With the 12 team format, your team can blow a game and still make it in. Alabama's season is not over from their loss. Ohio St lost twice last year and then won it all.

The Ducks did not execute that game. It wasn't like the 2011 game vs LSU when they got beat by better players. Losing one of these November games would put the Ducks in the emergency room. Finishing strong would show the team is resilient.

What I like about the Dan Lanning era is how the team bounces back after losses. They are not going to do a Penn State - lose a close game and then sink to the bottom of the sea.

Since Iowa basically played Indiana fairly even, this next game might be like a re-match with Indiana.

Oregon is still healthy, as healthy as any team can be in November. That actually means more than a perfect record.

You're right it wasn't.

It was still a major bummer of a loss though. Oregon just played so poorly. They played a solid game against Penn State then went on a bye and returned looking quite bad.

And again I stand by my belief that if Penn State had beaten Oregon they would still be a top 10 team with some signs of life in them. Oregon ripped the heart out of that team and threw it on the floor.

Oregon can still achieve a deep playoff run... They just need to improved each week.

I haven’t seen one person saying that the Indiana loss was a season killer.

However, IMO, it did 2 things:

1. It showed EVERYONE Oregon’s flaws, which DCs have continued to attack. Hopefully the coaches and team continue to focus on their weaknesses (aka go to the doctor) and get better as the season progresses. This is our first bye since that loss so it should give our coaches and team more time to address them. With a playoff, the best team doesn’t always win the championship, a team can win it by getting hot and playing its best at the end of the year. Oregon still has the talent to compete and win a national championship, if they can put it all together.

2. It shrunk Oregon’s margin of error. At the beginning of the season, I believed that a 2-loss Oregon team would be a lock for the playoffs but right now, I’m not as certain. The media LOVES the SEC and I could see a 2 loss Notre Dame getting in over Oregon. Same with USC or UW, if they beat us and win out. How many teams will the ACC and Big XII get in (e.g., will there be any huge upsets in their conference championship games giving a team outside the top 12 a playoff spot)? Crazy things happen down the stretch. Oregon fans should be rooting against all of the contenders for those at large playoffs spots (and rooting for Indiana to win out?).

1 hour ago, OregonDucks said:

I haven’t seen one person saying that the Indiana loss was a season killer.

However, IMO, it did 2 things:

1. It showed EVERYONE Oregon’s flaws, which DCs have continued to attack. Hopefully the coaches and team continue to focus on their weaknesses (aka go to the doctor) and get better as the season progresses. This is our first bye since that loss so it should give our coaches and team more time to address them. With a playoff, the best team doesn’t always win the championship, a team can win it by getting hot and playing its best at the end of the year. Oregon still has the talent to compete and win a national championship, if they can put it all together.

2. It shrunk Oregon’s margin of error. At the beginning of the season, I believed that a 2-loss Oregon team would be a lock for the playoffs but right now, I’m not as certain. The media LOVES the SEC and I could see a 2 loss Notre Dame getting in over Oregon. Same with USC or UW, if they beat us and win out. How many teams will the ACC and Big XII get in (e.g., will there be any huge upsets in their conference championship games giving a team outside the top 12 a playoff spot)? Crazy things happen down the stretch. Oregon fans should be rooting against all of the contenders for those at large playoffs spots (and rooting for Indiana to win out?).

It also showed me the value that the very best coaching can bring to a team. The quality of our roster is 5th and Indiana's is 77th. Yet they competed with a fury and a precision that I have not seen out of an Oregon team yet. That D was always in the right place, tackled like professionals and always had a second tackler immediately there. That precision and intentionality overcomes a lot.

We have a potential Season Killer staring us right in the face. My unsophisticated take on our DUCKS this year is they are very hit or miss. I want to know which Dante Moore shows up Saturday afternoon. We can assume that Iowa will stack the box and force Dante Moore to perform. If we get check down after check down, I think it will be a long afternoon. GO DUCKS!