Now, this is a little tongue-in-cheek, but there is some truth to it.  On another forum, someone was complaining that the amount of posting was way down this year. Why? Because we have nothing to argue about!  We had some concerns at the beginning of the season, but since then? 

 

We are all primarily in agreement.  (What a great problem to have!)

 

In other years--we were roasting Cristobal for the "Prevent-Offense," or bemoaning injuries, or tearing apart why we lost a game or two. Not this year!  (So far...)

 

Gotta love it, and soak it up...even if it is...

 

 

How wonderful to have such a year!

Now we can just pick apart everything and complain about the little things...

 

"Does Oregon have a 3rd Quarter problem? We just cant seem to score coming out of halftime!!" No we do not, the issue is we are just blowing everyone out of the water in the first half and cruise to a victory.

"What about travelling different time zones?"

"Should we move Noah Whittington to WR?"

"I cant believe the refs missed that call!"

"Lets talk about the dumpster fire of the beavs"

 

Life is good if you are a Duck fan this year! Soak it in. 

On 10/28/2024 at 3:20 PM, QuackyQuack said:

Now we can just pick apart everything and complain about the little things...

Good point, as we are drilling down, getting granular to the smallest detail.  (Shouldn't we be resting Jordan James more?)

 

Are we insane? That would be OBD going out doing the same thing and getting a different result. So, no, we aren't insane. We don't want a different result. Boring? I'll take it, over the adjectives that fit some other teams right now. 

Edited October 28, 2024Oct 28 by 30Duck

Yes, the Ducks are boring . . . until they wil not be boring.  To start, winning is not boring.  But, with a purpose, the Ducks appear to get boring , particularly in the second half.  The "Why?" of that purposeful boredom is not so obvious, but here's what I think is happening.

 

All four games remaining on the regular-season schedule are important, but there is one highly important game left that is not on the schedule.  That is the B1G championship game.  That game is important because the winner of that game is exempt from round one of the 12-team playoff.  The likelihood is that the survivors of the quarterfinals, and semifinals who play in the finals are highly likely to come from the four conference champions who do not have to play all three of the elimination games because they will be exempt from the first round.

 

Every game at the end of this greatly extended college football season will take a greater toll on the players than in prior years with far fewer games.

 

There's a reason our starting linemen on both sides of the ball are on the field only 43 or fewer plays a game.  Lanning does not want another Jordan Burch injury.  An injury can happen anytime.  But the odds are, if a player plays fewer plays, he is less likely to be injured.  If OBD can go into the championship game fully healthy, it will be won.  

 

Lanning also does not want to wear his players out.  That's part of why he starts running clock early in the second half, once the game is out of reach.  Running clock makes for fewer possessions and fewer plays.  He wants the game to get over as quickly as possible, and cares nothing about running up the score.  

 

These are the same reasons our tight ends are playing a fewer number of plays than in prior years, as are the running backs, linebackers and defensive backs.  Only Dillon Gabriel is exposed during every significant play, and if Dante Moore's red-shirt was not at issue, he would be on the field more and DG less.  Moore may well be on the field more in two of the final four regular season games.

 

Lanning's team has been able to win the first half with vanilla plays and nothing fancy.  He can save his players and hide the play-book for that most important game.  He'll do enough to make sure we win out so that we're in that game, putting OBD in the best possible position to be the B1G champion and miss the first round of the playoff.

 

So, get used to boring wins that conserve our best players' health and hide as much of the play-book as is reasonable.

 

 

So I'm told there was a top 20 game in Eugene last weekend.

 

But the game I watched didn't look anything like a top 20 game... 

 

I've seen Illinois in some other games this year and they didn't look THAt bad but the Ducks made them look like an early season OOC game. 

On 10/28/2024 at 3:41 PM, 30Duck said:

Boring? I'll take it, over the adjectives that fit some other teams right now. 

So glad we are not one of these teams right now!

 

 

Listen to how professional wrestling always had a good guy and a bad guy. They were doing pretty well with this format. They went with all bad guys and the attendance went through the roof. 

 

Moral of the story is people love the bad guy thing.

 

Biggest news item this season was when Lanning put 12 guys on the field. He went mute on the subject so he is back to the good guy, boring.

 

Maybe he should have said he did it, will do it again, and will always look to take any advantage he can take? The talk, ratings and interest would go through the roof!

On 10/28/2024 at 5:28 PM, Haywarduck said:

Maybe he should have said he did it, will do it again, and will always look to take any advantage he can take? The talk, ratings and interest would go through the roof!

I'll respectfully disagree. "The Lanning Rule" was the hot topic, and Lanning didn't need to do anything, it showed that he's always looking for an advantage. 

On 10/28/2024 at 4:25 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Shouldn't we be resting Jordan James more?)

 

Why yes, yes we should. LOL

On 10/28/2024 at 5:28 PM, Haywarduck said:

Biggest news item this season was when Lanning put 12 guys on the field. He went mute on the subject so he is back to the good guy, boring.

Him going nuts on the subject was also playing within the rules. 

 

They couldn't undo the win but if you put 12 or more players in the field on purpose that is an unsportsmanlike penalty. 

 

Again, can't undo the win... But if he said more than he did I could see something from the B1G office come down on him. 

 

He was certainly playing with the line.