Monday, January 4, 2010

Spare me your "devastation", kids.

Would you rather be Oregon losing a hard fought heartbreaker to Ohio State, or Arizona getting shut out and blown out to Nebraska?
Would you rather be Oregon losing the Rose Bowl, or the other nine Pac-10 teams wishing they were in the Rose Bowl?  None of them would've beaten Pryor and the Buckeyes that day either.

No head hanging, Duck fans. It's not our style. Not anymore.

I was watching interviews of Duck fans leaving the Rose Bowl. I saw one young couple -- they couldn't have been over 21 year's old -- saying how they were "DEVASTATED". Their trip to Pasadena was "ruined". 

Those two are truly blessed in their young lives if their football team's loss in the Rose Bowl is their definition of devastation. 

A little personal insight: Over the holidays my wife's mother passed away with a group of us by her bedside.  I was splitting time between getting through the holidays, sharing with all of you the joy and excitement of Friday's Rose Bowl, and helping to plan and prepare for my mother-in-law's memorial service the following Saturday.

I'll tell you this. Of any tears shed this weekend in my house, none were for the Ducks.

Disappointed they lost?  ABSOLUTELY!  If you've been following my musings for even a short while, you know that I am truly bummed. I share that feeling with all of you.

But let's keep our feelings in perspective. This was likely a particularly tough year for any of you or your family, friends or neighbors. Lost jobs, lost homes, lost savings, wage cuts, health care expenses, swine flu, and don't forget the wars.

The one obvious bright spot we shared through 2009, the one escape that kept us cheering and smiling? Our Ducks. 

Don't be one of those Duck fans that goes from "I LOVE MY DUCKS"  to "Devastated" in four hours. 

Stay positive. Stay proud. This was a great team. This season was a great ride. And we all loved being a part of it, didn't we?

On the left, you'll find a poll asking how happy and proud you are as a Duck fan today. Mark what you feel, but know that you'll see at least one vote for '11'. That's mine. 

I STILL LOVE MY DUCKS.

"That's all good, KB. But really now, WHAT HAPPENED SATURDAY?"
(Photos from L.A. Times)


LeGarrette Blount lays on a bed of Buckeyes as he stretches
for his final TD as a Duck. How can we ever forget you, Blount?

I saw three factors that stumped Oregon.
1) Ohio State's defense was either better than advertised, or as good as advertised and I wasn't paying attention.  Their front four linemen were NFL players. Their ability to shed blocks was frightening. The Ducks were able to either hold or fool them a few times in a series; but they proved too difficult to sustain enough drives.

2) The Buckeyes AND the Rose Bowl itself proved ploblematic for Oregon to establish its rapid pace on offense.  Yes, the Buckeyes did own the time of possession: 41:37 to 18:23. That's a wide margin, but the Ducks are used to doing more with less.
The other factor was that it seemed when the Ducks did have the football and ran off three or four rapid fire plays, their flow was suddenly interrupted with a humungously long TV timeout. 
Also, injuries to either side often came at an inopportune time it stop the action and their rhythm. They never were able to get into their own flow with the short time they had the ball. Add two turnovers into the mix, and 17 points is about all they could do.

3) Take one guess: Terrelle Pryor. Wow, that kid's pretty good.  I'm a Holy Moly Masoli fan, but wow.  He made some passes that nobody had any business completing. He runs smooth like a clipper with four sheets in the wind. Oregon sacked him four times (Three by defensive player of the game Kenny Rowe). They intercepted him once. He limped through the game with a knee injury. Geez, that should be enough to shut down any mortal QB.
Watching him reminded me of another Rose Bowl game a few years back.  USC, meet Vince Young.


Kenny Rowe sacked Terrelle Pryor three times, but the gifted QB
scrambled away from Rowe and Will Tukuafu too many times Saturday.

The Oregonian's John Canzano wrote a good article about Pryor and Oregon's look to the future about recruiting their own Pryor-quality players.

One side note that Canzano mentioned was the following:
Note to the Ducks football operations department: Immediately educate ABC's Brent Musburger, who talked about the losing team's bright future in the closing minutes of the broadcast but identified Kelly's program as "The Oregon State Ducks."

There's no excuse for that. Musberger knows who the Ducks are. He's been to Eugene plenty of times. He had weeks to prepare for this game. It would be better to call ABC and tell them to fire the bonehead who has been an embarrassment to sports broadcasting for over 30 years.

As for the Ducks future, they return 18 starters. In addition, three JC offensive line recruits are ready to take the field next year. People are already chatting about next year's Rose Bowl and even the National Championship. Oregon will likely have to beat USC and Oregon State on the road to get it done. But hey, no Boise State next year!
Here is an article about next season from the Oregonian.

I'll put together final thoughts on the season later. --kb

8 comments:

John T said...

I will begin with condolences on the loss of your mother-in-law. It's never easy to lose someone during the holidays. I know from experience.

Now back to football. The problem with the PAC 10 is that they don't think of football the same way as the rest of the east and south. Proud to be in the Rose Bowl? Most in the South would consider it necessary to be in a BCS bowl. Samller bowls are "nice". Other than USC, I haven't found a consistent team in the PAC 10 that could match Ohio St, Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas or other now big teams. Part of it has to do with size and money.

Yes, I was hoping the Ducks would win. And yes, I believe that people should be a bit disappointed. I guess those that are proud of their Ducks are OK with mediocrity?

Will I be disappointed if Texas loses to Alabama? Yes, I'll be crushed. And I really don't think they have what it takes to win. Yes that's right, I bleed burnt orange but I don't think they can beat Alabama. And I'll be pissed as hell if they lose.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE MY DUCKS!!! MATTER

Killer Bee said...

John T,
Thanks for the kind words Bald Bevo Boy (By the way, I like your pic in cartoon. It suits you.)

I completely believe you when you say you'll be pissed as hell when . . . (sorry) IF your 'Horns lose to Alabama.
I saw you pissed as hell when they lost to those mediocre Ducks in the Holiday Bowl.

I'm rooting for 'Bama for the sake of your family. Your wife and child will absolutely faint if Texas wins another Nat. Champnshp. and you feel the need to paint a 2nd room in your house screaming orange.

Anonymous said...

Nice Blog. I'm a Buckeye fan. There was no reason to be devastated...or anything other than proud. The Ducks played well, had some bad breaks and the Buckeyes played better and had some good breaks. Buckeye fans have had to endure some bad losses in the last few years when our team just didn't show up. It happens. It happens in the NFL too...these are just kids. You have a classy program and a great university. Devastated? That's just silly. Go Ducks! Maybe we'll meet again next year in Pasadena.

Anonymous said...

[url=http://www.ganar-dinero-ya.com][img]http://www.ganar-dinero-ya.com/ganardinero.jpg[/img][/url]
[b]Estas buscando formas de ganar dinero[/b]
Nosotros hemos encontrado la mejor guia en internet de como ganar dinero internet. Como fue de utilidad a nosotros, tambien les puede ser de utilidad a ustedes. No son unicamente formas de ganar dinero con su pagina web, hay todo tipo de formas de ganar dinero en internet...
[b][url=http://www.ganar-dinero-ya.com][img]http://www.ganar-dinero-ya.com/dinero.jpg[/img][/url]Te recomendamos entrar a [url=http://www.ganar-dinero-ya.com/]Ganar dinero[/url][url=http://www.ganar-dinero-ya.com][img]http://www.ganar-dinero-ya.com/dinero.jpg[/img][/url][/b]

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)

Anonymous said...

Understandably your article helped me terribly much in my college assignment. Hats incorrect to you enter, intention look audacious in the direction of more interdependent articles soon as its one of my pick topic to read.

Anonymous said...

Not sure where to post this but I wanted to ask if anyone has heard of National Clicks?

Can someone help me find it?

Overheard some co-workers talking about it all week but didn't have time to ask so I thought I would post it here to see if someone could help me out.

Seems to be getting alot of buzz right now.

Thanks