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So, you're picking Portland State?

And I 10% of that 10%. Have there been any run blitzes? And if we can't run the ball, move to a run-and-shoot style until the O-Line jells?

Early season polls are pretty much a joke, it sucks that they still have any bearing (yeah I know not officially, but they still are a factor). Last year the domers were still ranked at 0-2. That said, we're lucky to be ranked at all the way we've played.

Week 2 delivered a B1G Butcher's Bill 😧. First, a few thoughts on a B1G bad week. - Don't schedule Tulsa - At least Boise State looked good in its beatdown of Memphis. - Be happy Oregon State isn't on the schedule. The Beavers gave Top-25-ranked Houston a battle on the road and last night had the lead against Texas Tech going into the 4th quarter. - Remember Kingston Lopa? Yesterday in Syracuse, NY, Cal safety Lopa had three interceptions, including a 24 yard Pick 6 that provided the winning points in Cal's 21-18 victory. Too bad Lopa fled the flock. - On to the not-so-big Ten. Oklahoma at Michigan was a LOS scrimmage slugfest featuring two overrated and overpaid QBs. Michigan's Bryce Underwood is 8-4 vs. P4 opposition; Oklahoma's John Mateer is 7-4. Mateer served up a Pick 6 that resulted in the Wolverines' winning points. Underwood had a nice TD run, but struggled in the passing game. Should Tommy Carr, brother of Notre Dame QB CJ, and Michigan coach Lloyd Carr's grandson get some playing time? Don't you just hate it when an SEC honk is right? On the Pat McAfee show, Nick Saban proclaimed the Big Ten had three good teams: Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana, and that's it. Maybe Michigan should have been one of the three? Instead of kicking a FG deep in Texas territory to go up 26-3, Ryan Day decided to go for it on 4th down. Texas stuffed the play, found new life, and scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to defeat No. 1 Ohio State 24 to 23. In Minneapolis, Mississippi State did what Caddy Shack's Bill Murray couldn't; the Starkville Bulldogs smothered the Gophers 38-13. Week 2 saw the Big Ten go 2-5 vs. P4 competition, with OBD, Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota, and Rutgers losing. Michigan defeated No. 11 Oklahoma 17-10, and Iowa held on and defeated Iowa State 16-13. For the third straight season, the winning points in the Cy-Hawk game were served up by a walk-on kicker from the Hawkeye State. Tony P may want to consider opening with a better act than the Scarlet Knights. 0-2 Rutgers should be handed the Hester Prynne Scarlet Letter Trophy. Week 3 sees USC visiting Pisscastaway. Heading into Week 3, conference records vs. P4 opponents: SEC 8-2; ACC 5-6; B12 4-7; big 10 3-6. The folks in Oxford, Mississippi, are preparing a warm Week 3 Welcome Home Party for the dearly departed Lane Kiffen. 😁 Vanquish the Vikings on Friday Night! Then, get ready to fight on for four quarters in LA.

I would go back to the no huddle O since the huddle is doing no good any way-maybe we get lucky on some hurry up plays?

How in the world are the Ducks ranked higher than Michigan who just beat a currently ranked team?

Portland State is thinking upset!

I too would be a top notch recruiter if you gave me 47 million dollars.

Both feel generous right now, given how they have played. Let's hope for the best moving forward.

My metric for success is when the Ducks have more 1st downs than DL says "right?" in post game press conferences.

Yep

Agree with the potential road ahead. But that hinges on a ton of stuff being fixed very quickly. Biggest obstacle right now is whether the coordinators grow up in 2 weeks. Right now it feels like a really tall order for them.

Cristobal Oregon teams very predictable. Other posts have mentioned how predictable the offense and defense seem to be now. MC got top level coordinators and got out of the way. I cringe and hate to say it but MC probably wins a title at Miami before Oregon wins one. DL needs to get top flight coordinators and stop going for it on 4th and long or deep in your own territory. 5 years of that when there is time on the clock says common sense needs to trump analytics. MC has stopped making so many dumb decisions during games.

21 in the AP

Oops, I jumped to conclusions. That's the coaches poll, not the AP. Corrected

Well, the coaches definitely didn’t pull any punches. Oregon drops 12 spots from No. 6 to No. 18 after the loss at Oklahoma State. Honestly, it’s hard to argue too much with the drop. Losing 39–31 to an unranked Oklahoma State team, especially one coming off the kind of stretch they’ve been on, is a bad loss. Oregon started the year No. 2, slipped to No. 6 after an unimpressive win over Boise State, and now they’re sitting at No. 18. Two games into the season and essentially all of the preseason benefit of the doubt is gone. The interesting part to me is everything happening around them. Texas jumps to No. 1 after knocking off Ohio State, while OSU only falls to No. 6. Indiana is all the way up to No. 4. USC has quietly climbed to No. 11, Penn State is No. 15, and Michigan went from unranked to No. 19 after beating Oklahoma. Washington, meanwhile, is barely hanging on at No. 24 despite being 2–0. For Oregon, some of those moves could actually become important. The Ducks still play No. 11 USC, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 19 Michigan and No. 24 Washington. So as ugly as No. 18 looks right now, the schedule gives them plenty of opportunities to repair the damage. The USC game in two weeks suddenly looks enormous. Take care of Portland State, then go into LA and beat an undefeated No. 11 USC team, and this conversation changes pretty quickly. Lose that one and Oregon is 2–2 with the really difficult portion of the Big Ten schedule still ahead. There’s also a weird silver lining to Ohio State losing. Going into Columbus and beating an undefeated No. 1 Ohio State would obviously have been the dream résumé win, but they’re still No. 6 and very much a marquee opponent. Michigan getting back into the poll helps Oregon’s future résumé too, assuming they keep winning. So No. 18 sucks. There’s no sugarcoating it. But Oregon isn’t remotely out of anything yet. At this point the preseason ranking is irrelevant. They have to earn their way back up, and fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the schedule gives them every opportunity to do exactly that. Beat USC and we’re having a very different conversation on September 27.

Thanks, Mike. Insightful and concerning. I leave the Xs and Os to those with more expertise. But I understand attitude. In the two games this season, I've watched more talented players fail to show up and play with an attitude. The whole is not better than the sum of the parts. Yeah, the weather was brutally hot. Big whoop. That's no excuse for 2- and 3-star guys kicking you in the posterior. Forget all of 'The Bad News Ducks Go to Japan' and all the other extraneous stuff; football is about attitude. Less talented players who play harder and with a determined will to win often defeat teams with better rosters. As to money being a problem. Players at Miami, LSU, and Texas are balling out. From Dan Lanning on down, it's time to suck it up, show up, and ball out. Mike, of course, nailed it when it comes to scheme, and I hope Dan is willing to look in the mirror and perhaps reach out to his mentors for their input. Football is about attitude. No matter how good the scheme and game plan, how are you going to respond when you get punched in the 🤬mouth? Talent? Clemson had nine guys drafted last season and won seven games. Get right against Portland State, go to LA, and punch SC in the chops.

I am sitting in Denver on the tarmac making my way back to Eugene from Honduras. Reflecting on what I saw and experienced this past week. I was in the middle of the most impoverished place I have ever seen. The suffering and difficulties the Hondurans endure is heart breaking. Just to travel a few miles through those mountains takes a ton of energy. The loss the Ducks suffered yesterday isn't really registering right now. It sucks and I bought into the pre season hype like everyone else. I haven't watched the games yet, but the Ducks appear to be soft. Good times produce soft men. The Honduran men and women are incredibly strong. The contrast is outstanding.

I like your post and perspective. Thanks. At my house in Eastern Time zone, it’s nearly 1:30. The sun has not yet risen, and I feel like it will be a cloudy week ahead. That’s the problem with dreams and expectations. Sometimes they get crushed. I was looking forward to the next fifteen weeks, but feel that the air has left the room and a rug has been pulled out from under my feet.

Scott Reed @scottreed573049 The interesting reality of my life is that after yesterday’s game, I went to lunch with my wife and then picked up Fiji. While my wife was apologizing, Fiji was oblivious to everything. She just walked. We went on a good four-mile walk around four o’clock yesterday, and it went about how you would expect. On this loop, she took me around a couple of different parks in the neighborhood. We went by a pickleball court. We saw some of her dog friends. They played. It was like any other day to her, and she was overjoyed to be able to take a long walk. It reminded me first of just how precious moments are — and then it took me back to an article I wrote after Oregon’s loss to TCU in the Alamo Bowl. I wrote then about waking up the next morning and discovering that the sun had, in fact, risen. There had been no cataclysmic response to the result of a football game. Life had simply continued, as it always does, and I was reminded that we are fans. Nothing more and nothing less. That does not mean the games do not matter. Of course they matter. There is a sort of tribal or territorial pride involved in college football. We spend our money, we plan our Saturdays around kickoff times, we cheer, we revel in victory, and agonize in defeat. Yesterday hurt because we invest something of ourselves in this thing. But there is also a point where I try to put put myself ahead of the truth. The players and coaches care more about what happened in Stillwater than any of us possibly can. When we got up this morning, our futures were not dependent on the result of yesterday’s game. Most of us will go to work Monday. We will take the dog for a walk. We will eat dinner with our families. We will argue about play calling, recruiting, missed tackles and whether Oregon can still find its way back into the College Football Playoff conversation. For the people inside that building, yesterday follows them to work. That was one of the things I was trying to remind myself of nearly 11 years ago. Wins matter. Losses matter. Coaches are evaluated because of them, players spend enormous pieces of their lives preparing for them, and there is no reason for fans to pretend disappointment is somehow irrational. But it is still a game played by young men. Fiji did not know Oregon had just lost to Oklahoma State. She did not care that a team expected to contend for a national championship had been pushed around for much of the afternoon by a 24-point underdog. She wanted to walk through the park. She wanted to see her friends. She wanted to smell whatever it was that apparently required three uninterrupted minutes of investigation beside one particular tree (it was probably a mouse; she is an excellent mouse hunter). And somewhere during those four miles, yesterday’s game started moving into its proper place. Not forgotten. Not excused. Just placed. That is probably an important distinction this morning because there will be plenty of time to talk about what went wrong. There should be. Oregon was not prepared to play to the standard it has established for itself. The offensive line struggled. The defense was pushed around. There were penalties, communication problems and moments when a team built to compete with the best programs in college football simply did not look like one. Those questions are real. So is this morning. The sun came up again. Fiji will probably want another walk. Somewhere inside the Hatfield-Dowling Complex, players and coaches are already dealing with yesterday far more personally than I ever will. And there is another game coming. There always is. Sunday Morning Sidewalk: The Sun Still RoseThe interesting reality of my life is that after yesterday’s game, I went to lunch with my wife and then picked up Fiji.

"Who you become now, that is up to you" - Obi Wan Yesterday’s loss to Oklahoma State should be a wake-up call for the Oregon Ducks and where their culture is right now. There is no question this team has talent. There are stars returning. There are highly regarded players at nearly every position. There is experience, depth, elite recruiting, tremendous coaching (mostly), and enormous expectations. But none of that guarantees a damn thing. Oregon learned that yesterday. You can bring back stars. You can stack a roster with talent. You can be ranked in the Top 10, Top 5, even #1. You can be favored by more than three touchdowns. And none of it matters if the hunger, discipline, physicality, and attention to detail aren't there on every single play. Oklahoma State didn't care that Oregon was the “Mighty Ducks.” They didn't care about Oregon's ranking, recruiting classes, returning starters, or national championship expectations. They lined up and played football. They hit. They ran. They competed. They believed they could win. And they did. That's the lesson. Teams are NOT going to roll over for Oregon. In fact, the opposite is true. Every team that plays the Ducks is going to bring its best shot. Oregon has become one of those programs where beating the Ducks means something. There is a target on that uniform. So the Ducks have to decide what kind of team they want to be. Having stars doesn't create hunger. Having talent doesn't create toughness. Having experience doesn't create discipline. Returning players doesn't automatically create leadership. Those things have to be earned every week. The great teams don't walk onto the field expecting to win because they're talented. They walk onto the field determined to prove they're better. Yesterday, Oklahoma State played with that mentality. Oregon didn't play like the team that expected to be great. They played like a team that expected greatness to come simply because greatness was already on the roster. That's a dangerous distinction. This loss doesn't mean the season is over. It doesn't mean Oregon isn't talented enough to accomplish big things. But it should eliminate any illusion that talent alone is going to carry this team. The work still has to be done. They need to become more disciplined, more sound fundamentally, more focused. Because nobody is going to step aside and let the “Mighty Ducks” have their championship season. They're coming for Oregon. Now it's time for Oregon to show that it's ready to go after them…OR, they fracture and fall apart and the preseason hype was just that.

Of all the mic drops, this one leaves a crater.

…playing inspired football …playing with reckless abandon …playing with your hair on fire …playing as if there is no tomorrow Cliches? Yes. But, we need some of that sooner - not later.

It is not just USC, UCLA is really good. Look at their schedule, this is potentially a 9 win team. they are doing Cignetti 2.0, and it is going to work. They are a running team that can pass, receivers are not great, but they will be a very disciplined team. The Ducks need to get through the next two after Portland State. Discount the Bruins and you are done.

That was one of the most surprising and disappointing performances by our OBD. After the BSU game I expected them to bounce back with a competitive fire for redemption looking like a top 10 team. Instead, our OBD looked flat and not playing cohesively. Dan Lanning has recruited talented players. I just did not see much play calling that was built around our players skills to move the ball downfield or stall the opponent's offense. I have to think that our Offensive and Defensive Coordinators are in over their heads calling effective plays. I went with many that said "In Lanning I trust" when Lanning hired from within and he didn't look outside for experienced coordinators. I am beginning to think that the common denominator for the disappointing last two games is our OC and DC. Unless they can figure things out quickly, Lanning needs to think about making some coordinator changes.