PittDuck No. 1 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Ok FishDuck fans: here is the situation. It is the 4th quarter, 1:58 left in the game. Your mighty Ducks are down by 4, 32-28 to the team from the north that shall not be named. It is 1st and 10 at the 25, with 75 yards to go. You are the Head Coach. For the sake of argument, your O-line is Penei Sewell at LT, Shane Lemieux at LG. Max Unger at C, Kyle Long at RG, and Jake Fisher at RG. Your TE is Ed Dickson, and at WR you have Josh Huff and Devon Allen. Your RBs are Royce Freeman and DeAnthony Thomas. At QB, you have your choice of the following starting Oregon Quarterbacks since the 2000 season. You can choose from Joey Harrington, Jason Fife, Kellen Clemens, Dennis Dixon, Jeremiah Masoli, Darron Thomas, Marcus Mariota, Vernon Adams, or Justin Herbert. All these guys are at their peak collegiate form. You have a virtual plethora of leadership talent at your fingertips! Who ya gonna call, and why? Hint, it doesn’t matter, cause with that offense, you will not be denied! For me, I am gonna bring out #8, Marcus Mariota. My reasoning is that the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner had a QB rating of 181.7 his final year, connecting on 304 out of 445 attempts for 4,454 yards, 42 TDS with only 4 Interceptions. While Justin Herbert had a better NFL rookie season than MM, I think that is more about the team than the player. Captain Comeback was given his moniker for a reason, as was Big Play VA. FishDuck commenters, I am very much looking forward to your responses to this post. This site is graced by some of the most knowledgeable fans I have ever heard or read, and I look forward to your thoughts! Thanks again Mr. FishDuck, for creating this Duck haven (or is that Duck heaven) for us to play in! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 2 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Mariota on a zone read with Freeman. Mariota keeps the ball and makes a run for it... If things look bad he flips the ball out to Freeman and ... Wait... We've basically seen this before... In 2014 against Michigan State. So yeah do that... It will work just fine... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PittDuck Author No. 3 Share Posted February 1, 2021 9 minutes ago, David Marsh said: Mariota on a zone read with Freeman. Mariota keeps the ball and makes a run for it... If things look bad he flips the ball out to Freeman and ... Wait... We've basically seen this before... In 2014 against Michigan State. So yeah do that... It will work just fine... Wasn’t that a fun game to watch David? The lightning yellow is still seared into my mind! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherOD No. 4 Share Posted February 1, 2021 No way that hypothetical Duck team is trailing the Huskies! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDucksFan No. 5 Share Posted February 1, 2021 The little engine that could, Jeremiah Masoli 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 6 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Although he operated in a traditional offense before the Zone Read, the best QB for crunch-time, was Captain Comeback, Joey Harrington. It seems that most of his games gave me heart palpitations, and he always came through! 8 hours ago, PittDuck said: This site is graced by some of the most knowledgeable fans I have ever heard or read, and I look forward to your thoughts! Thanks again Mr. FishDuck, for creating this Duck haven (or is that Duck heaven) for us to play in! Thank you PittDuck, as the journey to creating this forum was longer than I thought it would be, and actual implementation has been a much bigger learning experience than anticipated. I don't learn quite as quickly in my 60s, but I can, and I work at it as hard as possible. Our community is small to start, but with features to be added in the next couple of months, I believe we could be pretty large a year from now. But the rules and their rapid implementation (that none of you see) will remain. Just the other day the moderators caught two offending comments that were quickly edited or deleted and the drama with the particular posters was done in the background without being a buzz-kill for the rest of us. All of time spent creating the rules for the comments at FishDuck is really helping us, and I am resolved to preserve the GREEN REFUGE no matter if we have five people posting or 500. More information coming soon! My thanks, Charles Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCO1586 No. 7 Share Posted February 1, 2021 I think the clear answer for me is Mariota although I will say my second choice would be big play VA. I think Adams could make every throw on the field and keeps plays alive long enough to make something happen. I wish we had gotten another year or two of Adams. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PittDuck Author No. 8 Share Posted February 1, 2021 8 hours ago, AnotherOD said: No way that hypothetical Duck team is trailing the Huskies! More than a little truth there AnotherOD! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 9 Share Posted February 1, 2021 32 minutes ago, SCO1586 said: I think Adams could make every throw on the field and keeps plays alive long enough to make something happen. I wish we had gotten another year or two of Adams. Remember the Oregon v ASU triple overtime extravaganza? Adams did make every throw on the field... some of which were blind where he just threw it up and an Oregon receiver came down with it. 2015, the lone season with Adams is one of those seasons where if he wasn't injured it could have been something special. The defense was bad but Adams made that offense terrifying. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 10 Share Posted February 1, 2021 9 hours ago, AnotherOD said: No way that hypothetical Duck team is trailing the Huskies! Modern Pac-12 refs... absolutely possible! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 11 Share Posted February 1, 2021 I love a question where there are no wrong answers! My pick is a quarterback I hope Duck fans never forget. He is what I hope Ty Thompson turns out to be. Reggie Ogburn! He was the Ducks quarterback in one of the best games the Ducks ever had. September, 27, 1980, 34-10, Oregon over Washington, in Husky Stadium. Reggie scored twice himself, the RPO completely baffling the Husky defense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 12 Share Posted February 1, 2021 1 hour ago, SCO1586 said: would be big play VA That really is a great choice, as he could see windows to throw to that nobody else could... Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 13 Share Posted February 1, 2021 1 hour ago, Charles Fischer said: That really is a great choice, as he could see windows to throw to that nobody else could... Sometimes I wonder about that... sometimes I think he was just thinking on another level than the defenders by doing the completely unexpected and making it work. No matter what he was certainly one of the most fun players to watch. VA: "I'm going to throw this ball into the back of the end zone... someone will catch it" Defenders: "He's running backwards and in circles... get him!" Ball is thrown to the back of the end zone is caught by potentially TWO defenders. VA: "That worked out well" Defenders: "What the **** just happened? How?" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
criticalduck No. 14 Share Posted February 1, 2021 I would take Dixon and Masoli. Dixon could have won the Heisman if it weren't for the ligament tear. The Ducks were on a tear and no one in the nation could see where the ball was when he was "handing" it off. He was adept at keeping TV cameras, announcers, and the entire other team trying to figure out if he was going to hand-off, pass, or run. You would here "PASS!" as the running back was running down the sideline with the ball or "RUN!" as a receiver was getting open for a pass. I would call him The Magician. Masoli, on the other hand wasn't about being tricky. He had speed, toughness, and surprisingly a pretty good arm. He could run over any of the DBs the Fuskies could field or throw right over them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 15 Share Posted February 1, 2021 3 minutes ago, criticalduck said: I would take Dixon and Masoli. Dixon could have won the Heisman if it weren't for the ligament tear. The Ducks were on a tear Not only would he have won the Heisman, the team was on a tear that would have ended in the championship. Incredible how much that ligament tear impacted the program. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
47sgs No. 16 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Nothing the matter with the way Darren Thomas ran the offense either. He was pretty cool, calm and collected, and while not having the best arm or legs, he was really efficient keeping the offense moving. The team was awfully good with him at the helm. I'd still go with Marcus however. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woundedknees No. 17 Share Posted February 2, 2021 15 hours ago, SCO1586 said: I think the clear answer for me is Mariota although I will say my second choice would be big play VA. I think Adams could make every throw on the field and keeps plays alive long enough to make something happen. I wish we had gotten another year or two of Adams. Gotta admit, VA, with that kind of O-line, would have had the opportunity to beat ANYBODY. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDucksFan No. 18 Share Posted February 2, 2021 13 hours ago, 47sgs said: Nothing the matter with the way Darren Thomas ran the offense either. He was pretty cool, calm and collected, and while not having the best arm or legs, he was really efficient keeping the offense moving. The team was awfully good with him at the helm. I'd still go with Marcus however. The most underrated QB the Ducks ever had, Darren Thomas. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...