Another HEAVY Loss

[We refused to believe it when Ohio State beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl. We scoffed when Auburn slipped by Oregon in the Natty. Now the evidence is becoming just too weighty -- as in bigger, heavier, stronger but every bit as fast . . . . ]

Pics from the Oregonian

LaMichael James felt full weight of LSU defense Saturday night.

George Schroeder: The gap between college football’s good and great just got bigger

By GeorgeSchroeder
Register-Guard columnist
Published: (Sunday, Sep 4, 2011 04:25AM) Midnight, Sept. 4
ARLINGTON, Texas — The familiar chant started quietly, just a few guys wearing purple and gold in the west end zone.

It quickly spread, though, into a full-throated taunt from all over the stadium — until it dissolved into a louder roar celebrating one more touchdown.

It was LSU 40, Oregon 27. And you didn’t really need to hear it from the Tiger fans — “SEC! SEC! SEC!” — to recognize an essential truth.

They’re better.

Nah, this isn’t about conference superiority, though you won’t get much argument here. It’s about the gap between Oregon and college football’s very best programs.

Wrap your mind around what happened Saturday night on a huge stage at Cowboys Stadium. We watched a beatdown applied to an illusion.

The flashy uniforms. The fantastic plays. The fast. It all combines to create an aura for Oregon football that feels formidable — and is absolutely fun.

But once again, the hype got stuffed by a superior opponent.

LSU was better. Just like Auburn. And before that, Ohio State.

And we’re left with this stark reality:

It’s not that the Ducks weren’t ready for the big stage. They’re just not good enough to own it.

[Now one may argue, "Wait, if our freshman RB doesn't fumble twice on their end, we're still in that game."
True, but once they got that lead, did you see how easily they could just hand off and run downhill? Did you see how easily their offensive line could push our defense straight back for big gains up the middle? Oregon didn't have the muscle to fight back.]

Don’t misunderstand — Oregon is good. I think the Ducks will win their third straight conference championship, which would be a huge accomplishment.

They deserve kudos for taking on the high-risk, high-reward challenge. Also, I know. They hurt themselves.

They gave away a couple of touchdowns with critical turnovers. They committed unforced errors and blew assignments and made enough bone-headed mistakes to make a coach cry. Coaches made ’em, too.

“I think everybody, myself included, is gonna be better,” Chip Kelly said.

I’ve no doubt. But we also saw Oregon’s speed negated. The Ducks were stifled by an opponent that was bigger, stronger and at least as fast.

Maybe faster.

We’ve seen that show before. And fair or not, until the Ducks win a high-profile nonconference game, their domination of the Pac-12 looks like a romp through a league weakened by the decline of USC.

When Oregon has played the best from the SEC and the Big Ten, the results haven’t been good. (Wait, what’s this we hear about inviting the Big 12’s very best into the Pac-12?)

I asked Kelly the difference between the Ducks and those big-boy programs they can’t seem to beat.

“They’ve got a little bit different athlete running around out there right now,” he said.

Specifically, the coach pointed to the Tigers’ defensive line, which dominated the line of scrimmage.

LaMichael James averaged 3 very tough yards on 18 carries, and we can put away the Heisman thoughts. Darron Thomas didn’t pass well, but he didn’t have much time, either.

Yeah, Oregon’s offensive line is a new group. But the “common trait,” Kelly said, about the defensive lines of LSU, Auburn and Ohio State is this:

“Standing next to them on the field, they don’t look like a lot of the guys we see.”

Or a lot of the guys the Ducks have.

We talked about this after Ohio State and the Rose Bowl. And also, last January after the loss to Auburn.

Nothing has changed in eight months.

I’m not sure whether LSU can overcome mediocrity at quarterback (even if Jordan Jefferson returns) or Les Miles’ quirks. But the Tigers are better than Auburn was, more than talented enough to win it all.

No one should be surprised if Miles lifts the crystal football in January in New Orleans and screams “Wa-HOOO!” again. If not the Tigers, then Alabama. Or maybe Oklahoma finally breaks the SEC’s death grip on the BCS championship.

Sorry, the Ducks haven’t quite reached that level.

Where they are isn’t such a bad place to be. It’s just not where we thought they were — where you wanted them to be.

Also, it’s not the end. The season is not over just as it’s getting started.

“It’s one game,” Kelly said. “It’s a long, long, long, long season.” And also: “We’ve been knocked down, not knocked out.”

He’s right. The Ducks could conceivably climb the rankings, and with a lot of help they could get back into the BCS title race. Just don’t count on it.

The voters aren’t going to forget Saturday’s beatdown. And although the Ducks will certainly get better, there wasn’t much to inspire confidence that the Ducks could run the table.

Well, other than this: They’re done with the SEC.

Another good argument is that Ohio State, Auburn and LSU all had at least a month to prepare for the Ducks. Michigan and Tennesse only had a week. Look what happened to them.
That's true. But the reality is those are likely going to be the only way Oregon will meet these teams.  They're not exactly beating down the door to play home-and-home series that will put them in Autzen.

The Ducks need to have the same focus they had through last year. Concentrate on winning the Pac 10/12, and leave the BCS to the voters and computers. Oregon was the last champion of the Pac-10. They could become the first champion of the Pac-12, or even it's only champion as rumors of a Pac-16 are flying faster than you can say "Aggies are looking for a new home.".



Cliff Harris turning things around.
Is now paying speeding tickets
faster than he's getting them.



Other News:

LB Kiko Alonso: DUI and burglary,
but not on the same day.

Text message to Chip Kelly:  "Coach, forcing Cliff Harris and Kiko Alonso to sit down and watch that game was great punishment. I'm sure they learned their lesson. How 'bout letting them play now?"

Stay classy, Louisiana!

I've come across more than one comment on LSU fans' sportsmanship and behavior. Below are two tweets:

supwitchugirl Brian Michael Jamie

Honestly, 95% of #LSU fans were homophobic, sexist, rascist..I could keep going. Rudest people I've ever met. Glad to be a Duck. #GoDucks

And LSU themselves show no shame in this tweet . . .

LSUfball LSU Football

Old videoboard trick, showing #LSU fans followed by #Oregon fans. Oregon is being booed quite extensively. #LSUUO

I think we should cut LSU fans some slack. They were probably just grumpy knowing that once they left this victory, they would have to go back to storm drenched homes and shovel mud out of their living rooms.
"Good luck with that, Tiger fans. Love to help ya out, but, . . . you're kinda like . . .you know . . . . . . A-holes, so . . ."
 
Finally, Oregon played a lot of freshmen and first time starters on Saturday. And the seasoned veterans admit they didn't have their best game. Now it's time for them to come home and face the only team to have beaten Boise State in the past two years.

 
Darron Thomas approached the LSU game like it was the most important game of the season; that the season was lost if Oregon lost.
The Oregonians article, "Oregon's Season Far from Done", starts out,
 
EUGENE – Curiously, the Oregon football team returned to practice Monday.


Curiously because last week quarterback Darron Thomas said a loss to LSU would mean a "done season."

Thomas on Monday after practice stood by his statement and then applied it to this week's home opener against Nevada at Autzen Stadium, as well as every other game on the schedule.

"Same thing, every game," he said. "This game, this next game, we lose this game, it will ruin our whole season. Each game. Game by game."

The most important game of the season is now definitely Nevada. Move on. Win the day.


 
--KB

Crouching Tiger, Mad Duck!

I discovered something interesting as I've been checking around the net for predictions to the game. The farther away you get from the Bayou, the more predictions you get for Oregon.

In fact if you conducted a nationwide phone poll and asked three questions before you asked "Who do you think will win, Oregon or LSU?", you probably won't even need to ask that final question. Just ask them,

1) Have you eaten a crawdad in the past 30 days?
2) Do you dislike the French but speak French?
3) Is your pat answer for every problem in America, "Drill for more oil."?

If you  answered 'yes' to all three, you think LSU will win and ain't nobody gonna talk you out of it.  If you answered 'No' to the first two but 'Yes' to the third, you live in Alaska. But that's beside the point.

Here is a collection of five bloggers across the country all arriving at the same conclusion as most other non-cajuns.

The thing I see over and over again is that LSU is faced with some real and present problems. Ten days before the game, they suddenly found themselves without their starting wide receiver, their starting QB, and their second unit linebacker because of suspensions; plus they lost a starting all-SEC offensive guard to injury. Add to that they're working with a new offensive coordinator this season.

These are the kind of snafus you want to work out in a season opener against #300 Eastern Oregon, not #3 University of --. The folks in Louisiana just don't want to believe that they're facing the wrong team at the wrong time.

The Tigers say they have worn out the tape of the National Championship Game between Oregon and Auburn. They liked how Auburn's front seven controlled Oregon's offensive line and feel that they can do the same if not better.

What they don't realize is that Darron Thomas, along with the Oregon coaches, wore out that tape as well. This season, Thomas is coming back a little bigger, more athletic, more confident, and a lot more determined. I'm looking for him to throw more than what we saw in the Natty.

This Statesman Journal article: Oregon's Thomas ready for his Texas Homecoming, tells of the importance Thomas lays on this game. When I compare his words and focus to all the chaos coming out of Baton Rouge, I just get the same feeling that most of the rest of America gets.

ESPN's College Gameday will be at the game. 7am Pacific Time. 

Kickoff at 5pm Pacific on ABC.

I leave you with the following video from theSeanGshow to put steam in your stride.

You think you're shaking now?

I just got off LSU's SB Nation site, "And The Valley Shook". It's nice. Clever name. And I salute their writer, Billy Gomilla for writing an intelligent and indepth X and O breakdown of the Ducks vs. Tigers.

He's got play diagrams, graphics and Duck game videos up the Wazoo like the Wazoo was a favorite Cajun watering hole. I like game analysis as much as the next beer drinking, porta-pottying, stadium screaming, wife embarrassing, football fool. But this is on steroids.

In his latest post, Previewing LSU - Oregon Part 4: What the Tiger Defensive Backs are Looking At (<-- That's the link. Help yourself.), he goes into great detail spelling out what key LSU defenders will have to do against Oregon. Below is an excerpt for a taste . . . .

"As seen in the above diagram, strong safety Brandon Taylor will primarily be reading Oregon's "trips" or three-receiver formations, for one of the Ducks' primary pass concepts, the bubble screen. I shouldn't have to rehash it for any LSU fan reading this, but Taylor will be the alley defender on most of those screen plays as the outside receivers block down on the nickel and cornerbacks. He'll also have some force responsibilities on some of Oregon's inside screens -- taking on blockers to give a better flow path to the ball for the linebackers and other defensive backs."

OK everybody. BREATHE!  In. . . out. . . in.   I know, it reads like getting directions from a gas station to a vacation rental in Sunriver. I wanted to give the guy some Duck fan insight, so I left him with this comment:

I can make this easier for you.
Very good X’s and O’s analysis. LSU fans know their football. I don’t care what Alabamans say. :)

   But if I may simplify it for you: You said, “. . .but as soon as the defense cheats one way a little too much, Chip Kelly will add that little twist and suddenly there’s a wide-open receiver”
   You’re partly right. As soon as the defense cheats, Oregon will take advantage of it. But it’s not even as complicated as a “twist” coming from Kelly and the bench. It’s already built into the play.
   Here’s the thing. Your entire post is basically, “If the offense does this, our guys must do that. And if the offense does that . . .”, and so on.
  
 Here’s part of the secret behind Oregon’s offense. Neither Kelly nor Thomas the QB know exactly what the play is going to be until after the ball is snapped. Handoff, keeper, throw bubble, throw long. Thomas is waiting for the defense to TELL HIM what the play should be.
   Any cheat anywhere, anytime in the game . . . . that’s what Kelly trains his QB to look for. And that is part of the wear down factor.
   When Duck fans say good luck, we’re saying good luck that none of your defensive players make a mistake for four whole quarters.
   Good luck, LSU. If you win this game, you will have definitely earned the win.

--Killer Bee.

Am I right? I'll tell you, I did not feel like trying to wrap my brain around his micro-analysis in this Part 4 -- let alone parts 1, 2, or 3 -- because I think it's irrelevant. He could be exactly right. But if any of his players fail to follow his diagrams to the letter, or if one cheats his intentions to Thomas, it doesn't matter.

Eleven players remaining disciplined for four quarters, especially toward the end of the game as fatigue wears in because the no-huddle is taking it's toll -- that is what Oregon demands of it's opponent. Doesn't matter what was drawn on the chalkboard.

Chip Kelly says it all the time. It's about execution. Who is executing better play after play after play?  The answer to that question is your winner.

And Another One Down
LSU lost another starter, this time to injury last week in practice. Senior Offensive Guard Josh Dworaczyk re-aggravated a knee injury from last season's Cotton Bowl and will require surgery. He's considered one of the best guards in the SEC.

"Go T-Bob...Go T-Bob...Go T-Bob..."

Coach Les Miles says he will be replaced by . . . (wait for it.) . . T-Bob Hebert. Yes that's his name, instantly making him my favorite player on LSU's or any SEC team. You can't be a bonafide southern university without a guy on your roster named T-Bob Hebert.









Oregon Ducks: The only team with a fashion section in it's media guide.
In case you were wondering -- and if you're a Duck fan, you were -- Oregon will be wearing custom designed uni's just for this game! To the video . . .

If you're like me, you NEED those gloves. Available at the Duck Shop. 

--KB

An SEC Army couldn't . . . . .

[Following is from the Statesman Journal.
Lyrics added by me from The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army]


Oregon closes in on perennial power status
Written by Gary Horowitz, Statesman Journal

"I'm gonna fight 'em off
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back"

EUGENE — Trivia question: Name the only college football team in the past two years to play in the Rose Bowl and Bowl Championship Series national title game?
 
The answer is Oregon, which has put plenty of substance behind its glitzy image.

Yes, Oregon is on the rise. What the Ducks have been unable to do is finish the job, with losses to Ohio State and Auburn to end their past two seasons.

With a No. 3 preseason ranking in the Associated Press and USA Today/coaches' poll, and the return of Heisman finalist LaMichael James and dual-threat quarterback Darron Thomas, Oregon is poised to make another run at the ultimate prize in college football.

"We can get better," said James, who led the nation in rushing and scoring last season. "The sky's the limit for us."

Oregon is on the verge of perennial power status, but to join the pantheon of the chosen few where schools such as Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, USC and Ohio State reside, the Ducks need to win on the grand stage.

They were oh so close last season.

"They're gonna rip it off
Taking their time right behind my back"

After Oregon tied Auburn late in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard pass to James and a two-point PAT, the Tigers drove the length of the field and made an 18-yard game-winning field goal on the final snap.

"It still lingers," Oregon rover Eddie Pleasant said. "For us to get there and come so close to winning it, it hurts."

"And I'm talking to myself all night
Because I can't forget
Back and forth through my mind
Behind the cigarette"

Oregon opens Saturday against SEC power and No. 4 LSU in a neutral field matchup with national championship implications.

SEC teams have won the past five BCS national titles.

"And the message coming from my eyes
Says "Leave it alone" "

"You can never predict making a (national championship) run," free safety John Boyett said. "What's important is getting a win in week one. Like coach (Chip) Kelly says, one game will not make or break us. We've just gotta go out there and try to win every game."

Beginning his third season as head coach, Kelly's players have embraced his "win the day" mantra. The bar has been raised.

Oregon's no-huddle, warp-speed offense led the nation in scoring last season.

"Everybody knows what we're about," Thomas said. "We're gonna come out fast, work hard. A lot of people think our plays are disguises and stuff like that, all these wrinkles … but they're just regular plays. They're just run to perfection."

Oregon enters the 2011 season facing an ongoing NCAA investigation for its ties to a Houston-based recruiting service run by Willie Lyles, and Cliff Harris' offseason speeding incident has left the all-America candidate suspended for at least the opener.
Midway through fall camp, redshirt freshman tailback Lache Seastrunk - the most highly touted prospect in the Ducks' 2010 recruiting class — was granted his release from the program and has transferred to Baylor.

"Don't wanna hear about it
Every single one's got a story to tell
Every one knows about it
From the Queen of England
To the hounds of hell"

But Oregon is so deep at running back with James, Kenjon Barner and emerging freshman De'Anthony Thomas, that Seastrunk's departure hardly registered.

Besides, LSU has its own issues.

Starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson was arrested Friday and suspended indefinitely after his alleged role last weekend in a fight outside a bar in Baton Rouge, La.

Two other Tigers also are suspended, backup linebacker Joshua Johns (the bar fight) and starting wide receiver Russell Shepard (NCAA code violation).

Despite distractions, the Ducks are 22-4 under Kelly with a 17-1 conference mark.

So how much does last season's national championship run benefit Oregon moving forward?

"We hope a lot," Kelly said. "We're all byproducts of our experience."

Many players on the roster, including James, Barner, tight end David Paulson, offensive tackle Mark Asper, guard Carson York, Pleasant, Harris and Boyett, played key roles on the Rose Bowl and national championship game teams.


Darron Thomas in the Natty.


Thomas is 12-1 as a starter. He said losing the national championship game is "the biggest motivation I've had in my life."

"And if I catch it coming back my way
I'm gonna serve it to you
And that ain't what you want to hear
But that's what I'll do"

But there's no guarantee that Oregon will return to the Rose Bowl or national title game. In the cyclical world of college football — Notre Dame and Michigan have fallen recently — anything can happen.

The Ducks are not without questions. They will be breaking in a new center, likely Hroniss Grasu. There are three new starters on the defensive line, three-year starting linebackers Casey Matthews and Spencer Paysinger must be replaced, and Lavasier Tuinei is the only starting wide receiver back.

But all the uncertainly has not created restless nights for Kelly.

"I don't really look at it as a worry," Kelly said. "Just staying up nights isn't gonna make it different for you, so we'll find out when we get out there on Saturday."

Spoken like a coach who knows what he has.

Oregon has its highest preseason ranking in school history and is the media's choice to win the North Division and inaugural Pac-12 title.

The Ducks never have won three conference championships in a row. That could change this season.

"And the feeling coming from my bones
Says "Find a home" "

 
[The following from Lisbon, Portugal may be one of the White Stripes wilder performances, but the audience in this vid reminded me of something I saw of Oregon fans at Matt Arena last winter. Oregon's band played Seven Nation Army, and all the fans threw up their hands and flashed the 'O' while singing with the song their own lyrics:
"Ohhhhhh, O, O, O, Ohhh, Ohhhh."
Then I saw this. I had no idea there were so many Duck fans in Portugal. . . . . ]

 
[Bonus track. If you hated that one, you might actually like this one. Seven Nation Army is probably the most covered song over the past seven years. But no one could do it much better than a German (but English speaking) punk country western band, The BossHoss]

 
--KB