The Expectations of a Duck Fan

Hello all,

Typically I don't write blogs about what just happened.  I write about my predictions and what I like to see out of my team.  Tonight vs Michigan State I've seen all kinds of people posting about how awful our team is.  How this play went bad and how this didn't happen.  This drove me to write.  I'm a part of We All Love The Ducks on Facebook, as well as Blur Offense, Oregon Ducks Football.   I like Dale Newton, Aaron Fentress, Rob Mosely and several others.   I've had the pleasure of being friends via Facebook with several former and current players.

I invite you to read.  I invite you to comment if you do read.

Sorry Duck fans but here are some reality checks.  
- Good teams lose.
- We wont win all our games.
- No matter how good we get, we will give up big plays.
- No matter how good we get, we will get stuff from time to time.

Here's my 1st Observation -   "The Defense SUCKS!"

I've seen this comment over and over.   In week 1 the D had a rough outting.  We didn't tackle well and overall we looked like crap against an FCS team.

Tonight we faced a 1st round draft pick QB in Conner Cook.   This "sucky" defense held a 1st rounder to 20/32 wiht 192 yards.  2 td's and 1 int.  

Tonight we face the #5 team in the country.  A team with a solid run game and gave up 197 yards in 37 carries.  5.3 yards per carry.   BUT!   They had 2 huge plays.  The 1st play of the game went for 62 yards and late in the game a 38 yarder.    2 plays - 100 yards.    That means the other 35 carries went for 97.    Or, less than 3 yards a carry.  

That's NOT f'n bad at all against the #5 team in the country.

Here's my 2nd Observation -   The Oregon Ducks are an Offensive team.

We are.   We are a team that thrives on offense.   We are a team of timing and pace.  We are a team that expects to score points and keep momentum.

We are all that AND we have a QB that has been in the system for 4 weeks.   That is tough no matter how you slice it.  VA showed some huge play abiltiy.  He also showed some missed timing.   our secondary is also young.  They showed some greatness.  They showed some missed timing.   We went from Mariota to VA.    Mariota is like Manning.  He's polished.  He's precise.  He's damn near perfect.    VA is more like Favre.   He's a risk taker, he rolls the dice.  He lives by the big play and he dies by the big play.  

3rd Observations - The Ducks cannot win the big game.

ARGH!   WE've won our fair share of big games over the last few years.   The honest truth is that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.  I'm a grappler.  I'm very strong and stocky.   I have trouble with long tall guys.  It is what it is.  We will always have trouble with teams that have GREAT d lines and a solid run game.   Stanford.   Alabama (who we haven't played).  OH ST.  MI ST.   These are the teams we will struggle with each and every time.  Good teams.  Even great.  Style match ups are a big deal.  Our style suits us very well.   But there are times when we face a team that matches up well with us.

4th Observation -

This was a hard fought game.  The team played well.  Sure, there were some penalties.  Sure, the 5th down VA run was a bad spot.   Sure, we left some points on the board.  

But hey Duck fans.   That happens in big games sometimes.   The defense played well tonight.   Yes, I would have liked 1 more pick.  Yes, I would have loved a 3rd down sack.  Yes, I would have liked a fumble.  Yes, I would have liked for them to hold on the 2 big plays.

We held a TOP 5 team to 389 yards.    AGAIN, 100 yards came on 2 plays.    That's 289 yards on 65 plays.    

Had VA connected with Byron Marshall late in the forth or had we scored on the goal line in the 1st half we'd be cheering and MI ST would be talking about how their special teams didn't hold Bralyon on that punt.  And how they didn't stop a few big plays.

This is a game of inches.  Ask anyone who played the game.  Don't be ashamed or upset at this loss.  We played a solid team on the road and came up 3 points short.