FishDuck Article Administrator No. 1 Share Posted January 7 As a fantasy football player (and 2024 league champion), I have to follow teams and players that I do not care about, such as the Cincinnati Bengals who have two elite wide receivers. Receiver 1A is Ja’Marr Chase, while receiver 1B is Tee Higgins. Occasionally, Chase goes on a mini-slump while Higgins simultaneously lights up the state line, which gets ... Oregon is Elite, but Not Top-Tier Elite | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Darren Perkins of FishDuck.com offers some post season thoughts on the Oregon’s 2024 season. 2 2 Two Sites: FishDuck and the Our Beloved Ducks forum, The only "Forum with Decorum!" And All-Volunteer? What a wonderful community of Duck fans! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 2 Share Posted January 7 Winning the conference championship is nice and cute, but it really does not mean anything. What you want to do now is lose to the conference champion, and not even play in the conference championship game. I believe this Buckeyes team would beat the Ducks 9 out of 10 times. The game in Eugene in October was Oregon’s one. Fool’s Gold: That October victory over Ohio State gave the Ducks the false belief that they were better than they were. The team that barely beat Boise State and played horrible defense against Penn State was the real Oregon team. All the other games were against inferior opposition who the Ducks could simply out-physical and out-talent. Oregon is still Tee Higgins. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smith72 Moderator No. 3 Share Posted January 7 Thanks Darren, good analogy with 1A and 1B! Yes, losing the championship game would have been the easier route. But I don't think elite/competitive coaches and players ever like to lose on purpose. This format for the CFP is an abomination created by Conference Commissioners and TV executives. It can't end soon enough! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyToBeADuck No. 4 Share Posted January 7 Darren, thats a great take on the situation. osu2 really is the benchmark standard in the B1G. It took Harbaugh 5 to 6 seasons to build and recruit the talent at Michigan to beat osu2. Harbaugh brought seasons of coaching experience to Michigan and had the advantage over the less experienced Day. It takes time for any head coach to season and also for his assistants. Let's give DL and staff some time to grow and gain experience. They need to grow and accumulate more talent. The future is bright. On a side note for this fan, without Stewart to stretch the buckeye D, Coach Stein had very few options. The Duck O could not take advantage of a glaring weakness in their secondary. Because the Duck D forgot how to play defense this game was going be a high scoring event for the buckeyes. Many on this Forum felt the Ducks would need to score 40 plus points to win. True on that fact 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirklandduck Moderator No. 5 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 7:13 AM, Smith72 said: Thanks Darren, good analogy with 1A and 1B! Yes, losing the championship game would have been the easier route. But I don't think elite/competitive coaches and players ever like to lose on purpose. This format for the CFP is an abomination created by Conference Commissioners and TV executives. It can't end soon enough! This mindset will start changing after what happened to all of the top 4 seeded CFP teams. I wouldn't be surprised if DL might start pulling starters the last game of the season next year if their seat on the CFP is confirmed. Look at Kansas City, they basically pulled most of theirs because they were already 15-1 heading into the matchup with Denver this past weekend. The big loss on the surface isn't a good look but in context made perfect sense. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuckFan93 No. 6 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 10:18 AM, kirklandduck said: I wouldn't be surprised if DL might start pulling starters the last game of the season next year if their seat on the CFP is confirmed. Look at Kansas City, they basically pulled most of theirs because they were already 15-1 heading into the matchup with Denver this past weekend. The big loss on the surface isn't a good look but in context made perfect sense. Well, KC had absolutely nothing to gain or lose in that game. OBD did have the B1G Championship to win. It's nice to be a champion when you can get it. So I don't think we would ever want to purposedly lose a CCG, but the CFP needs to change and I think they will next year. Probably not messing with the bowl games, but I bet they will change the seeding matchups and the scheduling to reduce the rust. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirklandduck Moderator No. 7 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 10:28 AM, DuckFan93 said: Well, KC had absolutely nothing to gain or lose in that game. OBD did have the B1G Championship to win. It's nice to be a champion when you can get it. So I don't think we would ever want to purposedly lose a CCG, but the CFP needs to change and I think they will next year. Probably not messing with the bowl games, but I bet they will change the seeding matchups and the scheduling to reduce the rust. I think after what happened this season, the B1G Championship has become less important IMO (especially since the CFP is unlikely to change anything next season). I'd rather have the 5 seed and have an easier road to the semifinals like Penn St than the path Oregon was rewarded with for their effort. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDuck No. 8 Share Posted January 7 "The game in Eugene in October was Oregon’s one Fool’s Gold: That October victory over Ohio State gave the Ducks the false belief that they were better than they were. " The Buckeyes are statistically No. 1 in the nation in defense for total yds allowed per game. They are also No. 1 in scoring defense per game. The two highest scoring opponents were Oregon 32 in October, Oregon 21 on January 1. Based on the preparation for January 1 by the Oregon staff, I'm not sure they weren't biased by the October game. Would be interesting to know how much prep time they allocated to reviewing Ohio State's other 11 regular season games. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDuck No. 9 Share Posted January 7 "It took Harbaugh 5 to 6 seasons to build and recruit the talent at Michigan to beat osu2." It is a different era now with the portal, BUT: - Kirby Smart won his first Natty in his sixth year at Georgia. He inherited a top 10 team that had been 20-6 in two seasons. - Saban won it at LSU in his fourth year - Sark is 38-16 in his fourth year at Texas - Lincoln Riley was 55-10 at Oklahoma, now 81-24 - no championship - Ryan Day is 68-10 at Ohio State, will this be his year? In sum, it ain't easy. Saban obviously had an effect on other program's possibilities, but there typically have been temporarily dominant programs thru the years. In sum, it ain't easy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 10 Share Posted January 7 It is rare for me to disagree with Darren as I do in this article, but I do NOT believe the Buckeyes would prevail nine out of ten times. We would not be rusty each time, and we would have EVAN STEWART stretching defenses. And besides....when osu2 wins a couple, they get full-of-themselves. I think ten game series would turn out just as this season did: 50/50 of the games. We are the team that barely beat Boise State? Play the Broncos now and we would win easily....we had offensive line problems in that game where solutions where applied in the second half, thus we survived. But this is three months later, and Oregon is a much better team. When we win, people over-react. When we lose, people over-react. It is the life as a fan... 1 1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solar No. 11 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 11:33 AM, Charles Fischer said: It is rare for me to disagree with Darren as I do in this article, but I do NOT believe the Buckeyes would prevail nine out of ten times. We would not be rusty each time, and we would have EVAN STEWART stretching defenses. And besides....when osu2 wins a couple, they get full-of-themselves. I think ten game series would turn out just as this season did: 50/50 of the games. We are the team that barely beat Boise State? Play the Broncos now and we would win easily....we had offensive line problems in that game where solutions where applied in the second half, thus we survived. But this is three months later, and Oregon is a much better team. When we win, people over-react. When we lose, people over-react. It is the life as a fan... I agree with Charles for the most part. Keep in mind, this is a generational talent level on the OSU roster this year. We'll see if Georgia can pull off one of these "keep all the juniors for one more year" dream teams like Michigan and OSU put together. We were not imposters in the top shelf 6 teams in the country this year. I do have a continuing concern that the extra effort our coaches put into recruiting between games late in the season is likely a detrimental disadvantage to historical blue bloods with records that recruit themselves, when play them. We got out coached by DeBoer and Grubb who didn't recruit last year, and we got smoked by Kelly who we know doesn't recruit either this year. It's a small sample size but the cause and affect is as good of an explanation as anything else for explaining our crappy game plans and player preparedness. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuckFan93 No. 12 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 11:33 AM, Charles Fischer said: It is rare for me to disagree with Darren... Personally I also disagree with the title - OBD is definitely top-tier elite now as we will be a top-10 or even top-5 team pretty much year after year. The challenge is winning that elusive Natty. So I would say we are not yet the best in CFB... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JabbaNoBargain No. 13 Share Posted January 7 (edited) Good read. I would say it’s still an unknown. The narrative will shift dramatically if tOSU cruises to a championship versus getting boat-raced by Texas. or what if PSU beats tOSU in the title game? Two teams in the championship game that we went 2-1 against equals pretty top-end in my book. TBD (imo) Edited January 7 by JabbaNoBargain Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 14 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 6:11 AM, 30Duck said: Winning the conference championship is nice and cute, but it really does not mean anything. What you want to do now is lose to the conference champion, and not even play in the conference championship game. I believe this Buckeyes team would beat the Ducks 9 out of 10 times. The game in Eugene in October was Oregon’s one. Fool’s Gold: That October victory over Ohio State gave the Ducks the false belief that they were better than they were. The team that barely beat Boise State and played horrible defense against Penn State was the real Oregon team. All the other games were against inferior opposition who the Ducks could simply out-physical and out-talent. Oregon is still Tee Higgins. Good ole Tee, waiting for his day to join a team to be its 1A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 15 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 7:13 AM, Smith72 said: Thanks Darren, good analogy with 1A and 1B! Yes, losing the championship game would have been the easier route. But I don't think elite/competitive coaches and players ever like to lose on purpose. This format for the CFP is an abomination created by Conference Commissioners and TV executives. It can't end soon enough! Agree. But, not necessarily lose on purpose, but like in Week 18 of the NFL, sit key players to avoid injury if you are a playoff team with nothing to play for. Like Mahomes and Allen this past Sunday. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 16 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 7:44 AM, HappyToBeADuck said: Darren, thats a great take on the situation. osu2 really is the benchmark standard in the B1G. It took Harbaugh 5 to 6 seasons to build and recruit the talent at Michigan to beat osu2. Harbaugh brought seasons of coaching experience to Michigan and had the advantage over the less experienced Day. It takes time for any head coach to season and also for his assistants. Let's give DL and staff some time to grow and gain experience. They need to grow and accumulate more talent. The future is bright. On a side note for this fan, without Stewart to stretch the buckeye D, Coach Stein had very few options. The Duck O could not take advantage of a glaring weakness in their secondary. Because the Duck D forgot how to play defense this game was going be a high scoring event for the buckeyes. Many on this Forum felt the Ducks would need to score 40 plus points to win. True on that fact Thaks. Yup, the game was just a trainwreck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 17 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 10:18 AM, kirklandduck said: This mindset will start changing after what happened to all of the top 4 seeded CFP teams. I wouldn't be surprised if DL might start pulling starters the last game of the season next year if their seat on the CFP is confirmed. Look at Kansas City, they basically pulled most of theirs because they were already 15-1 heading into the matchup with Denver this past weekend. The big loss on the surface isn't a good look but in context made perfect sense. Yup. But, in college we've been trained that the regular season everything! No more. I could see where they ditch the conference championship games and expand the playoff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OregonDucks No. 18 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 2:23 PM, HDuck said: "It took Harbaugh 5 to 6 seasons to build and recruit the talent at Michigan to beat osu2." It is a different era now with the portal, BUT: - Kirby Smart won his first Natty in his sixth year at Georgia. He inherited a top 10 team that had been 20-6 in two seasons. - Saban won it at LSU in his fourth year - Sark is 38-16 in his fourth year at Texas - Lincoln Riley was 55-10 at Oklahoma, now 81-24 - no championship - Ryan Day is 68-10 at Ohio State, will this be his year? In sum, it ain't easy. Saban obviously had an effect on other program's possibilities, but there typically have been temporarily dominant programs thru the years. In sum, it ain't easy. Agreed. Oregon is not Georgia, LSU, Texas, or Ohio State. Those programs have fertile recruiting grounds and/or lots of history/tradition. As Josh Pate, pointed out, Coach Lanning could coach another 13 years and still be younger than Nick Saban was when he won his first national championship. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OregonDucks No. 19 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 2:33 PM, Charles Fischer said: I think ten game series would turn out just as this season did: 50/50 of the games. I personally believe that Ohio State would win 7-8 games out of 10 on a neutral field. They have the superior roster almost across the board (look at the mock drafts or recruiting rankings over the last 4-5 years) and more experienced coaches. Autzen is a special place and was magical on October 12, 2024. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirklandduck Moderator No. 20 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 1:19 PM, Darren Perkins said: Yup. But, in college we've been trained that the regular season everything! No more. I could see where they ditch the conference championship games and expand the playoff. Oh I absolutely agree. I just don't have faith that the CFP committee is going to change anything quickly so I expect DL, Kirby, and other perennial contenders to switch to this mindset. A 2 loss B10 or SEC team will generally get in so I can see them using that cushion strategically late in the season. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OregonDucks No. 21 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 4:25 PM, kirklandduck said: Oh I absolutely agree. I just don't have faith that the CFP committee is going to change anything quickly so I expect DL, Kirby, and other perennial contenders to switch to this mindset. A 2 loss B10 or SEC team will generally get in so I can see them using that cushion strategically late in the season. It’s a fine line though. You want your team peaking heading into the playoffs. With extended layoffs, it’s not easy to keep the momentum going and if you start resting players before that, it becomes even more difficult. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 22 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 10:34 AM, kirklandduck said: I think after what happened this season, the B1G Championship has become less important IMO (especially since the CFP is unlikely to change anything next season). I'd rather have the 5 seed and have an easier road to the semifinals like Penn St than the path Oregon was rewarded with for their effort. Plus, the home game! Great for fans and extra home game revenue! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 23 Share Posted January 7 It should be a GLARING reminder to everyone watching Ohio State play to see that No.8 next to their name. The fact that No.1 got hosed, No.6 got a yellow brick road to the Quarterfinals are right there too. I read earlier that ESPN is pushing back a bit with, "Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Penn State, Bluebloods all. How can anyone say the format didn't work?" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 24 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 11:23 AM, HDuck said: "It took Harbaugh 5 to 6 seasons to build and recruit the talent at Michigan to beat osu2." It is a different era now with the portal, BUT: - Kirby Smart won his first Natty in his sixth year at Georgia. He inherited a top 10 team that had been 20-6 in two seasons. - Saban won it at LSU in his fourth year - Sark is 38-16 in his fourth year at Texas - Lincoln Riley was 55-10 at Oklahoma, now 81-24 - no championship - Ryan Day is 68-10 at Ohio State, will this be his year? In sum, it ain't easy. Saban obviously had an effect on other program's possibilities, but there typically have been temporarily dominant programs thru the years. In sum, it ain't easy. NIL.... good or bad, it's a whole new world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JabbaNoBargain No. 25 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 1:33 PM, 30Duck said: It should be a GLARING reminder to everyone watching Ohio State play to see that No.8 next to their name. The fact that No.1 got hosed, No.6 got a yellow brick road to the Quarterfinals are right there too. I read earlier that ESPN is pushing back a bit with, "Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Penn State, Bluebloods all. How can anyone say the format didn't work?" When the top-4 seeds in a 12-team tournament go 0-4 you can’t really argue the format worked imo. That’s a botched formula no matter how hard ESPN spins it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 26 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 11:33 AM, Charles Fischer said: It is rare for me to disagree with Darren as I do in this article, but I do NOT believe the Buckeyes would prevail nine out of ten times. We would not be rusty each time, and we would have EVAN STEWART stretching defenses. And besides....when osu2 wins a couple, they get full-of-themselves. I think ten game series would turn out just as this season did: 50/50 of the games. We are the team that barely beat Boise State? Play the Broncos now and we would win easily....we had offensive line problems in that game where solutions where applied in the second half, thus we survived. But this is three months later, and Oregon is a much better team. When we win, people over-react. When we lose, people over-react. It is the life as a fan... Maybe the "9 out of 10" proclamation was a little emotional (and maybe i figured it might catch the ire of some, lol, oops). Things got better throughout the course of the season, until the defensive performance against Penn State. Maybe it was just a single poor performance, but definitely raised questions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 27 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 12:39 PM, Solar said: I agree with Charles for the most part. Keep in mind, this is a generational talent level on the OSU roster this year. We'll see if Georgia can pull off one of these "keep all the juniors for one more year" dream teams like Michigan and OSU put together. We were not imposters in the top shelf 6 teams in the country this year. I do have a continuing concern that the extra effort our coaches put into recruiting between games late in the season is likely a detrimental disadvantage to historical blue bloods with records that recruit themselves, when play them. We got out coached by DeBoer and Grubb who didn't recruit last year, and we got smoked by Kelly who we know doesn't recruit either this year. It's a small sample size but the cause and affect is as good of an explanation as anything else for explaining our crappy game plans and player preparedness. Good points. With the good, young coach, we have much to look forward to. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 28 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 12:50 PM, DuckFan93 said: Personally I also disagree with the title - OBD is definitely top-tier elite now as we will be a top-10 or even top-5 team pretty much year after year. The challenge is winning that elusive Natty. So I would say we are not yet the best in CFB... Good point. But, the no natty is what I feel holds the Ducks back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Perkins No. 29 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 1:09 PM, JabbaNoBargain said: Good read. I would say it’s still an unknown. The narrative will shift dramatically if tOSU cruises to a championship versus getting boat-raced by Texas. TBD (imo) yeah, i think we're all kinda hoping that they do. If they play the way they have, they will Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDuck No. 30 Share Posted January 7 It's defense as usual? Current NCAA ranking Scoring defense 1-Ohio State – 12.1/game 2-Notre Dame – 13.6 4-Texas – 14.5 7-Penn St – 15.8 16-Oregon – 19.4 Yards allowed per game 1-Ohio State – 244.6 3-Texas – 277.7 6-Penn St – 288.8 8-Notre Dame – 295.4 15-Oregon – 315.9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDuck No. 31 Share Posted January 7 rather than offense? Scoring offense 4-Notre Dame – 37.7 11-Ohio St – 36.4 21-Texas – 34.3 24-Penn St – 33.7 17-Oregon – 34.9 Yards gained per game 17-Texas – 443.9 25-Penn St – 436.3 26-Ohio St – 432.5 49-Notre Dame – 406.6 22-Oregon – 437.4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 32 Share Posted January 7 On 1/7/2025 at 1:52 PM, Darren Perkins said: Good point. But, the no natty is what I feel holds the Ducks back. I agree. Ohio State has multiple Natty's, Oregon has been close, so close, to multiple Natty's, can't put Oregon on the same level at this point. As for "- Out of 10" I'd say Ohio State-7.5. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
