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Missing. O-line talent and the starting QB.

The players are fine. The scheme isn't. The right scheme? This would be an elite defense and we would be undefeated had they showed up in September with the scheme. I see several teams that are going to crack it if we were fortunate enough to reach the playoffs. Of course, the install is flexible enough they could shift away from tendencies and actually dominate. As much as I love DL, he won't do that. All the points scored this year are do to scheme (and looking at that damn QB). Change the scheme to better fit the talent and this is a 14 PPG unit ( and nobody would have scored 20 this year). My opinion of course.

Perhaps the internal promotions of both coordinators was intended or even required to retain the players that were pondering leaving. Relationships matter.

In my experience I believe five star talent becomes three star with mediocre coaching and three star athletes become NFL draft picks with outstanding coaching. There really isn’t a huge difference between the athletic ability of top G6 schools (like Oregon State) and schools like Nebraska or UCLA. The real difference is between the ears (coaching) and strength training (more coaching). Also, confidence and fire in the belly don’t hurt either. Of course there are a handful of elite schools that the G6 just can’t compete with. Usually. Then I slap myself for saying such a thing. I don’t think BYU has anywhere near the talent of Notre Dame. But their level of determination and refusal to lose was off the charts. If Oregon had the BYU mindset and culture the Ducks would be almost impossible to beat. Kinda like Indiana but with better athletes.

I looked at BYU's schedule, and if they beat #10 Utah. I don't see them losing this year. What would their record be if they were in the B1G or SEC? If Miami beats Notre Dame, the same could be said for them. The ACC and Big Twelve are miles behind. Will BYU be the number one seed should they win out, and Miami loses to the only threat on their schedule? Will Notre Dame get a home playoff game if they lose to the only two threats on theirs? There was an ESPN article debating if Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State will leave the B1G because of the 24 team playoff. Essentially saying those three would just prefer to schedule like Notre Dame, instead of having nine conference games. I would take this article more seriously if he put some SEC programs in that hypothetical situation as well. After all, the SEC slate is just a meat grinder. That one extra conference game is just too much. ESPN has been spouting that off for weeks now.

...but know Mehringer will call it: The quick throw to the slot receiver who is running parallel behind the line of scrimmage looking backwards at the QB the whole time waiting to catch the ball. That cost us 3 yards after the Nebraska Punter kneel-down. What idiot thinks it's a great idea to blind fold their WR behind the line of scrimmage with the ball like that. It probably takes half a second to turn your head and torso round 270 degrees and another half a second to process where the defense is at and another quarter second to begin the process of changing your momentum direction, all the while the defenders have been staring you down moving at 7+ yards per second to intercept you. I realize there are blockers, but there is so much space they are blind blocking for, and often a nickel or OLB is unblocked moving like a heat sealing missile. It's just so stupid, but I'm sure the mad scientist thinks he doing a great job getting the ball to his best players in space, ugh! I've got a name for it now.. "The sitting Duck" play.

If only my prior sarcastic idea of having Terry replace the Duck doing pushups every time Nebraska got a TFL or sack we would have seen waaaaaay more pushups.

It gives me solace that a 24 team playoff will ensure that any team that could possibly win the Natty is not left out despite this madness. Sure some 25-30 ranked teams will be screwed over but they weren't going to win it all.

What evidence do we have to think Smith will be better than Thomas or Raiola? Moore regressed, Thomas regressed, Dylan certainly isn't any consistently better than at Nebraska. Is it the fall speak that he improved so much, just like they said we have 8 OL that can play winning football and that Mehringer is a mad scientist? The odds of Koa Kai turning Smith into an excellent player to lead us to victory when Railo has sucked and Thomas sucked and they still went back to Raiola, is slim to none and Slim left town a while ago.

Its hard to complain after our performances thus far, but we've got a basketful of 2-loss SEC teams ranked ahead of us, and some of those have no quality wins. No issue with us being on the outside with something to prove to claw back up, but this 'ranked opponent' feedback loop has the SEC with 5 two-loss teams ranked in the AP. All other conferences combined: zero. This will matter later for playoff bubble teams.

There were simply too many "play it safe, Brock can't make that throw" calls the first three quarters. Though I don't think this is a great offensive line, when the QB is a threat to throw the ball down field and you have the receivers our Ducks have it opens up better lanes for running also. It's hard for the O-line to look any good at all when there is zero threat to stretch the field because the QB can't make that throw. A constant diet of bubble screens, five yard outs and flair passes allows the defense to d exactly what Nebraska did early last night, throw 7-9 players in the box to stop the run and dare you t win on Brock Thomas' arm. Oregon didn't take the dare.

Thomas can be a good back up QB when he is playing with an O-line that's going to make holes for running backs and set up play action to get receivers open enough for him to hit them. I agree with you totally he is in over his head vs. top 25 or close to that competition. Even with his performance vs UCLA, I'd go with Raiola and then Smith. The likelihood of this team making the play offs now is slim and these guys need to be ready to be #s 1 and 2 next year. I also think we have a better chance of winning this year with them.

Thanks Jon. The Ducks defense looked like what we were expecting, against what has been a pretty explosive Husker offense. Hopefully Raiola can play like he did vs his old team, in the upcoming weeks. You beat Ohio State, and you are back in playoff contention. Florida might be able to play spoiler against Georgia, and yes Kentucky. That would help clear the way.

With "I have no idea", thought I was a sure winner this week.

I say start whoever and expect to finish with the other one. I also say prep Akili Smith with a solid third and long package and bring him on the field in those situations. Give him some RPOs and let's just see what happens. Can it really be any worse than 2 first downs and 50 yards in a half bad?

We don't. The Oregon Ducks at Illinois college football game kicks off on Saturday, October 24, 2026, at 12:00 PM PT (2:00 PM CT / 3:00 PM ET). [1, 2, 3] Date: October 24, 2026 Time: 12:00 PM PT / 2:00 PM CT Location: Gies Memorial Stadium (Champaign, IL) TV/Network: Big Ten Network [1, 2, 3]

Coach Lanning has said that playing a game at a different time zone than you are used to can have more of an impact than the travel itself. It probably didn’t help Nebraska on Saturday and I don’t love that the Ducks will have a 9:00 AM PT game on Saturday.

“Passing the torch” rarely works in sport or business. There are more times that it has failed than worked out. Helfrich at Oregon is exhibit A. (and for those of you who will say, he got Oregon to the national championship game…no he didn’t, Marcus Mariota did and we saw what happened when we faced a much more talented roster.)

Let him have the first series. Raiola would technically be coming off the bench after that.

The simple truth is that Brock Thomas has no business being out on the field in a game like that, he doesn't have the arm, he doesn't have the athleticism, it's a nice idea that they local kid can play, but it's obvious that if you have a O-line like ours, you can't start a guy who can barely throw the ball 20 yards. Raiola isn't perfect, but he could at least zip the ball where it needed to go and the defense at least had to entertain the idea that he could legitimately throw the ball down the field without it wobbling. We should be playing Smith Jr. over Thomas, you have to go with upside considering this is no longer a season where we are going to the playoff, maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I don't see how we go undefeated the rest of the year with this offensive line and this OC.

If by "He" you mean Brock, I would argue that about 90 total yards of total offense through three quarters would suggest otherwise.

The announcers said that Nebraska prepared for Brock Thomas, and when Dylan Raiola came in they weren't ready for the change in play calling. If that is the case, we should name Akili Smith as the starter for next week's game!

Oregon won the 4th Q. It's clear the Ducks are fighting for their lives to get better. They aren't quiting. I have been harsh on the team and coaching staff. But I do respect them tremendously for fighting no matter what. Good on them.

He still needs to start the next game if Dante can’t play. Raiola is much better coming out of the bullpen.

The offense... and it's not even close. It's so atrocious that I don't even know where to begin. It's seriously so horrendous, on multiple levels that it's hard to know where to start. But one of the most amazing things I keep thinking about is Lanning calling those timeouts at the end of the second quarter, when we had 50 yards total offense and 0 points. What was the plan... to get ourselves pinned deep in our own territory off of a Nebraska punt, and suddenly, with the half winding down, Brock, who couldn't/hadn't hit the side of a barn, was miraculously going come out throwing like Bo Nix and take us 70 yards downfield for a TD? And obviously, leaving Brock in for 3 quarters is a mystery of mysteries. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.