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Post Game Civil War

147

We have to be careful to take solace in the Beavs playing fairly well. Meaning, if they lost 70-2 everyone would be calling for change, but since it was a 1 point game with good effort, maybe people give Ranker a pass and think, “we’re close! Next year is the year!” This would be human nature.

On a similar note, we can’t act like this loss is as bad as Washington or Stanford. At least the players showed up for the game.

That being said, the coaching staff, specifically Riley, cost his team another game. The biggest error was not taking the FG in the 3rd quarter. It would have put the score at 23-24, which was totally fine for that juncture of the game. Another error was throwing a deep pass on 4th and 1. Deep passes have the lowest completion percentage of any play, so what’s the logic in using it when you need a yard? It’s overkill, like shooting mice with a 12 gauge. Finally, and this is a tough one, but I think he should have milked the clock at the end of that game and taken the winning FG attempt. As soon as Bolden scored, I turned to my girlfriend and said, “Too much time on the clock; the Ducks are going to win.”

One final point: in typical Beaver fashion (i.e. luck o’ the Beavs), we got the worst of both worlds: a close game so fans can say, “hey, at least it wasn’t a blowout”…yet no win. So, status quo complacency remains, but without the win. “At least it wasn’t a blowout” is music to Riley’s ears. But it’s sad that’s a popular paradigm. Those fans are clearly a major part of the problem, but I’m preaching to the choir and beating a dead horse and [insert your favorite idiom] with that.

Luck o’ the Beavs.

 

147 COMMENTS

  1. You’ve said repeatedly that to beat a superior team you’ve got to get touchdowns not field goals. Can’t have it both ways. This program needs change in terms of recruiting and player development but calling Riley out for that call is bullshit.

    • They didn’t have a choice of taking the FG there. Oregon’s D just gave up on the Bolden run. Guaranteed score vs Romaine for the win? Take the TD.

      • That’s why I said it was a tough one to get on him about, but if I were the coach, I’d milk the clock with dive plays. Not vs every opponent, but I would do that vs Oregon and just take my chances. It comes down to: do you trust your D stopping their O, or a shaky FG kicker? It’s a close call, but personally, I feel leaving Oregon > 1 minute is asking for an automatic loss. Also, Bolden could have gone down at the 1. You then have 3 tries to get in, make them use timeouts, etc.

        • Riley would have got destroyed is he went conservative there. And I thought the sweep was conservative because they hadn’t been breaking big yards on the play the whole game.

          The game was lost by the play of Murphy and Zimmerman. Did anyone think they played well?

        • Agree. Tough to do but if you ate disciplined and smart and want ti give yourself control and much higher actual odds to seal the win you take the knee on the 1. This is coachable. At the time, after thr first down TE pass brought us just inside FG range I was saying just give me a 3 or 4 yard run and I am very happy. Then they could have gotten 2 or 3 on tbe next and 1 or 2 on 3rd and it would have just been about a 37-38 yard field goal or closer and Oregon would have had little time. I was honestly hoping for about a 30 yard field goal to win it knowing that is all and thus everything we needed if even that for a comfortable kick that gave us the best control of the game we could reasonably want.

          • Yeah, control of the game is a good way to put it. With the ball and in FG range, you control the game because you control the clock. Once you score and the D is out there, Oregon controls the game/clock, and you’re reactionary, left hoping for a stop. People will say “how can you bash Riley when they scored a TD!?”…yes, that’s a valid complaint and during the rest of the game you’d rather have the TD, but within the last few minutes I’d rather have the ball on the 1 and milk the clock with still 3 tries for that TD.

          • Yeah agree the 1/2 to 1 yard line would have been best spot to take the knee. Seen it a couple times in the NFL with coachrs thinking agead and especially in the biggest games like the Super Bowl. I should have said above I woild have been happy with runs for modest yards and more control of the outcome but once Bolden broke ut that was even better so long as he took the knee around the one. You then can take your time and get fairly serious on 2nd and serious on 3rd in punching it in and have the field goal on 4th on the 15-16% chance you screw it up. With the TD after a knee at the first if on 2nd diwn maybe Oregon has 1:03 and if on 3rd they just have 35 seconds or something. If the FG on 4th they only have 20 seconds to try to get in FG range. What the Ducks got with rhe early score atleast doubled their chances over the median of these scenarios with a knee even going so far as factoring in chance for a false start or missed FG on 4th which it is doubtful it would have come to.

          • No chance with all three timeouts, uo would have let them run the clock down to :20. They still would have had over a minute left then need only to go to the Beavs 20 to kick a field goal.

            Need to stop them that last drive, Banker could not get it done. Should have stopped them on 4th down when they scored on a td pass.

          • Gotta wonder if they let Bolden score knowing they’d have the ball with time to put the game away. Its not like Bolden has been breaking runs at all this season.

            I think you gotta take the touchdown though. I just dont trust this guy with the game on the line.

            http://t.co/38lXLE7Zpn

            ^^^yes, you should click the link^^^

          • Aaron J. Fentress ?@AaronJFentress 38m

            Mark Helfrich said he contemplated allowing OSU to score in final minutes to save clock. Before he could decide OSU scored on a fly sweep.

    • They have enough talent to win. The insistence in getting more recruiting stars is simply lazy brain dead , unamerican, imperial, regal, caste system, lemming thinking. The staff simply does not have the collective IQ to compete at the D1 university level. Niceness is not a substitute for competence.

      • Negative Synergy at least. The some of their whole is significantly less than the sum of their parts. It’s time to break up the buddy buddy party.

    • I’ve said it again and again that you can’t settle for field goals against the ducks but that doesn’t mean you go for it on 4th down everytime you’re in the red zone it only means that you need to convert 3rd downs.

  2. Here’s my take:

    Oregon has a decent defense. I’m too lazy to look up the stats but I’d guess they’re at least upper-middle of the Pac12 in most important categories.

    Tonight showed that calling the right plays at the right times and putting the ball in the right guy’s hands (Ward) this year’s team could have had 100 yds rushing vs most opponents. This would have made offense work properly and resulted in less pressure on Mannion and more points on the board.

    Coaching fail.

  3. Hawaii looks like they’ll go 0-11 this season. Think we could persuade them under the table to fire Norm Chow and take Banker off our hands? We sorely need new blood and ideas on defense.

        • He rarely saw single coverage the back half of the back half of the schedule. Better teams tend to have better coaching and better players. Today he still went for nearly 150 yards. Cooks is great, but I feel like the receiver position is the easiest to game play for and stop. It’s too bad that mullany was a no show the last two weeks and cumming got hurt ( I still losing him was a huge loss, reliable player) .

          • I think Watkins wins it, teams better, higher profile team, bigger name. I they are going off numer and importance to team, cooks should run away with it. But that’s not always how it works unfortunately.

    • Cummings’ injury I believe has hurt Cooks dude has been double and triple teamed since. No other consistent playmakers. If he comes back I hope Victor Boldin can step it up next year

      • I think with the second half of the season showed that Mullaney is a marginal player against tougher competiton who needs to get better. He had a tough time getting open consistently. I wish the Beavs could find a JC WR with true speed who can contribute right away next year.

  4. This one is on Banker. 3rd down conversion rate was over 50% and most were over 6 yards, in fact they had much better success on short yardage.

    But you can’t blame everything on him, nor Riley. Riley was put in some tough spots. Ward slips on 4th down inside the 10. Cooks fumbles in the endzone that nobody recovers but because it touches the defender who is out of bounds its a touchback. That is the second time this season Cooks has fumbled after a big catch. Those two turnovers cost us at least six points, maybe more. We should have lead at halftime.

    Caleb Smith with some huge catches but again some bone headed false starts that took us out of short yardage situation.

    I disagree with the Bolden touchdown. Oregon had 3 timeouts and a field goal there trying to kill the clock and use up their timeouts still would have left them with plenty of time and the need of only getting a field goal. Now if they would have produced a touchdown by burning some clock, you’d have a case, but the offense proved being inside the five yard line was no automatic td. You have just got to stop them on that last drive, and you couldn’t.

  5. I’m hearing some talk that a bowl bid for the Beavs is not a sure thing. Looks like a few more bowl eligible teams than spots available this year. San Jose just became eligible, although I don’t think some of these mid-majors travel all that well.

    Don’t think Riley deserves another year extension, coaches sure hype the extra practices. Playing a Texas was exciting, playing a mid-major in some nonsense location, not so much.

  6. The prevent defense and the 4th and 11 were two biggest reasons OSU lost. Mariota was shaky on alot of throws so key was just stopping run and forcing him ti throw. He had that nice one on 4th and 11 but had OSU sent a normal rush he would have been quite a bit mire likely to throw incomplete and maybe we may have even got a pick. Would have been darn tough to get multiple 16+ yard strikes though. Prevent D took the win from OSU. Wish coaches would see it doesn’t have a great track record. Let UO gain big yards very fast and vastly through the air where they just weren’t for most the game.

    • Just from observation, it sure seems like the prevent causes more losses than keeping the pressure on. The beaver secondary looked clueless on that last series. I’m not sure the prevent is supposed to give up 30 yards down the middle either.

  7. I didn’t watch the game. Surprised it was as close as it was. But, we still lost as I expected we would so I didn’t miss anything.

  8. You stupid motherfuckers realize that the ‘luck o the beavs’ is what led to 28 years of losing right? You create your own luck, so why do those of you so critical to Riley’s regime call it luck? Winning starts with not accepting excuses. LOTB=you are a loser.

    • Yeah SHIT! Tired of this crap!

      When V-Bold EXPOSED the ducks I saw J-Rod do the same in ’07 but now what? Then BANKER is incapable of winning so of of course they throw the ball down the middle wide open! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!??

      Beavs had so many chances but that doesnt matter now. 6-6 and maybe no bowl or have to lobby for some shit bowl GOD DAMMM IT!!!

      I ate way too many atomic beaver turds too lol. Good thing my bathroom has a high cfm fan uggggh

  9. I am proud of how pump our guys were and how they came to compete. The problem with this team is the coaching staff. We obviously have the talent to compete but talent alone doesn’t cut it. Look at USC under Kiffin and then look at them now. They definitely have talent but looked horrible under Kiffin. I used to think it was we didn’t recruit enough talented players, and we probably don’t, but it has really become clear to me it is mostly all about the coaching. We need some changes in our coaching. Man I wouldn’t even be upset if Ericson was brought back. And Pat Casey… Well Pat Casey for president is all I got to say.

    Change is needed and if it doesn’t come I may seek a divorce from my Beavs.

  10. Lastly at 6-6 and losers of 5 straight, with a loss to an FCS team, OSU DOES NOT deserve to go to a bowl game. My only hope is to get passed over and another year is not added to Riley’s contract. We will have shaved 3 years off this lifetime bullshit in the last 4.

  11. Typical loss on so many levels; Ward slipping on 4th and 1, Banker “prevent D,” overall good effort but coming up short, too little too late in the season.

    I checked in at parts of the game, and was hoping for a victory for guys like Ward, Cooks. But a victory would have been worse for the program, even a showing like this might be the same as a win for BDC.

    Had OSU won in Autzen, I think UO would have tumbled several spots in the polls. Wondering if they’ll slip a little with the quality of the win? OSU has a loss to an FCS team, 2 of 6 wins are over Mountain West Hawaii and SDSU, and a 5 game season-ending losing streak. Not a very impressive resume.

    This resume obviously calls into question whether or not they get a bowl invite. I actually think if Riley gets to “win” a bowl game, he’ll be more likely to step down. Going out this close to a CW victory will only make him think he’s still got it. One can hear him in an interview if questioned about returning: “Oh definitely. That competitive fire is still there. You know, you turn a few plays, and our season looks much different. We’ve got some hard working kids that I like, and they’re talking about going to a rose bowl. Now they’re going to have to define they’re identity, but we’ll work on some stuff in the off season and see where we are come next season.”

  12. Eggers thinks OSU is entertaining enough for a bowl game, Riley sounds like a tool:

    “Oregon State did it with — you’re reading this right — a balanced offensive attack. The Beavers gained 545 yards total offense, including 231 on the ground. Terron Ward rushed for 145 yards on 17 carries, and Storm Woods added 73 yards and a TD on 15 attempts.

    “We were saving that for this game,” Riley told me, joking as he left the press availability after the game. “We had some things we thought could work with our run game against their defense, and we worked it into the game plan.”

    Said Mannion, who completed 29 of 47 passes for 314 yards in a redemptive personal performance, “Our O-line did an outstanding job up front. As the game went along, we had more and more success with it and we built from that.”

    Said Riley: “It makes you think of what might have been had we been able to be that balanced over the course of the year.” “

    • I think calling Mannion’s performance “redemptive” is journalistic hyperbole. It was certainly better, but not good enough to win the game. The interception throw to Cooks into double coverage on that 4th and 1 was godawful and costly.

      And here’s a minor thing that drives me crazy with Mannion’s decision making….when the Beavs had it the last time with the 20 some seconds….why would you throw a seven yard inbounds drag route and waste seven or eight seconds of precious time?

      Lastly, at some point can’t the staff find a semi-athlete at the position? There were four or five times when the QB could have run all day. You have to have it in the college game.

    • Riley sounds excitrd after msking management decisions that turned a highly likely win into a loss to complete the 5 game losing skid. This is concerning and matches my thoughts on Riley. He only wants to try and get countless opportunities to pull somthing off. Doesn’t care about tgat he should have won it and another yesr is wasted. Does not respect how much time ge has taken from OSU coming up short. If he got a win he wants over tge Duckd 5 years from now he would be satisfied. We can do far better then this weeking. Almost any coach can get a team interested to play hard in a rivalry.

  13. Woke up pissed off. We handed a victory to those bastards. What should have been a really nice victory for the Beav’s, turns into a come back for the ages for the quacks. Ugh!
    Luck O the Beav’s is the only plausible explanation………… certainly not the three man rush on the last possession.

    • Haha, I woke up pissed off too. And my lady said I was clenching my fists over and over in my sleep too. I’m apparently “even melodramatic when I’m out cold”.

  14. Don’t get why OSU isn’t strongly condidering coaching change. Exactly 100% of coaches, everyone’s sister or dog and a taco bell chalupa all would have gotten the damr results or better over the last 6 Civil Wars. If the players played inspired for Sara Jean Underwood as their coach, I can’t rule out that she may have 2 CW wins over the same period. All we have to show for more than the last half decade plus of Riley is more gray hairs and recruiting classes often last in conference. Sorry but other coaches could definitely recruit better with the right sell. What we are doing is not getting the job done and its time for a new direction. BDC has vastly overstayed his welcome and Riley should step aside before alot more fans are fed up like me.

  15. I like PBH had the Beavs on DVR probation so I missed this mess when leaving for the weekend I forgot to set the DVR. If you CAN boil it down to a couple of things it’s that the quacks made the big play when they needed it. Big 3rd down coversions, the huge 4th and 11 for a TD. And Huff came up big and Cooks didn’t. Great catch by Huff for the winning TD and almost 200 yards receiving while our go to guy fumbled out of the endzone and let one go through his hands that could’ve set up the winning FG.

    I don’t think I could’ve watched that game live and be a respectable human for the next week.

    Nothing changes though, BDC must go and Riley needs prune the dead wood.

  16. Best guess — the stars are aligned for change after next season.

    It is a given that BDC’s health will continue to decline. BDC will probably need to retire within the next year or so.

    Meanwhile, it is also a given that next year’s Beaver football team will be senior-heavy. Expectations will be set accordingly. If Cooks and Crichton return for their senior seasons, along with Mannion and Company (plus Jalen Grimble, the 5-star transfer from Miami, plus a returning Michael Doctor) anything short of a Rose Bowl will be disappointing.

    If the 2014 Beavers do get to the Rose Bowl, MR could declare victory and retire as a hometown hero. If the 2014 Beavers do not get to the Rose Bowl, MR might not have the heart to start the process all over again. MR could no longer rely on BDC to protect MR and his staff from being held accountable for poor performance during “rebuilding” years. And I’m guessing that MR would shudder at the thought of himself and his staff being summarily fired by a new AD a year or two down the road.

    As Yogi Berra noted, prediction is very hard, especially about the future. But, personally, I won’t be surprised if next season is Mike Riley’s last as head coach of Beaver football.

    • I would be happy if you were right but I see a 6-6 or 7-5 season as more likely. The bar is set so low and unfortunately another season of missed chances still can earn Riley an undeserved extension. Getting BDC out is priority #1 as he hurts our athletics and expectations won’t rise until he is gone. At that point ciaches can hopefully be properly evaluated and pressure to succeed can exist much more than now. Riley hopefully retires in the next two years but he seems content with seemingly endless chances and being ‘close’, which is garbage. Bottom line is we are losers of 6 consecutive CWs and are 23-27 over the last 4 seasons. Truth is he is far away, getting further away and more time given at this stage is a mistake of wasted years when we need to rebuild over a couple years and not play out a decline.

      • well, somebody’s gotta do it, so here’s my take on the prospects for next year. BTW, the games
        are ordered in a speculative but best possible order for 2014

        Portland State–W
        @Hawaii–W
        San Diego State–W
        WSU–W
        @Colorado–W
        Cal–W
        @SC–L
        @UW–L
        Utah-W
        ASU-W
        @Stanford-L
        Oregon-L

        • Sadly I see us losing to Portland State right out of the gate. I have more confidence in Coach Burton than Coach Riley. Wish Beavs would/could bring him back…

        • That’s not a very exciting schedule. Are team’s still able to play a 13th game if they have a road trip to Hawaii? BDC should get off his ass and offer the Beavs up to a solid major conference team on the road to add some substance to this thing.

  17. Yesterday was one of those rare occurrances where I was listening to the radio and watching the video portion of the stream. I found it useful to do so because the stream was delayed and that gave me an opportunity to watch the play, knowing what was going to happen.

    Anyway, I was surprised to hear Jim Wilson comment on (criticize) the defensive sets the Beavs were using.

    I’m going to paraphrasing what he said and I’ll probably be using the wrong terminology because I’m not that familiar with all of that. On top of that my memory isn’t all that good. Additionally I wasn’t expecting Wilson to say anything negative so I wasn’t listening that carefully.

    So with all of those disclaimers here goes…. The first thing that caught my attention was he said something to the effect that all too often the Beavers were using the wrong defensive set based on the alignment of the ‘ucks offense.

    My first reaction was to start analyzing what I’d just heard and not pay close attention to what he said next.

    He then started talking about the pass play the ‘ucks had just executed. They had 3 wr’s near the sideline and the Beav db’s were in what I believe he called a diamond formation which was wrong. It meant that there wasn’t a Beaver outside of the ‘uck wr’s which meant that the ‘ucks had the odds in their favor of being able to complete the pass.

    Since in this case Mr. Wilson was talking specifically about the OSU db’s I’m wondering who’s responsible for calling what alignment they’re supposed to use?

    Is it Mr. Perry or Mr. Banker?

    Lastly I’d like to thank Mr. Wilson for, at least in this case, telling it like it is. Imo we could use a lot more of that.

    • agreed. Just because they surpassed expectations doesn’t mean crucial mistakes weren’t made by the coaches and they need to be acknowledged. Because it’s gonna keep on happening.

  18. Two last comments after watching the replay on PAC12 in 60.

    The ducks don’t look that good offensively without the read option in their playbook (i.e. a healthy MM) and Huff just ate up #8.

  19. Disagree with Shaze on PO. Think Bolden taking a knee at the 1 is a legit consideration. Helfruch admitted he was condidering letting us score and then on the next play a Duck defender takes a strange outside bounce to initiate blocking contact over stopping Bolden.

    Also it ud these same people like Shaze who say you just always play with heart and never smarts or probabilities. During the EWU game it was my biggest fear we would play Adams on that last drive how we did. Each first down we played just like a computer would spit out and fell into the belief tbat trying was always smartest.

    Shortening the field though so less time was run off was more intelligent but Riley vert rarely does things but the same way. Instead every Adams 1st down ate just enough clock and from the 35 yard line the trap we would fall into was obvious. We hadn’t stopped him all game but they too had barely stopped us. We were like the Ducks on offense against them so Riley should have eaten the pride and played the significantly higher odds for us to win and not get stuck with the loss by letting them score but making sure we had about 90 seconds for the offense.

    As tough as it was odds were considerably higher with Bolden taking a knee. Run clock, take two knees (or one and a fullback or Ward positioning run) and force Oregon TOs and then go for the TD on 3rd and a FG on 4th if needed. Get how hard this us to do but Oregon has scored over 40 TDs in less than 1:39 this year. That is more than their aveeage scoring drive.

    With just 1 TO left and say 45 seconds which I think it would have been down to it would be very tough. The middle if the field could only be gone too once. OSU would be uo either 5, 6 or 7 with a TD or by 2 if we settled for the FG and a little less time perhaps. Would hopefully be less consideration of prevent since Oregon would want to throw to the edges.

    Point is Riley does not consider these options when they do have higher odds. As such he can be played like a fiddle as opposing coaches know how he will react. We should have let EWU score as easy as our offense was moving it and in this case a knee is worthy of consideration since winning is what matters.

    Perhaps the fly sweep was called too soon. Easier for that to break than a standard run and the best case for OSU at the time was just steady running for a first down or two and a field goal or TD when there was under a minute left and likely just 45 seconds or less. Odds are it would gave played out that way with steady and typical hard running by Ward. A couple first downs and we could have taken the field goal or scored with very little time, like 15 seconds to go even with UO using their TOs.

      • I know I really did not like chasing points on the first one with 11:08 remaining. So yes I strongly wish we would have just gone up 6 at that time knowing alot more football would happen. The last one with 1:38 left you go for 2 as very little time left.

  20. BDC…do something right, for a change, and withdraw the Beavs from post-season Bowl consideration. Let the season die a natural 6-6 death and eliminate the possibility of the dreaded 6-7 losing season. No one will to travel to a crappy bowl game, no one wants to watch a crappy bowl game.

    The old canard of extra practice time for the young players, doesn’t really wash. Look how that extra time before the Alamo Bowl payed off! Since it is virtually assured that MR will return they need to focus on beating Portland State in the opener next year. Given past performance with Big Sky opponents, that is no sure thing. JB

    • I think that would be most Beaver fan’s sentiment but I think the decision should be left to the players. It would be nice (and isn’t that Riley’s best quality?) if Riley would let Vaz start the bowl game if they went.

    • The sad thing is that a prouder program might actually consider doing this but the payout is too much for BDC/Riley to say no to. You just hope it’s not another 09 Vegas situation.

  21. What is seriously f*cked up is that Riley can finish with a losing record and still get an extension. Personally I think that happens if we play Georgia Tech even though it should be a watchable game.

    Much rather se don’t get invited and no extension. Blame BDC for being in this position and stuck. Not worth increasibg Riley’s buyout though if he has a couple 5-7 seasons. Fans will overwhelmingly want to move on and we don’t need it as expensive then as it is now.

  22. 49 years since a ROSE BOWL appearance. For those alumni that entered OSU as freshman in fall of 1965 at age 18, they are retired and collecting social security…. and still have not been able to cheer for their team at the ROSE BOWL. #SMH

    Shame on the BDC for perpetuating the situation.

  23. Why did Arizona win 42-16 and we lost by a point? Cause the dim wit coaching staff continue to miss the obvious. I really detached when the passed long on 4th and 1 to start the game. The run had been working excellent as it was proven to work the week prior. A jumbo package hard nose run is a proven game plan. But obvious isn’t the coaching staffs strength

  24. Many of the Pure Orange posters make me sick. Talking like Riley accomplished something which he did not. Fact is he now has the longest losing streak in the 117 year history of the Civil War. Despite effort he found the way to lose it.

    Some of those fools are talking about Rildy retiring in 10 years. Hope they realize only 1% of the profession has gotten as much time as he has and he still has the worst streak in its history and keeps losing to first year coaches. In 2 more years alone I am sure Riley will be the most tenured coach in the nation. Yet to we have anything to show for it? Very, very little. Its time ti move on. You have to value the cgances you do get enough to win them. Riley simply has not done this.

    Believe wholeheartedly a new staff would wim one in 3 years ir less just because of positive and fresh mojo. Riley us a trier not a doer and his time should be very rapidly coming to an end. Worked for about 6 of 7 Pac-12 schools just in the past 2 or 3 years who are much better and happier after their changes.

  25. Anyone not calling for a coaching change is living in a dreamworld. I am over the “aww shucks we just didn’t quite win this one” mentality. My concern is Riley goes and they just move someone up that’s already in the ranks but part of the problem. Riley is a nice guy and great with those kids but we’re not breeding champions. We’re breeding mediocrity. You can’t lose 5 or 6 in a row and not seriously consider making some big changes. Doubt Beavs have the balls to do it. I hope they prove me wrong. And where has this running game been all season? Might’ve had a different record had Riley et al not given up on it early on. And especially when Mannion started throwing INTs all over the place a few weeks ago. RUN THE BALL. Sheesh. Needless to say, our season tix aren’t being renewed for the first time in over a decade.

  26. I was at the game, and just wish to offer a few stream of consciousness observations.

    Benny looks better with a hat.

    The OSU band is much bigger than it used to be and was noticeably larger than the UO band.

    There were a lot of Duck fans sitting in the “OSU section”. Tix probably sold after last Saturday.

    There was a young woman in our section, an OSU co-ed most likely, who was really getting into it, verbally that is, with some Duck fans. Showed a lot fire/taking no guff. Which prompted the best line of the night from the guy behind me. “Riley should give her a helmet.”

    Lastly, I want to share my civil war game day strategy. After the UW game I was expecting a disaster, had even consented to go shopping with my wife if we left early. Having entered into a disassociated mind set, I was watching the game dispassionately, as an aesthetic excercise. Pyschologically, it was like playing with house money. I had nothing invested emotionally. And so when the game ended like it did I chalked it up as a noble effort by the guys in orange but despite the closeness of the game not at all surprised by the outcome.

    Looking forward to the opening of baseball season in February.

  27. Ot: I’m at the high school semi final game watching central catholic. And Ryan Nall, OSU commit is a ball player. Receiving, running, defense. The kid is balling out there.

  28. Michigan Players say “that’s not the #3 team in the country” after a one point loss and 10 straight rivalry defeats. I wish our players shared that intensity

    • He says it ain’t Riley and Banker, but that last Duck drive was classic Banker. CLASSIC.

      Why do coaches go prevent D?! They were getting pressure on Mariota all night and it was working okay. They stop, go into prevent, and the quacks are in the endzone in one minute.

      Did he learn nothing from the Alamo Bowl? And did Riley learn nothing about possession in a back-and-forth game from EWU? Aaaarggggghhhhhh :(

      • And…..if you do pressure defense and they score really fast, you maybe have time to get a winning field goal. Its like Riley is playing a computer game that doesnt really count

        My other comment would be that Riley is a cruiser. Doesnt want to apply himself if he doesnt absolutely have to. So once he got ahead right near the end, he went into cruise mode.

        • I actually think Riley hasn’t played much video game football. In a world where all the young coaches out there have. Why would a silly thing like that matter? Why do pilots train in simulators, it’s just a video game. You get to practice clock management type decisions in these games and do it over and over very fast. Just another of the noted deficiencies, vs young coach with seemly vast more experience with the clock.

      • And is the prevent ever really necessary in college with time stoppage after a first down? Plus Ducks had all of their timeouts and a 1:30. The Beavs played an awful prevent anyway. Didn’t the Ducks first pass hit for 20 plus yards right down the middle?

        Win or lose with what worked the previous 58 minutes. As a coach at that level you have to understand total circumstance, but hey we all know Banker is a genius.

      • imo, Riley is a slow learner, which is fine as long as you retain and benefit from what you’ve slowly learned. He doesn’t seem to.

        • It seems like he and the staff are slow to react when an in game situation presents multiple or unitque options and by defaultt the players are slow to react also. When watching a Beaver game, I don’t ofter find my saying “that was a really smart play”. Yes, they have good excecution at times, but nothing that jumps out as far as football IQ. Look at how Auburn step up for that long Bama FG try. Would Riley have had something like that in place?

  29. After tonight, I think Cooks has got the Biletnikoff Award locked up. The other finalists Evans and Watkins did nothing to catch up to Cooks.

    Evans had 8 yards tonight. Watkins went for 93 yards. Both of their regular seasons are done.

    The final stats –
    1. Cooks – 120 rec, 1670 yards, 15 TDs. Plus 188 rushing and 2 TDs.
    8 100+ games. 2 200+
    Worst game – 80 yards and a TD vs Stanford.
    2. Evans – 65 rec, 1322 yards, 12 TDs. No rushing stats.
    5 100+ games, 2 200+
    Worst Game – 8 yards vs Mizzou
    3. Watkins – 85 rec, 1237 yards, 10 TDs. 3 yards rushing. No TDs.
    7 100+ games, 0 200+ games.
    Worst Game – 19 yards vs South Carolina State.

    It will be a travesty if he doesn’t win this. He’s been more consistent and an all around threat than the other two.

    Vote for him here.
    https://polldaddy.com/poll/7373923/

  30. On the 4th and 1, where Mannion threw into double coverage in the end zone and got intercepted, was there anybody open on an underneath route?

    Riley. 3rd and 13, and he has them throw 3-yard hitch routes….4th and 1, throw deep to the end zone..

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