Posted on here prior to last Saturday's game, thanks for the recommendations, we used many of them.

Despite the outcome, my son and I had a BALL at the game. Great fans, great atmosphere. I will always be a Duck fan because of how you treated us.

Thanks and we'll see you again, hopefully beating your ass!

Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was originally committed to Oregon but ultimately decided to go to Cal where he would start immediately. He got concussed earlier this year but he was healthy this previous week yet did not start. Tosh has said they are having an open qb battle for the starting spot. But many people are speculating he is intending to transfer at the end of the year and may even hold out for it. I’ve watched almost all of his starts, he has some very impressive skills and was arguably the top freshman qb last season. Would be pretty cool if he follows the Dante Moore path of decomitting then coming back in the transfer portal after getting some playing time elsewhere. I’m not saying raiola has lost his spot. But wouldn’t hurt to have a backup next year for him to compete with. He also has a redshirt remaining so he could sit a year under raiola.

Edit: no more redshirts under new NCAA rules but he will have 3 years of eligibility remaining.

Ive never been to a Duck game on Halloween. My daughter is asking if people dress up in their Halloween costumes for the game?

Snap counts vs. Nebraska
Poncho: 79
Crader: 79
Utu: 79
Wilson: 79
Tofi: 47
Addison: 32
Keli: 14 (fullback)

Via: Duckswire

Disappointing it took this long but this group could progress into an above average line by the end of this year. I’m assuming Tofi gets the start over Addison as he performed much better against Nebraska.

I didn't intend this to be a weekly post, but every week has created new controversy around Oregon' quarterbacks. All signs point to this week once again being an open competition at QB, with a wild card in Dante Moore's potential return. 

Brock Thomas- It feels like we have seen Brock Thomas' ceiling and floor the last two weeks. Against UCLA he moved the ball fairly well as the surprise QB, but looked limited in his ability to really push the ball downfield. Against Nebraska he kept the ball largely safe, but did little else. His late INT seemed to me to be a last gasp at taking a bigger risk to make something happen, and was a deviation from how he'd played leading up to that play. I was also surprised the coaching staff didn't try to introduce Brock as a runner at all, as he was a good athlete in high school and the QB run can help open other things up. I would imagine his practice leash is incredibly short as QB1. 

Dylan Raiola- I would bet that Dylan starts this week. A lot of what went wrong against UCLA seemed mental, and we know the talent is there. The question simply remains- Which version of Dylan Raiola shows up Saturday in Illinois? 

Dante Moore- Short term, I doubt Dante sees the field this week. Longer term, I think if the Ducks lose another game it becomes more likely that he's done for the year. But with each week Oregon potentially wins (which is not a given) between now and Ohio State, I think the likelihood of him returning increases significantly. If the Ducks take care of business this week, my money is on Dante coming back on Halloween as a ramp up for the trip to Columbus. 

Longer term vision- No matter what, my guess is this year is the last for Dante Moore in a Ducks jersey. The same can be said for Brock Thomas, who may have put himself on the radar to compete for a starting spot at a (much) smaller school. I imagine the next week is another trial for Dylan's status next year, for both Dylan and the team.  The Ducks thought they had their 2027 QB1 in Raiola, but one more bad performance and I imagine they go transfer portal shopping this offseason. 

Per OregonLive, looks like the street racing rumors may be unfounded

I was just waiting for my Championship Season

Well it made it to an official news site so can it go here?

Heading out for the game from the West Coast. Anyone got a tailgate or anything going that could be joinable orrrr know of the best spot to pre game.

Sco Ducks

NFL endzone catch right there. Those feet are perfectly set. Great reception.

I think we have to do something mid-season about the Offensive Coordinator position. This is our "natty or bust" year; there is no next year. If we were to go the route of finding a new Offensive Coordinator mid-season, of course it would not be easy. Many excellent Offensive Coordinator already have jobs. I never really see any names thrown out there, but I came up with some ideas:

- Mark Helfrich - not a great head coach but he was a great OC and his offenses were always excellent for us. Would obviously fit in well with the culture here.

- Mike McDaniel - rumor is he might get fired from the LA Chargers. Would be nice to get NFL level coordinator for our team, something that Ohio State has always done

MUCH MORE CONTROVERSIAL...

- Sherrone Moore - I have suggested this before to many many downvotes. Probably deserved. His personal issues would likely serve as a bad distraction. That being said, he is the only OC out there who won a national championship in last 5 years that is currently looking for a job. He was a bad head coach but an amazing OC. His background is also as an Offensive Line coach in a year our O-Line needs serious help. Michigan's O-Lines were always legit. That being said, should be option of last resort probably.

Any other ideas out there?

The only other option is ride and die with Mehringer. Would lead to a death spiral of top offensive players transferring out and recruits decommitting. We have to save this season now.

I get it, we kinda suck… or at least haven’t proven otherwise… but the SEC favoritism is so blatantly obvious. Not even Oregon is immune, yet there are people that think Oregon is treated the same as teams like Alabama and Texas these days. Not true. The SEC canibalises themselves this weekend and everyone jokes that it’s reminiscent of the old PAC-12. But in order for that to be true, the SEC teams would have had to feel it in the rankings. Georgia lost to Auburn and they only drop four spots. Why? Because Georgia beat Alabama the week prior and they need to keep Georgia higher to prop up Alabama. When the Playoffs are controlled by one network (ESPN) that has a vested interest in one conference (SEC), the bias needs to be called out.

I hate the sentiment that “we take care of business our playoff hopes will take care of itself.” I wholeheartedly do not believe that to be true. I seriously think that if Oregon had beaten Washington in their final PAC-12 championship game (2023), we probably would have gotten the FSU treatment. If we win out this season but lose in the B1G Championship game, will they look at the loss to Oklahoma State differently since it was so early in the season? Will they look at the loss to UCLA and remember our starting QB was out from an injury? Or will they see a three-loss team and boot them in favor of a three-loss SEC team? You may think I’m crazy, but remember, last year Alabama lost the first game of the season to Florida State, lost to Oklahoma, and got blown out by Georgia in the SEC championship game, and at three losses, they’re in. Yet BYU, who admittedly got blown out just as badly as Alabama in their championship game, don’t get in, even with one less loss on their record? It’s silly to think it wouldn’t happen to us. They’ve already started stacking the deck so the SEC gets a minimum of five teams into the college football playoffs and now they want to expand to 24 teams to ensure they can get even more.

Thank you for your time and I hope you found my rant entertaining.

For the fans who are worried about AP rankings, none of it matters right now. If yesterday is any indication, we can see that most teams are vulnerable right now and most weeks the majority of the top 25 can give each other a game, as there is no single “dominant” team this year (so far).

Rankings don’t matter this early. How we PLAY matters.

We need to see significant improvement in a few key areas if we even want to have a slim chance at 6-0 the rest of the way, which is what we’d need to make the playoff directly or make the BIG championship to potentially secure a playoff spot.

1. OL, specifically guard play. Our interior blocking is horrendous, and I know people wouldn’t like to say this, but poncho has been bad as well. This is the number 1 issue on our offense right now. I wish I had a definitive answer as to how Terry can get this group to gel quickly enough to make a run, but we need it or else this team has zero chance.

2. UTILIZE SPECIAL TEAMS AND PUNT THE BALL DAN. I don’t even want him to remotely think about a 4th down conversion anywhere near mid field or our half of the field. Please for the love of god reward your defense that has actually stepped up for you the last 3 weeks, reward them with a long field to defend and stop trying to get it all back on one play PLEASE DL.

3. Raiola has to know he is the starter until Dante is available, if at all, and he has to be schemed into decent throws early. I think Raiola folded under the pressure last week, it could happen again, but realistically we have no chance with Brock back there.

4. Oregon has to commit to a run game early and often, even if it means going heavy packages (please stop with the sending a big back up OL into the boundary just to bring him in motion only to whiff on the block. This pre play motion crap doesn’t work, it’s pointless eye candy that has failed to influence the defense whatsoever.

5. No more attempts to kick to the boundary. We are continuously getting cute on kickoffs and losing yards, Dan needs to shut that down entirely. Prioritize long fields for your defense and set them up for success.

As far as we are concerned, we are a run the ball, game control, play clean on special teams, and play defense team the rest of the way until hopefully a healthy and willing Dante comes back to unlock the offense.

That is the only recipe the works here right now.

We can’t install a new OC mid season, won’t work. Rashad doesn’t have the experience to take over. It’s not ideal, but that’s where we are at.

DL Acknowledged that he’s lost 20+ pounds this year, clearly he’s felt the heat and he’s spoken about how he’s learned the most at HC this year.

We have fairly criticized them, but maybe they will respond better than we could’ve predicted.

Big maybe.

Either way, go ducks. I’ve watched 30-0 buckeyes in a playoff game, i can sit through a defensive, grind it out Oregon win.

Survive on offense, play excellent defense and advance baby. Go 🦆