In the early season, and especially after the Penn State game....Oregon was the toast of college football. The buzz about the team, Dante Moore--all of it was now much worse than I realized at the time.

It is hard to not get full-of-yourself with that kind of fawning media attention. Even though we were used to the spotlight last year...Our Beloved Ducks are not accustomed to being in cross-hairs of national media the way a few teams such as Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State are. It is routine for them, while Oregon is still a little thrilled to be spoken of so dearly.

Now...the attention on Oregon has faded almost as fast as viable HC candidates for Beavis. Well OK, not that much.

But you get the idea; in the Tuesday ESPN Playoff Projection for next week--multiple pundits predicted that Oregon will drop in the Playoff standings, with a danger of not even being in the projections, as anything below 11th puts you out. (The Group-of-Six get the 12th spot)

And frankly...our remaining schedule is tough, but not enough to impress--even if we win them. So already I can sense millions of CFB fans writing off the Ducks, and I think this is the perfect scenario that puts a-chip-on-our-shoulder. It can inspire our players to improve beyond what anyone could project for Oregon.

It's happened before!

Agree?

The media has no use for us now...

I believe if OBD wins out and finishes the regular season at 11-1 we will be in the playoffs. I refuse to worry about the idiot pundits that are associated with ESPN.

There is a fair chance our lackluster performance vs Indiana was partially due to two weeks of the young team absorbing the hype we got after beating Penn State.

So, yeah definitely less risk with us being undervalued vs.the alternative glowing adulation.

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by Solar

59 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

I think this is the perfect scenario that puts a-chip-on-our-shoulder. It can inspire our players to improve beyond what anyone could project for Oregon.

Completely agree. I am hoping for a 8 - 10 finish in the FIRST reveal Tuesday to light that fire.

I sort miss the days of being the perennial UnderDuck, with a chip on it's shoulder...

They aren't going to leave out a power two team at 11-1 period.

The big 12 is over rated at this point and is eating up a lot of the rankings when they don't really deserve it.

Need USC and the dirty dogs to win out, obviously except the Ducks

What if, and what is: the two sides of the sports coin. If we play just half as hard as the media thinks, we win the rest of our games.

WW,

Believe OBDs must play their _sses off every game, accented by some of the season's savviest and most aggressive coaching OBD have ever experienced and seen. If they - the entire coaching staff and team - do not do this, our team and fan base can kiss this season goodbye.

Every coach and team we play next wants to beat OBD badly! They all have just enough motivation, skill, and emotion to do it, too.

VR,

KCDuck1

If we were in a static universe where no one else ever lost we might be in trouble. Last year, after conference championship week there was a whopping 4 teams with 1 loss or less in the top 15, no reason to expect it to be any different this year.

We’re a shoe in at 11-1, and it would be very surprising, imo, not to get in at 10-2. About the only way we don’t get in at 10-2 is if we have a bunch of squeakers and then get shelled by the fuskies to end the year.

6 hours ago, Solar said:

There is a fair chance our lackluster performance vs Indiana was partially due to two weeks of the young team absorbing the hype we got after beating Penn State.

So, yeah definitely less risk with us being undervalued vs.the alternative glowing adulation.

Yep, hopefully that early media rat poison has worn off. There is no way the Ducks don't get in the playoffs at 11-1 and almost certainly at 10-2 unless the second loss is a bad one. As I mentioned in an earlier post, a spanking at home by Indiana should have been a giant eye-opener and I can't wait to see how the Ducks respond when faced with significant upcoming adversity. Knowing the head man, I suspect that they will tighten their chin straps and handle it just fine.

Sometimes it helps not to be the new media darlings on the block. I think this may be one of those times. I guarantee that people who know this game best haven't forgotten who Oregon has become and are unlikely to underestimate them.