281 COMMENTS

  1. I felt bad for about two seconds turning down a friends invite to the game. His wife hates the late kickoffs because they don’t get home until about 1:00 AM.

    A quick inventory of; leather couch, 56″ high-def, 12 cold beers within 10 feet, full bathroom facilities down the hall, fully equipped kitchen and, of course, the high possibility of a deflating September collapse and I regretfully passed. JB

    PS: Will also be able to watch the Ducks put 60+ on Aunt Patty’s Cougs.

  2. Did y’all know that Utah has a home and home with Michigan?! Why can’t we get a home and home with top program’s?!? Also, Utah is down 3-0 in a not sold out big house…

  3. holy shitballs! Wisky rushes for a big ten record 644 yards. One tailback had 253 yards rushing. On 13 carries! Almost 20 yd average. Eat that shit Pettibone head!

  4. Its actually a good day for a night game today. Its hot as balls and you just know OSU would be wearing all black standing on the sunny side of the field while sdsu would be in all whites in the shade.

    • The tickets do say to wear black….Very happy about the night game. I can see how they are a pain for people who have to travel, but I love them, just something about playing under the lights that brings a different energy to the games.

  5. Had a feeling that drive would go poorly when on the first play two Beavers players ran right into each other and knocked each other out of the play. The linebackers were completely MIA on that series. Doctor looked atrocious

  6. See, a pass on 3rd and 3 was a strategic call. The thinking (?) being that this will set up San Diego for an unsuspected running play.

    So that makes it O.K. after all, right?

  7. Still think Oregon State wins this game, but it will be a nail biter because Oregon State will continue to make enough stupid mistakes to make them sweat it out tonight.

  8. They are just teeing off on Mannion. 3 sacks already, and SDSU will adjust at halftime. We may see Del Rio AND Vsnderveen tonight at this pace.

  9. I always thought Ifo Ekpre-Olumu (Oregon cornerback) was arguably the best cover corner in the country. He’s gotten burned twice for Cougar scores.

  10. Did Bolden’s hand hurt when he fumbled that punt earlier too, or just when he dropped a perfectly thrown easy touchdown?

    Just want to get things cleared up.

  11. First half grades:

    QB: (A+) Mannion has been on fire, stepping into throws, hitting receivers in perfect spots, and a pair of great bombs. Superstar game.
    RBs: (B) Good running in limited attempts, and Ward has had a few nice blocks.
    WR/TEs: (B-) A few drops, a few really nice grabs, a slightly positive mixed bag.
    OL: (D+) Given up a few big, bad sacks. Also opened some decent running lanes. And a bunch of penalties, shockingly.
    DL: (C) Getting swallowed up by SDSU’s line, which is opening huge holes to run through. No sacks and little pressure out of the DL and an early penalty on Wynn.
    LBs: (B+) Making tackles, but just as importantly, applying a ton of pressure and sacking the QB repeatedly. Flying all over the field.
    DBs: (A) First drive a receiver got wide open deep. Since then, no space to work with and Stephen Nelson, best CB in the nation, with a pick to bailout a drive.
    Special Teams: (D) Decent punts, decent kicks, and…fumbled punt return that should have cost us points. Also, Romaine is back, and that isn’t good news; his PATs have barely been inside the posts.

    So the lines are losing in the trenches to SDSU, but the skill positions are making up for it. And We’re still putting the “Special” in “Special Teams”.

  12. Awesome awesome play by Mannion to dodge the sack, then delivers a strike, and Jarmon with a really nice catch. Love that he catches with his hands(BOLDEN!!!)

  13. That play calling on 1st and goal was so bad. But PI bails them out, and then a good call giving it to Woods. But man…rough 3 play calls before that.

      • That was probably the most obvious PI I’ve ever seen. A football newbie could have called it from the backside the TV angle showed, but the ref had the perfect angle to see it… 10 yards away. There is no way that call was just “missed.”

  14. WSU game may show that ducs are not number 2. They are beatable especially on the road which for some reason they never have to do.
    Have you ever noticed how all their easy games are on the road and all their hard games are at home?
    Inquiring minds want to know….

  15. So does a dislocated pinky really keep you out of a whole game, you can’t tape it up and be a decoy on a few plays? You can’t fly sweep? OLive mentioned his status is unknown. Geez, given the Beav “trainer upgrade”, Bolden is probably out of the season.

      • Without speed at WR the Beavs will not have the same result in league play. Although with Bolden out, I was impressed by Dockery, he actually looked like he knew what he was doing, even the push off was ok, as that rarely gets called.

        • Jarmon looks to have good speed.. AND hands

          Jarmon
          Dockery
          Mullaney

          Sounds ok to me..

          We need to put MUCH more emphasis on Hamlett and Smith.. They combined for 3 grabs or something like that… That’s unacceptable

    • Apparently he has already had surgery on it. It broke through some of the skin a report said.
      Plus, Dockery left in the 4th with a hip pointer- Mullaney finished playing the slot a position he has never practiced at. Clute went out with I think was a knee injury. This team won’t stay healthy all year.

  16. Well, it wasn’t perfect. But that was probably the most satisfying win I’ve seen from our boys in about five years. There was decent Oline play which led to a controlled ground game which led to play fakes that actually worked which led to some pretty passes. And what was amazing was that we weren’t exactly gashing them out there. We were just seeing some balanced calls and a team looking competent in execution (unless you get a first and goal at the one or two apparently).

    Where was this team for the first two games?

    • Fingers crossed this is one of those teams (IMO they have the potential) that will improve every week. If Isaac gets healthy and the oline makes some big strides this will be a good year. Next week is huge

    • “…There was decent Oline play…”

      I take it you only saw the 2nd half.

      Imo if the OL performs against USC the way they did in the 1st half against San Diego Mannion will be luck to make it through the first quarter.

      But I guess that won’t be a big deal if he does get injured because the Beavs have so much experienced depth at QB. /SARC/

  17. Is anybody else bugged by the number of advertisements/promotions they put up on the jumbotron where they show 3 characters racing or getting scrambled and the fans cheer for the winner? I counted something like 6 seperate, yet similar ads using this gimmick amd the fans get into it every time. And nobody even wins anything. “Yay, the #3 airplane from Alaska airlines finished the race first! Go Alaska #3!” Even the advertisers have lost their creativity and are mailing it in like the OSU marketing department.

    • I made the same comment at the game. Every damn break in play has a cheesy race of some sort. So lame. Give gundy control of the whole gameday marketing department. Seems to be the only person on staff with a fresh perspective.

    • I felt the same way. Those video productions are very lame and cheapens the whole in-game experience. They need to have something that adds to the experience. The Tinkle football toss and the cheerleaders were the only things that I enjoyed. Since the tshirts they throw or launch into the stands are so cheap, why not do more?

  18. Did Grimble play last night? He was supposed to be the difference maker we needed on the D-line and has been very underwhelming so far.

    Any word if Peko finally held his yoga pose long enough to pass that damn class?

  19. How did Mannion seem on tv? From watching live I feel like that was about his best all around game I’ve seen him play. Was under constant blitzing pressure and made great passes to the open receiver and his long balls were on the money. It also seems like there’s more zip on his passes thos year leaving less time for the defense to react.

    https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=2mdPkERDOvc

  20. Suspect competition so far…..SDSU played tough on the road against a Tar Heel team that just gave up 70 points. We all know the answers come next week.

  21. In game comment of the week goes to Mud&Sticks, noting that the biggest problem with Seumalo coming back is that he can only play one position at a time.
    Other than that, a pretty weak week in the humor department from you guys. I”ll expect a rally against USC.

  22. Am I the only one still waiting for our friend “wannabeav” to further “explicate in detail” his 2014 projection of a 7-5 to 8-4 record?

    Remember back in July he had compiled a “statistical/trend analysis on the Riley II era” which he claimed “is consistent with the records I’ve adumbrated above”

    I, for one, am eagerly awaiting further explication. JB

    • Hmmm… a smallish true frosh with agility being introduced to the world against USC. It’s worked for us before.

      But I doubt Hawkins is another Quizz.

      I do like our wide-outs though. Jarmon was looking like a young Michael Crabtree out there. And Dockery looks like a rough estimate of who he was in HS.

      To answer the question about Mannion above… he was throwing lightning bolts against SDSU. It was quite noticeable on his first throw that he was different than even his game against Hawai’i. And he wasn’t cranking his arm and forcing throws like he has done in the past. He had two throws that were forced into coverage but still hit the receiver behind or in traffic… then fell. He had two throws which would have been difficult catches but hit the open receiver in the hands. And he had two throws which were dead on and dropped. Then he had the INT. Those were his only incompletes. I’ll take that INT in that context all day. Without would be better, but it was just harmless when and where it occurred.

      If Mannion plays like that against the Pac and we gather together our play calls to run a ton at opportune times and to make passing downs more opportune, then we have some real hope for this season. Add to that our seniors on D playing well and a handful of newbies at DT and that Strong kid (boy he’s good), and we might have a complete team for once in our existence.

      I like the RBBC mindset as well. But I think it’s time to include Brown in that rotation as well. I’m happy he got in for garbage time. It took a couple stuffs for him to shake off the rust, but he will be good. And he could add another dimension to the workhorse duo Riley depends on right now.

      Someone stop me. I’m thinking our team has finally evolved into a real football team and might make something of this season more than even I thought they would do… something along the lines of what I know they can do with the talent on hand but I thought would not be seen due to coaching.

    • The fly sweep was noticeably absent from the offense on Saturday, most likely because of the injuries to Bolden and Dockery. Now that they’re having Hawkins practice with the #1’s, it’s looking like he’ll be the fly sweep guy

      Connor Letourneau ?@ConnOregonian

      Xavier Hawkins just had a big gain on the fly sweep. Sign of things to come Saturday?

  23. Postgame thoughts,

    1. It was a very underwhelming game overall. Some good, some bad, not much else.
    2. Steven Nelson looks pro ready. He made a mistake here and there but otherwise very solid.
    3. Oline desperately needs Seumalo back for conference play.
    4. Young WRs showed some nice flashes. Must keep improving every week.

    This team doesn’t look ready for conference play. I wonder what will happen when they get smacked in the mouth vs USC. Do they rise up or wilt? It seems like they would wilt right now.

    • Seumalo was walking on the sidelines without a boot and greeting teammates as they came off the foeld, but he had a noticable limp. He didnt look like a guy who was a week or 2 away from returning.

    • I disagree with your last.

      We got punched in the mouth for the first series on each side. Then we looked like an NFL team who just controlled the game. There was nothing flashy. There was nothing visually outstanding occurring. But there was a calm sense of control being exhibited by both sides of our team. It was shocking to see OSU just completely and quietly dominate an opponent. That feeling set in halfway through the first, and when the second half started it was just hammered home. There was SDSU helping us get over our play calls on “-and-goal” downs. But even that has gone against us as recently as earlier this season.

      The competition picks up from here. I’m still looking for effort first. But at least I know we have it in us to make things happen and control a game.

      • I will say right now that our success in LA will hinge on our D’s ability to stop Buck Allen. He ran wild on us last year. Stop him and we win this game.

        Fun fact of foreboding:
        We have not won @USC since 1960.

        Yay!

        • The offense will have to show a few more wrinkles to win at USC. It looked fairly bland vs SDSU.

          Ball control will be the single most important factor in this week’s game. Not necessarily establishing a run game but they will need to pile up the first downs. 35+ time of possession should give them a decent chance. USC got run over in their last game, but that won’t be the case on Sat.

          They also can’t count on USC to bail them out with penalties.

          • I agree to a point. They still have Sark as a head coach. UW last year did to us what USC did to us. They dropped eight in coverage and made a mockery of our play calls. Our effort against USC was at least there. Against UW we folded like a card table.

            I think we did an awesome job against SDSU establishing the run. The numbers don’t say so. But we dedicated the run to the right down and distance situations and reserved the pass for plays which broke the D’s back. I will have to look at the stats, but I don’t think we had much more than 100 yards on the ground. It just felt like we had 300 yards, and the SDSU D was geared to stop that 300 yards.

            It’s hard to explain to someone (not you, but… say… a pollster or analyst who didn’t watch the game) that our run game dominated on Saturday. I was impressed that our coaches kept calling runs at just the right times. And then they called passes and play actions at just the right times. The latter is easier when the former is done right. I’ve been taught by a friend to watch this process, and this was the first game where I’ve seen exactly what he was talking about.

            You don’t need to run all over the opponent to make your offense better. What you need to do is make every run positive and timely. That forces your opponent to think you have a clue and adjust accordingly.

            Getting first downs is a no-brainer. But I think you’re correct on TOP against USC. If we are controlling the game, then we will also control the pace and have possession. I am enthused because after we got a zero, one or two yard gainer on first down we then ran again to make third down easy. It was just a conservative (and, yes, bland) play calling strategy. But it was just so damn effective.

            Wrinkles are to come when the foundation is proven to be solid.

          • Actually, I’ll have to rely on someone else on this, I think UW dropped nine in coverage a lot. That was how much they respected our play calling. That’s also why Brown looked so good late in that game. It was out of hand so much that Riley actually played a third string back and ran him. And he looked really really good.

            But that was due in part to UW disrespecting us.

          • Yeah… and we were successful when we ran the ball, even for no gain. That’s the point of running the ball. You need to keep the D honest.

            If the D’s not honest, what is it? How do you counter that?

          • It seems like OSU’s victories over USC at Reser have been built on getting multiple turnovers and either breakout performances (Quizz) or out-of-their-head performances (a few individuals play the best game of their season than return to normal level of play – Remmers, Clinton Polk).

            This year, I think OSU’s DTs having a strong game and somebody like ‘Boom having an out-of-his-head game are critical. I could see OSU getting some TOs (e.g. Nelson).

            I thought Moore and Stroughter’s fire and leadership were also key in ’06. Stroughter was limited by injury, but when he played, it counted. Who provides that this year?

            As Jack has pointed out, after the dawn of the fly sweep, WR blocking against USC was critical; James Rodgers in particular was effective. I am not convinced the WRs are blocking to the quality of James Rodgers. I think Jarmon and Dockery could surprise USC a bit as relative unknowns, but they don’t have elite speed.

            OSU’s weaknesses will likely be it’s offensive line, their drive to run block, and Mannion INTs. I see no reason why USC wouldn’t start the game – based on their success of last year and UWs success now that Sark is USC’s coach – and just rely on their DLine to outplay OSU’s Oline, sit back on the routes, challenge OSU to run, and wait for a couple of Mannion picks.

          • I think we can win without the turnover margin if we play the control game we saw against SDSU and play solid D. Make Allen run off tackle and control the middle. It’s something we’ve been harping for years. But it looks like something we actually have the personnel to control this year. We haven’t talked about how the trenches have been controlled by our side on D. They can have zero stats and still control it. They did so against SDSU. That was a promising sign.

          • I don’t think it will take a monumental effort to beat USC but every part of the team needs to be better.

            USC opened as a 12 point favorite. That sounds about right due to the game being in LA.

          • I would give them -6 with the -3 consideration for home field.

            But I would give them that based on how we played on Saturday. We know consistency is not our strong point. I’m hoping beyond hope that InO and history makes this week’s effort good.

  24. Oh and my last note for the SDSU game,

    The bold in black campaign failed but that’s not really a bad thing. Most of the students wore black but the rest of the crowd looked mostly orange.

    I didn’t even bother to get into the game to watch the intro video. I assume it was as awful from the first game.

  25. Looks like Xavier Hawkins will burn his Red Shirt.. Saturday.. He has always looked like a better version of Bolden to me. A little less straight line speed but with better hands and he’s much more shifty..Not sure how good the ball is in Tennessee but his HS tape is still just ridiculous..

  26. My fears are that Sark hates Riley, and the idea that OSU’s is the more physical team. He always challenges his players to be MORE physical than us at every position. What worries me is that USC has even more physical guys than UW has had. I am worried about the OL being able to handle the Usc front 7. Now, BC handled it very well, but given that there is a bye week Usc is going to coming with a lot of different looks to catch our young guys of guard. We could have really used Isaac this week, but even if he does play I wonder just how effective he would be having not had any live exposure since the bowl game.

    Having said all that, I still think this game is winnable. I think it will be a dog fight, 16-13 game with the defenses controlling it. If the Beavs can win the turnover battle it will go along way in deciding a winner. I think this comes down to Special Teams, or possible an epic performance that will go down in Beaver lore from Sean.

    Special teams, I don’t know about the kicking game it could be good enough to win but you never know with kickers. I like Dockery returning kicks even before Victor’s injury, (Bolden has not proven he can be reliable). Ward would be solid, but not as explosive. Special teams might be more about the coverage on punt and kick offs, controlling the field position.

    #gettingexcited #nervousatthesametime

    • I think most other coaches including Sark love Riley because they know that they can beat him. It benefits all the other coaches to talk up Riley in case they lose to him but they know deep down that that he is predictable and easy to game plan for.

    • You have wonder about a USC coach who needs to challenge his players to be more physical at every position. I’m not saying Sark is even that smart. In fact, I doubt he is. But that anyone thinks USC needs that kind of motivation is just fun.

          • And I do have to say that I was really surprised that Orgeron was as good as he was. I thought he was just some dumb rube who was really really good at recruiting… and I mean really really good.

            I apologize to him if he’s reading this (which he is not). He is a leader.

  27. I went to the game on Saturday night and I have a couple of late thoughts:

    First, I would like to bitch about the ridiculous defensive holding no calls by the refs during the game. Bolden was getting held a lot on our first TD drive. Prior to the PI call he got on the new side of the stadium, he was held twice. Both blatant holds, one the DB (#7 each time) grabbed him by the back of the helmet and threw him down mid-route. This happened right in front of our section (on the old side), and of course, my geriatric section didn’t yell or boo. They looked at me oddly when I yelled at the ref. I was the only one yelling so the ref heard me clearly. He proceeded to walk over the player and offer a verbal warning after the first hold. On the second hold, another warning came. After Ward ran in the TD, he warned the coach. At no point during this did a flag come out of the side judge who witnessed all of this. I mention this entire sequence because it is typical of pac-12 refs and probably sheds light on the duck game. We have very low quality refs and this was sequence was as demonstrative of it as any I have seen this year.

    Second, Mannion was lights out. He was checking out of plays when he saw blitz. He often hit hot routes or checked into run plays. He looked composed and was generally a general on the field. On one play, he helped Dockery move to the line of scrimmage, named the mike, identified a blitz, and checked into an eight yard run. This all occurred in the span of ten seconds. While this was a routine play his ability to adjust really impressed me. On top of all of this, he looks stronger and quicker. His in pocket slides and movements are better too.

    Only downside was that he didn’t check out of deep balls. Both deep balls (Dockery catch and Bolden drop) came in the face of obvious blitz. He knew that he had extra protection and he did step into the pocket really well but I wonder if it was his own hubris that made him keep the call on or if it came from above. Either way, this offense was clicking despite some mediocre play from the offensive line. If Mannion can continue to play this way we will be pleasantly surprised at least a few times this year.

    • I would agree with all parts except the checking out of the deep ball. I just watched the highlights of the game so what I about to say only really applies to the Dockery catch because I haven’t seen a replay of Bolden’s drop.

      All 11 of SDSU players were within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, that shows very little help over the top. SDSU rushed 5, both the safeties actually come up once the ball was snapped to take away the underneath routes that OSU loves running. With 5 rushing, and three players covering the underneath. That leaves one-on-one coverage for the receivers, which if the protection holds up(Beavs max protected) is the ideal situation to throw the deep ball.

      • Good to know. That was the kind of thing I couldn’t see from my seat in the stadium. I could see that the Aztecs showed pressure pre snap, but I couldn’t see the coverage behind the play in that circumstance. Was on the se side at ten yard line. It was a good move by mannion for sure. He played a very nice game, clean and efficient.

        • If any of you are keeping track, I am and always have been a proponent of the pro-style. The whole Leach thingy was fantasy for some. It was silly to me. You don’t proclaim a blue collar then go pass happy.

          Does this resemble any grumbles about our O for the last five years?

          I can’t express how happy I am with the last game. It was whole. It was organic. It was just pretty.

          Someone noted the lack of the fly sweep. Maybe that made the game all the more pretty? We are not gimmick central. We will never be so. That plan has passed.

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