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That's what I have been saying, they are soft. If they beat PSU 100-0 won't change anyone's mind about that

"Dan Lanning Doesn't Lose to Unranked Opponents." The team and the coaches were mentally weak going into this game, as the upset had just never happened to Oregon under Lanning. We will see a very different team and coaches the rest of the season!

The O line has to get a whole lot better for any of this to come to pass.

The Jimmies and Joes were the only reason the game was close in the fourth quarter... or at any point in the game. Jackson putting their QB out of bounds on a long QB run saved a touchdown and the defense held them to a field goal. Jackson's pick six actually put Oregon up 7-3. Uiagalelei's interception enabled the Ducks to get a quick touchdown for 14 points right there. Stewart and Dak Moore both had long TD catches... there's 14 points there. There's 28 points that came strictly off talent. This isn't a talent problem ... its a teamwork and mentality problem.

Which I guess, tells me, that the coaching was sub standard that day. Not willing to take it too far yet.

100%, They thought they were playing the same team as last year. Surprise! This loss is 85% on the coaches. Maybe it helps them the rest of the season maybe were going to do a Penn State.

I was thinking about Rick Neuheisel's famous comment that most Duck fans are familiar with: "It's not the X's and the O's, but the Jimmies and the Joes that make the difference." Seeing how we had a clear talent advantage with our Jimmies and Joes last Saturday, perhaps "The Weasel's" comment needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Nowhere was this more apparent than along the defensive front. I'm flabbergasted that the Cowboys were able to do what they did to the NFL-quality talent we have assembled on our defensive line. The upperclassman group you'd expect to create havoc was rendered absolutely ineffective. This is all the more befuddling when you compare last year's Oregon/OSU game to this year's (211 yards of total offense vs. almost 600). Which leads me to question: Is it still the Jimmies and the Joes that make the difference, or has today's game morphed to where a schematic shift in philosophy can gain an advantage over even the most talent-loaded opponents? (Last year OSU ran a traditional spread offense; this year they installed a simpler Air Raid approach). I'm no expert when it comes to X's and O's, but I'm guessing our coaches are probably installing some new schemes for our Jims & Joes this week!

Dante's Tuesday comments. Everything Dante Moore said about Oregon’s struggles, leadership and responding to Oklahoma State loss Again, Just Do It

While I understand that the point spread, and the relative positions of the two teams were highly discussed and pronounced--I think another ancilairy element may have played a big part in all of this. Dan Lanning in FOUR YEARS has NEVER lost to an unranked opponent. This wasn't any non-ranked opponent...this was an opponent who had not won in a long time versus a P4 team, and just lost to TULSA for crying-out-loud? The fans, the coaches, and the team knew that Lanning never loses to an unranked opponent. They knew we would easily take care of business, and they were mentally on cruise-control. Now add it being 140 degrees on the field....who wants to be in that game with a such a lowly opponent, and dealing with such vicious heat? EVERY coach loses games he shouldn't, and we have been spoiled with HOW we have lost, when we lost to great teams. Good-gosh....Cristobal beats Ohio State in Columbus and then goes and loses to like a 4-win team at Stanford? Mario lost a bunch of those, and lost two games with unranked opponents just last year. So until now....Lanning had never lost to such an unranked opponent, and I think this team was simply not ready mentally from a variety of angles. OK. Lanning just lost his first game he should not have lost. He, the coaches, and the team will be better as they just passed a negative milestone, but an important mental one that will help them for years.

If the fixes are easy, everyone would be able to do it. Didn't show up in weak 2 and weak 3 is not going to be an indication. Devon Jackson says defensive fixes are 'easy', reaching program standard 'very attainable' Everyone, stop talking and Just Do It

I think this can be a two fold problem. The Ducks haven't been ready to play. A slow start means poor execution. The other teams have been hyped to attack our offense out the gate and try and get the upset. The Ducks have a massive target on their backs because they're the Ducks and opponents want to embarrass us. A scripted drive probably needs to be better drawn up and executed better. The run game has been non-existent and the passing game has had problems too. Finding something that gets the offense in rhythm is critical and that's designing an opening drive that works.

True enough, but I wouldn't call Oklahoma State elite either. Though Boise wasn't a "good win" in terms of we probably should have beaten them by two or three touch downs, Boise has a good chance to run the table on the rest of their schedule. OSU is one of those "majority" of opponents you should beat with average coaching. No one is taking about them as a possible conference champ and definitely not a play off contender. Maybe they're better than most people thought. Though I've been unable to watch either game live, replays show me a team getting beaten consistently on the line of scrimage on both sides of the ball. I understand that with a less experienced O line than we're used to, but the defensive front was thought by many to be the best unit in college football. The number one stat that stuck out to me was Oregon zero QB sacks OSU three QB sacks. In the game today when you are not getting to the other team's QB and they are getting to yours you will struggle.

I often hear about inferior teams, getting off to a good start or even an opening scoring drive because they have scripted their first drive. Some say, this was the case with the Boise State game, (although I disagree that’s why they were successful). Conversely, our success rate seems terrible on opening drives even against weaker teams. Is this an indication of poor coaching or lack of energy or execution by the players? Just wondering if anybody else has noticed this?

Without making any sort of a statement. Teams with outstanding talent will beat the majority of their opponents with average coaching. Playing the elites is when the talent needs an extra boost.

Ala Colorado 2023, get back to playing for wins not clicks!!!

Ok, I am going to bounce around a bit (what's new?). First and foremost: OBD are going to have a difficult time winning games 45-44. That is not a formula for winning. Ask Mario about his 2024 team-great offense poor defense. Believe me-giving up more than 20 points a game will not lead to enough victories in the playoffs. And right now, we are looking at two quotes...1) Playoffs!!! Playoffs!!! and 2) They are who we thought they were...and we let em off the hook!!! Secondly-this is way more complicated than coaching. Though I believe strategy is a massive indicator at this point. Again, I am cooking up a thesis to help me diagnose what the problem truly is. But I don't think it is one thing. There are shades of Penn State last year; 2015, 2015 and 2016; football is evolving rapidly and coaches at ALL levels are adapting faster than people realize; and it is very possible that players are more focused on the bag-and the things that their respective bag is buying (and all the status that comes with that) than playing football (not my original thought, but enough have mentioned it that it could be reality). Josh Pate put it well: are we looking at a Penn State (and Clemson) collapse or an Alabama refocus (though Bama had a ceiling-and we resemble that in so many ways)? I believe there are some solutions-to all of it. But I am a bonafide, certified hack that is truly throwing mud on the wall hoping something will stick. I find it amusing that Duck Nation is having as much as a meltdown as Ohio State fans. Losing when you think you're Gods really creates emotional damage LOL. Didn't help that DL was chippy yesterday. I hope that is just his edge and that the players are beyond angry to the point they want to crack some pads and put their fingers in some face masks. It truly is time to see a Duck team play really, really nasty ball. Mean, borderline dirty, like Dennis Rodman and cutthroat like Michael Jordan and Kobe. Somebody here said it well: when we look at last year's Miami team, Indiana, Ohio State and Georgia-those teams play differently than OBD do. There is a level of intensity -not flashy hype-full blown intensity- that OBD have only shown once-in 2010 when Chip fully shocked the world. That is still the standard in my eyes. That 2010 team was confident, but very determined. They had the right amount of talent and grit. I haven't seen that kind of team at Oregon since.

Too many variables to call it one way or the other. I had a guy standing next to me at the Boise St game who correctly called a fair number of plays based on our formations. Even though Boise was usually on it, our success rate was still around 50% on the ones he called. You could say it doesn’t matter how easily we’re read so long as we execute our plays. On the other hand, it doesn’t make it any easier to execute if we’re being read that often.

So long as it doesn’t turn into a-dope-on-a-rope.

"Who benefits?" Cicero: QB Drew Mestemaker is the Player of the Week. https://apnews.com/article/drew-mestemaker-oklahoma-state-player-of-week-6c557bf55dda9c606593cda52ecca261?user_email=c7d8647c6247db8d08c59fe44bc30380a147aa90b9e33099045cd46ddc6a485b&utm_medium=Sports_wire&utm_so 🤬🤬🤬

I would like to see Dylan play some against PSU.

I am not defending our coordinators (though I kinda will) but we don't have enough information on their ability at this time because there are so many other things going wrong. Sure there have been some bad play calls... but I would also argue that many of them would have worked if the execution was better. Right now I am questioning the promotions of Jack Smith (Tight Ends), Koa Ka'ai (quarterbacks) and Kamran Araghi (outside linebackers) more than the coordinators. Our tight ends have had little impact in the game and yes we were down Johnson last game but still. Moore is playing awful and our edge rushers don't feel like game breakers. I am questioning offensive line coaching at the moment for A'lique Terry because of just how bad these pieces are at becoming a whole but we've seen better in past years so I have some hope there. I need to see better play from the offensive line and better execution out of the players before I jump on the coordinators. I think they have growing to do and I think they need to do better jobs as well. But Dante Moore outright not seeing open receivers or missing a pass to open receivers isn't something wrong with a play call... it's a player and position coaching problem.

LOL! And those guys were also B1G (something or other 🤬)

Agreed. Rarely happens unless the player's name is Dyer and the refs don't review the forearm down vs the knee.

What I am failing to see so far this season are consistent sequences of constraint plays. That is what opposing defenses are keying off of. Kenny Dillingham, so far, has done this better than any of the OC's Lanning has had. We are tipping our hand by the way the O-Line gets set just before the ball is snapped. Even Will Stein was able to disguise his looks at the LOS by running a constraint off of a run look and changing into play-action or designed passes to keep the opposing linebackers and secondary from getting an extra step on our skill players. I actually figured this would be the primary underlying thread from one OC to the next that Dan Lanning would set an expectation for. I have not seen this happen yet and until I do I believe play calling will continue to struggle against medium to elite defenses.

I am in no way saying that the refs cost us this game.... the Ducks would have had to do a whole lot more things right for that to be the case. But seriously... the B1G refs seem to hate us. If that was an Oregon defender holding it would have been flagged. As much as we all hated the old Pac-12 refs I think I like them better than these B1G ones.