College Game Day will be on hand as the #3 and #7 teams in the country face off tomorrow night. No matter how you slice it this is a huge game for both teams with the winner being a solid early contender in the 'way to early' playoff talks. Both teams will also still have a full season to make it through.
Keys to the game -
#1 - To me the biggest match up is to watch the Duck backs (QB and all three RB's) vs the linebacker corp from Michigan State. The zone read runs of Oregon work to isolate our playmaker against one defender, usually a linebacker. Michigan State is a fundamentally sound tackling team and they will make it tough for us in our run game. In our past losses against Stanford, LSU and Auburn our run game was stopped almost completely. Yards will be tough and we will need to make them miss or break a few throughout the game to keep our offense on the field. Our RB's are much bigger than in years past, I think even if we can take some of those three yard plays where we get tackled and make them five or six yards gains by pushing and dragging people and knocking them back, the night will be better and first downs will be gained.
#2 - Over the years I've said it many times, our TE's are underutilized. From Dickson to Paulson to that other guy (UGH) to Mundt to Brown. USE THEM. The way we stretch the field long and wide our TE's are typically available up the middle. When we are playing lesser teams our speedy playmakers can make a few miss and turn something into a huge gain. If yards are tough we cannot forget about the TE position. Perfect example was in the KSU game two years ago. The first half was tight and KSU was playing us tough. Right before the half there are back to back big gains to the TE, we score and the halftime adjustment had to be made to cover the TE better. This gave a few extra inches here and there, if you know anything about the Ducks its that if we find an inch we can take it to the house.
#3 - I'm looking at you D-Line and Linebackers. The coach should pull everyone's man card at the beginning of this game and let them all know if they want it back they must go out there and earn it. In our scheme the defense doesn't need to play shut down ball. But we do need to make some plays, whether they be big stops or turnovers. Stanford was 14 for 21 on 3rd down and 1 for 1 on 4th down. We need do better that that in key times. I think our defense is MORE athletic than the the D that lead us into the National Championship, yes, MORE. But Casey Matthews and company made big plays in big moments. In that game when we needed a turnover Casey made Cam fumble. We forced a fumble on Cam early in the game that the review booth hosed in my humble opinion.
Marcus will be his cool calm and collected self. The lines have put on the bulk on the offseason. Going into this season I'm as excited as I've ever been about our team. I feel we are the full complete deal poised to make a run. Now we just need to go out and play!
GO DUCKS!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, September 5, 2014
Friday, August 29, 2014
Long Time Fan With High Hopes
I sit here on the eve of the 2014 Ducks football season and I'm very hopeful. The other day Joey Harrington said something like - The Oregon Ducks are one of a handful of teams that have a legitimate shot of running the table and winning it all. They have to play the games, you have to stay healthy, you have to 'show up' and sometimes you even need a lucky bounce or two. But they have a legitimate shot and that's all you can hope for. - It say well with me. Over the last twenty years, even more so the last six we've come to have high expectations for our Ducks. We've been very close to winning the whole thing. I think this team is better than all those teams. Just for comparison I thought we'd look at our current team vs the 2010 team that ran the table and came up a field goal short on the last play of the game.
First and easily the most important is Quarterback
Darron Thomas VS Marcus Mariota
Absolutely no contest. I love Darron, probably brought us the most magical season we've seen. Marcus is arguably the best QB in the country and an early favorite to win the heisman. Barring anything crazy he should be a top 3 pick in the NFL draft next year. Complete dual threat. Darron ran well but lacked any kind of top end speed. Marcus passes smooth and rarely makes mistakes. Find a QB in college with 60+ TD's and I'll show you one with 30 picks. Marcus has 10.
The second group I'm going to look at is the Wide Receiver group
Maehl, Tuinei and Huff VS Stanford, D Allen and Lowe
Obviously the new bunch is untested. Lowe is solid, great blocker and good possession receiver. You'll never hear me say a bad word about Maehl and Huff. The thing I like about the new group is that we have true WR's with burning speed. Huff could stretch the field no doubt. But Allen is literally a National Champion sprinter. I thought Stanford showed great things in his freshman campaign, he was able to learn last year since he had to redshirt. I'm not going to sit here and say this group is better, that remains to be seen. But I'm excited to see these guys, specifically in week 2. If Mich State puts up a good front and bottles up our run game we can turn Mariota loose with his new toys.
Running Backs, let's talk about em
LMJ and Barner VS Marshall, Tyner and Freeman
Let's put it this way, the new group hasn't lost any speed. In fact Tyner is faster. But the 2010 group averaged 182.5 pounds. The new group 218. 36 pounds heavier and the same speed or faster. Boom! LMJ carried the load that year with Barner coming in for relief. This year we have a 1,2 and 3 punch. Not feeling it? Switch. Tired? Switch. Every possession, switch.
The BIG BOYS
In 2010 three of our starters were 290 or under. This year we have one guy at 290, he's the smallest. We also have two clearly headed for the NFL. Grasu may be a first rounder and Fisher should make it somewhere. Grasu and Fisher have also been starting for a while. Both played in the game after the NC game when we went to LSU.
Overall I believe our offense is quite a bit better. We need to prove that against Stanford and Michigan State. Not and easy task. Not that those are the only tough games, just the ones everyone is curious about. UCLA and Washington should be tough this year and you can't overlook OR ST or Arizona.
Defensively is where we need things to get back to the swagger of the 2010 season. Don't know if everyone remembers because our focus is always on the offense but back in 2010 we didn't give up points in the 2nd half. We played quite a few close 1st half games and then just crushed people in the 2nd half. Teams looked exhausted. This is probably where teams have started to catch up to us. We've forced teams to up their conditioning. Changed the game. Remember how many "cramps" teams had that year. We haven't seen that in a while.
D Line
2010 = 261, 270, 272 and 232 The weight of our starters.
2014 = 290, 310, 290 and 250 hehehehe
Many people after the NC game said "where's the beef." Chip set out on increasing the size of the lines and here we are. Over 100 pounds bigger on the D line this year. If we can get these guys to realize their potential this could be a special group.
Linebackers
The size is about the same, Hardrick is a little bigger than the 2010 group, Malone a little smaller. Casey Matthews was a special player. One of those guys born to play LB. A student of the game who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. It would be great if one of our new guys could become that person. Our new group is solid, but they need to become playmakers.
Last but certainly not least the D Backs
Cliff Harris was an exciting playmaker with top end speed. Ifo is a first rounder in the making, a true shut down corner. If I had to choose just one to watch it would probably be Cliff, he was the reason we beat CAL that year. If I had to choose just one to play for me it would be Ifo. Troy Hill vs Talmadge Jackson III is interesting. I'd have to lean toward Hill. But not by much. At the safety position we had another special player. John Boyett is one of my favorite Ducks of all time. Dargan tends to play like him, balls to the wall and a heavy hitter. Dargan has a lot of work to do to get up in the conversation with Boyett. We've heard a lot about Robinson, certainly his size brings something we haven't seen in our DB core, at 6 ft 4 he's a full 5 inches taller than the tallest in 2010. Hopefully that will translate to a couple more interceptions and a few more batted balls!
One of the great things about college football is you always have new players that have to prove themselves. You always have a few unproven things. Will our WR's pan out? Not sure. I think they will. I'm excited for this season.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
First and easily the most important is Quarterback
Darron Thomas VS Marcus Mariota
Absolutely no contest. I love Darron, probably brought us the most magical season we've seen. Marcus is arguably the best QB in the country and an early favorite to win the heisman. Barring anything crazy he should be a top 3 pick in the NFL draft next year. Complete dual threat. Darron ran well but lacked any kind of top end speed. Marcus passes smooth and rarely makes mistakes. Find a QB in college with 60+ TD's and I'll show you one with 30 picks. Marcus has 10.
The second group I'm going to look at is the Wide Receiver group
Maehl, Tuinei and Huff VS Stanford, D Allen and Lowe
Obviously the new bunch is untested. Lowe is solid, great blocker and good possession receiver. You'll never hear me say a bad word about Maehl and Huff. The thing I like about the new group is that we have true WR's with burning speed. Huff could stretch the field no doubt. But Allen is literally a National Champion sprinter. I thought Stanford showed great things in his freshman campaign, he was able to learn last year since he had to redshirt. I'm not going to sit here and say this group is better, that remains to be seen. But I'm excited to see these guys, specifically in week 2. If Mich State puts up a good front and bottles up our run game we can turn Mariota loose with his new toys.
Running Backs, let's talk about em
LMJ and Barner VS Marshall, Tyner and Freeman
Let's put it this way, the new group hasn't lost any speed. In fact Tyner is faster. But the 2010 group averaged 182.5 pounds. The new group 218. 36 pounds heavier and the same speed or faster. Boom! LMJ carried the load that year with Barner coming in for relief. This year we have a 1,2 and 3 punch. Not feeling it? Switch. Tired? Switch. Every possession, switch.
The BIG BOYS
In 2010 three of our starters were 290 or under. This year we have one guy at 290, he's the smallest. We also have two clearly headed for the NFL. Grasu may be a first rounder and Fisher should make it somewhere. Grasu and Fisher have also been starting for a while. Both played in the game after the NC game when we went to LSU.
Overall I believe our offense is quite a bit better. We need to prove that against Stanford and Michigan State. Not and easy task. Not that those are the only tough games, just the ones everyone is curious about. UCLA and Washington should be tough this year and you can't overlook OR ST or Arizona.
Defensively is where we need things to get back to the swagger of the 2010 season. Don't know if everyone remembers because our focus is always on the offense but back in 2010 we didn't give up points in the 2nd half. We played quite a few close 1st half games and then just crushed people in the 2nd half. Teams looked exhausted. This is probably where teams have started to catch up to us. We've forced teams to up their conditioning. Changed the game. Remember how many "cramps" teams had that year. We haven't seen that in a while.
D Line
2010 = 261, 270, 272 and 232 The weight of our starters.
2014 = 290, 310, 290 and 250 hehehehe
Many people after the NC game said "where's the beef." Chip set out on increasing the size of the lines and here we are. Over 100 pounds bigger on the D line this year. If we can get these guys to realize their potential this could be a special group.
Linebackers
The size is about the same, Hardrick is a little bigger than the 2010 group, Malone a little smaller. Casey Matthews was a special player. One of those guys born to play LB. A student of the game who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. It would be great if one of our new guys could become that person. Our new group is solid, but they need to become playmakers.
Last but certainly not least the D Backs
Cliff Harris was an exciting playmaker with top end speed. Ifo is a first rounder in the making, a true shut down corner. If I had to choose just one to watch it would probably be Cliff, he was the reason we beat CAL that year. If I had to choose just one to play for me it would be Ifo. Troy Hill vs Talmadge Jackson III is interesting. I'd have to lean toward Hill. But not by much. At the safety position we had another special player. John Boyett is one of my favorite Ducks of all time. Dargan tends to play like him, balls to the wall and a heavy hitter. Dargan has a lot of work to do to get up in the conversation with Boyett. We've heard a lot about Robinson, certainly his size brings something we haven't seen in our DB core, at 6 ft 4 he's a full 5 inches taller than the tallest in 2010. Hopefully that will translate to a couple more interceptions and a few more batted balls!
One of the great things about college football is you always have new players that have to prove themselves. You always have a few unproven things. Will our WR's pan out? Not sure. I think they will. I'm excited for this season.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Season Opener - Two Weeks Away
The Ducks are back in just over two weeks! Finally!
We open with the Coyotes of South Dakota. In all reality this game should not pose any threat on any level. But still you play the games one at a time and we should have a level of expectation at every position. A sloppy game, even if it is 50-0, will still bring thoughts of disappointments last year. The word out of fall camp is that no corners are being cut, everyone is "present" on all plays. We need to see perfect excecution.
Here's what I want out of this game.
1 - No injuries. For us this is a glorified scrimmage. For them the old "this is their Super Bowl" cliche applies. Any chance to pick off Mariota, get a big sack, cause a fumble, KO a player for the Ducks? They all want a small piece. A story to tell after football is done. We need to play hard every play.
2 - I've been hearing out of camp that DeForrest is "unblockable". Let's see it. If they run, I want it blown up. If the pass, I want a sack. We have a new D-Coordinator and we've been hearing a new attitide. Like him or not Allioti brought us a lot of bend but don't break football over the years. (I did like him by the way!) I wanted to punch the commentators through the TV last year during the Beavers game when they kept insisting our master plan was to let them all the way to the red zone AND THEN shut them down. UGH!
Last year against Nicholls State they had a good drive against us in the first quarter. In my mind that simply cannot happen against our starters. Until we get past our two deep I don't think they should get more than two first downs.
3 - On offense we shouldn't see much more than a quarter and a half out of our starters. In those six drives that will all take under two minutes I want to see damn near perfection. I want to see this focus we've been hearing about, the attention to detail.
In South Dakota we are playing a team that lost by 49 points to North Dakota State. We should be bigger, faster and stronger. We should be better at every single position on the field. Honestly our team should want to win each battle at each position on each play.
I'm not concerned with seeing any one stat or set of stats on offense. When we run I want gaping holes. When we pass I want wide open receivers. I want to see a LASER focus on winning every second of this game.
I also cannot wait to see Royce Freeman. His name seems to come up a ton. NFL.com stated that Oregon had the best 1-2 punch in the country at running back. What if the 3rd guy was better than the 1-2? A tad early to say that but we have some young guys looking to crack into a playing role this year. I'm excited to see the first depth chart and also to find out who's redshirting.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
We open with the Coyotes of South Dakota. In all reality this game should not pose any threat on any level. But still you play the games one at a time and we should have a level of expectation at every position. A sloppy game, even if it is 50-0, will still bring thoughts of disappointments last year. The word out of fall camp is that no corners are being cut, everyone is "present" on all plays. We need to see perfect excecution.
Here's what I want out of this game.
1 - No injuries. For us this is a glorified scrimmage. For them the old "this is their Super Bowl" cliche applies. Any chance to pick off Mariota, get a big sack, cause a fumble, KO a player for the Ducks? They all want a small piece. A story to tell after football is done. We need to play hard every play.
2 - I've been hearing out of camp that DeForrest is "unblockable". Let's see it. If they run, I want it blown up. If the pass, I want a sack. We have a new D-Coordinator and we've been hearing a new attitide. Like him or not Allioti brought us a lot of bend but don't break football over the years. (I did like him by the way!) I wanted to punch the commentators through the TV last year during the Beavers game when they kept insisting our master plan was to let them all the way to the red zone AND THEN shut them down. UGH!
Last year against Nicholls State they had a good drive against us in the first quarter. In my mind that simply cannot happen against our starters. Until we get past our two deep I don't think they should get more than two first downs.
3 - On offense we shouldn't see much more than a quarter and a half out of our starters. In those six drives that will all take under two minutes I want to see damn near perfection. I want to see this focus we've been hearing about, the attention to detail.
In South Dakota we are playing a team that lost by 49 points to North Dakota State. We should be bigger, faster and stronger. We should be better at every single position on the field. Honestly our team should want to win each battle at each position on each play.
I'm not concerned with seeing any one stat or set of stats on offense. When we run I want gaping holes. When we pass I want wide open receivers. I want to see a LASER focus on winning every second of this game.
I also cannot wait to see Royce Freeman. His name seems to come up a ton. NFL.com stated that Oregon had the best 1-2 punch in the country at running back. What if the 3rd guy was better than the 1-2? A tad early to say that but we have some young guys looking to crack into a playing role this year. I'm excited to see the first depth chart and also to find out who's redshirting.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
My issues with DISH NETWORK
I've had 7 months of trouble with DISH, call after call and nothing happened. It is to the point where I have contacted the attorney general of TN. I decided to put some time into recording and make this post to provide video to prove some of the troubles I'm having.
This 1st one is from 4/29. An entire show recorded blank. This is not the normal kind of issue that I have, typically the shows would be just interrupted for a few seconds to 20 seconds. In this on or one of the others I mention "direct tv" but this is all Dish. I'm trying to go back to direct tv where I didn't have any issues.
This next one was the Oregon Spring game, a small blip.
Here is one from May 4. A soccer game that I wasn't recording, just watching. I blipped so I went back, clicked record for a couple minutes just to document.
This is a common one here, they are harder to catch to pull up and record because its not as obvious. May 6th. Just a quick blip but at the 27-28 second mark you can hear the sound blip. (don't know what else to call it.)
Here's one from 5/14. To be fair it was stormy on this day. In my experience nothing to knock out the satellite but it was raining this day.
Here's one from Sunday May 18th.
May 20, Tuesday.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
This 1st one is from 4/29. An entire show recorded blank. This is not the normal kind of issue that I have, typically the shows would be just interrupted for a few seconds to 20 seconds. In this on or one of the others I mention "direct tv" but this is all Dish. I'm trying to go back to direct tv where I didn't have any issues.
This next one was the Oregon Spring game, a small blip.
Here is one from May 4. A soccer game that I wasn't recording, just watching. I blipped so I went back, clicked record for a couple minutes just to document.
This is a common one here, they are harder to catch to pull up and record because its not as obvious. May 6th. Just a quick blip but at the 27-28 second mark you can hear the sound blip. (don't know what else to call it.)
Here's one from 5/14. To be fair it was stormy on this day. In my experience nothing to knock out the satellite but it was raining this day.
Here's one from Sunday May 18th.
May 20, Tuesday.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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