I'm sitting here watching 2015 Oregon vs Arizona State, with Big Play VA and all of our skill players that could run like scalded cats, and I really miss that time.

Yeah defenses sucked, and almost none of our players were headed to the NFL except Buckner and Royce, but so what? It was really fun to watch.

Getting back to title of the post, today we are lumbering behemoth of 4 and 5 stars on offense that can't figure out how to get out of our own way, combined with an elite smothering defense. There are probably 30 people on the team right now that will end up on an NFL roster.

We are now a quintessential Big 10 team with a ton of talent, all defense and no offense.

Let's raise a toast to what once was and accept the trendy cliche that the Ducks are indeed the Hero that lived long enough to become the Villain.

Our Transition to the Dark Side of the Force is now complete..

The Good News?

It isn’t permanent…it is just one tough year.

No one ever said that actually getting to the point where we could win a national championship would be easy.

1 hour ago, Charles Fischer said:

The Good News?

It isn’t permanent…it is just one tough year.

I tend to agree. Dan Lanning is having years taken off his life with this offensive misery. This level of discomfort is surely going to result in real changes. Dan will grow.

But it is jarring to see what we are right now compared what we used to be.

It's taken the staff this long to recognize Zone Blocking is not a strength of the OL. Both Tackles also struggle too much to pass protect reliably. These guys explain it better than I do, but instinctively I have been thinking this all year...

I thought these guys were Scoop Duck until I watched the video. They're good. They have time I don't so I thought I would let them explain it better than I can. And they confirmed a lot of my suspicions. Check them out.

Maybe DL KNEW that we would beat Nebraska anyway and just wanted to set up the storybook ending of have DR come into the game to lead the game winning drive.

Makes me think a movie might be in the works....it was all cinema, that's what it was. 😊

9 hours ago, Mike West said:

It's taken the staff this long to recognize Zone Blocking is not a strength of the OL. Both Tackles also struggle too much to pass protect reliably. These guys explain it better than I do, but instinctively I have been thinking this all year...

I thought these guys were Scoop Duck until I watched the video. They're good. They have time I don't so I thought I would let them explain it better than I can. And they confirmed a lot of my suspicions. Check them out.

I watched this earlier this morning and I like this Eric guy! That was great, hire him on the staff.

I agree with this guy about Crader in Pass Pro, he isn't really improving. Eric is right that he can jump the rush and set or drop and set. Crader just drops and lets them go Speed-to-Bull Rush over and over. He is also right about how teams are setting the edge rusher out wider on tackles to attack them with speed rush.

Our coaches should be coaching our tackles to switch how they play the speed rush and chipping if they need the help. I'm going to watch if we have improved or adjusted to this, if not that is on the coaches.

I see I blamed TE Johnson for blowing his assignment on our first run play but watching the tape it was Crader who turned the guy in his gap free. I agree we aren't that far off getting the run game to go in gap if we just can keep assignment sound and we should get better every week.

Watching live I see we ran #26 a bit more in counter, and duo not inside zone.

I do not care if we win with offense, defense or both, just win!

It is difficult to watch Sports Center with no mention of our Oregon DUCKS.

1 hour ago, Ktmguy2018 said:

Maybe DL KNEW that we would beat Nebraska anyway and just wanted to set up the storybook ending of have DR come into the game to lead the game winning drive.

Makes me think a movie might be in the works....it was all cinema, that's what it was. 😊

Add to that with having the hometown kid start. Win win for both QB's.

I think a good O line is part of the deal. So no, not there yet.

I had to search to find our channel for today's game. I'm used to seeing it splashed all over network promos. Yes, I'm spoiled. Yes, I'm entitled. Tough noogies.

4th quarter Mich 3 Indy 6. Seems the golden boy Cig has also joined the dark side.

Tough sledding when your punter is player of the week.

There an interesting arc when it comes to a sports narrative. If the spunky underdog starts winning over a period of seasons, they become the villain. The Patriots first Super Bowl was an underdog story. By the end of their run, they were an Evil Empire. Same with the Chiefs and Mahomes.

We’ve been doing well for a long time now. We’re no longer the lovable underdog; we’re now the perennial underachievers. That seems to be the narrative anyway. The only way to deal with that is to block out the noise and just win, baby.

Would you take the twenty plus year build up before you get your title, or twenty years of misery with a quick two year turn around like Indiana got?