Did All The Praise Hurt The Team?

[Duckley Palace]

It's great to be loved, to be thought of as elite. But with all the media kind of riding with Puddles the last two years, could that have caused the two defeats to Washington or tonight's performance?

 

I believe Nick Saban called it rat poison. His squads would win the whole thing but rarely going perfect. They'd slip up against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, LSU, Auburn, or Mississippi State along the way.

 

If you want to go back further just look at USC. They'd be hyped to all the moon bases, but then they'd lose to Stanford, Oregon State or UCLA which would cost them National Championship chances. Then they'd blow out whoever in the Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl and the media would say they had the best team despite not winning it all.

 

Florida State would do it several times under Bowden if you wanna go back any further. Is there something to it?

 

[Charles Fischer]

On 8/31/2024 at 10:39 PM, Duckley Palace said:

Is there something to it?

This is the aspect of how "been there already" is overlooked by us fans.  Georgia and Alabama are used to the hype, ignoring it and performing.

 

[Drake]

We are not the #3 team in the country. 

[David Marsh]

Which makes surviving a game like this a nice wake up call for the team. We won and get to move on. Learn the lessons and don't overlook an opponent. 

 

Fans get to overlook opponents because we don't suit up. 

 

But the team we saw out there today is looking at 6 losses at least if they don't get their act together. 

 

I think they will. There were a few linemen out this week. I believe both Bedford and Ilui were out. Both had carved out significant roles for themselves by the sound of it. 

 

So I'm hoping that a week or recovery will get the offensive line ready to roll again. 

[Duckley Palace]

On 8/31/2024 at 10:48 PM, Charles Fischer said:

This is the aspect of how "been there already" is overlooked by us fans.  Georgia and Alabama are used to the hype, ignoring it and performing.

 

Georgia sure looked the part against Clemson. Kirby had to learn how to lose before he learned how to win. I'm hoping Dan follows in the footsteps of his former boss who learned it from his former boss, the one and only Nick Saban.

Edited September 1 by Duckley Palace

[DUCKED]

On 8/31/2024 at 11:21 PM, David Marsh said:

Which makes surviving a game like this a nice wake up call for the team. We won and get to move on. Learn the lessons and don't overlook an opponent. 

 

Fans get to overlook opponents because we don't suit up. 

 

But the team we saw out there today is looking at 6 losses at least if they don't get their act together. 

 

I think they will. There were a few linemen out this week. I believe both Bedford and Ilui were out. Both had carved out significant roles for themselves by the sound of it. 

 

So I'm hoping that a week or recovery will get the offensive line ready to roll again. 

I certainly hope you’re right….. about the wake up call. 
 

Boise State is coming to town next week and a performance like today’s will be disastrous.

[Duckley Palace]

On 8/31/2024 at 11:21 PM, Drake said:

We are not the #3 team in the country. 

 One reason I don't like preseason rankings. But that's never going to go away. I can only hope this was more about Oregon than Idaho. No disrespect, but the two recruit and operate on two different levels.

On 8/31/2024 at 11:21 PM, David Marsh said:

Which makes surviving a game like this a nice wake up call for the team. We won and get to move on. Learn the lessons and don't overlook an opponent. 

 

Fans get to overlook opponents because we don't suit up. 

 

But the team we saw out there today is looking at 6 losses at least if they don't get their act together. 

 

I think they will. There were a few linemen out this week. I believe both Bedford and Ilui were out. Both had carved out significant roles for themselves by the sound of it. 

 

So I'm hoping that a week or recovery will get the offensive line ready to roll again. 

Week one is usually a throw away. Coaches don't want to empty the playbook against opponents like Idaho, Weber State, Akron or Fresno State. You could just tell there wasn't that typical physicality and tempo with the team tonight.

 

You wanna know who looked great? Penn State and Georgia. Both played challenging opponents but opponents not on their level. Idaho isn't a P4 member, they scored off a bad pass and a trick play. But 24 to nothing is only slightly better than 24 to 14. Oregon was never going to lose today imo. But it's a bad look.

[kirklandduck]

I think we would be fooling ourselves if it wasn't a factor but I don't think it's as big of one as we might think.  

 

Most of the issue starts with bad center play (sorry Charlie Pickard, you just didn't have it tonight).  It may have been better if Pancho were lining up in the middle but I guess various factors shoved him over to right guard where he didn't perform well either.  The lack of interior presence then contributed to the already puzzling bad play of the tackles, especially on the right (Cornelius killed a couple drives on his own with penalties).

 

I do think this will get straightened out...the question is how long it will take.  Assuming Bedford and Iuli come back soon that could drastically speed up the improvement but if they come back too early and get re-injured then they're in trouble. 

 

OBD need every minute of that 5 weeks before tOSU comes to Eugene in order to get to the level that's expected of them.  

[30Duck]

It certainly made yesterday's game more awkward, especially after Desmond and Herbie picked the Ducks to win the Natty. Now a BIG test comes up next week against a team the Ducks are o-fer against. 

[Lrod]

Dan gotta do better too.. the fake punt.  Smh