[CTcard]

Those fumbles were likely "aided" by Oregon defenders who should have been flagged for disconcerting signals or mimicking cadence...oh well.

Did you see something or are you speculating?
I don't remember noticing anything obvious at the time, but probably wasn't really looking either.

I recall we spent a lot of time last year trying to convince ourselves the Ducks weren't going to be very good because Vernon Adams wasn't going to have enough time to learn the QB job, or their defense was going to be lousy, or whatever. Of course, when they got trounced by Utah, that left no doubt in our minds. Well, when we played them, guess what happened?

So, IMO, this preseason talk is harmless, but also pretty meaningless. Our game with them in Eugene will be a very tough one. You can take that to the bank.

If we're not going to analyze football or other sports, what are we going to do here now that ripping each other over politics is out?
So, I'm going to go ahead.

At any rate, I don't remember much convincing of that sort, other than there are always a few who simply project everything possibly positive for the home team.

A year ago there was only a little reason to think Oregon might be bad, with their concerns at QB and the secondary.
Mariota had just won the H-man. While Adams seemed promising, hard to expect an FCS guy to come in and equal a H-man winner. In fact, when completely healthy he did a remarkably close job of just that.
The secondary had to replace 3 of 4.
On the other hand, they clearly had a lot of playmakers on offense and a stout front seven on defense that benefited from Buckner returning.

By my memory Oregon was a pretty much unanimous preseason pick to win the Pac 12, certainly the North, and preseason rankings had them 5th-7th in the country from what I can find now.


There is a significant contrast this year.
Oregon is coming off a season where they were very good with Adams healthy, and very bad (for them) otherwise. The total was a bad season for them.
This year's FCS QB transfer is also promising, but less heralded and from a system less similar to Oregon's.
Probably more importantly they lose 6 of their defensive front 7. They do return the secondary but it has to improve a lot. They also lose 3 of 5 OL (as we do).

An interesting development is that there are reports that Charles Nelson is going to full time defense. He didn't touch the ball a lot last year, but was a big play guy (20 yds/rush). Of course UO always has guys who can run with the ball while clearly defense needs support.
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EDIT: Aaargh. I post one thing by pure memory and get it backwards. On the basis of what the Ducks have elsewhere on their roster, I would think the opposite switch would make more sense. The Ducks do have a lot of returning bodies in the secondary, but they were bad last year with perhaps Nelson the best of the group. Of course if he really excels on offense, he'd be more valuable there. We'll see.
Thanks Larkin
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That all adds up to Oregon being picked in the 20s in most preseason rankings so far, and often as low as fourth in the North. We haven't seen that in a long time. Personally, I'm fairly skeptical UW and WSU will really pass them and see a lot of range in how good Stanford may end up, but can see the reasoning.

[CTcard]

Those fumbles were likely "aided" by Oregon defenders who should have been flagged for disconcerting signals or mimicking cadence...oh well.

Did you see something or are you speculating?
I don't remember noticing anything obvious at the time, but probably wasn't really looking either.

I recall we spent a lot of time last year trying to convince ourselves the Ducks weren't going to be very good because Vernon Adams wasn't going to have enough time to learn the QB job, or their defense was going to be lousy, or whatever. Of course, when they got trounced by Utah, that left no doubt in our minds. Well, when we played them, guess what happened?

So, IMO, this preseason talk is harmless, but also pretty meaningless. Our game with them in Eugene will be a very tough one. You can take that to the bank.

If we're not going to analyze football or other sports, what are we going to do here now that ripping each other over politics is out?
So, I'm going to go ahead.

At any rate, I don't remember much convincing of that sort, other than there are always a few who simply project everything possibly positive for the home team.

A year ago there was only a little reason to think Oregon might be bad, with their concerns at QB and the secondary.
Mariota had just won the H-man. While Adams seemed promising, hard to expect an FCS guy to come in and equal a H-man winner. In fact, when completely healthy he did a remarkably close job of just that.
The secondary had to replace 3 of 4.
On the other hand, they clearly had a lot of playmakers on offense and a stout front seven on defense that benefited from Buckner returning.

By my memory Oregon was a pretty much unanimous preseason pick to win the Pac 12, certainly the North, and preseason rankings had them 5th-7th in the country from what I can find now.


There is a significant contrast this year.
Oregon is coming off a season where they were very good with Adams healthy, and very bad (for them) otherwise. The total was a bad season for them.
This year's FCS QB transfer is also promising, but less heralded and from a system less similar to Oregon's.
Probably more importantly they lose 6 of their defensive front 7. They do return the secondary but it has to improve a lot. They also lose 3 of 5 OL (as we do).

An interesting development is that there are reports that Charles Nelson is going to full time defense. He didn't touch the ball a lot last year, but was a big play guy (20 yds/rush). Of course UO always has guys who can run with the ball while clearly defense needs support.
-------------
EDIT: Aaargh. I post one thing by pure memory and get it backwards. On the basis of what the Ducks have elsewhere on their roster, I would think the opposite switch would make more sense. The Ducks do have a lot of returning bodies in the secondary, but they were bad last year with perhaps Nelson the best of the group. Of course if he really excels on offense, he'd be more valuable there. We'll see.
Thanks Larkin
-------------

That all adds up to Oregon being picked in the 20s in most preseason rankings so far, and often as low as fourth in the North. We haven't seen that in a long time. Personally, I'm fairly skeptical UW and WSU will really pass them and see a lot of range in how good Stanford may end up, but can see the reasoning.