Phew, what a week! It would seem as though the Ducks lost 30% of their fans this week. People asking to fire the coaching staff, kick Vernon Adams out of school, burn Phil Knight at the stake??? YIKES.
Even I was accused of being a fair weather fan. The guy who wore his Duck gear in SEC country two days after the LaGarette punch heard round the world. The guy with two Duck tattoo's. As I was out in public in SEC country watching the game with some friends I posted to my Facebook "the wheels have come off."
The definition of a fair weather fan is someone who supports their team only when they play well. Or win. I rooted for the Ducks in the 80's. I routed for them in the 90's. The 00's and I'm not going anywhere now. I don't believe speaking about what is going on during a game is being a fair weather fan. Part of the fun of being a fan is talking about the x's and o's with other fans. The good things and the bad things. Just because I say our secondary is young and getting worked this year doesn't mean I don't cheer for those young men. I didn't leave the bar early on Saturday, I watched the whole thing.
But enough about that. Let's get to my 5 things I want to see.
#1 - Please win. I thought last weeks game would be a tone setter. Specifically I said it could be good or bad. The game got away from us and it set a pretty bad tone. Now it's time for me to hope I was incorrect and that the tone can be reset this week.
#2 - Defensive wins. Even small wins. A sack. A tackle for loss. A pick. A fumble. I'd even settle for some good 1 on 1 open field tackles.
#3 - Offensive line play. We have a beast of a running back and we can't seem to get him engaged in a big way in these games. 14 Carries against Utah. I'd like to see him get the ball more.
#4 - Taj Griffin. I know he's just a true frosh but that kid is electric. I really think he will be a HUGE playmaker for us over his career.
#5 - Solid QB play. Short passes. WR screens. Quick outs. Get the ball to our playmakers in space.
That's my wish list.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Thursday, September 24, 2015
The Ducks vs The Youths the what? OH, the Utes.
Saturday night I have this feeling I'll be on the edge of my seat. Will we be able to effectively run against that stout D? Which D on our side will show up? The one that chooses a reciever and lets them break Autzen records or the one that looks extremely solid against a Top 5 team with a QB headed for the NFL? Who will play at QB?
As always, here are the 5 things I would like to see
1 - Win. When we're playing fluff teams I have high expectations of shutting things down, no missed tackles. I'm looking for a well oiled machine that never slips up. Make no mistake about it, this is a tough game and in my opinion it could set up or destroy the entire season. Sound dramatic? I don't think so. Last year against a fired up Utah team we are down 7-0 and getting dominated for the entire 1st QTR. Begining of the 2nd QTR a huge pass and a touchdown for Utah. Ugh, the wheels are coming off, on the road down 14-0 and looking like..... Huh???? Why is there a group of Ducks running down the sideline. Instead of 14-0 it's 7-7 and what a momentum change. I think if Clay doesn't drop the ball on the 1 yard line we lose that game. So much momentum. We've been choppy this year. Up, down. Look great at times, look off at times. A great performance could be a confidence booster, a couple of lousy plays early could be a confidence killer.
2 - I should just say "win" again. But let's get into this thing. I would like to see solid QB play regardless of who starts. Based on the limited amount we've seen I think it will be Vernon. The coaches get to see a lot more than we do and they're a lot smarter in evaluating things so I'll leave that up to them. Vernon has had a limited playbook which is a hinderance to the run game, we're hearing he has more of it down now.
3 - Royce Freeman - Unleash the beast. Royce has looked phenominal agasint the two teams he should look phenominal against. In the MI ST game he carried for 3.8 yards per attempt. Respectable against that stout D. But 3.8 yards per carry would be GREAT if there were 1-2 big plays mixed in. For comparisson, Madre Landon of MI ST ran for jsut over 2 yards a carry if you don't count the 1 for 62 yards. We don't remember the 17 plays he got virtually nothing. We remember the long one. His counterpart ran for about 3 per carry if you don't count the 38 yarder. That MI ST game is a lot differnt had Royce busted a run for 50+ at some point. This game could come down to Royce VS DeVontae - who can break a big one.
4 - Tackling. We've been harping on this for 3 weeks. Our secondary is young and I'm sure at the high school level they were used to just flying in and manhanlding guys. At this level we need sound fundamentals. Break down at the hip level, wrap up and drive thru the ball carrier.
5 - Continue the big play magic on the D. The D has been beat up by the fans this year. Some of that has been earned - tackling! Some of that has not - fire everyone and kick all of them out of school! The great thing about our D is they do make some big plays. If we sure up the fundamentals and continue to provide a spark at key times I think we can do some damage this year.
As always, here are the 5 things I would like to see
1 - Win. When we're playing fluff teams I have high expectations of shutting things down, no missed tackles. I'm looking for a well oiled machine that never slips up. Make no mistake about it, this is a tough game and in my opinion it could set up or destroy the entire season. Sound dramatic? I don't think so. Last year against a fired up Utah team we are down 7-0 and getting dominated for the entire 1st QTR. Begining of the 2nd QTR a huge pass and a touchdown for Utah. Ugh, the wheels are coming off, on the road down 14-0 and looking like..... Huh???? Why is there a group of Ducks running down the sideline. Instead of 14-0 it's 7-7 and what a momentum change. I think if Clay doesn't drop the ball on the 1 yard line we lose that game. So much momentum. We've been choppy this year. Up, down. Look great at times, look off at times. A great performance could be a confidence booster, a couple of lousy plays early could be a confidence killer.
2 - I should just say "win" again. But let's get into this thing. I would like to see solid QB play regardless of who starts. Based on the limited amount we've seen I think it will be Vernon. The coaches get to see a lot more than we do and they're a lot smarter in evaluating things so I'll leave that up to them. Vernon has had a limited playbook which is a hinderance to the run game, we're hearing he has more of it down now.
3 - Royce Freeman - Unleash the beast. Royce has looked phenominal agasint the two teams he should look phenominal against. In the MI ST game he carried for 3.8 yards per attempt. Respectable against that stout D. But 3.8 yards per carry would be GREAT if there were 1-2 big plays mixed in. For comparisson, Madre Landon of MI ST ran for jsut over 2 yards a carry if you don't count the 1 for 62 yards. We don't remember the 17 plays he got virtually nothing. We remember the long one. His counterpart ran for about 3 per carry if you don't count the 38 yarder. That MI ST game is a lot differnt had Royce busted a run for 50+ at some point. This game could come down to Royce VS DeVontae - who can break a big one.
4 - Tackling. We've been harping on this for 3 weeks. Our secondary is young and I'm sure at the high school level they were used to just flying in and manhanlding guys. At this level we need sound fundamentals. Break down at the hip level, wrap up and drive thru the ball carrier.
5 - Continue the big play magic on the D. The D has been beat up by the fans this year. Some of that has been earned - tackling! Some of that has not - fire everyone and kick all of them out of school! The great thing about our D is they do make some big plays. If we sure up the fundamentals and continue to provide a spark at key times I think we can do some damage this year.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
The Ducks vs the..... I don't even know what GA ST is?
This week the Ducks come off a tough and close loss to Michigan State. The defense, outside of a couple big plays, looked much better than during our opener. Tackling looked shady at times but overall a much better performance vs a much better opponent.
Here are my 5 things I'm looking for this week.
#1 - Someone on the D line to blow something up. Looking at you DeFo! Buckner is prejected as a top pick in the draft. I wanted him to completely blow something up on a couple plays vs E. Washington. Shouldn't a top pick be able to blow up a play or two against this level of competition? Once or twice just flatten the tackle and get a sack? Or even just flat beat a double team and get a sack? If not DeFo someone like French? Prevot? Canton?
#2 - Secondary. We showed much improvement agasinst Michigan State. After Kupp ran a muck and broke nearly every Autzen record a WR could hold the big fear going into last week was that Conner Cook would throw for 400 yards and 5 TD's. Of course that didn't happen. This week Coach Neal admitted that he didn't use a full rotation for fear that the young guys would make a mistake. This week against this opponent we need everyone out there. The Panthers don't post any real threat to us. Then again, E. Washington shouldn't either. Northern Iowa held Kupp to less yards, catches and TD's than we did. They aren't even a top 10 ranked team in the FCS.
#3 - I want to see the team play up. What I mean by this is that I want to see the team play our game regardless of who the opponent is. I want a little business mixed in. Not playing down to our opponent. I don't want to see a let down because we expect to win. This game should look 100% over about 10 minutes in.
#4 - Last week Braylon busted a big play and looked like his old self, GREAT to see. This week I'd like to see Devon Allen bust a big one and put that world class speed on display. It was good to see glimpses of him on the field. I want to see him on full display.
#5 - I'd like to see a few more runs by Taj G. I know he's behind a strong stable of backs. I don't have anything against Kani or TBJ, but I just have had this feeling that when Taj is back to full speed he's going to look more like then next great small playmaker. Again, I think Kani and TBJ are good. I think Taj will be that guy that makes us go....."whoa, did you just see that?"
This should be a total blow out. I'm going with 60 - 10 for our Ducks.
Please feel free to comment. Agree, disagree. It's all good.
Here are my 5 things I'm looking for this week.
#1 - Someone on the D line to blow something up. Looking at you DeFo! Buckner is prejected as a top pick in the draft. I wanted him to completely blow something up on a couple plays vs E. Washington. Shouldn't a top pick be able to blow up a play or two against this level of competition? Once or twice just flatten the tackle and get a sack? Or even just flat beat a double team and get a sack? If not DeFo someone like French? Prevot? Canton?
#2 - Secondary. We showed much improvement agasinst Michigan State. After Kupp ran a muck and broke nearly every Autzen record a WR could hold the big fear going into last week was that Conner Cook would throw for 400 yards and 5 TD's. Of course that didn't happen. This week Coach Neal admitted that he didn't use a full rotation for fear that the young guys would make a mistake. This week against this opponent we need everyone out there. The Panthers don't post any real threat to us. Then again, E. Washington shouldn't either. Northern Iowa held Kupp to less yards, catches and TD's than we did. They aren't even a top 10 ranked team in the FCS.
#3 - I want to see the team play up. What I mean by this is that I want to see the team play our game regardless of who the opponent is. I want a little business mixed in. Not playing down to our opponent. I don't want to see a let down because we expect to win. This game should look 100% over about 10 minutes in.
#4 - Last week Braylon busted a big play and looked like his old self, GREAT to see. This week I'd like to see Devon Allen bust a big one and put that world class speed on display. It was good to see glimpses of him on the field. I want to see him on full display.
#5 - I'd like to see a few more runs by Taj G. I know he's behind a strong stable of backs. I don't have anything against Kani or TBJ, but I just have had this feeling that when Taj is back to full speed he's going to look more like then next great small playmaker. Again, I think Kani and TBJ are good. I think Taj will be that guy that makes us go....."whoa, did you just see that?"
This should be a total blow out. I'm going with 60 - 10 for our Ducks.
Please feel free to comment. Agree, disagree. It's all good.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
#7 Oregon at #5 Michigan State
The winner of this game boosts their potential for a playoff run. Either team will still have a ton of games to play and a log hard season in front of them, but this is one of the top games of the year. Probably the best out of conference game. Last year the game against Michigan State meant that we were not in the 1 loss conversation.
Last week both Michigan State and Oregon looked suspect as a top 10 team in certain aspects. Oregon's young secondary struggled against the passing attack of an FCS school. Good news is our secondary is young and the optimist in me says they were just a little shell shocked, everything will be back to normal this week! The pessimist in me will have my cheeks puckered until we make some open field tackles and break up a pass or two. Expect Michigane State to be settled in as well, they have a solid D that didn't play to their liking.
Here's what I'm looking for this week.
#1 - More Vernon Adams. He ran the offense great, I love the way he throws the deep ball our for people to make a play. Six foot five inch Dwayne Stanfor has to be loving those jump balls.
#2 - The D line needs to get to the QB. We ran a pretty vanilla defense, expect to see some stunts this week. But Buckner is supposed to be our blue chip top 10 NFL pick. Sometimes I'd like to see him just blow up the tackle and get after the QB. Maybe even through a double team. hoping to see Canton out there as well.
#3 - Rolls Royce Freeman. I saw a lot of people griping that his 180 yards and 3 TD's didn't get much attention. He has a big nasty #5 team to chew up this week. Looking for him to continue his success.
#4 - Addison had a pretty quiet return to football off his injurty. 3 catches, 24 yards and a TD. Want to see him break one this week.
#5 - The new O line. This week will be a test of the o line minus Grasu and Fisher. If they can get Royce to the next level our offense has a great night.
I do believe we go into the Spartan back yard and pull our a victory. We'll have to tackle better than we did last week. I'm picking a 52 - 28 game. I think the D makes some adjustments and improvements as well as picks up some turnovers due to having such a rough outting last week.
Last week both Michigan State and Oregon looked suspect as a top 10 team in certain aspects. Oregon's young secondary struggled against the passing attack of an FCS school. Good news is our secondary is young and the optimist in me says they were just a little shell shocked, everything will be back to normal this week! The pessimist in me will have my cheeks puckered until we make some open field tackles and break up a pass or two. Expect Michigane State to be settled in as well, they have a solid D that didn't play to their liking.
Here's what I'm looking for this week.
#1 - More Vernon Adams. He ran the offense great, I love the way he throws the deep ball our for people to make a play. Six foot five inch Dwayne Stanfor has to be loving those jump balls.
#2 - The D line needs to get to the QB. We ran a pretty vanilla defense, expect to see some stunts this week. But Buckner is supposed to be our blue chip top 10 NFL pick. Sometimes I'd like to see him just blow up the tackle and get after the QB. Maybe even through a double team. hoping to see Canton out there as well.
#3 - Rolls Royce Freeman. I saw a lot of people griping that his 180 yards and 3 TD's didn't get much attention. He has a big nasty #5 team to chew up this week. Looking for him to continue his success.
#4 - Addison had a pretty quiet return to football off his injurty. 3 catches, 24 yards and a TD. Want to see him break one this week.
#5 - The new O line. This week will be a test of the o line minus Grasu and Fisher. If they can get Royce to the next level our offense has a great night.
I do believe we go into the Spartan back yard and pull our a victory. We'll have to tackle better than we did last week. I'm picking a 52 - 28 game. I think the D makes some adjustments and improvements as well as picks up some turnovers due to having such a rough outting last week.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Oregon Ducks VS Eastern Washington
We're all ready for some football! Saturday evening we get the chance to see our 1st game without the GREAT Marcus Mariota. Here are 5 things I'm wanting to see out of this game.
Now, I've read a few articles on this game, about how EWU will be fired up to play us, about how they are top ranked FCS school, about how their offense will move the ball about how they almost beat the Husky's and the beat the Beavs.
Sorry but that doesn't fly with me. An FCS team shouldn't be tough for us. They shouldn't move the ball on us. We are not the Husky's or the Beavs. We are the Pac Champs, favorite in some cases to get back to the playoff.
Last year in the opener S Dakota rushed for 1, 6, 4 and 3 on their 1st drive. Resulting in a FG. They had a couple of 12 yard runs in the 1st half. If we want to be in the playoff and compete our D has to completely shut down the run game of an FCS team. Maybe someone breaks a big one on a great effort, but outside of that we need to dominate the line. I don't want to see an FCS school's top 3 rushers go 28 carries for 156 yards. No ifs ands or butts. The S Dakota game ended 62-13 so it isn't like we did bad. But if South Dakota can rush for 4.4 yards a carry on us and Sean Wick from WY can rush for 122 yards on 16 carries than Ezekiel Elliot can slash us. I don't want to see the bend but don't break against this team.
When OH ST played Kent State last year there were 23 carries for 46 yards. When BAMA played FAU they rushed for 57 yards on 24 carries. When TCU played Samford they rushed for 87 yards on 47 carries. THAT is the type of performance I want to see our front 7 put up.
OK, let me slide off my soap box now.
#1 - Shut down the run game. Completely. I want 0 net yards in the 1st half.
We have a brand new backfield on D. If EWU gets a little momentum on our young guys I don't have a lot of heartburn. But I don't want to see sustained drives. Our D line needs to get to the QB.
On Offense I'm ready to see Vernon run the O. Let's see how he runs the read option at speed for sustained drives. I'd like to see them mix in a lot of throws from short to mid range to long.
#2 - How quickly can VA pick up the O and how much of it does he know?
#3 - Just like on the D line, I want to see the O line opening up holes that my grandmother could run through. Blowing people off the line.
#4 - Braylon Addison! So glad he's back. Is he back fully? Interesting that he is listed in the second spot behind Stanford. Has he lost a step? Is he in his own head? Did Stanford just up his game that much?
#5 - Replacing Pharoah Brown. I'm still hoping for a full and complete recovery and we'll see brown out there doing his thing. But in the mean time will Mundt or Bayliss step up and fully live up to their potential. Each of them have showed flashes, but nothing sustained.
All in all I expect this to be a glorified scrimmage, we should dominate every aspect. Not only in the final score but in every aspect.
As a bonus I'm really looking forward to true freshman Fotu Leito. If you haven't seen his highlight video please take a look on the side bar. The word is during practice that if Fotu's running down to cover a kick everyone stopped to watch.
Please do leave comments, feel free to agree, disagree or add your own wish list of things you want to see.
Now, I've read a few articles on this game, about how EWU will be fired up to play us, about how they are top ranked FCS school, about how their offense will move the ball about how they almost beat the Husky's and the beat the Beavs.
Sorry but that doesn't fly with me. An FCS team shouldn't be tough for us. They shouldn't move the ball on us. We are not the Husky's or the Beavs. We are the Pac Champs, favorite in some cases to get back to the playoff.
Last year in the opener S Dakota rushed for 1, 6, 4 and 3 on their 1st drive. Resulting in a FG. They had a couple of 12 yard runs in the 1st half. If we want to be in the playoff and compete our D has to completely shut down the run game of an FCS team. Maybe someone breaks a big one on a great effort, but outside of that we need to dominate the line. I don't want to see an FCS school's top 3 rushers go 28 carries for 156 yards. No ifs ands or butts. The S Dakota game ended 62-13 so it isn't like we did bad. But if South Dakota can rush for 4.4 yards a carry on us and Sean Wick from WY can rush for 122 yards on 16 carries than Ezekiel Elliot can slash us. I don't want to see the bend but don't break against this team.
When OH ST played Kent State last year there were 23 carries for 46 yards. When BAMA played FAU they rushed for 57 yards on 24 carries. When TCU played Samford they rushed for 87 yards on 47 carries. THAT is the type of performance I want to see our front 7 put up.
OK, let me slide off my soap box now.
#1 - Shut down the run game. Completely. I want 0 net yards in the 1st half.
We have a brand new backfield on D. If EWU gets a little momentum on our young guys I don't have a lot of heartburn. But I don't want to see sustained drives. Our D line needs to get to the QB.
On Offense I'm ready to see Vernon run the O. Let's see how he runs the read option at speed for sustained drives. I'd like to see them mix in a lot of throws from short to mid range to long.
#2 - How quickly can VA pick up the O and how much of it does he know?
#3 - Just like on the D line, I want to see the O line opening up holes that my grandmother could run through. Blowing people off the line.
#4 - Braylon Addison! So glad he's back. Is he back fully? Interesting that he is listed in the second spot behind Stanford. Has he lost a step? Is he in his own head? Did Stanford just up his game that much?
#5 - Replacing Pharoah Brown. I'm still hoping for a full and complete recovery and we'll see brown out there doing his thing. But in the mean time will Mundt or Bayliss step up and fully live up to their potential. Each of them have showed flashes, but nothing sustained.
All in all I expect this to be a glorified scrimmage, we should dominate every aspect. Not only in the final score but in every aspect.
As a bonus I'm really looking forward to true freshman Fotu Leito. If you haven't seen his highlight video please take a look on the side bar. The word is during practice that if Fotu's running down to cover a kick everyone stopped to watch.
Please do leave comments, feel free to agree, disagree or add your own wish list of things you want to see.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Oregon VS Michigan State
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
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, 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
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
It is time for the big one!
Unless you listen to a bunch of ESPN, then this is about the 5th big one. Virginia's ACC sized O line was our 1st test. Then the TN Vols with their NFL bound O and D lines were our 1st test. Then we had to get tested by the Washington Huskies, their improved D and that was followed by our 1st real test against UCLA and a Heisman QB.
Yup, 5th 1st test of the year.
I'm extremely optimistic for this game. Here's why -
Currently the Ducks are averaging 55.6 to 16.9. Pretty solid.
Now think about this, the Ducks haven't put together a complete game yet. We've left points on the board and given up easy points nearly every week.
Case in point, UCLA. The 14 points they scored came on drives of 31 and 29 after turnovers. Fumbled inside the 10 and missed a FG. Four simple mistakes that turn the 28 point win into a 52 point win. Obviously someone could probably take any game and any team, identify a few things and come up with a 3-5 TD swing. If only we always perfect!!! My thought process is that our boys are fully capable of coming out and playing a solid game start to finish. And, I believe that Thursday night will be the night that we tighten up.
I think the difference in this game is our passing game. A passing game which is much improved over last year. Our receivers have been playing terrific this year. I'd like to say a play over the middle to our TE early, give everyone a reminder that Johnny Mundt tore TN a new one. Then get the speedsters Huff and Addison involved. I think Marcus is well over 300 and multiple touch downs in this game.
I think the run game does what it does. Stanford does have a solid D, I think they will slow us but not stop us. I, like many of my fine feathered friends, believe that DAT should not be a full time running back. I'm not going to tell him what he can or cannot do. But I would LOVE to see Marshall in the backfield with DAT, Huff and Addison split wide. Are you kidding me??? Marshall has been doing an excellent job running. He's been killing it. Tyner is explosive in relief. Speedsters with more size than we are used to. If we do see a full time return of DAT I hope we use him in tandem with the goal of getting him in space.
Scott Frost said we were going to show them some new looks. I remembering the National Championship game when we worked in some extra running backs. Moving people around. We could have 3-4 guys on the field at a time that have run the ball. Marshall motions out wide, DAT lines up. DAT in the backfield with Huff motioning around as a triple option guy. Shift to the Spin T with DAT, Addison and Marshall in the backfield! OK, maybe not the Spin T.
Our defense has had a great year. Always interesting that they do it so quietly since our offense gets all the press. After giving up a ton of passing yards to Wazzu they shut down UCLA and held them to 64 passing yards. The linebackers are playing smart solid football. I swear I get to the end of the game thinking that they haven't made any plays only to find out they've been making all the tackles. I love our D-Line. Size that we've never seen, we were supposed to be pushed around by Virginia and by Tennessee. NOPE!
Last but certainly not least - Coach Helfrich. I'm so pleased with this season. The WA and UCLA games show that we may be better at halftime adjustments than we were. I'm also very pleased that we are not as stubborn as we were under Chip. Don't get me wrong, love Chip to death. But I think we've found a long term coach that can be extremely successful for a long period of time.
I don't think there is anyway the guys don't show up for this game. The coaching staff will have them prepared and fired up! I think this game shows the football world that we will not be overlooked for the likes of Jameis Winston.
I'm calling this in the ball park of 56 - 14. A bold prediction that I normally don't do. I think this game makes the country go "whoa".
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Yup, 5th 1st test of the year.
I'm extremely optimistic for this game. Here's why -
Currently the Ducks are averaging 55.6 to 16.9. Pretty solid.
Now think about this, the Ducks haven't put together a complete game yet. We've left points on the board and given up easy points nearly every week.
Case in point, UCLA. The 14 points they scored came on drives of 31 and 29 after turnovers. Fumbled inside the 10 and missed a FG. Four simple mistakes that turn the 28 point win into a 52 point win. Obviously someone could probably take any game and any team, identify a few things and come up with a 3-5 TD swing. If only we always perfect!!! My thought process is that our boys are fully capable of coming out and playing a solid game start to finish. And, I believe that Thursday night will be the night that we tighten up.
I think the difference in this game is our passing game. A passing game which is much improved over last year. Our receivers have been playing terrific this year. I'd like to say a play over the middle to our TE early, give everyone a reminder that Johnny Mundt tore TN a new one. Then get the speedsters Huff and Addison involved. I think Marcus is well over 300 and multiple touch downs in this game.
I think the run game does what it does. Stanford does have a solid D, I think they will slow us but not stop us. I, like many of my fine feathered friends, believe that DAT should not be a full time running back. I'm not going to tell him what he can or cannot do. But I would LOVE to see Marshall in the backfield with DAT, Huff and Addison split wide. Are you kidding me??? Marshall has been doing an excellent job running. He's been killing it. Tyner is explosive in relief. Speedsters with more size than we are used to. If we do see a full time return of DAT I hope we use him in tandem with the goal of getting him in space.
Scott Frost said we were going to show them some new looks. I remembering the National Championship game when we worked in some extra running backs. Moving people around. We could have 3-4 guys on the field at a time that have run the ball. Marshall motions out wide, DAT lines up. DAT in the backfield with Huff motioning around as a triple option guy. Shift to the Spin T with DAT, Addison and Marshall in the backfield! OK, maybe not the Spin T.
Our defense has had a great year. Always interesting that they do it so quietly since our offense gets all the press. After giving up a ton of passing yards to Wazzu they shut down UCLA and held them to 64 passing yards. The linebackers are playing smart solid football. I swear I get to the end of the game thinking that they haven't made any plays only to find out they've been making all the tackles. I love our D-Line. Size that we've never seen, we were supposed to be pushed around by Virginia and by Tennessee. NOPE!
Last but certainly not least - Coach Helfrich. I'm so pleased with this season. The WA and UCLA games show that we may be better at halftime adjustments than we were. I'm also very pleased that we are not as stubborn as we were under Chip. Don't get me wrong, love Chip to death. But I think we've found a long term coach that can be extremely successful for a long period of time.
I don't think there is anyway the guys don't show up for this game. The coaching staff will have them prepared and fired up! I think this game shows the football world that we will not be overlooked for the likes of Jameis Winston.
I'm calling this in the ball park of 56 - 14. A bold prediction that I normally don't do. I think this game makes the country go "whoa".
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, October 21, 2013
Our turn to make a statement!
Last week College Game Day rolled into Clemson and Florida State took full advantage of that situation. To say they made a statement is an understatement. They put everyone on notice that they are legit. They dominated every aspect of the game from start to finish. They played their biggest game on the biggest stage.
This week, its our turn. Game Day is rolling into Eugene and we have a ranked opponent on the biggest stage. The Ducks have been no stranger to playing big games on a big stage. A trip to Michigan put everyone on notice that Dennis Dixon and his Ducks were for real. Many Duck fans recall that game as one of the best wins in program history.
In 2010 Oregon became an AP #1 team for the first time ever. UCLA was in town on that weekend and we dominated start to finish. The game is also significant because despite the #1 AP we were slighted by the BCS and ranked #2 behind Oklahoma. That game ended 60-13 (UCLA scoring a TD with under 2 minutes in the 4th QTR still using their starters against our back ups). As usual the Ducks were known for their offense but on that night our defense held UCLA 2.8 yards per carry. 290 yards on 70 plays. Darron completed 22 passes for 308 yards while the ground game racked up 270 yards on 40 carries.
This is the kind of show we need to put on for the Game Day audience this weekend. Complete and total domination. The kind of show we put on in the 1st half against Arizona State last year, 6 touchdowns in just over 15 minutes before Chip took the foot off the gas pedal. We are capable of putting up points quick. We need a great performance on both sides of the ball. A signature win that puts the Washington game to shame. Fast and furious pace on offense putting up full game numbers by midway through the 2nd QTR. A defense that puts Hundley on the run from bell to bell. Scoring on offense, defense and special teams.
Marcus Mariota completing each of his 1st 15 passes for over 300 yards.
DeAnthony Thomas getting well over 100 yards on just a handful of carries.
A game that quite simply makes every person watching say "whoa".
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This week, its our turn. Game Day is rolling into Eugene and we have a ranked opponent on the biggest stage. The Ducks have been no stranger to playing big games on a big stage. A trip to Michigan put everyone on notice that Dennis Dixon and his Ducks were for real. Many Duck fans recall that game as one of the best wins in program history.
In 2010 Oregon became an AP #1 team for the first time ever. UCLA was in town on that weekend and we dominated start to finish. The game is also significant because despite the #1 AP we were slighted by the BCS and ranked #2 behind Oklahoma. That game ended 60-13 (UCLA scoring a TD with under 2 minutes in the 4th QTR still using their starters against our back ups). As usual the Ducks were known for their offense but on that night our defense held UCLA 2.8 yards per carry. 290 yards on 70 plays. Darron completed 22 passes for 308 yards while the ground game racked up 270 yards on 40 carries.
This is the kind of show we need to put on for the Game Day audience this weekend. Complete and total domination. The kind of show we put on in the 1st half against Arizona State last year, 6 touchdowns in just over 15 minutes before Chip took the foot off the gas pedal. We are capable of putting up points quick. We need a great performance on both sides of the ball. A signature win that puts the Washington game to shame. Fast and furious pace on offense putting up full game numbers by midway through the 2nd QTR. A defense that puts Hundley on the run from bell to bell. Scoring on offense, defense and special teams.
Marcus Mariota completing each of his 1st 15 passes for over 300 yards.
DeAnthony Thomas getting well over 100 yards on just a handful of carries.
A game that quite simply makes every person watching say "whoa".
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Friday, October 11, 2013
HUCK the Fuskies!!!
It is that time of year. This year, I'm nervous. We ARE the better team, we shouldn't have too much trouble with the Fuskies but we've been starting slow this year and that worries me a little. Letting the mighty Volenteers or the Buffaloes jump out a TD or even two is fine, being behind a little to a team you are leaps and bounds better than is fairly easy to overcome. But the Fuskies are a pretty game opponent. Much improved over years past and just itching to reverse the last 9 years of misery. The crowd will also be crazy if they jump up early. This is the longest win streak for either side and we know it. So much talk from the fans about the National Championship game and Alabama.....Let's do our job on Saturday, then the next and the next. If we do that the National Championship will be here soon enough. The team seems squarely focused on the task at hand despite the distraction of Colt Lyerla.
I'm fairly disappointed in the outcome of Colt's tenure with the school. Obviously I don't "KNOW" what is going on but there just seems to be a need for someone older and wiser to step into his life and have a long talk with him. I absolutely LOVE watching Colt play. Love watching him block, catch, run and holy crap do I love to see him stiff arm. I hope he straightens out whatever needs straightening out, gets to the NFL and tears it up. Whoever he plays for and where ever he goes I will be a fan of the player that is Colt Lyerla. And that's all I have to say about that!
On to the Fuskies!
We can't sputter around at the start of this game. I also haven't heard a final word on DAT. Would love to have him but ultimately he needs to get better and if he can't go he shouldn't.
Marcus Mariota - I'm looking for a solid game start to finish. Marcus is playing well this year. He completion % is down but I think he's making some wise 'throw the ball away' decisions. The second De'Anthony went down I felt like he had somewhat of a red light when it comes to running the ball. A couple of early runs could provide a couple extra inches for Byron and Tyner to break some big ones.
Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner - Last year Byron ran better. Plain and simple. He ran with aggression and a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. That has been missing this year and I want it back. If DAT is out he will carry the load and against a better team like Washington he can't be indecisive in the hole. He had a couple of very good patience runs against Colorado, but when he just needs get up in there he's a tad behind. Thomas on the other hand is lightning out there. He's been running a ton up the middle I wish they would create 4-5 plays with the sole intention of getting him the ball on the edge, the same way they did with DAT his freshman year. Remember the Jet Sweep in the Rose Bowl? Something like that!
In comes Johnny Mundt! Also Pharoah Brown! Next man up. Oregon has a tradition of turning out GREAT TE's. We also have a tradition of underutilizing them. It is so crazy because we have a ton of weapons, so I fully understand that quite often there are just not enough plays to go around. On 3rd downs I feel like the Mundt/Brown in the middle of the field should be a pretty go to move. Both those guys create a mismatch on nearly every linebacker in the country.
I think I'll get exactly what I want to see out of the wide recievers. What a consistent year they've been having. Perfect? Nope. But their effort is ridiculous. The downfield blocking is such an asset. Huff's play last week dragging people around...are you kidding me? Braylon has been making huge plays and guys like Keanon and Hawk are just solid players. We've had some penalties and some drops this year but I'm very proud of that group.
The end of this game being close or a blowout is in the defenses hands this week. Our offense is going to score, a lot. This is the 1st big test of the defense. Washington has a pretty damn good running back, a solid QB and probably the best TE in the country. (a few days ago I would have said 2nd best) Our D line and LB crew need to keep the running game shut down like they have all year. When you look at the average yards per carry against our D this year it is easy to see how great they are playing. Realize that this is a step up in competition, to hold the Fuskies to 3-4 yards a carry would send a huge message. Sankey carried the ball 27 times for 125 yards against Stanford's defense. 4.6 yards per carry. I'd love to see our guys hold him to 4 or less. Sankey did have 1 run for 30 yards to 26 times they held him very good. Price threw all over Stanford, 33 of 48 and 350 yards. I think our defensive backfield can do much better than that, and pick him off more than 1 time!
Jump out on them like last year and I think we coast fairly easy to a 55-24 win on the road. A nice day for a GameDay crowd! Let them jump on us int he first 5 minutes and I think it could be a back and forth long hard fight.
Since I'm an optimistic kind of guy I'm sticking with the 55 - 24. I don't know if my heart can take a close game. :)
Predictions -
Marcus throws for over 300 yards and runs for over 100.
Oregon scores over 50 for the 6th straight game!
Byron makes a HUGE play. I'm talking busted tackles and end zone. One that makes everyones top 10 plays of the week.
The defense stands tall and plays a little shut down D against Bishop Sankey and the Washington run game.
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I'm fairly disappointed in the outcome of Colt's tenure with the school. Obviously I don't "KNOW" what is going on but there just seems to be a need for someone older and wiser to step into his life and have a long talk with him. I absolutely LOVE watching Colt play. Love watching him block, catch, run and holy crap do I love to see him stiff arm. I hope he straightens out whatever needs straightening out, gets to the NFL and tears it up. Whoever he plays for and where ever he goes I will be a fan of the player that is Colt Lyerla. And that's all I have to say about that!
On to the Fuskies!
We can't sputter around at the start of this game. I also haven't heard a final word on DAT. Would love to have him but ultimately he needs to get better and if he can't go he shouldn't.
Marcus Mariota - I'm looking for a solid game start to finish. Marcus is playing well this year. He completion % is down but I think he's making some wise 'throw the ball away' decisions. The second De'Anthony went down I felt like he had somewhat of a red light when it comes to running the ball. A couple of early runs could provide a couple extra inches for Byron and Tyner to break some big ones.
Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner - Last year Byron ran better. Plain and simple. He ran with aggression and a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. That has been missing this year and I want it back. If DAT is out he will carry the load and against a better team like Washington he can't be indecisive in the hole. He had a couple of very good patience runs against Colorado, but when he just needs get up in there he's a tad behind. Thomas on the other hand is lightning out there. He's been running a ton up the middle I wish they would create 4-5 plays with the sole intention of getting him the ball on the edge, the same way they did with DAT his freshman year. Remember the Jet Sweep in the Rose Bowl? Something like that!
In comes Johnny Mundt! Also Pharoah Brown! Next man up. Oregon has a tradition of turning out GREAT TE's. We also have a tradition of underutilizing them. It is so crazy because we have a ton of weapons, so I fully understand that quite often there are just not enough plays to go around. On 3rd downs I feel like the Mundt/Brown in the middle of the field should be a pretty go to move. Both those guys create a mismatch on nearly every linebacker in the country.
I think I'll get exactly what I want to see out of the wide recievers. What a consistent year they've been having. Perfect? Nope. But their effort is ridiculous. The downfield blocking is such an asset. Huff's play last week dragging people around...are you kidding me? Braylon has been making huge plays and guys like Keanon and Hawk are just solid players. We've had some penalties and some drops this year but I'm very proud of that group.
The end of this game being close or a blowout is in the defenses hands this week. Our offense is going to score, a lot. This is the 1st big test of the defense. Washington has a pretty damn good running back, a solid QB and probably the best TE in the country. (a few days ago I would have said 2nd best) Our D line and LB crew need to keep the running game shut down like they have all year. When you look at the average yards per carry against our D this year it is easy to see how great they are playing. Realize that this is a step up in competition, to hold the Fuskies to 3-4 yards a carry would send a huge message. Sankey carried the ball 27 times for 125 yards against Stanford's defense. 4.6 yards per carry. I'd love to see our guys hold him to 4 or less. Sankey did have 1 run for 30 yards to 26 times they held him very good. Price threw all over Stanford, 33 of 48 and 350 yards. I think our defensive backfield can do much better than that, and pick him off more than 1 time!
Jump out on them like last year and I think we coast fairly easy to a 55-24 win on the road. A nice day for a GameDay crowd! Let them jump on us int he first 5 minutes and I think it could be a back and forth long hard fight.
Since I'm an optimistic kind of guy I'm sticking with the 55 - 24. I don't know if my heart can take a close game. :)
Predictions -
Marcus throws for over 300 yards and runs for over 100.
Oregon scores over 50 for the 6th straight game!
Byron makes a HUGE play. I'm talking busted tackles and end zone. One that makes everyones top 10 plays of the week.
The defense stands tall and plays a little shut down D against Bishop Sankey and the Washington run game.
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Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Oregon VS Cal
Cal is rolling into Autzen with a 1-2 record, a pretty solid passing game and not much else to brag about. This will be a good test of our defensive backfield and I believe Ifo and the boys will be ready for the task.
Offensively we should see another track meet, Cal gave up 37 and 44 to Portland State and Northwestern. Yikes! I look for DAT to have plenty of space to show off that world class speed. Byron Marshall and Marcus Mariota should also have NO trouble running the ball in this game.
As a side note I'm still not sold on Byron's running right now. Better against TN than he did out in VA, but he has got to make a decision and hit the hole. I really want to see Thomas Tyner get 4-5 meaningful touches with the 1st string. Hopefully light a fire under Byron. I think Byron is great, solid freshman year but I just don't think he's running at the top of his game right now.
I really don't want to hear anything about Colt. Other than we throw to him as often as we threw to Mundt last week. Colt had a rough week in VA and then out last week, then Jason Quick decided to send a tweet about Colt 'obviously' not having the flu. He's defended that by saying he is a journalist. A tweet with absolutely no fact behind it was journalism. pfft. Here's my journalism - Suck It Jason Quick. Suck it long and suck it hard!
Maybe Helfrich should try a jumbo package with Colt in the backfield and both Mundt and Brown in a double TE set. Why not? May be a good set up for 4th and short in big games. :) With all 3 being viable passing options as well. If the D loads the box we shift and spread everyone out, still have Colt in the backfield. My mind is going crazy with options in a setup like that.
Marcus will do fine in this game, the Ducks will do fine in this game. What I really want to see out of him is a steady start. Crisp from the 1st snap. He's been a tad off early in games.
We're a couple games in and Ifo, Avery, Terrance and Brian have been relatively quiet this season as far as picks are concerned. To me this means we're due!!! Due for a pick 6 or two.
Cal put up 34 points on OH ST. It will be interesting to see what we hold them to. I'd like to see 100% (or near) shut down of their run game, some solid pressure from our D line and forcing some turnovers in this game.
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Offensively we should see another track meet, Cal gave up 37 and 44 to Portland State and Northwestern. Yikes! I look for DAT to have plenty of space to show off that world class speed. Byron Marshall and Marcus Mariota should also have NO trouble running the ball in this game.
As a side note I'm still not sold on Byron's running right now. Better against TN than he did out in VA, but he has got to make a decision and hit the hole. I really want to see Thomas Tyner get 4-5 meaningful touches with the 1st string. Hopefully light a fire under Byron. I think Byron is great, solid freshman year but I just don't think he's running at the top of his game right now.
I really don't want to hear anything about Colt. Other than we throw to him as often as we threw to Mundt last week. Colt had a rough week in VA and then out last week, then Jason Quick decided to send a tweet about Colt 'obviously' not having the flu. He's defended that by saying he is a journalist. A tweet with absolutely no fact behind it was journalism. pfft. Here's my journalism - Suck It Jason Quick. Suck it long and suck it hard!
Maybe Helfrich should try a jumbo package with Colt in the backfield and both Mundt and Brown in a double TE set. Why not? May be a good set up for 4th and short in big games. :) With all 3 being viable passing options as well. If the D loads the box we shift and spread everyone out, still have Colt in the backfield. My mind is going crazy with options in a setup like that.
Marcus will do fine in this game, the Ducks will do fine in this game. What I really want to see out of him is a steady start. Crisp from the 1st snap. He's been a tad off early in games.
We're a couple games in and Ifo, Avery, Terrance and Brian have been relatively quiet this season as far as picks are concerned. To me this means we're due!!! Due for a pick 6 or two.
Cal put up 34 points on OH ST. It will be interesting to see what we hold them to. I'd like to see 100% (or near) shut down of their run game, some solid pressure from our D line and forcing some turnovers in this game.
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Friday, September 13, 2013
Oregon VS ...... Tennessee
This is the week! If the Ducks were to fall, I may have to jump of a bridge or something.
Here's what my staff did to my office...
Seems as thought a ton of people are picking the Ducks by 25-35 points. For some reason I feel like it is going to be a little closer than that. I HOPE I'm wrong. But here we go.
OREGON DUCKS 45 TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS 24
A 3 touchdown game is what I'm calling. Conservative compared to virtually every pick I've seen.
The run game - Last week DAT saw a great deal of success on the outside. I think he can do that virtually anytime he wants. Where we struggled was up the middle. Byron Marshall also had a very rough game. I look for him to rebound with a much better performance but still have a tough time up the middle. If he does have any kind of repeat of last week I do believe Tyner will see some action early. He ran 4 plays and it was mop up duty late, but the burst and concise decision making was extremely apparent. How do you keep that kid off the field? I wouldn't mind seeing him and just giving him a swing pass or 2, maybe a jet sweep, just to get him in some open space and letting him make a play.
This is an odd prediction because Western KY averaged 5 yards a carry. 5 yards a carry. Western KY. If they can average 5 we should be able to do much better with our speed and athletes. So I may be way off on this. I hope I am.
Since I'm predicting a slow down (by Duck standards) in the run game this means Marcus Mariota will have to pick up that slack. If this game stays tight for the 1st half we will need to pass more. Marcus has had a ton of success running the ball in the 1st two games. Now lets see him flex that throwing arm. Couple of deep balls will open up the run game and keep them honest as well. Tennessee's defensive backs have seen great success in the 1st two weeks against sub par competition. I think Marcus lights them up!
Colt had a rough week last week dropping 3 passes. I've been told that he had a broken finger. Look for him to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder and make the most of each touch this week. I want them to hook him up early to get him back into this game.
Braylon Addison continues to make plays. Let's give him the ball a few more times. So many weapons to choose from. Since we led the whole way against Virginia we didn't see a ton of passes. Huff, Lowe, Hawk... I want to see Marcus toss the ball around and get these receivers involved.
Defensively I'd like to see more turnovers. Greedy I know, but lets get 10 or so. :) Ok, maybe 3. Ifo and Mitchell have been relatively quiet this year. If we get up a score or two Tennessee will need to throw. Last week the majority of the completions were underneath to the TE's for moderate gains, but it kept the chains moving. The LB's need to keep an eye on that, if I saw it you know Tennessee did.
This is a big, strong and talented offensive line. It will be a good test for our D-line this week. We should see what kind of defensive line we're going to have for teams like Stanford, UCLA and Washington. Look for the boys in the trenches to show their stuff this week.
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Here's what my staff did to my office...
Seems as thought a ton of people are picking the Ducks by 25-35 points. For some reason I feel like it is going to be a little closer than that. I HOPE I'm wrong. But here we go.
OREGON DUCKS 45 TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS 24
A 3 touchdown game is what I'm calling. Conservative compared to virtually every pick I've seen.
The run game - Last week DAT saw a great deal of success on the outside. I think he can do that virtually anytime he wants. Where we struggled was up the middle. Byron Marshall also had a very rough game. I look for him to rebound with a much better performance but still have a tough time up the middle. If he does have any kind of repeat of last week I do believe Tyner will see some action early. He ran 4 plays and it was mop up duty late, but the burst and concise decision making was extremely apparent. How do you keep that kid off the field? I wouldn't mind seeing him and just giving him a swing pass or 2, maybe a jet sweep, just to get him in some open space and letting him make a play.
This is an odd prediction because Western KY averaged 5 yards a carry. 5 yards a carry. Western KY. If they can average 5 we should be able to do much better with our speed and athletes. So I may be way off on this. I hope I am.
Since I'm predicting a slow down (by Duck standards) in the run game this means Marcus Mariota will have to pick up that slack. If this game stays tight for the 1st half we will need to pass more. Marcus has had a ton of success running the ball in the 1st two games. Now lets see him flex that throwing arm. Couple of deep balls will open up the run game and keep them honest as well. Tennessee's defensive backs have seen great success in the 1st two weeks against sub par competition. I think Marcus lights them up!
Colt had a rough week last week dropping 3 passes. I've been told that he had a broken finger. Look for him to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder and make the most of each touch this week. I want them to hook him up early to get him back into this game.
Braylon Addison continues to make plays. Let's give him the ball a few more times. So many weapons to choose from. Since we led the whole way against Virginia we didn't see a ton of passes. Huff, Lowe, Hawk... I want to see Marcus toss the ball around and get these receivers involved.
Defensively I'd like to see more turnovers. Greedy I know, but lets get 10 or so. :) Ok, maybe 3. Ifo and Mitchell have been relatively quiet this year. If we get up a score or two Tennessee will need to throw. Last week the majority of the completions were underneath to the TE's for moderate gains, but it kept the chains moving. The LB's need to keep an eye on that, if I saw it you know Tennessee did.
This is a big, strong and talented offensive line. It will be a good test for our D-line this week. We should see what kind of defensive line we're going to have for teams like Stanford, UCLA and Washington. Look for the boys in the trenches to show their stuff this week.
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Saturday, September 7, 2013
DUCKS DOMINATE!!
Probably should go to sleep, have a 9 hour drive in the morning. BUT I CAN'T. Still pumped up from seeing my boys live for the 1st time since the TN game a few years ago. Who won that again????
Anyway, what a game. I swear I am spoiled rotten, I am thinking we are not playing well. We WON 59-10 against a team that knocked off a top 20 and I'm wanting more. Sheeesh!
I predicted 56-17. We got an extra FG and didn't give up a garbage TD at the end of the game. I'd say that was a solid prediction.
Marcus ran for 100+ with a nice 71 yard TD run and DAT went over 150 (124 yards rush with 3 TD's/28 rec yards) as well. Marshall fell quite a bit short. Tyner looked phenomenal on 4 carries late.
I still think our passing game has a ways to go. Last year we relied on it against CAL, that will happen again. Colt! UGH. I begged for more touches for Colt and he drops 3 passes. 3!
(Sunday update - I have since learned that Colt has a broken finger. That would explain the drops. Here's hoping for a quick and complete recovery so that I can continue to beg for 8 touches per game)
Marshall also dropped one right in his hands. Marcus was 14 for 28. Yeah he got 199 yards 2 TD's. But I'd like to see a better completion %, even without the drops. There seemed to be 2 guys open on every pass play, he didn't always go to the open guy.
A word about Byron Marshall. I really like the kid. I thought he looked very good last year and I did NOT jump on the Tyner for president band wagon. Today though, whew. Tyner impressed when Byron was off. The difference was huge. Byron is pussy footing through the hole and not looking very decisive. Tyner was in during mop up duty late in the game but he made 1 cut and GONE! Gone gone gone!
A word about our DEFENSE. GREAT FRICKEN GAME. Virginia had the ball for almost 40 minutes and ran 86 plays. Total yards = 298 and 10 points.
They ran the ball 39 times for 124 yards. The top 4 runs went for 45, 10, 10 and 9. Take those 4 biggest plays out and you have 35 rushes for 50 yards.
Jake McGee for Virginia had a solid day. He had me yelling "cover the TE" on every 3rd down. We are going to face some very good TE's when we get to conference play, need to find someone or some way to cover those guys. Seemed like he had 10 catches. He and the other TE combined for 12 catches yards. From my perspective each one was for a 1st down. If Washington's Austin Seferian Jenkins is eligible and sober he could have a big game.
DAT looks great to me when we run him outside. I'm still not convinced he's an every down inside zone read running back. I'm not saying he should never go in there. But why not get him in space. Still seems stubborn. (of course he rushed 11 times for 124 yards, sooooo, what the hell do I know.) If DAT does nothing but prove me wrong over and over again..... I'm OK with that! I'm a humble guy, I will be happy to admit I was wrong as they lift the trophy at the end of the year.
125 - 13 this year. GREAT START. Let's keep it going next week!
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Anyway, what a game. I swear I am spoiled rotten, I am thinking we are not playing well. We WON 59-10 against a team that knocked off a top 20 and I'm wanting more. Sheeesh!
I predicted 56-17. We got an extra FG and didn't give up a garbage TD at the end of the game. I'd say that was a solid prediction.
Marcus ran for 100+ with a nice 71 yard TD run and DAT went over 150 (124 yards rush with 3 TD's/28 rec yards) as well. Marshall fell quite a bit short. Tyner looked phenomenal on 4 carries late.
I still think our passing game has a ways to go. Last year we relied on it against CAL, that will happen again. Colt! UGH. I begged for more touches for Colt and he drops 3 passes. 3!
(Sunday update - I have since learned that Colt has a broken finger. That would explain the drops. Here's hoping for a quick and complete recovery so that I can continue to beg for 8 touches per game)
Marshall also dropped one right in his hands. Marcus was 14 for 28. Yeah he got 199 yards 2 TD's. But I'd like to see a better completion %, even without the drops. There seemed to be 2 guys open on every pass play, he didn't always go to the open guy.
A word about Byron Marshall. I really like the kid. I thought he looked very good last year and I did NOT jump on the Tyner for president band wagon. Today though, whew. Tyner impressed when Byron was off. The difference was huge. Byron is pussy footing through the hole and not looking very decisive. Tyner was in during mop up duty late in the game but he made 1 cut and GONE! Gone gone gone!
A word about our DEFENSE. GREAT FRICKEN GAME. Virginia had the ball for almost 40 minutes and ran 86 plays. Total yards = 298 and 10 points.
They ran the ball 39 times for 124 yards. The top 4 runs went for 45, 10, 10 and 9. Take those 4 biggest plays out and you have 35 rushes for 50 yards.
Jake McGee for Virginia had a solid day. He had me yelling "cover the TE" on every 3rd down. We are going to face some very good TE's when we get to conference play, need to find someone or some way to cover those guys. Seemed like he had 10 catches. He and the other TE combined for 12 catches yards. From my perspective each one was for a 1st down. If Washington's Austin Seferian Jenkins is eligible and sober he could have a big game.
DAT looks great to me when we run him outside. I'm still not convinced he's an every down inside zone read running back. I'm not saying he should never go in there. But why not get him in space. Still seems stubborn. (of course he rushed 11 times for 124 yards, sooooo, what the hell do I know.) If DAT does nothing but prove me wrong over and over again..... I'm OK with that! I'm a humble guy, I will be happy to admit I was wrong as they lift the trophy at the end of the year.
125 - 13 this year. GREAT START. Let's keep it going next week!
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Friday, September 6, 2013
Oregon Ducks VS Virginia Hoos
Been in VA for a few days now, having a great time out in the Massenutten Ski Resort. Riley is having a blast...
Here she is on the ski lift on the way back down the mountain.
Not sure if I ever heard Virginia called the Hoos before this weekend but that seems to be what they call themselves so there you have it.
Last week was a glorified scrimmage, no way we were going to be slowed down by Nichols. In Virginia we face an upcoming and hungry team who just knocked off a top 20 team. This is a trap game if we don't bring our A game. Or at least a B. You go out flat and turn the ball over we may find more than we want. Having said that, we'd have to play pretty bad for that to happen.
So let's see what I want to see tomorrow live.......
Oregon 56 Virginia 17
I think we roll again. The offense looks better against VA than we did against Nichols. Marcus sharpens up the misses he had and the receivers clean up their drops. We see more than the vanilla offense than we did against Nichols.
I think we have a solid chance of having 3 X 100 yard rushers again. That would be 2 weeks in a row to have something that has never happened happen. huh? Yeah.
Release the BEAST! I NEED Colt Lyerla to get the ball this week, more than mop up duty late. He needs a reception in the 1st QTR. No reason he doesn't touch the ball 6-7 times a game. The crappy thing for him is he's usually the change of pace guy. Since we don't often need a change of pace he doesn't get much action. As much talk as DAT gets, Colt NEEDS the ball. He's too good to let him just block. Couple of quick hits up the middle a game. Keep the backers honest.
Last week it seemed they went to prove that DAT could run between the tackles. He did well. And, I'm fine with them doing it. I would like to see us get him in space a few times. Jet sweep. Screen. Motion him out to the tazer slot. Something. I feel like running him up the middle 20 times is a little stubborn. Sure, let him be the every down back. But get him in some space from time to time.
Looking for a big game out of a receiver this week. My pick is Braylon Addison. Huff will get a couple but I think this is the year Braylon breaks out.
Predictions -
Ifo - 1 Pick
Lokombo - 1 turnover
Marcus - 250+ yards passing AND 100+ rushing
DAT - 150+ Rushing
Marshall - 100+ yards rushing
TEAM - 400+ yards rushing
Defense - 5 sacks
Taylor Hart - Gets 2 of those sacks
Addison - 100+ receiving yards
I think we roll again. I've enjoyed my time in VA and I wish them well. But I think we get this thing really rolling tomorrow afternoon.
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Here she is on the ski lift on the way back down the mountain.
Not sure if I ever heard Virginia called the Hoos before this weekend but that seems to be what they call themselves so there you have it.
Last week was a glorified scrimmage, no way we were going to be slowed down by Nichols. In Virginia we face an upcoming and hungry team who just knocked off a top 20 team. This is a trap game if we don't bring our A game. Or at least a B. You go out flat and turn the ball over we may find more than we want. Having said that, we'd have to play pretty bad for that to happen.
So let's see what I want to see tomorrow live.......
Oregon 56 Virginia 17
I think we roll again. The offense looks better against VA than we did against Nichols. Marcus sharpens up the misses he had and the receivers clean up their drops. We see more than the vanilla offense than we did against Nichols.
I think we have a solid chance of having 3 X 100 yard rushers again. That would be 2 weeks in a row to have something that has never happened happen. huh? Yeah.
Release the BEAST! I NEED Colt Lyerla to get the ball this week, more than mop up duty late. He needs a reception in the 1st QTR. No reason he doesn't touch the ball 6-7 times a game. The crappy thing for him is he's usually the change of pace guy. Since we don't often need a change of pace he doesn't get much action. As much talk as DAT gets, Colt NEEDS the ball. He's too good to let him just block. Couple of quick hits up the middle a game. Keep the backers honest.
Last week it seemed they went to prove that DAT could run between the tackles. He did well. And, I'm fine with them doing it. I would like to see us get him in space a few times. Jet sweep. Screen. Motion him out to the tazer slot. Something. I feel like running him up the middle 20 times is a little stubborn. Sure, let him be the every down back. But get him in some space from time to time.
Looking for a big game out of a receiver this week. My pick is Braylon Addison. Huff will get a couple but I think this is the year Braylon breaks out.
Predictions -
Ifo - 1 Pick
Lokombo - 1 turnover
Marcus - 250+ yards passing AND 100+ rushing
DAT - 150+ Rushing
Marshall - 100+ yards rushing
TEAM - 400+ yards rushing
Defense - 5 sacks
Taylor Hart - Gets 2 of those sacks
Addison - 100+ receiving yards
I think we roll again. I've enjoyed my time in VA and I wish them well. But I think we get this thing really rolling tomorrow afternoon.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Ducks fly 66-3 over Nicholls!
Whew - great game. Admittedly I want our team to win by 100 points and not give up a yard, despite my lofty expectations we still did really good.
Let's take a look at my predictions.
80 -10 :) Reality - 66-3 Not too bad.
DAT with the 1st TD TRUE!
DAT with 2 TD's on 7 touches in the 1st. 2 TD's on 12 touches (in the 1st, I think?)
3 rushers over 100 yards! TRUE
35 points in the 1st. We had 24.
Ifo with a pick six. He did not.
Total rushing yards 400+. We got 500!
Passing yards 300+. We got 272. close.
Zero for Nicholls in the 1st half. They got 3.
Under 20 yards rushing in the 1st half. They passed that. (total of 87 yards on 37 carries for 2.4 ypc. Not too shabby D.
I feel like despite my crazy predictions we did get some of them. Of course we were supposed to beat Nicholls. We're supposed to not only beat them but CRUSH them. We did.
Defensively they ran 87 plays and only accounted for 343 ttl yards. Offensively we ran 71 plays for a record 772 yards.
And, the gas pedal most certainly was not pressed to the fullest ability.
I enjoyed the game, it is quite a switch to see the way Helf manages a game vs Chip. In this game I believe Chip would have gone FULL speed, racking up my predicted 35 points in the 1st and put Marcus on the bench midway through the 2nd. Chip would have unleashed the full arsenal. This game seemed like it was treated like a scrimmage. The play book was pretty vanilla and we seemed to be at a moderate speed. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm hoping to see warp speed next week when I get to see my Ducks 1st hand for the 1st time since the Tenn game a few years back.
I love our defense and I think it can continue to get better. Those guys on the line are MONSTERS. Armstead, Buckner, Hart, Washington... and on and on. GREAT job pushing people around. I LOVE Taylor Hart's motor. The kid just keeps coming. I believe Armstead will be a dominant force as his development continues. I can't wait.
Our offense rolled like it should. I was kind of hoping for a 99 yard run or pass when they pinned us deep on 2 occasions. :) Oh well. I was a little surprised we didn't have a 50-60 + yard play. Sure, we had 4 that were in the 40's. I just expected a really long one.
We got a heavy dose of DAT running in the middle. I still get a little nervous about that when the competition gets better. But he just keeps going. Marshall is fast, but clearly not DAT, LMJ or KB fast. I want to see him with a higher caliber of competition.
Can I just say that kid from Nicholls, Marcus Washington, he's a stud. What a great game he had.
On the negative side I would say I'm quite surprised that Marcus seemed a tad jittery. I was expecting darn near 90-100% completion against this team. Last year he was 18-22 in the opener against Arky State. 12 for 21 was a shock. I think he'll get back into form and be fine.
Again, seemed like we were pretty vanilla today. Can't wait to see more of the playbook and seen the progress of Marcus, DAT. We ran the ball 45 times and passed 26 times. When you are up by 63 you really can't make the case for airing it out more. Maybe in the next 2 weeks we'll see some more of that.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Let's take a look at my predictions.
80 -10 :) Reality - 66-3 Not too bad.
DAT with the 1st TD TRUE!
DAT with 2 TD's on 7 touches in the 1st. 2 TD's on 12 touches (in the 1st, I think?)
3 rushers over 100 yards! TRUE
35 points in the 1st. We had 24.
Ifo with a pick six. He did not.
Total rushing yards 400+. We got 500!
Passing yards 300+. We got 272. close.
Zero for Nicholls in the 1st half. They got 3.
Under 20 yards rushing in the 1st half. They passed that. (total of 87 yards on 37 carries for 2.4 ypc. Not too shabby D.
I feel like despite my crazy predictions we did get some of them. Of course we were supposed to beat Nicholls. We're supposed to not only beat them but CRUSH them. We did.
Defensively they ran 87 plays and only accounted for 343 ttl yards. Offensively we ran 71 plays for a record 772 yards.
And, the gas pedal most certainly was not pressed to the fullest ability.
I enjoyed the game, it is quite a switch to see the way Helf manages a game vs Chip. In this game I believe Chip would have gone FULL speed, racking up my predicted 35 points in the 1st and put Marcus on the bench midway through the 2nd. Chip would have unleashed the full arsenal. This game seemed like it was treated like a scrimmage. The play book was pretty vanilla and we seemed to be at a moderate speed. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm hoping to see warp speed next week when I get to see my Ducks 1st hand for the 1st time since the Tenn game a few years back.
I love our defense and I think it can continue to get better. Those guys on the line are MONSTERS. Armstead, Buckner, Hart, Washington... and on and on. GREAT job pushing people around. I LOVE Taylor Hart's motor. The kid just keeps coming. I believe Armstead will be a dominant force as his development continues. I can't wait.
Our offense rolled like it should. I was kind of hoping for a 99 yard run or pass when they pinned us deep on 2 occasions. :) Oh well. I was a little surprised we didn't have a 50-60 + yard play. Sure, we had 4 that were in the 40's. I just expected a really long one.
We got a heavy dose of DAT running in the middle. I still get a little nervous about that when the competition gets better. But he just keeps going. Marshall is fast, but clearly not DAT, LMJ or KB fast. I want to see him with a higher caliber of competition.
Can I just say that kid from Nicholls, Marcus Washington, he's a stud. What a great game he had.
On the negative side I would say I'm quite surprised that Marcus seemed a tad jittery. I was expecting darn near 90-100% completion against this team. Last year he was 18-22 in the opener against Arky State. 12 for 21 was a shock. I think he'll get back into form and be fine.
Again, seemed like we were pretty vanilla today. Can't wait to see more of the playbook and seen the progress of Marcus, DAT. We ran the ball 45 times and passed 26 times. When you are up by 63 you really can't make the case for airing it out more. Maybe in the next 2 weeks we'll see some more of that.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Ahhh, we're back baby!
Football season kicks off tonight and for my Ducks we're looking at a game with Nicholls in under 48 hours. I CANNOT WAIT!!!
For the 2nd season in a row I think I'm more excited to see our D-fence play. To me, this is our best defensive line up ever. Hard to say since I personally knew a couple of the 1995 Gang Green boys and played against them in high school.
Against Nicholls I look for our D to completely shut them down. I'm talking no 1st downs for a good quarter or two. With the big boys up front - Taylor Hart 287, Wade Kellikipi 299 and Arik Armstead at 296 we're finally a 'beefy' line yet still quite athletic. Tony Washington seems poised to fill in the shoes of Dion Jordan (Do people even realize we had a guy on our DEFENSE drafted #3 overall). We're a little untested at linebacker outside of Boseka Lokombo who I have high hopes for.
Prediction - No more that 20 yards rushing for Nicholls in the 1st half.
Prediction - No points for Nicholls in the 1st half.
Our secondary? Whew, Ifo and Terrance did GREAT last year and are poised for bigger numbers. Patterson is back. We have several 2nd platooners that could start elsewhere.
But at Oregon we love our OOOOOOOOOOO.
1st TD goes to DAT. I think it will be early and I think it will be a long breakaway. If he hits the corner against the Colonels I think he wins every time. I don't think we see a ton of DAT Saturday.
Prediction - 2 TD's on maybe 7 touches all in the 1st.
I'm itching to see Marcus Mariota air it out a bit. Let's be aggressive through the air, throw some deep balls.
Prediction - 1st QTR = 35 pts for my Ducks. Yes, 1 TD every 3 minutes. One of those by Ifo Ekpre-Olomu on a Pick 6.
I always want to see Colt Lyerla getting the ball but holy crap I don't want him to hurt anyone. :)
Also wanting to see Byron Marshall get a good look at running back with a lot of reps. Not 100% sure if Tyner is ready to play this week but if he is I cannot wait. Easily the most hype around a running back. If he stays healthy we have a tremendous triple threat. When DAT is out wide and Marshall or Tyner in the backfield we are scary.
Prediction - 3 x 100+ yard rushers. One of them may be Marcus but I'd be surprised if he runs a lot. Hell, we may have 4 people with 100+.
WR's. I'll say this again. I really don't care who, but someone needs to really step out and be THE guy. Someone to compete at the end of the year for top receiver in the Pac if not the country. The good news / bad news of our team is that there are so many weapons that can strike it is hard to find 1 receiver to give 10+ catches every single game. I think Huff can do it. I think Addison can do it. I think Colt can do it. Hawk and Keanon seem more like solid possession receivers, but I could see them doing it as well.
2nd platoon receivers should get plenty of work, even if it is with Jeff Lockie and/or Jake Rodrigues.
NOTE - I say "2nd platoon" instead of 2nd string due to the number of snaps we have. At a lot of positions we have 2 sets of starters. Which helps the 'next man up' philosophy that we have.
Johnny Mundt is a true frosh who should see some time at TE this weekend. Eric Dungy, Chance Allen and BJ Kelley will have a chance to show that they are poised to be "the guy" at wide receiver.
Predictions - Ducks 80 Nicholls 10
Rushing Yards = 450+ (last year we had 436 against USC)
Passing Yards = 300+
I know we will pull our foot off the accelerator, but unlike last year I think we wont see as much of a drop of when Marcus comes out of the game. If Marcus is done 5 minutes into the 2nd QTR when we are up 42-0 and Jeff Lockie comes in I think it keeps rolling, especially if he's dishing to Marshal still or Tyner. Last year when Bennett would come into the games the wheels slowed quite a bit. Then toward the end of the 3rd we see Jake Rodrigues and again we don't see much of a drop. Especially if Tyner is in, Marshall will certainly be done by then.
Nicholls is obviously a tune up game so I do want to see some GAWDY numbers out of this OOOOOOOO, even if the 'starters' only see 15-20 minutes of play.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
For the 2nd season in a row I think I'm more excited to see our D-fence play. To me, this is our best defensive line up ever. Hard to say since I personally knew a couple of the 1995 Gang Green boys and played against them in high school.
Against Nicholls I look for our D to completely shut them down. I'm talking no 1st downs for a good quarter or two. With the big boys up front - Taylor Hart 287, Wade Kellikipi 299 and Arik Armstead at 296 we're finally a 'beefy' line yet still quite athletic. Tony Washington seems poised to fill in the shoes of Dion Jordan (Do people even realize we had a guy on our DEFENSE drafted #3 overall). We're a little untested at linebacker outside of Boseka Lokombo who I have high hopes for.
Prediction - No more that 20 yards rushing for Nicholls in the 1st half.
Prediction - No points for Nicholls in the 1st half.
Our secondary? Whew, Ifo and Terrance did GREAT last year and are poised for bigger numbers. Patterson is back. We have several 2nd platooners that could start elsewhere.
But at Oregon we love our OOOOOOOOOOO.
1st TD goes to DAT. I think it will be early and I think it will be a long breakaway. If he hits the corner against the Colonels I think he wins every time. I don't think we see a ton of DAT Saturday.
Prediction - 2 TD's on maybe 7 touches all in the 1st.
I'm itching to see Marcus Mariota air it out a bit. Let's be aggressive through the air, throw some deep balls.
Prediction - 1st QTR = 35 pts for my Ducks. Yes, 1 TD every 3 minutes. One of those by Ifo Ekpre-Olomu on a Pick 6.
I always want to see Colt Lyerla getting the ball but holy crap I don't want him to hurt anyone. :)
Also wanting to see Byron Marshall get a good look at running back with a lot of reps. Not 100% sure if Tyner is ready to play this week but if he is I cannot wait. Easily the most hype around a running back. If he stays healthy we have a tremendous triple threat. When DAT is out wide and Marshall or Tyner in the backfield we are scary.
Prediction - 3 x 100+ yard rushers. One of them may be Marcus but I'd be surprised if he runs a lot. Hell, we may have 4 people with 100+.
WR's. I'll say this again. I really don't care who, but someone needs to really step out and be THE guy. Someone to compete at the end of the year for top receiver in the Pac if not the country. The good news / bad news of our team is that there are so many weapons that can strike it is hard to find 1 receiver to give 10+ catches every single game. I think Huff can do it. I think Addison can do it. I think Colt can do it. Hawk and Keanon seem more like solid possession receivers, but I could see them doing it as well.
2nd platoon receivers should get plenty of work, even if it is with Jeff Lockie and/or Jake Rodrigues.
NOTE - I say "2nd platoon" instead of 2nd string due to the number of snaps we have. At a lot of positions we have 2 sets of starters. Which helps the 'next man up' philosophy that we have.
Johnny Mundt is a true frosh who should see some time at TE this weekend. Eric Dungy, Chance Allen and BJ Kelley will have a chance to show that they are poised to be "the guy" at wide receiver.
Predictions - Ducks 80 Nicholls 10
Rushing Yards = 450+ (last year we had 436 against USC)
Passing Yards = 300+
I know we will pull our foot off the accelerator, but unlike last year I think we wont see as much of a drop of when Marcus comes out of the game. If Marcus is done 5 minutes into the 2nd QTR when we are up 42-0 and Jeff Lockie comes in I think it keeps rolling, especially if he's dishing to Marshal still or Tyner. Last year when Bennett would come into the games the wheels slowed quite a bit. Then toward the end of the 3rd we see Jake Rodrigues and again we don't see much of a drop. Especially if Tyner is in, Marshall will certainly be done by then.
Nicholls is obviously a tune up game so I do want to see some GAWDY numbers out of this OOOOOOOO, even if the 'starters' only see 15-20 minutes of play.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Fiesta Bowl Predictions
Well, so far the Pac 12 is earning that reputation I hear so much about living in SEC country. UCLA lost badly to an unranked Baylor. The Beavs at #13 choked big time against #23 Texas. These are games the Pac just needs to win. Unranked Washington may have had the best showing in their loss to BSU. AZ and AZ ST did about what was expected of them. The Pac heavyweights need to sweep their games for the Pac to end this bowl season 5-3. Since the Pac is the higher ranked team in each of the games we are expected to do just that. We need some blowouts.
On to the FIESTA BOWL for the Ducks!
Last year we made a step by defeating a solid Wisconsin team, winning a BCS for the 1st time in a decade and winning the Rose for the 1st time in a looong time. And let's not forget that this is our 4th BCS bowl game in a row, absolutely a HUGE feat. But no one wants to be the Buffalo Bills, or even 1 game better than the Bills. We need to take our 4 year run to 2-2. This time, we need to do it in dominating fashion. These aren't the Ducks I grew up on. Chip Kelly has turned me from a Duck fan who expects the choke, expects a 9-3 season to be our best into someone who was quite frankly a bit disspointed to come up a little short of the NC game. Go back and tell 80's and 90's Jason that he would be a little dissapointed to be 11-1 and in a Fiesta Bowl, see what he thinks about that!
Ultimately I want and think we can dominate this game start to finish. A couple of things will need to happen in order to make that happen. So here's what I want to see out of my Ducks.
#1 - Marcus needs to run this show. The blueprint for beating the Ducks the last couple of years has been pretty clear, play great gap defense and stop up the run. KSU should attempt to do the same. Marcus needs to make them pay early and often. If there's 7-8 in the box....find Colt streaking up the middle or get Huff and DAT on some WR screens. Something ABSENT in the Stanford game. UGH!
#2 - Kenjon Barner! KSU is NOT Auburn. They are not LSU and they are not OH ST. I believe they will put up a good effort to stop the run early. If Marcus makes them pay with his trademark calm and cool presence and great decision making they will have to adjust and Kenjon can take over the game.
#3 - Defense. Where oh where has my defense been since the USC game? It is like they forgot they were for real this year. Many are questioning but I am still a believer. Arizona is the 15th best scoring team in the country....we skunked them. We skunked them AND gave them great field position on many occasions. We've had some injuries, specifically at the safety position. But I want to see Dion go off in this game. I want to see Kiko repeat his Rose Bowl performance. I want Bo to come up with some big plays. Ifo to snatch a pick and I want to see Michael Clay putting Optomus Klein on his back side head 1st. As Coach Parnell used to say...."Where the head goes, the ass must follow!"
#4 - Will the #1 WR please stand up? WR by committee has been working for us. But I just want someone to become "THE" guy. With the exception of Will Murphy and Vaughn we should get all these guys back. But someone needs to step up and just scream to the world that they want to be the guy. Huff had a crazy freshman year, has been fighting injuries and showing a ton of heart, I want him to make a ton of plays that make me jump out of my seat. Hawk, Lowe, Addison, Dungy, Kelley, Stanford???? I don't much care who. Hell, I don't care if Bryan Bennett lines up at WR and becomes the guy, I just want a guy. A guy who defenses say "we need to hold _____ to under 10 catches."
#5 - DAT. 7.6 yards a carry, 686 yards on 90 carries, 385 receiving yards and a total of 15 TD's and we're calling most of this season "quiet" for him???? Let us remember last year in the Rose Bowl. 2 carries, 155 yards and 2 TD's. Let's see that again.
I'm not asking for too much am I? I don't think so, I really beleive this game can go similar to the AZ ST game. You know, 43-7 with 11 minutes left in the 1st half! TOTAL DOMINATION.
If our O and D just do what they can do this is possible.
KSU is no slouch, this will be a tough battle. I want us to over achieve in a big game on a big stage this year.
That's all I want.
As for a prediction, I call Ducks 58 KSU 23. :)
On to the FIESTA BOWL for the Ducks!
Last year we made a step by defeating a solid Wisconsin team, winning a BCS for the 1st time in a decade and winning the Rose for the 1st time in a looong time. And let's not forget that this is our 4th BCS bowl game in a row, absolutely a HUGE feat. But no one wants to be the Buffalo Bills, or even 1 game better than the Bills. We need to take our 4 year run to 2-2. This time, we need to do it in dominating fashion. These aren't the Ducks I grew up on. Chip Kelly has turned me from a Duck fan who expects the choke, expects a 9-3 season to be our best into someone who was quite frankly a bit disspointed to come up a little short of the NC game. Go back and tell 80's and 90's Jason that he would be a little dissapointed to be 11-1 and in a Fiesta Bowl, see what he thinks about that!
Ultimately I want and think we can dominate this game start to finish. A couple of things will need to happen in order to make that happen. So here's what I want to see out of my Ducks.
#1 - Marcus needs to run this show. The blueprint for beating the Ducks the last couple of years has been pretty clear, play great gap defense and stop up the run. KSU should attempt to do the same. Marcus needs to make them pay early and often. If there's 7-8 in the box....find Colt streaking up the middle or get Huff and DAT on some WR screens. Something ABSENT in the Stanford game. UGH!
#2 - Kenjon Barner! KSU is NOT Auburn. They are not LSU and they are not OH ST. I believe they will put up a good effort to stop the run early. If Marcus makes them pay with his trademark calm and cool presence and great decision making they will have to adjust and Kenjon can take over the game.
#3 - Defense. Where oh where has my defense been since the USC game? It is like they forgot they were for real this year. Many are questioning but I am still a believer. Arizona is the 15th best scoring team in the country....we skunked them. We skunked them AND gave them great field position on many occasions. We've had some injuries, specifically at the safety position. But I want to see Dion go off in this game. I want to see Kiko repeat his Rose Bowl performance. I want Bo to come up with some big plays. Ifo to snatch a pick and I want to see Michael Clay putting Optomus Klein on his back side head 1st. As Coach Parnell used to say...."Where the head goes, the ass must follow!"
#4 - Will the #1 WR please stand up? WR by committee has been working for us. But I just want someone to become "THE" guy. With the exception of Will Murphy and Vaughn we should get all these guys back. But someone needs to step up and just scream to the world that they want to be the guy. Huff had a crazy freshman year, has been fighting injuries and showing a ton of heart, I want him to make a ton of plays that make me jump out of my seat. Hawk, Lowe, Addison, Dungy, Kelley, Stanford???? I don't much care who. Hell, I don't care if Bryan Bennett lines up at WR and becomes the guy, I just want a guy. A guy who defenses say "we need to hold _____ to under 10 catches."
#5 - DAT. 7.6 yards a carry, 686 yards on 90 carries, 385 receiving yards and a total of 15 TD's and we're calling most of this season "quiet" for him???? Let us remember last year in the Rose Bowl. 2 carries, 155 yards and 2 TD's. Let's see that again.
I'm not asking for too much am I? I don't think so, I really beleive this game can go similar to the AZ ST game. You know, 43-7 with 11 minutes left in the 1st half! TOTAL DOMINATION.
If our O and D just do what they can do this is possible.
KSU is no slouch, this will be a tough battle. I want us to over achieve in a big game on a big stage this year.
That's all I want.
As for a prediction, I call Ducks 58 KSU 23. :)
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