Ducks get redemption on Friday and Nix vaults to the top of every Heisman ballot.

Agreed. I think the CFP committee had been making it very clear up until now that Oregon has a path should they win out. Still I would love to see Texas, Alabama, and Florida St. all lose. If that happens, #4 seed is between Ohio St. and Washington which could depend on how close Friday's game is. First things first. OBD must upend a perfect Washington season that has them feeling entitled to as much destiny as we do. Did anyone else see the 9.5 line Vegas has favored OBD by? That has to be a SHOCK to the leg lifters.

Maybe points per drive would be a good metric? I’m still blown away that Bo Nix and the Ducks have the #1 total passing yards in college football this year. A stunning accomplishment given QB talent across the board in a traditional run first offense!

I wonder if Utah and USC or UCLA might still be ranked with one less conference game. We need to beat Washington convincingly because I’m worried about a close Ohio St or close Georgia loss. Florida St. and Texas losing would certainly help Oregon’s case.

Bo’s Heisman chances are being hurt to some extent by Oregon’s exceptional defense which has created such lopsided wins that Nix has had to grind clock and has been pulled very early from 6 of 11 games played so far.

Responding to a couple points made here. I would offer that defense wins championships at the NFL level, but athletes win championships at the college level. Auburn very much pushed Oregon around at the defensive line and hampered our offense most of the game before a furious comeback. We all remember Chip Kelly's remarks about SEC defensive lineman after back to back losses to Auburn and LSU. Chip Kelly changed college football period. College football has adjusted from scheme to rules. NFL and now college football is a players league and Chip has not made the adjustments. Lastly, Chip Kelly is the one that finally took Oregon to the championship level that we're accustomed to today. The fact that we haven't won a championship yet is a disappointing fact that haters like to throw in our faces. Without Kelly, there is no 2014 championship appearance. Oregon would not be quite the dream coaching opportunity for the best coaches it is today. And we are still reaping the recruiting benefits from kids watching Oregon on Kelly's run from 2009-2012.

I think the Ducks could build a championship program if everyone just stays put for a while - shoot, maybe this year. What a life experience to win a national championship and how much more could you earn with a title on your resume? After Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, who aren't going anywhere, is there another program out there with a higher ceiling than Oregon under Lanning right now? Very few are willing to wait. Right now, Stein's stock is soaring with the most productive offense in college football. Why take the risk of waiting and learning that success was based on you, the program or the QB? What a gift we had in Eugene with coaching continuity until Chip Kelly left. Who knows if it was going to ever be enough to win a championship, but everyone seemed proven and content.

The problem with these short yardage situations are offenses taking entirely too much time to allow defenses to substitute and get set including calling timeouts. It's like they're trying to calculate the velocity to orbit the moon in between plays. It shouldn't be this hard. 3rd and 1, 4th and 1 is not a surprise. It's going to happen multiple times a game. Teams should have plays prepared ahead of time for each personnel grouping that can be run as soon as the ball is set.

This has been so sad to watch. Seems like he has a great support system and wonderful parents who attend games. After a strong 2022 and first 4 games this year, his confidence was very high. Then came natural grass at Stanford and it’s been downhill again since. I’d never want to be a field goal kicker. I’ve contended for a while that Oregon should kick more field goals, especially in our OOC preseason games instead of touchdown or bust mentality we’ve displayed for the last 15 years. To me it has always implied that we don’t value field goals until we do and it’s too late.

There is clear separation between Michigan/Ohio St. and Penn State, but neither of them looked good winning. How bad must the rest of the B1G be if no other team is able to compete with Penn State? It’s just frustrating to watch two teams coast through the conference every year without being challenged. And the other B1G teams have no incentive to change. Just show up to the games, take your 45 point beating and collect your $70 million every year.