Wow, It is almost impressive how absolutely abysmal that spectacle was. This morning as we all try to process what we just witnessed, I think there is a convergence of factors that need to be addressed separately and then added together to understand what is so wrong with the Ducks offense.

Starting at the top, Lanning's gambling addiction needs to be addressed. It stopped being fun pedal to the metal go big or go home stuff years ago. Why in the world does he take so many potentially game changing risks so early in so many games? Last year in the first game with Indiana, on the first drive, he decides to go for it on fourth down on the short side of the field. Why? After failing, the Hoosiers kick a field goal and settle in and control the game the rest of the way.

This week it's going for two in the first quarter. Both times it's high risk low reward decisions that set a negative tone for the rest of the game. Not only is it poor strategy, I think gambling shows a lack of confidence in the team that sets the negative tone mentioned earlier. It needs to stop like with an intervention, counseling or a life changing moment. Whatever the answer is, it needs to happen soon.

The OC promotion has been a disaster. Mehringer seems like a good tight end coach but nothing on his resume screamed OC potential. His results as OC at Rutgers were bad and we're now seeing why. This team has been assembled with some of the best skill position players in the country which gets negated by some of the worst play calling in the country. The simplistic route tree the receivers run negates their physical advantage. Running up the middle has been this teams most glaring weakness and yet continues to be their favorite play.

With the game and playoff hopes on the line, with a last chance opportunity to escape with a win in OT with a successful two point conversion what gets called? Yes the Ducks worst and least successful play all year. Right up the middle. Inexcusable. One of the few successful drives the team had was self destroyed with a way too cute wildcat hand off fumble. When it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It also needs to be asked how can the offensive line be so terrible? A quick look at the OL two deep shows ten players rated 4-5 stars. How in the world in year five with that much talent can the Ducks have one of the worst O lines in the country. Since everything starts up front, everything gets derailed at step one. Something is appallingly wrong and someone needs to deal with this ASAP.

To summarize an inexplicably bad OL with great talent is setting up plays doomed to fail by an OC in over his skies. All this is setting up a delicate chess match that needs to be strategically navigated by a river boat gambler who never wants to be told the odds. Welcome to Oregon Duck football 2026. Buckle up.

To repeat what Mr. Kamakazi discussed. Can someone explain to me what the purpose of going for the first two point conversion was? An extra point puts us up by four. What does five points do for us? This alone IMHO cost us the game (along with other issues certainly). We had the momentum in the fourth quarter thanks to Brock Thomas and with a tie to force overtime, we could have won with our momentum.

I'm still a big Lanning fan but it's like we've got Tom Hanks in Bachelor Party when we need Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan.

Something is definitely wrong with the route tree when our pass catchers can't get open. Mehringer needs to be canned and replaced with Ross Douglas our WR coach. Here is what AI has to say about him: Previous Role: Wide receivers coach at Syracuse (2024), where he helped direct an FBS-leading passing offense.

Here is what AI says about Mehringer at Rutgers:Drew Mehringer (2016) and Sean Gleeson (2020–2022) are most frequently cited among the worst offensive coordinators in modern Rutgers football history due to historically low national rankings and mid-season dismissals. [1, 2, 3]

Lanning promoted Meh'. This same team went to the semi last year.

A failed 2 pt conv in the 1st quarter does not explaine... well, whatever we are calling what we saw yesterday on the offensive side of the ball.

Dan is resposible and it is all on him. He is the one who promoted Meh'. The OC is completely in over his head.

Lanning needs to relieve Meh' of his OC responsibilities now, imo. Surely someone out there can take over game planning and play calling.

It cant get any worse! I think I am going to be sick!

But its not my $50 mil so...

Great searching Solar. The play calling is just inexplicably bad. Just looking forty miles north, The Beavers have a fraction of the budget in a gutted conference and still look like they have a better head coach, a better OC and a better O line. And I mean by far. By farther than far. They have a freshman receiver that is rewriting their record books that wouldn't even be in the UO three deep for this inept offense. This has been a criminal squandering of resources I could never imagine in years past.

58 minutes ago, Santa Rosa Duck said:

To repeat what Mr. Kamakazi discussed. Can someone explain to me what the purpose of going for the first two point conversion was? An extra point puts us up by four. What does five points do for us? This alone IMHO cost us the game (along with other issues certainly). We had the momentum in the fourth quarter thanks to Brock Thomas and with a tie to force overtime, we could have won with our momentum.

Coach Lanning said in his post game that they saw something in how UCLA lined up (numbers advantage) but the ref stood over the ball longer than normal. He said he’d have to go back and watch the tape to see what went wrong.

I agree with you about going for 2 early in game. Why?

"the o-line was terrible" - I heard Geoff Schwartz on the radio this morning. Basically he said the same thing. He said the in-game dilemma the coaching staff had was every play somebody different was screwing up. They couldn't substitute out a guy having a bad game because there were too many guys screwing up. One guy would temporarily get "fixed", then another guy would screw up. He implied the o-line didn't run a clean play the whole game because somewhere along the line there was a screwup during the play.

2 minutes ago, HDuck said:

"the o-line was terrible"

How in the world can you have a two deep of 4-5 stars and be this bad? How in the world can an O line coach that coached back to back Joe Moore award finalist lines coach this bad? Are the plays so simple they are just that easy to defend? Are they so complicated that the learning curve is too high. Have the players just been over hyped to the extreme? I need an Xs and Os master to explain it to me like I'm seven because I just can't grasp how this is happening.

The desperate fuskies were slinging the ball all over the field against Iowa with a back up QB. The Beavers are setting team offensive records with a gutted program with little NIL. And the Ducks can neither run or pass the ball against anybody other than SUC or FCS teams. We're getting early 80's Ducks results with Pete Carrol level talent. This is the most bewildering Duck team I've ever seen.