Think you wanna play Oregon?

UCLA was up 7-0, they had just stopped Oregon on their second consecutive drive. The Bruins owned the momentum. Facing 4th and 14 on their own 25, the Ducks were forced into only one choice:

Proof that if you bring the Ducks to their knees, they'll punch you in the gonads.

While this brilliant special teams play sparked the offense to their first score, the talk of the game was the defense.

Nick Aliotti, after cussing out Washington State for continuing to pass with their first string in the closing minutes of that game, took a different approach in this game. Yes, UCLA's QB Brett Hundley was still slinging away in the fourth quarter, but in the end he only netted 64 yards passing for the game.

Oregon's coaches noted that their players were even more eager to get back out on the field in the second half than at the start. In this story by goducks.com Rob Moseley, the players talked about shutting out UCLA for the second half.

Ducks couldn't wait to get their hands
on Bruins in the second half.

Oregon got matched in the first half. They were squarely faced by the Bruins. But they came out in the second half eager to pretend the first half never happened. If the first half was a nightmare, the second half was tying Freddie Kruger to a cactus and beating him with rubber hoses.

Stripped.

Oregon's incredible taking of a punch and delivering back a wallop was an impressive show of resilience and dominance. So it surprises me when I read misinformed ignorance like this:

BAMA BRAINIACK
AL.com (All Alabama!) writer Kevin Scarbinsky (That's a stupid name. How can you take any writer seriously with a name like Kevin?) wrote the following about which team Alabama might prefer to play in the Natty.

Live at 9 with Kevin Scarbinsky: Alabama wants Oregon, too, not FSU

Oregon wants Alabama. We get it. When the Duck fans aren't chanting it at their games, they're printing T-shirts with that slogan.
But what about Alabama?
What, or more precisely, whom does the Crimson Tide want if they run the table to earn one of the two spots in the BCS Championship Game?
Alabama has to want Oregon, too.

If the choices are Oregon or Florida State, the two teams who've swapped the No. 2 BCS ranking behind Alabama the last two weeks, it's no choice. Give the Tide the Ducks.

Why? Florida State has a much better chance to man up to Alabama.

FSU has SEC-style talent on both sides of the ball, including up front. FSU has a special quarterback in Jameis Winston who doesn't get rattled in big moments.

FSU has a head coach in Jimbo Fisher who's worked for Nick Saban and modeled his program after Alabama's. FSU has a defensive coordinator in Jeremy Pruitt who worked for Saban until last year and knows the Alabama program inside and out, from schemes to personnel.
Pruitt, by the way, has done an excellent job in his first year as a college coordinator.

Of the remaining unbeaten teams, Florida State has the best chance to compete with Alabama for 60 minutes, which no team has done in any of Alabama's three BCS Championship Games.

Of course, it's likely that if Alabama, Florida State and Oregon run the table, Oregon will finish second behind Alabama, and FSU will be unbeaten but unrewarded like the 2004 Auburn team.
That's my story, and I'll stick with it all the way to Pasadena. What's your take? Bring it on Live at 9.

OK first let's sort through the things we can agree with.

Student entrepreneurs at Oregon.
Pssssst..."Hey guys, you're not helping."

"We want BAMA" shirts sold at Oregon?  Bad. Dumb. Embarrassing. It completely violates Oregon's "Win the Day" mantra. It becomes a joke and a dust rag should either team fall between now and then. 

What's more, if these two honor students took any combination of advertising and political science classes, they would learn that calling out your perceived chief competition like that only legitimizes them. You set your own self up as the underdog. You give them the power and position to smack you down in a war of words.

The other thing we can agree on? This all screams for a real playoff system. Florida State, Bama, Oregon, Baylor, Clemson, Ohio State. . . . . . only head-to-head games can truly decide who deserves to play whom through to the championship.

Having said all that, this fool just proves that slashed state education budgets and malnutrition have truly robbed Alabamans' brains of any useful means of common sense, let alone critical analysis. He probably brushes his teeth with his finger. I'll bet he'd pee on an electric fence if you told him Nick Saban said it was safe.  His whole kingdom is bordered by the Rocky Mountains, the Gulf, and the Mason-Dixon line.

 "Hey Scarbinsky, when you tithe at your church, do you write 'to SEC' on your check"?

He said that FSU coaches Jimbo and Jeremy are Nick Saban students. Therefore only they can pull Saban's sword out of the rock. He, of course, is assuming that Nick Saban is The Lady of the Lake, and thusly Coach Jimbo is King Arthur and Jeremy is  . . . . I don't know. . . . Brave Sir Robin I guess.

What he doesn't realize about his beloved Bamalot is that the white rabbit with big  pointy teeth is coming. But he's too dim to realize it, because he said his favorite color was red when it was actually blue, and the duck weighs more than a witch. . . . .

OK sorry, I'll drop the Monty Python metaphors.  But clearly, this guy hasn't even watched -- I mean REALLY watched -- the Ducks play.

Tennessee played both Bama and Oregon. Ask those like ESPN's Alex Scarborough who paid attention to BOTH games. He'll tell you that Oregon compared, at the very least, equally to Alabama.

I loved this line supporting his logic that FSU is better than Oregon: 
 FSU has a special quarterback in Jameis Winston who doesn't get rattled in big moments.
Oh, a SPECIAL quarterback. And he doesn't get rattled, you say? Even after he threw four interceptions? So has Scarbonesky seen any other QBs who don't seem to get rattled?

Why doesn't he ask UCLA coach Jim Mora if he's come across a QB who doesn't get rattled. Ask the entire Washington defense.

Why doesn't he ask FOX Sport's Coy Wire, who wrote the following in this good story complete with videos (Thanks RW for sending it to me.) :
So despite Jameis Winston’s burgeoning star and Johnny Manziel’s weekly brilliance, among many others, if we’re discussing the “best quarterback in college football,” it’s Oregon’s Marcus Mariota against the field.

Finally, I'm calling out other sports writers like Goe or Canzano at the Oregonian, Ray Ratto at the SF Chronicle, Bud Withers in Seattle, or Mitch Albom in Detroit. Why don't you end your stories with such bravado and pizzazz like Scardunceski when he says,  "That's my story, and I'll stick with it . . ."?

OR ASK STANFORD WHO THEY'D RATHER PLAY
From the SF Chronical

Stanford-Oregon should be worth wait

Jake Curtis

For the next 10 days, the question will be: Can Stanford's defense stop Oregon's explosive offense again?
Neither team plays until they meet at Stanford on Thursday, Nov. 7, with the winner improving its chances for a berth in the national-championship game.
Here are the numbers worth discussing as the game approaches:
34: Consecutive games in which Oregon has scored at least 34 points - with one conspicuous exception: The Ducks scored just 14 points in four quarters plus overtime in Stanford's 17-14 victory in Eugene last year.
0: Points the Ducks scored in the final 21:35 of regulation plus the untimed overtime in last year's game against Stanford.
1887: The last time a team had started a season by scoring at least 45 points in each of its first seven games before Oregon achieved it this season. The Oregon streak ended when the Ducks were "held" to 42 points in their 42-14 victory over UCLA on Saturday in Game 8. Oregon fell one game short of the 1887 streak achieved by Harvard, which extended its run to eight games of 45 points or more when it edged Wesleyan 110-0.
12: Points Stanford yielded Saturday to Oregon State, which came into the game averaging 44.1 points and had scored at least 33 points in each of its first seven games.
8: Sacks by Stanford against Oregon State.
9: Sacks allowed by Oregon State in its first seven games.
2: Stanford starting defensive ends whose status is in question for the Oregon game. Henry Anderson, who had 2.5 tackles for loss against the Ducks last year, might be ready to return after missing the past six games with a leg injury. Ben Gardner sat out the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against Oregon State with a recurring arm problem that leaves his status in question. Both Anderson and Gardner were second-team All-Pac-12 selections last season, when they combined for 27.5 tackles for loss.
88: Yards passing against Oregon State's mediocre defense by Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan, who passed for 211 yards against Oregon last year.
123: Receiving yards by Stanford tight ends against Oregon last year.
30: Receiving yards by Stanford tight ends this season.
4.41: Yards per play allowed by Oregon's defense this season, which is seventh best in the country and better than either Stanford or Alabama.

Makes your mouth water, don't it?
That's my story and I'm stickin' with it. More later.

Well, OK. That's just funny right there.
At least it's Miley amusing.

--KB

For Cougs, It'll Only Get Worse

BAD NEWS FOR WSU QB CONNOR HALLIDAY
HE'S GOING TO GET PICKED AND SACKED A LOT
From the Oregonian:

UO's defense hopes Washington State throws early, often and into mistakes

EUGENE – Unlike No. 2 Oregon, whose offense perplexes opponents with the duplicity of its read-option attack, teams coached by Mike Leach aren’t coy about their all-out passing strategy.
In his second season at Washington State, and despite an improved offensive line and running back corps, Leach still directs an offense living up to its “Air Raid” nickname. Even when defenders know what’s coming – in 2008 his Texas Tech team won 11 games while throwing 67 percent of the time -- it works.
No team has attempted more passes than WSU’s 339 this season, and the Cougars are 4-2, including a 2-2 Pac-12 record that started with a stunning road upset of USC.
“It’s one of those things that’s confoundingly simplistic,” Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said. “They can lock you into something and they’ll do it till you bleed.
“When they’re rolling, they’re rolling.”
When the one-dimensional Cougars hit trouble, however, they come to an immediate halt.
Though WSU quarterback Connor Halliday is as prolific as any Leach quarterback – he’s the only person in FBS to throw for 500 yards in a game this season – he’s more error-prone, too, by throwing an FBS-worst 13 interceptions. During Leach’s 10-season run at Texas Tech, his quarterbacks averaged 2.2 interceptions per 100 passes. Halliday’s interception rate is 3.8 percent. Forcing him into continued turnovers is a key for Oregon’s defense.
“Against Oregon State he was fine just chunking along, taking short-yardage gains and maybe taking a shot down the field once in a while and as soon as Oregon State got up, that’s when the wheels kind of fell off,” said Brian Anderson, a contributor to the WSU blog Cougcenter.com, which has detailed Halliday’s season in detail. “They were ‘what are you thinking?’ kind of balls.”
Halliday’s three interceptions on consecutive possessions against Oregon State last week turned just a seven-point deficit into a rout but were only the most recent examples of how his struggles are exacerbated when trailing -- and oddsmakers expect the 39-point underdog Cougars to trail a lot Saturday.
When trailing, his interception rate jumps to 6.5 percent as his completion percentage dips to 52.3 percent, symptoms of what Anderson calls “hero-ball.”
“He tries to score 14 points on every pass, and it’s just not possible,” Anderson said. [Can you blame a guy for just wanting it so bad?]
It started in the season-opening loss at Auburn. After the Tigers kicked a field goal to take a seven-point lead into the final quarter, Halliday led the Cougars within eight yards of a tying touchdown with 4 minutes remaining. Then he threw an interception. He’s thrown four picks this season when down seven points or fewer.
That trend offsets Halliday’s otherwise positive developments this season. His overall completion percentage has never been higher at 63.9 percent, and an incredible 10 WSU receivers have catches in five straight games. Vince Mayle and Dom Williams are Halliday’s go-to targets when throwing deep, but Gabe Marks is the all-around favorite, Anderson said.
“You can look at a route and say wow, that was not the right throw but maybe the guy broke the pattern off completely,” Helfrich said of Halliday. “He’s been a very efficient passer from what we’ve seen from him in the past.”
Though at times Leach has chastised the QB in postgame press conferences doing too much, he defended Halliday after the OSU loss.
“We had adversity, and it certainly wasn't just Connor,” Leach said. “He played two-thirds of the game real well. If he can play two-thirds of the game, he can do it a full game."
UO’s secondary starters have been tested a full game just once, though all-American candidate cornerbacks Terrance Mitchell and Ifo Ekpre-Olomu are up for the challenge.
Mitchell has three interceptions this season, and this week Washington coach Steve Sarkisian called Ekpre-Olomu “probably the best defensive player we've seen this season." The UO secondary has drawn a pass interference penalty in each game but one. Ekpre-Olomu said the receivers’ precision on tricky, shorter routes make this a particularly difficult group to cover.
“The secondary is going to have a lot of opportunities to make big plays,” Ekpre-Olomu said. “If we have a great pass rush and good coverage in the secondary we’ll be able to make a lot of plays but if we’re only doing one of those, Halliday is good enough to make us pay.”
So long as the Cougars aren’t trailing. [Oh, they'll be trailing.]

-- Andrew Greif

WORSE NEWS FOR HALLIDAY:
HE'S GOING TO GET PICKED AND SACKED A LOT BY GUYS WEARING PINK.
 

The Ducks will be wearing pink for breast cancer awareness.

 

 

Game time: Saturday evening 7pm Pacific on FoxSports1
--KB

Say it outloud Huskies. A DUCKADE.

Beaten Dawgs are Silent Dawgs. And Silent Dawgs are Good Dawgs.

 Let's just dwell on this achievement for a moment. Ten wins over Washington is by far the longest win streak between the two teams. In particular it is a monster of a streak for Oregon over the Huskies.

The next longest Oregon win streak over Washington? Four. From 1928 to 1931. Since then Oregon has never beaten Washington more than two times in a row on various occasions.

Over the past 100 years, Washington had one 7-game win streak, three streaks at 6, and one streak at 5. They're used to being the dominate team. So this streak, while pleasing and joyful for us Ducks, is Twilight Zone mind boggling for the Huskies.

It is by no means the longest streak of one team over another. Florida, for just one example, is currently enjoying a 27 game win streak over Kentucky. But it isn't just about the streak, it's about who is streaking whom.

Imagine if Kentucky got bit by a radioactive shoe manufacturer and suddenly hung 10 consecutive ass whoopin's on Florida.

Bitter Husky fans have sourly pointed out that it all changed when Phil Knight whipped out his checkbook and "bought" Nike U. But lots of schools including Washington have deep pocketed backers. And Husky fans didn't seem too embarrassed when they were the rich team.

The difference is it wasn't just about the money of one or two backers. It was a strong effort and unified focus of many people including three athletic directors,  four head coaches, and dozens of assistants. It was divided up in several phases stretched out over 20 years. And every step, indeed every win was cherished because Oregon remembers the old days, the low days, the "Dark days of the Purple Haze".

Oregon made a T-shirt to commemorate the milestone.  Would Washington have made a T-shirt for stretching a 10-win streak on the Ducks?

You know what's great about the answer? Ten years ago, the answer would've been 'no'.  But now, Seattle would have a parade with T-shirt cannons a-blazin' if Washington beat Oregon just once.

Although Washington has spun it's lower budgeted
improvements as Spartan and tasteful compared to
Oregon's excessive opulence, Coach Sarkisian is happy
to show off new Husky Stadium and facilities to Coach Helfrich.

Sark: "That's my office. It's got one of those Keurig single cup coffee makers."

Helf: "Wow, that's really nice Steve."

Sark: "Do you have one of those?"

Helf: "Uhh, nope .... No I don't."

Sark: "HA. Wait 'til my boosters hear that. You can't even make your own coffee!"

Helf: "Uhhh Ya, I ...uhhh... have it delivered in from a five-star restaurant."

Sark: "Whoa, that must take forever. Is it cold when it finally arrives."

Helf: "No .... um, the restaurant is actually down at the end of the hall."

Sark: .....(silent)......

Helf: "Hey uhh ... I should probably get back to my team now."

Sark: Ya OK Mark ..... I'll let you go ..... Five stars, huh?

Helf: "Hey forget about it, Steve. You have very nice facilities here."

Sark: Ya, thanks Mark. OK, see ya ................HEY MARK, I GOT WI-FI TOO!"

 

TOUGH ENOUGH?
Coach Sarkisian told his Huskies that they were the toughest team on the planet. And for five games including a nail biter loss at Stanford, they believed it. They could not wait to show Oregon who the tougher, more physical team was. The announcers bought into the hype, saying Oregon had yet to face a team as tough as Washington.

After the first scoring drive, Oregon's answer was, "True, maybe; but irrelevant." Washington's goal line defense held. Then it held again. And then . . . it didn't. And that was that. The Dawgs spent the rest of the day chasing Oregon's turbo sports car, but could never catch up.

WOULDN'T

QB Keith Price was sacked four times, hurried a bunch more, forced to throw the ball away or die on several occasions, and intercepted once. Oregon held Washington 50 yards below their rushing average and eclipsed their rushing-allowed average by 100 yards.

BE

Towards the end was a good news, bad news situation for the Huskies.
Good news: For the first time this season, they were the ones to finally force Marcus Mariota to set down his cup of Gatorade, strap on his helmet and play in the fourth quarter.  They should be commended for putting up stiff competition forcing the starters to play four quarters instead of three.

DE-

Bad news: Mariota played in the fourth quarter. And so did the top defense. The result was a 14-0 final frame. Showing mercy, the second string came in and kneeled in the final seconds inside the 5-yard line with a 21-point lead.


-NIED.

The tenth win, a 21-point lead, and the Ducks showed mercy. Ya, Oregon's not so tough.

THE OREGON WAY
In the excellent article The Ducks are finding their difficult practices can lead to perfection, Jason Quick wrote about the probable reason why Washington found Oregon unimpressed with all the tough talk. As fast as Washington played, Oregon took it all and gave back change.

Linebacker Derrick Malone shared what he tells new Duck recruits about Oregon's practices.
“I tell them it’s hard and that if you are not ready for it, don’t come here,’’ Malone said. “I tell them it’s the hardest thing you will ever experience and you will never experience anything else like it. I’m not going to lie to them. But I’m also going to tell them it’s the reason we are successful.’’

DON'T TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT,
BUT HE'S THE HEISMAN FRONT RUNNER
"I wouldn't say I'm unaware,'' Mariota says of the Heisman talk. "But I do my best not to pay attention.''

Marcus Mariota is a gem's gem. He is the quintessential All American that dads would gladly throw their daughters at. And he would throw the daughter right back with a perfect spiral. Back and forth, back and forth they would throw. . . the dad, his future son-in-law the All American, and a screaming dizzy girl.

It's not the passing with accuracy or the running with speed that makes him special, but its all that with a super cool and clear head. He is anti-Johnny Manziel (Did you notice no one calls him Johnny Football anymore?) -- all the talent without all the crap. His success is drawing attention as he has been name Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row.

His secret is in his humble, "Aw shucks, No I in team, Good Lord willin', Just here to play ball" style. He's grounded and introverted until he takes to the field. Then he's dangerous like Hannibal Lecter. He'll kill you without even raising his heart rate.

Here comes Mariota. And this time he's brought friends.

DAT A' BOY
DeAnthony Thomas, in this story, admitted he truly wasn't healed from his ankle injury enough to play last Saturday. And he may be questionable at best to play at home against WSU (I'm guessing it's safe for him to sit that one out.).

But his attitude is still in perfect form, as he shows in this comment about his quarterback:
When Thomas will return is anybody’s guess. But Thomas left no doubt about his importance. When asked if teammate Marcus Mariota was the best player in college football, Thomas didn’t hesitate.
“Yes ... beside myself,’’ Thomas said. “He is the best quarterback in the country, you can say that.’’


Next game:Washington State Saturday night 7pm Fox Sports 1

Greased Lightning, Baby

Washington is all woofin' and hollerin' and feeling like they got a really good team this year. And perhaps they do. They were undefeated before they lost to Stanford by a whisker.

Their rise to a more respectable level of performance came this year when they stopped huddling and sped up their offense. They spread their players a bit and started passing quick outs and screens to compliment their run attack.

Why yes, now that you mention it, that DOES sound kind of like Oregon. Very much like Oregon in fact. But don't say that to Husky fans. They get really really mad when you suggest anything other than it was their own idea and invention.

They also rebuilt their stadium and renovated the locker room. They couldn't do it on Oregon's level because, as one Washington booster put it,
"We don't have that one crackpot eccentric CEO that puts his money where his mouth is," Washington booster Jim Kenyon said.

Now who on earth is he talking about?

Washington's new locker rooms
boast Stainmaster carpets and
fun throw pillows for the boys.

It rings of the same bitter 'Jones chasing' and sour grapes that Washington coach Steve Sarkisian demonstrated when he spit out fireworks after the hard fought battle at #5 Stanford that fell short by three points. More on that later.

But for now, Washington's Keith Price is one of the best QB's in the league. And RB Bishop Sankey is the league's top rusher.  What ever are the Ducks to do?

When you need to just get a good idea who is going to win a football game, ask the experts in Vegas. They're the ones who set the odds; but more than that, they analyze the matchup, the trends, the history, and from all of that they come up with a magic number. In this case, Oregon by 14.

All but the most distempered Dawg fans agree that Oregon will win this relatively close game. But it's not satisfying enough for me. I need the "it" that makes the difference. I need to point at something that says, "THIS is why Oregon is going to go into a new Husky Stadium with freshly rabid fans and snuff out the Dawgs' hot streak like pee on their cigarette."

I read the tremendous amount of blah blah in the blogs. I read all the Vegas sites I could without paying for "inside hot tips". But no one could tell me exactly HOW the Ducks would be capable of separating themselves from an upsurgent Husky team.

Finally I looked at this post on Addicted to Quack. No, it didn't really have the answer either, but got me there.

It contained two scientific analysis of football teams: The FEI and the S+P.  FEI is the "advanced statistical measure that tracks drive efficiency instead of per-play-success."  S+P is the "advanced statistical measure which combines success rate, explosiveness per play and opponent adjustments."

Bottom line: Oregon is ranked significantly higher than Washington in almost every category of both measurements. And if I understood what the hell either one was talking about, all of that would mean something to me. Truth is, I got blurry eyed reading about it.

Then I went down to the comments section where someone brought up how the stats can be affected at the end of the game when the score gets out of hand and Oregon's 2nd and 3rd stringers come in. The writer responded that both of these measuring systems throw out garbage time.

Garbage time? . . . . THAT'S IT!!!

PINK SLIPS ON THE DASH.  IT'S GARBAGE TIME!
Oregon has not only blown out it's first five opponents, they've done it in three quarters every time. Washington hasn't. In at least three or four of their games, they had to leave their starters in to the end to score in the 30's.

One could say, well Oregon is in trouble then because their starters don't have fourth quarter experience. Sure you can make that argument, if you're an IDIOT.

What we have here in Oregon is a super charged hot rod. Say you have a Corvette Stingray, Mustang Cobra, Gran Torino, Dodge Charger, Chevy SS. . . . . Pick your beast. And at your high school, you have beaten every other kid you've dragged raced handily without even having to shift beyond third gear.

Now comes some bully from across the border who has been tinkering with his car. He's heard about some of the things you've done to your engine and tried copying them as best he can. He's won same races himself and now he's calling you out.

The race is on. You're lined up with this A-hole. His girlfriend stands between you two, ready to drop the scarf in her hand. It drops, and off you go. He's off to a great start, pulling ahead. He put everything into his gear ration and throttle to give himself the best starts.

Now it's neck and neck. Three quarters of the way to the end. It's anybody's race, until you do something that no one has ever seen you do before. Something that blows him away.

Fourth gear.

How silly must it be for Washington to study a scouting report and build a game plan around everything a serious Heisman candidate and his star entourage does in only three quarters?

Sure, computer programs can throw out fourth quarters and call them "garbage time". But football teams can't. Washington will have to play that fourth quarter.

This Saturday, fourth quarter, the Huskies will BE THE GARBAGE.



Oregon's yellow is called 'Lightning'.
This week it's 'Greased Lightning'.
Let's do this, Dawgs.

The Sarkisian Sulk
Last week at Stanford, the refs overturned a pass play that UW coach Sarkisian says shouldn't have been overturned. Sarkisian didn't watch the replay when he made this claim but he obviously didn't feel he had to. He was sure it was a bad call.

And then there was the alleged fake injury incident. Sarkisian accused Stanford of faking injuries to slow down play. For his trouble he got wicked rebuttals from Stanford's staff along with plenty of criticism from the media.

Oregon got a taste of that when Cal faked injuries and when USC deflated the footballs. The difference is Oregon won those games. And Chip Kelly responded very Kellyesque like when he said, "We don't care about that stuff. We're moving on." And I believe he would've said the exact same thing had the Ducks lost.

Sarkisian has no such class and maturity. Lost is the admirable performance of his players in the noise of his whining.


DUCKS AND COUGS UNITE FOR GAMEDAY!
If you've watched ESPN's early morning college show Gameday, where they show up at campuses of great games all over the country, you know that for the past 10 years the Washington State Cougars have represented with at least one Coug flag waving in the background.

According to this story, with Gameday's first visit ever to Seattle (First visit! Really Huskies? That's kinda sad.), the Huskies are worried that the Cougs might have an entire state full of Coug flags in the crowd. Combine that with Duck flags, Gameday could see "Operation Outnumber", where the number of Duck and Coug flags outnumber Dawg flags.

Wouldn't that ruin the Huskies party? Couldn't happen to a nicer team.

Game time Saturday, 1pm Pacific on Fox Sports 1, or Fox 1 Sports or whatever.

High Times in Boulder

First let me say this to all Pac-12 college football fans. If you want to go to an away game where you know you can have a good time, not be hassled and get the full classic and fun college football experience, go to CU.

Colorado is beautiful. The people are very nice. Boulder is every bit the college town with lots of eateries and drinkeries in and out of the city to choose from.

D.H. is one example of
the enjoyable Coloradoans we met.
Sober too. Not throwing up on my
shoes like a Wildcat or Cougar fan.

And speaking of shoes,
Nike has got NOTHING on those boots!!!

We went to "Ralphie's Corral", the official tailgating venue for Colorado across the street from Folsom Field. We discovered two things:

Colorado's pride and joy: Ralphie

1) It really was Ralphie's Corral. The buffalo was there in a corral with very pleasant and kind handlers to answer all of your buffalo questions (Betcha didn't know Ralphie was actually a girl buffalo from Montana!).

2) Duck fans were welcome and treated as guests. The green on our shirts didn't matter. The green in our wallets did. A barbecued sausage slice on a hoagie roll with pasta salad and potato chips was $10. Wash it down with a silver bullet of Colorado Champaign (Coors) for $6. Who's complaining? We were having fun.

Line to see Ralphie: Hundreds.

Line for beer at one of their many beverage stations: Four.
Is this a great place or what?!?!?!

It was nice to see that thousands of Duck fans took advantage of the nice atmosphere

These three neon clad characters were busy getting
asked for pics by Ducks, Buffs, and the media.

and perfect weather. Oregon really represented well to the surprise of many Colorado fans. And when I commented to CU fans how nice we were being treated, they acknowledged that our not being from Colorado State, Nebraska or Oklahoma had something to do with it.

Fair enough. I wouldn't let a Husky or Beaver fan within 10 yards of my corralled duck.  Plus I'd charge 'em 20 bucks for a Ninkasi.

THE GAME
Colorado did everything they had to do to win. Starting the game with an onside kick was brilliant. It didn't work, but that's irrelevant. Throwing long on their first offensive play, and often times after, put the Ducks on their heels in the first half. They gave Oregon plenty of game film to look at afterwards.

But the inevitable was coming. Everyone in the stadium knew it. Once Oregon got rolling, the Buff crowd resigned and settled into a more philosophical comfort zone. What gets me is the reputation that is proceeding Oregon these days.

In a story from Denver TV station Fox31 about the fans' reaction to being back for the first home game since the flooding, one student said,
“It’s great that we can regroup so well,” said CU student Paige Leuschner. ”It’s like life’s back to normal after such a crazy event.”
On this day it was the crowd that went crazy, thanks to a fast start from the team.
“We’ve scored. We’ve scored against Oregon,” Leuschner said, as the Buffs took an early 10-8 lead. ”That’s fantastic.”
Yes, apparently it is FANTASTIC these days to score on Oregon. It's enough to make you forget all your troubles. 

Mariota getting EXCELLENT protection.

Center Hroniss Grasu and the rest of
the offensive line don't get enough credit.

I sensed other widespread acknowledgement that what the Ducks were doing was real. We Oregon fans can talk amongst ourselves and shake our heads up and down like rear window doggies (Kids under 30, ask your parents what I'm referring to.). But to have it noticed by people who had experienced there own championship caliber team in the 80's and 90's, it confirmed for me that Oregon is on a real path and not just a hot streak.

Buffs couldn't pull down #1.

AN OUT-OF-THE-URINARY CONVERSATION
One example was at halftime. Above the West side and connected to the stadium was an older covered indoor track building that had one set of bathrooms. Only one was needed for the men because it had a bunch of those old, long, heavy curved porcelain, multi-user pee troughs that get snake holders in and out in a jiffy.

I sided up next to one CU fan (Caution: The remainder of this story contains graphic language about men peeing.). He was looking up, reading something on the wall. They had interesting football trivia up there like the history of the "red shirt" and other stuff like that.

Anyway he was looking up and reading. I looked down and noticed a cigarette pack in the trough between us.  I said, "Oh THAT'S where I left my cigarettes."

He looked down after a couple of seconds, saw the pack and laughed. "Nice," he replied.

We stood there continuing our business side-by-side. My prostate had decided to stretch it's legs that day, so I was taking my time.

Then suddenly he turns, looks straight at me, and says, "Promise me, please, that you'll beat the sh!t out of Alabama."

I looked at him. His eyes were filled with pain. All the SEC BS. All that Crimson Tide noise. Nick Saban anointing himself the Pope of Football. It was all there, welled up. 

We held the stare for a couple more seconds until I smiled, nodded my head and said, "Ya . . . . Ya . . . . You got it."

Then we both looked back down; and without any cue, we crossed streams. It was a beautiful inter-Pac-12 moment. A brotherhood.

As we walked out I was hoping to find a Tide fan right there to hold down and let my new friend kick the bastard in the ribs.

MARIOTA FOR HEISMAN? DON'T ASK MARIOTA.
The second half went as all second halves have this season. Once the blowout was on, Mariota sat down in the third quarter after finishing 16 of 27 for 355 yards, five touchdowns passing, two touchdowns rushing, and zero interceptions. The focus to win the Natty is so great, he won't finish a game to ring up ungodly numbers if he doesn't have to. The rule is to save him for the next game and let the Heisman go to somebody else.

The Denver Post's Terry Frei did well to capture Mariota's humility as well as Coach Helfrich's priorities in this article: "Mariota could strike the pose".

A TIME OF HATE?
You know what Ducks call this week, don't you? This is "Hate Week". The days leading up to the game against the Washington Huskies.

But after beating Washington nine consecutive times, must we still hate them? Given this time of bewildering violence in our world, must we still direct enmity to our fellow lovers of college football? Our Northwest brethren? 

Perhaps it's time to just appreciate them as a worthy opponent, as kindred sports spirits. They do, after all, have a couple of former Ducks on their coaching staff. Perhaps it's time to be the bigger team and say to Washington that respect and appreciation will be the mantra this Saturday.

Let us dispense with the shallow pettiness and open a new era of decency, sportsmanship and mutual admiration with Washington. Let us take the hands of our enemy and declare them our friend. . . . .


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Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. HUCK THE FUSKIES!!!!!!
This season they find themselves with updated bathrooms, new carpeting, and an OK team; and suddenly they act like they're already world champions. The annoying. The incessant. The loud, slobbery, bad breathy BARKING echoing off the Northern Cascades. It's so painful to hear.

I've said it 100 times before, and I'll say it as many times as necessary this week:
The only way to shut up barking Dawgs is to BEAT 'EM!!!


More later,
KB

In Colorado

Buffalo. It's what's for dinner.

Ten reasons why Oregon will beat Colorado Saturday afternoon.

1: Oregon is better in every category.

2: Seriously? You need nine more reasons?

It's no knock against the Buffs. They're a rebuilding team. I commend them and their new coach Mike MacIntyre for joining the ranks of the no-huddle teams and changing the way football is played. They're on their way to becoming better.

But they're not there yet. The three week layoff forced on them because of the devastating flood in the Boulder area messed them up. Colorado was not in sync as they got blown out by Oregon State 44-17 last week.

If Colorado's fans need another reason to attend this game (And they do.), it would be the halftime activity.

Former legendary coach and original Promise Keeper Bill McCartney will be honored for his legendariness and Promise Keeping. Coloradoans love him for his 12 years and 93-55-5 record as the Buffs head coach as well as his evangelical ministries.

So Buffalo fans will be able to harken back to fond memories from the previous century while the Ducks butcher their present team like so much livestock.

Bill McCartney celebrating Colorado's 1990
Orange Bowl win to earn them a share of
the National Championship.

WHO ELSE WILL BE AT THE GAME?

Why yours truly. As I write this I am in Colorado visiting family and sharing my testimony with them and any other lost souls of the High Plains who need to hear the good news about the Ducks.

With the "smoke it if you got it" lax marijuana laws here, I am also excited to visit the Colorado campus and see what a LEGALLY stoned student body is like.

Game time Saturday, 3pm Pacific on the Pac-12 Network. Don't know if you get the Pac-12? Check your local listings; or if you are a Direct TV subscriber, call Direct TV and tell them they suck.

More later,

KB