The Problem Last month, I speculated that Oregon’s future schedules may not be sufficiently strong to qualify for the College Football Playoff. In the event of a one-loss Pac-12 record, a weak nonconference schedule could have the Ducks on the outside looking in come a future January. This is precisely the situation facing Wisconsin. Were the Badgers to lose one of their …
This site is all about “Our beloved Ducks,” to quote Charles Fischer, our long standing Zen Master. It’s true: web-foots we are. However, the past two seasons, the Ducks have struggled mightily, and many “die-hard” fans have jumped ship. The question to explore, for those of us who have stayed true, is: Why all the love for the Ducks? What draws us …
With that very first play from scrimmage — a ten yard completion from Justin Herbert to Dillon Mitchell — you could feel Duck Nation let out a collective sigh of relief, as if to say: “Our long offensive nightmare is over.” Good times are here again as the flash n’ balls of the Oregon offensive showed up for the first …
Takes you back to the old days doesn’t it? You know, Oregon scoring 45-50 points, the other team scoring 27 to 34 points and the fans screaming at Nick Aliotti for allowing that much? Boy, has our perspective changed! That was the biggest darn victory that I did not see coming, and yes … my perspective has changed, and I …
If you look at Oregon’s current 5-5 record this season under Willie Taggart and think the results of last two games on the schedule don’t really matter, think again. Better yet, think back to a fateful moment in Oregon football history: December 16, 1989. Playing in the Poulan Weed Eater Independence Bowl that cold evening in Shreveport, Louisiana, the Ducks …
Momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity. Momentum. Velocity. Mass. All factors that led to the Ducks losing four out of the last five games, and three straight losses. As Justin Herbert stretched across the goal line against California, a slightly late defender who’d already committed his energy …
Every Husky loss, should result in pure joy. But I found myself oddly disappointed when Washington lost to Stanford on Friday. Barring something crazy (and with two of the top-3 teams losing this weekend, don’t count anything out), that game eliminated the Pac-12 from playoff contention. That’s a problem because the Pac-12 has the most parity of any conference and …
As a devoted Oregon fan, I’ve been thrilled at the class Coach Willie Taggart and his staff have been putting together as a recruiting class for signing day in February 2018. However, there was one strategic timing decision he made that I had questions about. Recently, I was wondering out loud with a few Duck-Buddies of the potential impact from …
Good ole’ figures of speech such as “going down swinging,” “take a roll of the dice” and “gotta’ be in it to win it” didn’t apply to the Ducks on Saturday. The Ducks offense was the equivalent of a baseball team whose batters stood at the plate all game long with the bat firmly resting on their shoulders. They were …
Isn’t this lovely? Writing and reviewing a game such as that one is truly like consuming the “Hair of the Dog” to offset the effects of it upon you. It is hard to not reach some conclusions, yet I am wary of over-reacting in either direction as I have in the past. It is difficult to be measured and reasonable …
I have been appalled by the behaviors of Husky fans over the many decades of my life, and in my personal experiences with them. Note that this article is not about the UW football team or the Washington coaching staff, but the Husky fans, which are simply the worst ever I have ever witnessed. Let’s look at why…. A fascinating …
In the beginning, Oregon’s 2017 season did not feel like its disastrous 2016 season, which resulted in the firing of the entire coaching staff. A new coach had already won the recruiting season by convincing key veterans to return (Royce Freeman and Tyrell Crosby), bringing in a stellar 2017 class and building the foundation of an historic 2018 class. But …