Is That Big Enough for You?

I was watching Oregon State host Portland State and was stunned how terrible the Beavs played. As The Oregonian's Ken Goe put it:

PSU gave sloppy Oregon State all sorts of trouble, led after a half, and if not for four third-quarter turnovers, the Vikings might have slapped OSU with another in a series of season-opening embarrassments.

Rusty. Unprepared. Like several previous years, they weren't ready to start the season. And not just them. Washington struggled against Hawaii. Washington State lost. I started worrying. What if the Ducks come out the same way? It took them exactly 1 minute, 30 seconds to answer that question.

The Ducks were like a hot rod sitting in a garage all summer, getting tuned, timed, revved, retuned, retimed, until finally they got out on the road. They came out, all pistons firing, not perfectly; but plenty well enough to bury the needle.

And the Coyotes.

Through the off season, I've had a dim view of two key players. RB Byron Marshall and QB Jeff Lockie.



Marshall made one dumb mistake. As he
crossed the goal line he slowed down and
dropped the ball on the 1-yard line. It got
kicked into to the endzone for a
touchback. Marshall was clearly embarrassed
and I don't anticipate him doing that again.
Hey Marshall, it's a finish line, not a goal line.
Run through the tape!

Marshall, I felt, went down on a first hit. Sure he was a thousand yard rusher; but he picked up so many of his yards in scrub time. He never once reminded me of LaMichael James or Kenyon Barner. He never fought through blocks. He would stop, hesitate and get tackled for a loss far too often. I just assumed he would be in the mix of Thomas Tyner and Royce Freeman until they showed they were better, then Marshall would start carrying a clip board. Saturday, I was so delighted when he proved me wrong.

Not only did he master the running lanes, but he proved to be the Ducks top receiver as well. The spotlight is on him. He is no longer in anyone's shadow. And he appears to be taking advantage of the moment. As a junior, he is the veteran old man of the running corps. And he did a phenomenal job of showing his protégés how to be solid contributors.

Jeff Lockie got the number two QB spot by default. After the Spring scrimmage, I was disappointed when Jake Rodrigues left the team. I thought he had edged ahead as the better QB over Lockie. When Rodriquez quit, I feared that the lack of competition

Lockie looked great.

would leave Mariota with and unreliable backup. But Saturday, Lockie looked 100 percent better than last season.  Throwing 11 out of 12 for 113 yards and a TD, he showed poise and moxie. He moved the team again and again. He even executed a perfect triple option for a TD.

And then there were the youngsters.

Thomas Tyner rushed 11 times for 65 yards. Freshman Royce Freeman had 10 carries for 75 yards and two scores. But more than that, they fanned out and became receivers. Tyner had three catches, Freeman one. And Marshall led all receivers with eight receptions for 138 yards and two scores. That's three 200-plus pound power runners with a dozen catches.

Again and again I saw the two backs behind Mariota take a fake handoff and then look for the open spot in the field along with the other receivers. And, lo and behold, at that moment, Oregon's run option offense suddenly looked more like a 'run and shoot', with Mariota just looking for the open man.

I'm telling you, I had never been this excited over an offensive setup since Rich Brooks' "Swinging Gate". And all the credit has to go to Coach Helfrich, Offensive Coordinator Scott Frost, and Passing Game Coordinator Matt Lubick. No doubt they sat down over the offseason and decided to get their running backs used to the idea of catching passes.

When it all was clicking, Mariota didn't have to run as much and only needed to allow himself an open space in the pocket to deliver the ball. 

MEET THE NEW 6. SAME AS THE OLD 6?!?

Another nice surprise was the freshman wearing DeAnthony Thomas' old number. Charles Nelson, a 5'9", 170 pound wide receiver from Florida fielded a punt and returned it untouched for a TD. He's so new, he doesn't even have a roster portrait yet. I had to find a pic of him on Google.
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Oh Charles. You're such a cut up.

SO ARE ALL THESE YOUNG GUYS READY FOR MICHIGAN STATE?
Why sure they are! Why wouldn't they be?!?

All Michigan State did was beat the one team that has beaten Oregon two years in a row. Michigan State is Super Stanford. They can do anything Stanford can do, and better.

An article in USA Today said this:
"Their nemesis, their kryptonite in recent years has been Stanford," [said Fox Analyst Charles] Davis said of Oregon, bringing Superman into the discussion. "What's Stanford's style of play? Heavy-duty running the ball on offense, being extremely physical, excellent tackling team on defense, which makes you run more plays. All those yards after catch, yards after contact, open-field plays that Oregon's used to getting, that hidden yardage, they weren't getting against Stanford.

"So for Oregon to win the Pac-12, they have to beat Stanford. They know that, they have to get past that hump. For Oregon to clearly get into that playoff consideration and have the chance to be an undefeated team, they have to beat Stanford twice this year. And what I mean by that is, Michigan State is Stanford."

The Spartans are coming in confident and looking forward to making the statement that they're for real. The spread has Oregon favored by 12. Autzen certainly has something to do with that. Give the Autzen crowd credit last week when Oregon was up by 49 points with two minutes left in the game. South Dakota was in the red zone and trying to score once more for pride. The fans were still in the stands and screaming loud. The 'Yotes failed to score.

There is one more factor that the oddsmakers mention only in passing, but I think is very important. Oregon has lost to Stanford twice. In 2012, they beat a freshman Mariota. In 2013, they beat an injured Mariota. This year let's see how Michigan State and hopefully Stanford do against a healthy and veteran Mariota.

That is explanation enough for the double digit point spread. But the Wall Street Journal's "Prediction Machine" (Cute) went even farther in this write-up saying that Michigan State simply won't be able to keep up with Oregon through the whole game. We've seen that before.

So more about that Mariota factor. This is what I'm talking about. . . .

Gametime at 3:30 Pacific on Fox.

And don't forget Gameday at 6 a.m. Pacific.

--KB