Solar

Northwestern at 30th is a crime

I have to disagree with you on this one John. We took USC's best swing (Moore of a sucker punch), they didn't look like the same team against UW or Rutgers. Geoff Schwartz noticed this too. USC may have lost their mojo after the loss which will take the shine off our win much like what happened frequently last year after we beat teams. Not trying to be a homer, it's just what the eye test is telling me. I'm sure we will get UCLA's best effort to, but their ceiling is still lower than USC's hence the spread differential between the two games.

Geoff is being polite. The USC game highlights were inescapable showing just how bad Perich was at diagnosing and taking good angles to the ball. It's hard to believe he's the best we have for that position. I'm expecting Jett Washington or Woodyard to take his starting spot against UCLA.

I know a lot of folks are nervous about us playing UCLA next weekend, but I'm not for 3 reasons: UCLA is good, but not as scary as some think. They have had the easiest schedule in the B1G so far. Cal is probably the worst team in the ACC, SDSU may be the worst team in the PAC12, Maryland and Purdue are the worst teams in the B1G. Granted, some of that observation is UCLA making the look bad in one of their 4 games, but still. We play at home likely in some more traditional fall weather. We've had our bye week to assess and implement the most significant changes we'll be able to make all season. Lanning's defense is built to contain running QBs like Lameava Obviously UCLA is on their bye week,is already comfortable that most things are working, and is therefore simply focusing for 2 straight weeks on beating us at our weaknesses. But I don't think that trumps the 3 points above. I'm looking for us to beat the two touchdown spread and seeing some notable changes in players and execution.

If we determine we can't win the big one with our OC at some point, then sure, Riley or Kelly are great options if available. We are only a quarter of a season through with our new OC who is showing a promising amount improvement though.

I don't understand why Miami doesn't have the best odds to win a Natty. Mario will always have an OL advantage over us, he appears to have good talent evaluators in place and coordinators that he trust to win games their way, something he was incapable of doing with us and his first few years at Miami. Dan is younger than Mario, with less head coaching experience than Mario. If Mario could figure it out eventually, then so can Dan. If you gave me the opportunity to switch head coaches right now Mario vs. Dan, I would stick with Dan. He's much more personable and has a similar to higher ceiling than Mario as a HC.

Here are my Tiers, but I am projecting where folks finish power rankings wise, not what they have earned to date: A OSU & IU B OBD C UCLA, NW, IOWA D Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, USC, Michigan, Penn State, Washington, E Illinois, Rutgers, Maryland, MSU, Purdue I'm the least sure about Nebraska & MSU since I haven't paid attention. They may be tier D or E

Some people have a feel for the game and some don't, that is the part between the ears that is difficult to impossible to fix. Some like Dante Moore are unable to process his entire field of vision simultaneously, others struggle to extrapolate motion to intersection points (something Moore is actually extremely good at), or have the discipline with their eyes to recognize and react to the decision points. For them complicated if-then responsibilities ("multiple" defenses) just increase the odds of failure. I remember Lanning in his first year was asked what he looks for in a recruit and he said "first and foremost guys that know how to play the game of football." I think he needs to get back to that emphasis a bit more in the player evaluation. With regards to QB conservatism, Dan's #1 philosophy is don't turn the ball over. We have 2 turnovers in 4 games with one of them being special teams kick catch interference that wasn't called, so really one in 4 games. Secondarily there is an understanding that shorter passes are higher percentage throws, which all else being equal is true, but wide open is wide open and you should be able to see it and trigger on it without habitual reservation that it's a low percentage throw. You're at elite QB and your receivers are elite, go for it. I think for Dante, he is always going to be scared there is a safety coming over that he didn't see, because he can't see beyond his area of eye focus. My freshman year of highschool football my coach was an army drill Sergeant and we played 8 man football at the 1A level. I'll never forget him always yelling the word "Containment!". Never let anybody get outside of you if you're the widest players. Seems simple enough, until you aren't sure in the moment if you are the widest player or if the guy behind you is or should be the widest player on that particular play call. Not a problem in 8 man football, but in an 11 man Mint defense, maybe it's a big problem. Again I think it's such a huge thing for Lanning to go to the Seahawks instead of only recruiting on the bye week. It really shows he recognizes there are problems that won't be fixed if he keeps his team doing the same thing. I think of our Bball coach Altman who always seemed to find a way through the season to maximize the roster he has, to keep changing things methodically until everything was clicking as best it could. I'd like to see that become a permanent characteristic of a Dan Lanning team. Once we go to a 24 team playoff that will be the winning strategy. You'll get 3 mulligans a year, try things out that may not pan out, adjust, adjust, adjust until it all clicks.

We aren't reliant on a beauty contest yet, we only have one loss and can probably afford a second loss against Ohio State and still make playoffs. By the end of the season we will have likely played 6 or 7 ranked teams.

Literally fair weather fans. It's stupid hot outside today in San Diego. Everyone is staying home.

USC left the juice boxes at home today, figuratively speaking. They are collapsing at home against a bad Washington team.

It's funny sometimes how small differences have a huge impact. Losing Thienamann and Boetcher were really the only losses, everyone else on D should be better. I think losing Boetcher was the bigger loss, being way more impactful on the interior, but also for creating juice. I think Tosh brought a lot of juice too. Hampton may be smart but he doesn't have that personality presence Tosh did. Bottom line is the defense learning how to bring their own juice, and the LBs and Safeties need to do better at their vision filling gaps and taking good angles to the ball. Certainly any wisdom DL can pick up from he Seahawks on coaching players or our scheme will lift our ceiling.

Charles, this team has problems for sure, but all of the are between the ears, most of which will can continue to be resolved over the season. I don't have any issues with our cornerbacks. We've got our best 3 on the field being effective in positions that fir their strengths. Finney is at his best around the ball, it's a good situation. Our safeties are a bit mixed, Koi Perich has all the athleticism in the world but can't take a good angle and fit the right hole if his life depended on it. I believe Jett Washington will replace him permanently soon enough though. I do believe Flowers has improved his coverage a bit. It's easy to roast USC's culture, but they played us significantly better than last year. That was a good team playing good football that we beat. OL continues to improve, our OC is improving significantly as well with play calling and design. As per my other article I think it is a huge thing for Dan to travel to improve his coaching instead of improving his talent. I think he is seeing that he has the talent to win but the scheme and position coaching is letting them down a bit. He's at Oregon and Oregon innovates and he needs to innovate his schemes, especially on defense. I think our DL is playing much closer to their potential than previously. You can expect a bunch of pressure and sacks with a gap control scheme.

There have been 2 knocks on Dan Lanning, one of them being focused on recruiting during bye weeks instead of game planning, and the other being schematic weaknesses that are continually be exploited by opponents with excellent coordinator. Well, this just in: https://duckswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ducks/football/2026/10/02/oregon-football-dan-lanning-seattle-seahawks-bye-week-visit/92054636007/ Maybe Christmas came little early. Sure their is only so much you can change during the season, but at least Dan is aware of the importance of improving the teams schemes and execution if we truly want to win a Natty.

Lot's of good comments in this thread. Our defensive scheme has shortcomings that Riley and Maiava spent most of the game exploiting: setting the edge of the defense is not a priority, and often times it seems like everyone in coverage including LBs are just standing there with a bag of popcorn watching the QB while receivers are running free to open spaces where Maiava can flip them the ball. Both of those traits are intentional bend don't break strategies, but I feel like there just has to be a newer and better approach, because it just seems too easy to exploit when the other offensive play caller knows how to attack it.

I've seen plenty of support and well wishes online from Husky fans and media types. Most even expressed that they were happy we beat USC, which is being reciprocated by Duck fans hoping the Huskies beat USC this Saturday.

Get Sagapoleute on line one!

Drew Mehringer can call an excellent game. Separately, I think Moore and Dylan are probably a wash. Moore's best is better than Raiola's and Raiola's worst is likely better than Moore's. Moore was playing too conservative early in the game, but he did have us in scoring position to go ahead when he was injured.

Not sure was growth as the other times he went for it in a past life he didn't trust our defense, and Saturday he didn't trust our OL and knew he'd have another chance at more points getting the ball after halftime. We do agree he made the right call Saturday to take the points.

Seems like Josh Pate agrees with my take starting at 5 minutes in:

We may get to the end of the season seeing that we had one of the toughest schedules in the country in terms of ranked teams and teams with a winning record.

Having 24 hours to ponder this whole situation, I feel I am struggling with my biases, and I can't shake the thought of not attributing to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence. It is possible Stephens, being a USC tackler is too slow mentally to realize that getting a lick in on the QB who likely is trying to give himself up isn't wise and will get him ejected. More didn't slide way too late, but he didn't slide early either. You could tell he didn't see the LB untill later than he should have, then began the process of giving himself up 4-5 yards away from the defender. I watched Stephens initial taunting and he never looked back at Moore once until he left the field completely, certainly not knowing the severity of his hit. Yes he dabbed it up with his teammates, still possibly not understanding the gravity of what he had done. Later sitting on the bench seeing the ambulance, but smiling and fist bumps could easily have been self soothing at that point, trying to get his teammates reassurance, and smiling trying to hide his true feelings. My son does that sometimes, and I've seen other players. Actions have consequences, he's going to pay for this socially worse than he will the game and a half he'll miss. I do believe Riley when he seems completely clueless as to the hit and celebrations and not even reading the room in his press conference, he's a dweeb of the highest order. I'm upset with NBC's halftime break immediately teeing up Simns to run interference for USC. It was no accident by NBC yet seeing Simns apologize online it's obvious it was again not reading the room properly blaming the victim who left in an ambulance minutes earlier. Lots of people online are saying the sliding rule needs to go, but I think the real fix is stiffer penalties such that defenders get trained to recognize signs of a slide and think more than twice before laying the wood, and QBs faking a slide should be a 15 yard penalty from the original line of scrimmage.

When USC was lined up to come out of the tunnel their fans coaches and players were chanting "Overrated". They couldn't be bothered to cheer about themselves in that moment, being so focused on us, but in hindsight that's exactly what they were doing cheering about themselves.

I think there is an argument to be made this was Dan Lanning's finest win as Head Coach of OBD. Better than the Ohio State and Penn State wins. The sheer level of adversity seen so far this year, then the adversity he dealt with in real time with Dante being brutally injured, by taking charge of the players, getting his players focused, ensuring all the assistant coaches and players do their job at a high level against Riley's best team at USC by a significant margin. Dan Lanning is a winner. Our Ducks program is a winner. People love to hate on us, but we had class and resilience that is undeniable and will earn respect especially from recruits they may have been considering OBD and USC Riley and USC are losers and their own fans are disgusted with EVERYTHING they saw. They had the talent to compete, the wind at their back at home playing their A game in weather more to their liking, against a backup QB and still got beat bad enough to give up in the end.

I think they meant it was Oregon's first time beating USC 5 straight.