Haywarduck

Hard to say, I would never watch, or read about a dawg game unless they are playing the Ducks, and this hasn't happened yet. I will say I like our Ducks and am impressed by their growth and play so far.

Just so we are clear the dawg game comes after both programs have a bye week. We need to relish this game against Stanford and then hold on to the build up to the game up north on October 14th. One note is the dawgs play Arizona in Tucson which could be a trap game this week. Arizona is 3-1 and has played some tough battles so should be ready to put up a fight at home. It would break my heart if the dawgs lost, but I would get over it by the 14th. Some stats, Arizona has lost 6 straight to the dawgs, a record. The cats actually have a decent record at home, and if they are going to break the streak, record it will occur at home. Ok, now let's focus on the cardinal game again, what is a cardinal anyway! A cardinal is something you call yourself when you mascot is a tree.

Completely agree about building road game confidence. I would say build a road game routine, formula. If Oregon is going to have a season to remember, good memories that is, we need to see Oregon lay down a set of procedures to win on the road. First they need to dominate the initial set of downs, whether that is on offense or defense. How the game starts on the road is critical to how it ends. Inertia on the road is established early and the ability to change it is tough. I want to see Oregon dominate from the first whistle. Another item is to see few penalties. Execution on the road is key and the amount of penalties is a good guide to how well a team is executing. Also the Ducks need to win the turnover battle on the road. Oregon has to take care of the ball and get turnovers. This is partly getting the ball to bounce the right way, but it is also about playing opportunistic football. We have two huge games on the road coming up, and this game should set the tone to how those games will be played. From warm-ups to walking off the field there should be an intensity and focus these Ducks are just starting to show. The Stanford game is the perfect game to set this pattern, let's hope we see it! GO DUCKS!

Seems like to me, with the exception of the Bo-dacious ads, they are winning in silence with their heads down. I have to say I like it, and hope it continues. They are playing like quiet assassins. I would love to see them continue to surge without too much fanfare. Much like Lanning, they have a reserved intensity, which comes out when needed.

'Who we playing next.... Oregon!'

There is a reason the BCS rankings don't come out until the latter part of next month, nobody really knows who is the real deal until then. Oregon is looking like the real deal, Colorado was exposed. We will play the dawgs in Seattle before those rankings come out and one of the teams could come out as exposed then too. If the season was like watching a house being built, we would just be seeing the foundation being put in right now. The walls will start going up when we play up north. At that point we can begin to imagine just what this team looks like. We then play in Utah and that will be when the windows get put into the house, and we can begin to see the view from this years team. That view from the house being built will then be quite beautiful, but the trojan game will either obscure the view or allow for an unfettered look at the end goal, or an obscured view of that road ahead. Basically this team is living up to the blueprint the Oregon faithful has come to expect with the added addition of a formidable defense. The offense is looking like it just might be lights out for most teams. The defense too is starting to look like the chaos Lanning has described with the 7 sacks we just saw. We have a team, that plays an Oregon brand of offense, a Lanning defense, and a special teams you better watch out for!

I suppose it all comes down to how teams play as the season comes to a close, and if they have any bad losses. I could see a tight loss away, and a tight Championship game loss not looking too bad the BCS decision makers. A blowout loss, or not looking competitive late in the season and any chance would be over. The one thing Oregon has going for it is its depth. This time of year there are posers who get exposed, and teams who don't have depth who fade as the season progresses. We may lack depth at QB, but otherwise we should be good to go as we get deep into the season. I think we are also seeing Lanning playing that depth, and keeping players fresh, the guy has a plan! I think sc might have depth problems as they come to Eugene in November. They also probably aren't tough enough to play in November away from the sun, and fun of cali. The dawgs game is going to be huge, I mean gargantuan, extremely prodigious! The Utah game is also one we shouldn't sleep on.

Surprised we haven't heard about Greatwood coming back and helping out a little. Greatwood was one of the great Oregon assistant coaches all-time. We heard about another great assistant Garry Campbell coming back and getting some love. That kind of knowledge and wisdom is priceless. Maybe I missed it, but it would seem having Greatwood come back and give a little insight would be a shrewd move. Has anyone heard about the legendary Steve Greatwood coming back to help Alique Terry?

Great observation about the mobile Sanders kid being a test for the Oregon Defense. If Oregon can contain and pressure Shedur this will be very good practice going forward against other mobile accurate qb's. While the Colorado team isn't as competitive as some of the teams we will play going forward, this will be a very good test. Can Tosh and Dan put together a game plan to stifle the Colorado offense? We may be seeing the start of what we want to see on the defensive side of the ball. Pressure and containment along with a little chaos would be nice to see on Saturday!

The kid is loyal, he is improving, I give him all the credit in the world. I would say it is a combination of Lanning and Stein which has done the trick. I also think when somebody has a goal and works toward it, nothing is impossible, Go Ty!

Nothing worth having is easy, this job must truly be his dream job. All the best to Dilly going forward as he must have know this wasn't going to be easy.

The passing game does open up the run game, enough said, great article.

I love ribs, especially slow cooked, low heat for about 10 hrs, but few injuries are as painful as broken ribs. Best of luck to the young man, and hopefully it is just his ribs. They are painful, but you recover pretty well from that injury.

This game was all about recruiting. Oregon plays Hawaii out of respect, and desire for the Hawaiian, Polynesian players we have had, have now and will have in the future. I can tell you as a frequent visitor to Hawaii, Oregon is very popular with locals in Hawaii. This was a very shrewd game to schedule. Next year when we play in Honolulu there just might be the next Marcus Mariota sitting in the stands saying 'I am going to that school when I grow up.' The players will enjoy the trip too.

Don't misunderstand me, this was a nice bloc, but isn't that an O-lineman taking on a LB? Would that be like a Receiver beating a LB on a deep ball?

Agree about PSU, but against TT I was pleased the Ducks took what they were given, but a little concerned when they tried what wasn't there over and over. What I would like to see is the Ducks to continue to take what is given, like the sideline pass against TT. This is smart football, exploit the defensive alignment on the field. I would also like to see what you are implying, use a weapon few teams can match up against, our receivers, and their ability to go deep. With this they will have to keep the safeties deep and the run game opens up. This is all about dictating the game, something we need to do more of. The other item I don't want to see is repeated runs for no gain. Maybe we need an analysis about why we had so many runs with no gain, sometimes consecutively. This development caused me a little PTSD, or as I like to call it PTMD, post tramatic MariØ disorder. We need to see more horizontal passing, and a more effective running game. Both seem to be complementary, and the horizontal passing attack may help create that stronger running game, and help me with my PTMD.

That was well done, Lanning, the team and the video!

It is my understanding the only job he is interested in, other than the Oregon job, is his first head coaching job and that job is taken. The head coach of the third grade team he cut his head coaching teeth at has a longterm coach who isn't retiring anytime soon. If that does happen we should all worry, but until then, not so much.

Great stuff, what do you see as compared to Dilly after two games? The three attempts up the gut on Saturday reminded me of MarØ, but Stein seems to have some magic up his sleeve too. Excellent analysis on this RPO, thanks for all you do!

Not talking about lashing out when things are tough. It would be good to see a player in the face of a teammate telling him that isn't acceptable when a bonehead play happens. Maybe even a slap on the butt, and your better than that. Set the expectation each player executes and shows discipline. Football isn't just a bunch of kumbaya moments. I get it Lanning goes over game film, scores the play of each player and works with each student athlete. I just want to see an elevated intensity of execution needed to be dominant on the road. I think it is the next level of trust one has throughout a game. You trust everyone is going to give it there all, and the respect one has is built, not fixed. It is definitely tough to define and pick out one thing which needs to grow or be fixed. This is just one little observation, and, admittedly, some simple conclusions I have drawn.

I was struck by this part of your analysis. I do think Lanning and the rest of the coaches focus on trust and the players like them and each other. This is important and a worthy goal. What seems to be lacking is the respect, discipline for the coaches. There is a difference and this is an important component to a successful team. Penalties are the biggest indicator that respect is lacking. Without the admiration of a coach and not wanting to let them down you make stupid mistakes. Respect is earned, but it is also demanded, and that may not be happening enough with the coaches. There was some great analysis of the Georgia program and the derecruiting of the players. Once a player hit campus players had to earn the respect of the coaches. The way the players were playing it seems this may not have happened to the extent needed to reach the heights many have projected. If the team of players is going to become what they can become the trust has to grow into strong respect for the coaches and the other players. The true edge is when each players has earned the respect of each other and the coaches. I look forward to that metric happening soon, because I didn't notice it enough Saturday.

Agree there is only one guy who is questioning what he did, and that isn't Bassa, or Dorlus. I hope that guy has a great end to his career from here on out!

Talent doesn't make a team, adversity helps make a team. These guys are still learning how to put talent together into what it can become. I am still excited to see what the coaches can create with the talent level they have to work with. Today we saw some character, and maybe Dorlus can lead the defense to a higher standard. Not sure what to do about the O-line, film room and soul searching?

I think a lot of this will be put on the fact it was a road game. Next year this will be a short road trip. The Ducks need to clean up their play, and tighten up execution.

Our defense is weak, and MariØ's team outscored us. We have some work to do! One thing is road games will make a team look like ours did today. Problem is you have to win the road games. The Ducks showed resilience, we have that going for us!