It's not complicated.

It's real simple. Beat Stanford, and Oregon is a legitimate playoff candidate. Don't, and they're not. Beat a Stanford team that currently owns Oregon; Conquer a foe that has it's same cinder block defense and a new revamped offense. Prove, FINALLY, that they can get past their toughest nemesis.

Yes, Stanford has a new offense. They don't have quite the behemoth running back that they've had in the past, or the overwhelming offensive line to clear his path. Their line is still plenty good. But now they're better for pass protection, which is what QB Kevin Hogan is doing these days.

What's more, they're spreading their offense more. And they've even run a couple of plays in succession without huddling. Cardinal coach David Shaw ain't no fool. After three losses, he changed his offense to work better for his personnel. Here's how SI put it in their story, STANFORD TRYING TO UPEND OREGON IN A NEW WAY. . . . .
The Cardinal passed more to offset a young offensive line that has struggled to block in the run game. They ran more to the outside than between the tackles because the running backs are faster and shiftier than the physical bulldozers on past teams. And they opted for a no-huddle offense, at times, to speed up the tempo for quarterback Kevin Hogan - who seems to thrive in a quicker pace.
Stanford also created more touches for top playmaker Ty Montgomery, promising freshman Christian McCaffrey and deep-ball threat Michael Rector. And it spread the ball around more to utilize all of the team's threats, including wide receivers Devon Cajuste and Jordan Pratt and a trio of blossoming tight ends.
What players found is the offense actually got simpler, allowing them to think quicker and play faster.
''We recognized that something needed to change,'' Hogan said, ''and I think it changed for the better.''
The quick-strike approach is still in its infancy, though, and the sample size is limited. What worked against an overmatched Oregon State team might not work against an Oregon team that can score as fast as anybody.
Shaw got Stanford's new offense humming at a terrible time for Oregon State. Stanford crushed the Beavs 38-14 last week. But that thrashing also gave Oregon some valuable game film. So what will it be like when Stanford comes to Autzen playing a more Oregon style of offense?

The perfect guy to ask is Nick Aliotti. You will recall he retired last year and is currently a commentator for the Pac-12 Network. Or to put it another way, he traded in his whistle for the right to speak his damn mind and say whatever the hell he wants. ("USC is soft!" "OSU's offense has become predictable.")

Here, in John Canzano's column, Aliotti answered a few questions about Stanford bringing a read-option to Oregon.
On why teams still struggle against the read option:

"Sometimes it's one-on-one battles, but often times it's people just don't know how they're going to defend that play. (At Oregon) we had a standard way going in so that there was no mistake on who had the quarterback and who had the dive... we always had a rule. We see it every day (in practice). If Stanford runs that against Oregon, that should not be a problem. Stanford's typically been a line-up, smash-mouth, play-action pass, but I'm not just seeing that at all."

Why has David Shaw adjusted on offense?

"I think they don't like their back not being a (Tyler) Gaffney, a (Toby) Gerhart, a Stepfan Taylor... they don't have that guy. The most carries any back has had in a game for Stanford is 14 --- unheard of. And I'm not sure they're in love with their offensive line even though they're all five-star Generals. They're not playing like five-star Generals.

"I don't think they like their running backs... they don't have THAT guy and their O-line has been very average. I think David Shaw doesn't want to do what he's doing now.... they're the same as everyone else, but without the up-tempo offense, so in my opinion they become easier to defend."

Stanford had been able to handle Oregon lately because their offense was both very good and very different from what the Ducks were used to facing. Their defense was also a huge factor in limiting Oregon's scoring.

Hopefully the difference this year for Oregon is an offensive line almost back to full strength, a key player back for the defensive line, Stanford attempting to play a style that Oregon is used to, and most importantly, a healthy and smarter Marcus Mariota.

C'mon Ducks.
This ain't no
office Halloween party.
This is Stanford!

People may forget it wasn't very long ago that Oregon handled a tough and talented Michigan State team. And after that win, everybody said, "That proves it. Oregon can finally beat Stanford.

Well, here they are. They proved they could win those kind of games. Now they just have to do it. It's that simple.

Game time: Saturday 4:30 Pacific on FOX

Putting the Dawgs Down

Ten years had to be enough for Washington. And to top it off, they had to come to Autzen and have Oregon's 20-year old highlight rubbed in their faces. Who was Kenny Wheaton anyway?

Half of those players probably weren't even born when Wheaton caught that "INTERCEPTION . . . . INTERCEPTION . . . ".

Coming in to Saturday's game, Washington was 5-1, which ironically was their record on that fateful day 20 years ago. They were playing well. Cyler Miles is a seasoned QB. Good running back. Big defensive line.

This was the perfect time for Washington to get off the mat and wallop Oregon.

Naaaa.

Have the Ducks finally broken the Huskies? This had to be the worst Dawg show I had ever seen. They were toothless. Heartless. Mangy. Droopy. Submissive. Neutered.

In all my years, I have never seen a Duck win over the
Huskies get so boring that the kids broke at the
inflatable beer pong.

New coach Chris Petersen's hiring to lead Washington was popular partly because his BS Broncos had beaten Oregon twice. He was in the perfect position to tell his team, "The streak ends NOW!"  Days before the game, he was asked if his team was fired up for this game. His answer:
 “Hard for me to know. I know about the Oregon-Washington stuff, but that’s not my focus, getting them fired up. To me, this needs to be about us. We’ve got (to play) a really good team — one of the better teams in the country, if not one of the best in the country, for sure. So what are we going to do? We know what they’re going to do. We know how good and how hard they’re going to play. What can we do? So I always want this to be back on us, the focus on us: ‘Are you doing the best you can do?’”

Pragmatic and honest. But not exactly the stuff of Bear Bryant . His team certainly answered his question for him.

The Oregonian's Jason Quick wrote a great article, DUCKS BEAT HUSKIES, WHO RETURN TO IRRELEVANCY WITH A LAUGH. Here's the first part . . .
EUGENE — These days, the path to irrelevancy has become so well-worn by the Washington Huskies that near the end of Saturday's 45-20 beatdown by the Oregon Ducks, it apparently has become a laughing matter.
With 4:30 left in a game well out of hand, junior defensive back Marcus Peters and  senior defensive back Travell Dixon stood beyond the 35-yard-line on the Huskies sideline and had quite a knee-slapping chuckle.
Peters, who is one of the Huskies better players, but has been suspended and off limits to media the past three weeks, acted as if he was dealing dollar bills into the air, one after the other like a blackjack dealer. Dixon, who didn't play a down, thought that was funny, and exchanged a couple quick slaps of the hand with Peters.
It went on and on for the rest of the 4:33. Smiles. Laughs. A couple index-finger-to- the-eyebrow salutes by Peters.
Never mind the closing minutes included more of Oregon continuing the bludgeoning of their teammates on the field, eventually settling for a field goal after Oregon true freshman Royce Freeman had his fifth touchdown negated by a penalty.
I asked first-year Huskies coach Chris Petersen what he thought of players on his sideline yucking it up during a bloodbath.
"It depends what you are talking about, and what they are laughing at,'' Petersen said. "But I don't think anyone thought that game was funny the way it turned out.''

Credit two things to Oregon's total domination. First, the team continues to heal and improve, especially the offensive line. Jake Fisher is solidly back, and the entire unit is light years beyond those terrible games against WSU and Arizona. Their success was Mariota's and Royce Freeman's success. We had never seen a better display of straight-up-the-middle runs this season.

The second key was the defense's success in shutting down the meat and potatoes of Washington's offense. Rob Moseley of goducks.com explained it well in his story, DEFENSE SWARMS HUSKIES, SHUTS DOWN RUNNING GAME. Here is an excerpt:
While the Oregon offense displayed impressive versatility in beating Washington 45-20 on Saturday, the UO defense kept the Huskies from doing so when they had the ball. While helping the Ducks forge a 35-6 lead through the first 40 minutes, Oregon all but shut down the UW rushing game and also coaxed quarterback Cyler Miles into his first interception of the season.

The return of defensive end Arik Armstead from injury had a big impact. He and the rest of the 'D' forced Washington into a lot of third and longs.

It all contributed to the Ducks making Washington look downright terrible. Before the game I was nervous over whether Oregon could continue the streak. I never imagined win #11 would turn out to be one of the most dominant.

Good News for Cal. They can lose and no one will notice.
Cal throws much like Washington State did. But they have no defense. Limit their passing, and Oregon will sweep them into the Bay. But the real question is, If a Duck quacks in the Bay, and no one is there to listen, does it make a sound?

Who in SF is going to even notice?  They're playing at the 49er's Levi Stadium -- far away from the Cal Berkley campus. That'll reduce their gate.

What's more, at game time the city of San Francisco might be distracted by their Giants playing across town in the World Series.
How bad is it for Cal? (I kid you not.) They were selling tickets to the Oregon game cheap through Groupon.

Maybe Cal should tell it's fans they can get Wi-Fi
in Levi Stadium so they can watch the World Series
once Oregon starts pulling away.

Why win when you can be unique?
Cal Coach Sonny Dykes, when asked by John Canzano in this story, had this to say about recruiting and those kids who choose to go to Oregon because of their fancy uniforms.
"That's where you're going to go to college, that's where you're going to get your education," Dykes said. "There's a lot of factors that I think are a lot more important factors than what you're going to wear 12 Saturdays a year. But, you know, kids like those things.
"The thing about it is, at Cal, we're a unique university. Academics are going to be a big thing here. Kids who come to Cal are going to have to work really hard. The type of kids we recruit, typically, the uniforms aren't going to matter that much."
That's really good Sonny. You should be proud. No really. Hopefully that'll work for you to turn around your current 5-14 record at Cal.

In other news, another 4-star quarterback just committed to the Ducks. Meanwhile two other 5-star recruits each just narrowed their choices to a handful of teams including possibly Oregon and definitely not Cal.

Nevertheless he's right. It's not about fancy uniforms. It's about identifying with a program that cares about feeling like winners, looking like winners, training like winners, acting like winners, and just being winners.

Texas A-holes & Morons


I'll give you something
to salute, you
jack booted freak.

This just in. Another SEC team backs out of a scheduled home-and-home series against Oregon. Here's a link to the story.Texas A&M won't play Oregon in 2018, 2019 football series
Hey Saggies, stick your jack boots up your chicken sh!t asses. I am sick of these top tiered teams canceling their commitments to come out West and play at Autzen. Mark my words, the Saggies will replace those dates with weak patsies like Furman, Weber State, Presbyterian, or Washington.

Game time FRIDAY EVENING, 7:15 Pacific on Fox Sports 1

--KB

Washington at Oregon 1994. As I remember it.

]\

It was a sunny October day in 1994. Perfect football weather in Eugene. I don't remember where I got my two tickets to the game. They were hard to come by because Washington fans usually bought up most of them.

THE WAY IT WAS . . . AND COULD BE AGAIN.
The 80's and 90's were the Dark Days of the Purple Haze when Huskies would come down to Eugene and fill no less than 51% of Autzen Stadium. The Dawgs had won their mythical national championship just a few years before this game. At the end of that year, they were #1 in one poll while the Miami Hurricanes topped another. The Huskies thought it was good enough, so they crowned themselves king and made themselves a National Championship flag to fly over their stadium.

 

During that time, they were beating everybody, especially the Ducks. Sure we had nipped back at them a few times over the years, but they were the dominant force in the football galaxy and they lorded over us like we were their peasants. Whenever their fans trekked down to Eugene in their massive army of travel trailers, you often saw a popular sticker on their bumpers:
"WE'RE NOT ARROGANT. WE'RE JUST BETTER THAN YOU."

Their collective superior attitude swelled. In all my years, I could never have a conversation with a Husky fan without him or her scoffing, bragging, belittling, or sometimes just swearing in my face.

The morning of this game was no different. I believed that my tickets could have been in a particularly Husky-held part of the stadium. As I and my wife walked around the tailgate area, I came across several Huskies talking loud, complaining about their seats in particular and the puniness of Autzen in general. I walked up to one particularly loud meathead in a purple lettermen's jacket and offered to trade.

I said, "I think these will be better seats for you."

HIs reply, "They better be or I'll come back and find you and kick your ass."

I wasn't at all shocked by his reply. In those days, that was a typical conversation with a Dawg fan. This was life under the dominance of the Washington Huskies. It was like the Romans over the Jews. African Americans in the Deep South. The Germans over the Jews. The New Worlders over the Indians. Everybody over the Jews.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not comparing Oregon and Washington's football rivalry to the catastrophic dehumanizing plight of the Jewish or Native or African American peoples.  I mean granted, there were no fire hoses and German Shepherds; and they didn't make us build pyramids or smash our glass storefronts and haul us by train to our tortured deaths. But a few years before, the Husky marching band stood in the middle of Autzen and played Oregon's fight song in a waltz. I mean . . . . who does that? Have they no shred of decency?

Now let me just make one other side note here before I continue with my story: The day that we EVER let the Dawgs win again -- just one game -- we will see that attitude come right back as if they had never lost. Mark my words.

Get your commemorative jersey now
at The Duck Store.

FRONT AND CENTER TO A MIRACLE
That ticket trade proved very fateful, as they put us right in the corner and just a few rows up from where the miracle would happen. The Pick. Or as I had always called it after seeing it with my own eyes -- The Immaculate Interception.

But this trade for my new seats did nothing to get us away from Husky fans. We were surrounded -- literally surrounded -- by purple in our own stadium. Being a nice guy, I tried to strike up conversations. But I was always met with condescending and critical feedback about what Oregon's problem is, what we did wrong, why Washington is better.

 

At one point in the fourth quarter I was able to get in a good jab in the tight back-and-forth contest when Washington was FINALLY called for holding. I said to one Dawg fan who had decided early he would give me no measure of respect for the Ducks, "Best not hold a Duck or you might get something nasty in your lap."

 

I know. Corny. But it was all I had at the time. Made him and the other purple people laugh though.

 

AND THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED

The following is the first of three nice videos compiled by 'keeerrrttt' of approximately the final 5:20 minutes of the game. In it, Washington had just scored to take the lead. But Oregon engineered a drive and a heroic performance by Danny "Boy" O'neal, Patrick Johnson, Dino Philyaw, Ricky Whittle, Dameron Ricketts, and a little used fullback named Dwayne Jones. It started out terrible when Johnson fielded the kickoff at the two and slipped on one knee to be called down right there. Deep in Husky territory, Coach Rich Brooks made a very gutsy unBrooks-like call when he said to his young offensive coordinator Mike Bellotti: "Come out throwing."

 

This is "The Drive".

 

 

 But Washington wasn't finished. And they were Washington. They were used to winning. They expected to win -- especially against Oregon. They had all the time in the world. Their objective was to score while letting all the air out of the clock, leaving the Ducks to suffocate in yet one more defeat in their bizzaro world where the Dawg was the Master.  At the end of this video, Washington is 1st and goal to take the lead with just over a minute to go. Oregon calls timeout to take a breath.

 

 

Patient, planned, successful. Washinton's drive had all the feel of "The Empire Strikes Back". During that timeout, I saw something I would never forget.  I was watching the Husky man in front of me to whom I had made the "Holding a Duck" joke. He made a strange motion I had seen in only one other place a hundred times. During this timeout, he clapped his hands together and rubbed them in gleeful anticipation.

 

Where had I seen that before? It was where we all had seen it before.
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Remember? The ending of every Flintstones episode where Fred orders one family-sized serving of Brontosaurus Ribs. Then he rubs his hands together in anticipation. I watched this Husky guy do just that as the teams came out of the timeout.  

 

I saw the Huskies line up. I watched Damon Huard drop back and look to his left. He threw. I looked over at his target. And in slow motion, I watched Kenny see that ball leave Huard's hand and run to it like it was his all along. He said afterward that he had seen that play on film and watched it all day. He was willing to bet the receiver wasn't going to hook and go. He knew if the ball came his way, he would at least be able to knock it down. He was just waiting for it. . . .

 

 

After Kenny Wheaton scored, I remember something happening to me that I had later heard other men in the stands had experienced. I remember my wife wiping tears out of my eyes. You see, that play wasn't just a last-minute game changer. It was a decades long chain breaker.

Kenny could've just knocked it down. He could've picked it and run out of bounds to let Oregon run out the clock. But his run back, his direction shift, his blowing past Washington's great QB to score the out-of-reach touchdown -- all of that was the haymaker punch to our tormentors that served as an announcement that the Duck/Husky relationship had hereby changed. Kenny didn't know it at the time. None of us did. But looking back at it now, that WAS the moment when the Dark Days of the Purple Haze had ended.

 

And as for Fred Flintstone Husky? This time he did something totally different with his hand. He reached out to me, shook mine and said, "Good game." And he quietly left.

 

One other thing, when the Oregon players piled on Kenny in that endzone and the refs announced the penalty against them for excessive celebrating, I stood up and shouted for all the purple people around me to hear. . . .
"WE WILL TAKE THAT PENALTY WITH PLEASURE."

 

Here we are 20 years later. Throw the flag, ref. We're still celebrating.

 

 

BUT WAIT, WHAT ABOUT . . . . .
Now I know what you're thinking, and you're right. "Nice videos KB; but it's just not the same without Jerry Allen shouting the play".

 

Well luckily I found this gem on Youtube. It is exactly how I had always imagined it.


11, because it's one better than 10
So today, Oregon marches on to keep this a Husky-free Northwest. It these last 20 years, Oregon had beaten the Dawgs an incredible 15 times. As for this present win streak,  we beat Washinton's longest win streaks over Oregon at seven. At eight, we reached the mark where two whole generations of 4-year Husky students had never seen their team beat the Ducks. Last year, we reached an even 'Duckade' at 10. To win an even dozen next year would mean we would blank three whole generations of Husky students.

So what is the significance of 11? Let me offer you the one person who is an expert on 11. That's right. I give you Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap:


Go Ducks. Crank it to 11.
-KB

 

Making the football gods proud.

 Well if that wasn't a case of separating the wheat from the chaff . . . . This win had as much to do with UCLA showing their true selves as Oregon finding theirs.

The Oregonian's Ken Goe said so much when he commented in his video blog:

-- For most of Oregon's 42-30 victory over UCLA on Saturday in the Rose Bowl, the Ducks looked like they did during their 2010 run to the BCS Championship Game.
They had UCLA's defense on its heels. They ran the ball with authority and passed on their terms.
The opportunistic UO defense bent a little, but compensated with big plays.
If the Ducks keep playing like that, they have the inside track to the Pac-12 title. Win that, and they have a shot to make it into the first College Football Playoff.

Hundley lays ball on the carpet.

-- UCLA didn't look like a contender, leaving me to believe the Bruins have been severely overrated.
I don't think UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley bears much resemblance to a first-round draft choice either.
He is a big guy with some sizzle as a runner. But when he looked to pass, I thought it was advantage defense. If I were advising Hundley, I would suggest another year at the college level.

No doubt the Ducks played better this week than last week against Arizona. The running backs ran with purpose. Mariota ran more (Was he healthier? Did UCLA's defense allow him more running opportunities than 'Zona's? Hard to say.).



Whenever Pharaoh Brown is
in the picture, others are sent flying.

But one thing behind this sudden turn around was that the offensive line got back a key injured starter in Jake Fisher. And they doubled down on their training to improve as a unit, albeit a patchworked injured one. The offensive line played better, and magically that makes everything better.

To prove that point further, one only had to watch USC at Arizona later that evening. USC, without any special tricks or gimmicks, went to Arizona and flat out-footballed them. And probably the biggest difference for the Wildcats between that game and their victory in Eugene was that USC's offensive line was quite healthy, deep and sizeable.

The Trojans have probably two of the biggest offensive tackles in the league. All night they were blowing 'Cats off the line. Arizona played about as well as they did in Eugene, but they couldn't stop USC's running game. They couldn't touch USC's quarterback. Are USC's running backs and QB's any better than than Oregon's?

HELL NO!

But they certainly performed better behind that solid offensive line.

The same could be said for Oregon's performance at UCLA. You can say that Mariota and the RB's performed better. But that wouldn't have been possible had the offensive line not significantly improved.

It's looking at games like these that make me realize coaches like Vince Lombardi and Knute Rockne are still right all these years later. It begins and ends with your linemen.

They would've been proud of Oregon last Saturday.

What is it?

"Some kind of probe.
They definitely know we're here."

Wonderful, Joyful, Lovely Hate Week
This is the week when we gather our children and loved ones together to share stories of our hatred and laughter of our dominance of the Huskies.Ten years in a row, we have kicked their asses.

Of the ten, which victory was my favorite? Oh such a question. That's like asking which is your favorite child. To me, they're all very special in their own way.

We'll celebrate the hate more later in the week. But for now here's a photo album of each of those precious wins.

More later.
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OUT TAKE

Ken Goe doesn't do his video blogs from his back deck too often
because he has a weird neighbor (He calls himself Iron Duck) who
constantly photobombs the shot.

--KB

System (Temporarily?) Offline

As I was watching Arizona control the game, I was expecting a window to pop up at the bottom of my screen saying,

"The Oregon offense has unexpectedly quit. The program will close now."

Quick, somebody hit 'Restart'!

The next day when we all gathered around the water cooler to ask "What happened?", our autopsies revealed several things.

THE OFFENSIVE LINE IS IN SHAMBLES.
This was the most glaring of problems. For whatever reason -- injuries, inexperience, betting against the spread -- the offensive line no longer functioned properly. Mariota had been sacked seven times at Pullman, and five times against the Cats. The running game had stalled to average only 3.5 yards per carry.

THE DUCKS OFFENSE HAS BECOME UNRECOGNIZABLE.
The defense was now carrying the load against very prolific teams.

MARIOTA WAS HURT AGAIN.
 Where? How bad? No one was saying. He was asked about it on Tuesday and brushed it off as "typical football stuff". "You kind of get banged up through the years and you just have to fight through it," he said. For all we know he could be paraplegic and they wouldn't tell us.

THE COACHES WERE OUTCOACHED.
 Mark Helfrich said several elements of the offense, namely the offensive line and receivers, were miscommunicating and not on the same page. 

"That's on me," he said. Darn right that's on you, Coach. The worst indictment you can say against any coach in any sport is if his or her team comes out unprepared. Even with a few extra days practice, they looked woefully unprepared for this matchup.
 
THE DEFENSE WAS QUESTIONABLE AT BEST.
 Some have said that Don Pellum doesn't know what he's doing, never mind that he was a genius against Michigan State. Holding Arizona to 31 points is actually pretty good. And they wouldn't have scored that last touchdown had it not been for . . . . .

TONY WASHINGTON, who may only be less of a bonehead than the ref who flagged him.

Take a bow, Tony.
On second thought, don't.

Oregon stopped Arizona's drive in the fourth quarter. Lineman Tony Washington took a bow, just like he had done the week before in Pullman and nothing happened. This time the ref penalized him for unsportsmanlike conduct, gave the Cats the ball back with first and goal and they scored the winning touchdown.

If you're upset with him, you need to know he was upset at himself. From Oregon's practice report on Monday:
Oregon’s loss can’t be chalked up to any one play; the team has acknowledged as much, and Washington did so as well. Still, he told his teammates, “what hurts me the most is, I feel like I put myself ahead of the team.” In an interview with media afterward, Washington again took ownership for his mistake. “Celebrate with your teammates, and I didn’t do that,” he said.

But Washington’s message to the team went beyond that. He spoke of not letting the loss to Arizona define Oregon’s season.

The loss was surprising enough. But even more surprising was the Ducks' immediate reaction to it. To a man, they were all like, "We lost. It's a shame. But we got to move on."

Mariota repeatedly said, "We're not in panic mode." That task was left to the fans who called radio shows and demanded Helfrich be fired.

But really it is the best and only reaction. Fans of the Wildcats -- the only original Pac-10 team to have never gone to the Rose Bowl -- are absolutely giddy about this win. They'll be talking about it for months.

But Oregon will forget about this loss as quickly as they forgot about the previous wins. "We lost one. Who did we lose to? Don't remember. Who's next? UCLA."

That's all that matters.
This matchup against the Bruins was slated to be a match between the two top teams in the Pac-12 -- perhaps even a preview of the Pac-12 Championship. But with Oregon's stumble and UCLA's stunning loss to Utah, it is now a fight for survival. Loser gets voted off the island.

FOX Sports announcer Charles Davis was in the booth calling Oregon's game against Michigan State. He'll be in the booth again at UCLA. In this interview with The Oregonian's Andrew Greif, he said that Oregon played like they really had something to prove against Michigan State. That's why they came out in the second half and played like heroes. One must remember they were also far less injured in that game.

When Greif asked Davis his thoughts on the keys to Oregon's and UCLA's offense, he said this:
Do you have an under-the-radar key for the game, offensively on Saturday?
To me it's patience. The word patience, which isn't generally associated with either one of them because they both try to move it pretty quickly, you know, with the no-huddle, it's really weird to see that Oregon doesn't run as many plays in a game as UCLA does. You know they're going to want to go real uptempo and do that. But when I say patience I mean in the running game. They both have to take pressure  off their offensive lines to avoid getting their quarterbacks hit. So the first thing for me is it's not just your standard, I turn around and turn the ball off to Royce Freeman or Thomas Tyner. How else do I manufacture offense? Am I doing jet sweeps and things with Byron Marshall? Am I doing that new shovel pass down the line with him? Am I running more quarterback run game with Marcus? Am I doing option stuff, quarterback draw?
I'm trying to figure a way to manufacture offense and keep the running game going and tamp down the pressure coming at him. When I flip it over to UCLA, Brett Hundley has to figure out how to exit the pocket and take the pressure off. I thought he stayed in there against Utah almost like he had to prove something, "I'm a pocket quarterback." They ran him six times, and probably should have thought about running him 26 times. I think when that gut pressure comes at you up the middle if you make the first guy miss like a punt return and go back in the same spot where they came from guess what they've vacated the area haven't they. That's what'll be the thing, is patience to stay with the running games to take the pressure off the quarterbacks. They have to, but it has to be creative pressure, it can't just be turn around and hand it off.

Others have said the same thing. The first team to reestablish it's running game will win.

Davis also said that Oregon's defense will have to steal more turnovers to stop UCLA.

Why should Oregon win all their remaining games?
Because immediately after this game, Mariota
walked over to some sick kids from a children's
hospital and signed autographs for them.
THAT'S WHY!

So what about us, the fans?
What are we supposed to do? We've all gone through the four stages of loss: Disbelief, Anger, Grief, and finally Acceptance. That's why it was so hard for some of us to see the players go straight to acceptance right after they showered. But how are we supposed to approach this game?

My plan is to make my Saturday morning as calm as possible. Take a walk. Catch up on some DVR recordings. Plan for a nice lunch with a special beverage. Do NOT think, read or talk about football at all.

Then just before the game comes on, I'll get into my routine of putting on my most potent combo of lucky duck clothes. Sing the fight song before the kickoff. Give my stuffed Puddles mascot the best seat in the house. And then I'll just relax into the game like I'm preparing to sit back and enjoy Citizen Kane.

The Ducks know what they have to do. They know the injuries they have to compensate for. Each player knows how he needs to step up. And the coaches know that they have to do much better than last week.

And it's really simple. Win, and the Ducks are right back in the fight and can still reach all their goals. Lose, it's all over.

That is why I'm forcing myself to be calm when they kick off Saturday 12:30 PT on your local FOX station.

KB

Come Out and Play

THANKS COUGS. WE NEEDED THAT.
The Ducks' tight 38-31 victory over WSU was good for them. The Cougs passing through Oregon's porous defense. The seven sacks on Mariota. Oregon's struggle to get the running game going. . . .

They escaped with a win and a ton of film to watch. The coaches are confident that all the mistakes and failures in that game are reviewable and correctable.

Despite being sacked seven times,
Mariota threw 21 out of 25 for 329 yards
and five touchdowns.

One area that obviously needs to get better is the offensive line. Injuries to three linemen resulted in the coaches emergency hole-plugging by freshmen, walk-ons, ball boys, a drunk guy throwing pretzels at the TV insisting he could do better . . .  but enough about me.
Hamani Stevens, Oregon's veteran right guard, was personally embarrassed by the line's performance at the Palouse. But it didn't shake his confidence. Said Stevens in this Oregonian article.

"They think the offensive line can't bounce back and be as productive as we were, but I think we have the capability and ability to be that high-producing offense and give it all our best," Stevens said.
For Stevens, encouragement came in the form of Oregon's bye week practices where he said the line made "strides and great improvements" behind closed doors.
"We've just been practicing our tails off," he said. "It was embarrassing for us to give up that many sacks in the Washington State game and we took that with a grain of salt and we have to work on it. We worked on it, and worked on it in the bye week."


What's this? It has to be none other than what
happens when this Cougar dude was the first one to pass out
at a Friday night kegger in Pullman. I'm guessing his bro's 
delivered him at least 10 miles from campus.

Oregon as a team came away from that game very unsatisfied and wanting to get better. The offensive line, the defensive secondary, even Thomas Tyner. The sophomore running back has yet to have "his kind of game". Thursday night would be a great time to start.

WHEN DUCKS AND 'CATS MEET
Oregon - Arizona games are always brutal. Winning and losing is far less predictable than other matchups. Hard hits and injuries are not uncommon. Mix in the fans, and it becomes clear that these two team don't really like each other.

When these two teams meet, they're like two brawlers standing toe-to-toe tied to each other's shoe laces. And then each guy takes a turn throwing a haymaker into the other guy's jaw.

Two years ago Oregon blanked the Cats 49-0 in AZ Coach Rich Rodriguez's rookie season. Last year Arizona came back with a vengeance, literally. It was Coach Helfrich's rookie year, Mariota was a little hobbled, and 'Zona swallowed the Ducks whole, 42-16.


Last year.

All of Oregon's major bowl hopes were dashed that night. And they were left all this time to wonder what happened. Helfrich has said the team's preparation for the Wildcats started with reviewing the depressing films of that awful night. What they came back with was confidence. When asked in the Oregonian about whether last year's game motivated the veteran players, Helfrich played it cool:

 Well, I think again, anytime you don't give somebody your best shot, that should leave a bad taste in your mouth. And I think there were some guys that felt that way and certainly looked that way on film. So again, hopefully that contributes to fuel the engine of your process. It doesn't mean like we don't try to kill the Arizona game this year, it means we work that much harder in the offseason to never let off the gas, to never let that even enter our mindset for anybody. And so as you prepare for Game 1, and then Game 2, and so forth, it just reinforces everything that we stand for. Again, when we watch this film, do we feel good about it? No, we don't. And if that contributed to our guys lifting more weights last spring, then great.

Reading between the lines, I think what Helfrich is saying is that the whole team is mad as hell and wants to KILL Arizona. But it goes the other way too.

Coach Rich Rod's team was glad to put the great cover boy Marcus Mariota on the turf last year. Just yesterday, RR had this to say about MM:

 "There are no negatives, I'm talking about none. And everything is not just a positive but it's a high positive. That's why I think he's the Heisman front-runner and maybe the first pick in the draft." -- Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez on Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Reading between the lines, I think what Rich Rod is saying is that his whole team is mad as hell and wants to KILL Marcus Mariota.

Here's what Arizona did last week against Cal to preserve their perfect record. Down by 2, the last play of the game. Their only hope was a hail mary . . .



Here's how the scouting report looks:
UO offense vs. Arizona defense: The Ducks' offense isn't expected to be troubled by Arizona's unconventional 3-3-5 stack defense, which is one of the nation's worst in the passing game and has just one defensive lineman with a sack this year. With just one turnover this season, Oregon has been superb at limiting its own mistakes, which will be a key factor -- UO had five turnovers last year against Arizona -- in stopping a second-straight Wildcat upset. Watch for whether a Duck can gain 100 yards on the ground, too, and snap UO's four-game streak without a century-mark rusher.

UO defense vs. Arizona offense: A Ducks defense that limited top-10 Michigan State to just three second-half points has come under fire after allowing 31 points to Washington State thanks to missed tackles and breakdowns. The good news for Oregon is that even though it'll face a Rodriguez-designed offense -- he's a pioneer of the spread-option -- the key players tasked with executing it amid a hostile Autzen crowd are freshmen. Quarterback Anu Solomon has 13 touchdown passes and three interceptions. The offense is balanced by running back Nick Wilson, who averages 120.5 yards per game.

That was a good shot in the jaw last year, 'Zona. Now come to Autzen and do it again. Let's go. Come out and play . . . .


Gametime 7:30 Pacific on ESPN.

--KB