We are 3 weeks from Duck football!

A new season is fast approaching and I've been wondering all this off season:

What's the real reason for the last 2 seasons ending in such huge losses.

13 wins each season. Great recruiting.

Exciting teams. Top rated offensive line 3 years in a row. More players drafted each year. No problems with the law( well, nothing too major). Three assistants to head coaches. All that, and then 2 major disappointments.

What have I got to complain about?!

So please help me understand, what is the reason for these 2nd time around thrashings. Is it coaching? Experience? Is it just one of those things?

Opinion:

• second loss to Ohio State - poor preparation by coaches, it appeared the Ducks staff expected a repeat of the earlier game and that Ohio State would not make adjustments on offense or defense. It's like the coaches only watched film of the first game.

• second loss to Indiana - the loss of Ducks running back experience has not received the attention it deserved, both for carries and blocking. Then, when the deficit reached 21-7, I think the whole team - offense and defense - panicked, including a befuddled coaching staff.

• both - playing from behind is apparently not Lanning's forte.

Dan L, you are a great poster and member of this forum, so I do not want to give you the wrong impression. I cannot go into those games again…not anything related to you and your honest question, but due to MY issues and where my head is at this time.

Those have been analyzed and discussed here extensively, and this is a different team in 2026—one that has the highest potential on both sides of the ball. I don’t want to go through the past negative again; I want to focus on the excitement of this team and the upcoming games.

Perhaps others here can offer their perspectives…

Better "TEAMS" won.

4 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

Dan L, you are a great poster and member of this forum, so I do not want to give you the wrong impression. I cannot go into those games again…not anything related to you and your honest question, but due to MY issues and where my head is at this time.

Those have been analyzed and discussed here extensively, and this is a different team in 2026—one that has the highest potential on both sides of the ball. I don’t want to go through the past negative again; I want to focus on the excitement of this team and the upcoming games.

Perhaps others here can offer their perspectives…

Can you direct me to a few past articles? I didn't read much at first cuz I was too disappointed.

I agree this is a different team this year with a very high ceiling which I'm very excited about.

Personally, I think evenly matched teams sometimes get the hot hand and like in baseball, lose 10-1 in the first game and come back and win 12-3 in the next game.

I'm hoping this year is our game 2!

At the bottom and the top of the site are page numbers; you welcome to go back and find, and then scroll through the two weeks after each game and see what was written by OBD members, and you will find links provided to those analysis articles also in the two weeks after the games.

In two seasons of a 12-team PO, Kirby Smart is 0-2.

The fault? Notre Dame and Ole Miss.

Chip Kelly took Tosh Lupoi to the woodshed. Chip still has a superior football mind regardless of some of the head coaching challenges.

This year, outside of the catastrophic, its all on Lanning. We will truly see his coaching abilities. If he gets blown up for a 3rd time in the PO? Then what?

Dan Lanning was on Rich Eisen recently and was asked about this. He carefully offered some insights while stressing that he was not making excuses. AgaInst OSU, he reminded us that the Ducks sat for 25 days after playing in the B1G Championship, while OSU played the week before against Tennessee.

Last year, running back room devastated, O line injuries compounding and 2 checked out assistants due to open transfer portal while the season was still going on. This context matters to some extent, I'll eave it to each to form their own judgments.

Win lose or draw, I love my Ducks. It hurts to see them lose the last game of the season, especially after beating their slate of opponents in convincing fashion.

But you know what? MOST CFB teams lose their last game of the season . Half of those who don’t make the playoffs, and all but one of those who do. We are not in bad company.

I learned long ago that blame solves nothing. I trust DL to go back to the drawing board, make some adjustments and deliver to us fans the best team these kids are capable of being.

I believe DL and OBD will deliver us a Natty at some point under DL, possibly more. There is also the possibility we will always be bridesmaids and never the bride.

As fans we need to deal with it. Blaming anyone or anything for the final loss solves nothing. Never did, never will.

4 hours ago, Log Haulin said:

Chip Kelly took Tosh Lupoi to the woodshed. Chip still has a superior football mind regardless of some of the head coaching challenges.

This year, outside of the catastrophic, it's all on Lanning. We will truly see his coaching abilities. If he gets blown up for a 3rd time in the PO? Then what?

Lanning's record in 2 years of a 12-team PO is 2-2. As noted above, Kirby Smart is 0-2.

Every conference and ND agreed that the seeding format in 2024-25 that had Boise State as the 3rd seed was FUBAR. Under today's seeding of teams as ranked, Oregon's Rose Bowl opponent would have been the winner of Boise State at Indiana, not eventual champ Ohio State.

Eight teams have had 1st-round playoff byes. The collective record in 2nd-round games is 1-7.

As Curt Cignetti noted, Indiana caught Oregon at a good time. It wasn't expected, but Oregon came off a very physical game vs the Texas Tech defense, and Bama quit in the Rose Bowl. And the game should have been called the Hoosier Bowl and not the Peach Bowl.

515 miles from Bloomington to Atlanta. 2619 miles from Eugene, with Oregon coming off of a game in Miami.

It also didn't help that Dan's OC and DC were serving two masters.

Dan and friends were outcoached by experienced coaches who won championships after the beatdown of OBD, aided by the Buckeyes and Hoosiers having some 'pretty good' players on the field.

This is Dan's 4th year at the helm. Smart and Day won their titles in year six. The advantage this season is that if Oregon makes it to the title game, it will be played in Las Vegas, and the hometown team, UNLV, will not be the opponent. Ducks fans will flock to Allegiant Field.

However, Dan will be the first to acknowledge the blowout losses, and no one will work harder to rectify the problem.

Keep the faith!

13 hours ago, DanLduck said:

Can you direct me to a few past articles? I didn't read much at first cuz I was too disappointed.

I agree this is a different team this year with a very high ceiling which I'm very excited about.

I wrote on recently that kinda goes into some of this stuff. But of bad luck and a bit of unpreparedness.

Just How Close are the Ducks From a Championship?

During Big Ten Media Days Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning said the Ducks are close to winning it all but is this just fan service or are the Ducks really that close to winning it all?