Angry is ticked off. Al Michaels just said Afalava went to school at Oregon. Get your head out of your ass, Al.
Angry is happy, the Beavers are ranked #16 in the BCS.
Angry is scared, of the Oregon rushing attack.
Angry is feeling brave. Let’s try something new: a poll.
I’ll have a write up on the Civil War early next week. I want to see where both teams stand with injuries and mental makeup before writing anything. In the meantime, vote on the poll. Curious what fans think. Try to take emotion and what you want to happen out of the equation and simply vote on what you think will happen. Feel free to comment on who you voted for and why.
[polldaddy poll=2290212]
OK, i’ll go out on a limb and have everyone hate me. I voted for the Zeros. Why? Well, last year’s CW I was SO confident that OSU was going to win, and then sitting there watching that blow out left me in tatters. Last year’s OSU team had a much better and much faster D, and Oregon ran all over them. This year’s Oregon team, on O, hasn’t really lost any steps that I can see. Will our D be able to stop them this year any better vs. last? Well, my hopeful side says YES, my objective side says NO…or HOW?? The only thing the Beavs have on their side this year vs. last is a healthy(ier) fear of OU’s offense. And some demonstrated examples (Stanford, UA) of how to slow/stop them. Then it’s a personnel match up deal – does OSU’s D match up/have the speed to keep up with them? I’m not feeling really comfortable with it to be honest.
OSU SHOULD be much stronger offensively this yr vs. last – but can they score enough to keep up? Maybe, but not if OU is on a tear and scoring 21 pts in 5 minutes kinda deal.
And, of course, they have to play there – one of the toughest road venues in the Pac10.
One key to the game is OSU cannot let OU jump out to a big lead, this is critical! If they can keep them within a touchdown, I think they have a chance. And OSU may have some intangibles on their side – the revenge factor and wanting it more than the ucks. But not sure that’s enough if the talent doesn’t match up well. OK, you asked us to vote based on what we THINK will happen, not what we WANT to happen. So you got mine, and no I’m NOT an OU fan by any means. I hope to god I’m wrong.
Not that I disagree with the overall sentiment, but Canfield is playing great and we do have both Rodgers (healthy) this year. Also, was last years D really faster? Cornell in the middle was a sloth. And the secondary is definitely faster this year. I’m actually most nervous about the refs. If crazy Jay and his bandits have this game watch out. The entire nation has everyone rea$on to want Oregon in this game.
Oh…and one more key to the game that both Stanford and UA have shown… the “ball control” on offensive, long 8-10 play/5-7 min drives, are going to be critical, keep their O off the field. I don’t personally like this style of football to watch, but it’s the only way I think the Beavs can stay in it, the ground game/short passing game. Control the clock…
Bingo.
Stop stealing thunder from my writeup. ;)
OK, so I voted Beavs… before I even got to the article, oops! That was my vote from my heart and hope, rather than my subjective decision. Anyhow, I’m really feeling at the moment it’s hard to decide/leaning a hair to the ducks. I agree on the controlling the clock and I do like our team (as well as being healthier, aka Rodgers) better this year. Something I am curious about is Autzen itself, but in an our favor kinda way. Maybe i’m just crazy, but I feel as if playing down there this year could possibly be a plus over last year. One, I think we have been playing better away games anyhow. However, what i’m thinking is the combination of the fact Autzen is a notoriously tough place to play at, the advantage I think people believe the ducks have over us, and the stakes of it all/hype lead to one of those games where in a lot of ways I feel we play our best, aka when we are at a sort of disadvantage/underdog. We rarely realistically have any time to rightfully be “comfortable” going into a game but I think this mix of things and the mentality of it, all added up, keeps us from that normal level, and hopefully brings us to our full potential level. Maybe not quite the best wording, but I guess it’s like that mentality of USC last year kind of feel. That’s when we show up, when the odds aren’t in our favor and we know going in it’s going to be a battle till the end.
It’s also crucial we go in with productive first quarter drives I think, like we have had as of late; that sort of “pop, right in the kisser”, even if they’re possibly scoring them too. I sure know I wouldn’t want to get behind 14-0 like AZ, but props to them.
Yeah, I caught the Afalava comment too…Karma came back thought…did you catch the slow motion replay of the low pass to Hester on the Bears last drive? Defender pulled his pants down and his entire black ass was hanging out for everyone to see. HA!
To win the civil war, we need to have looooonnnnnggg sustained drives where we convert 4 or 5 third downs and chew up 6-8 minutes of clock. Last year we could not run the ball, and had to throw which resulted in either quick scores of our own, or quick 3 & outs. Got to keep the Ducks offense on the sideline.
We also need a huge game out of Paea and Co…if he can get quick, deep penetration and force Masoli’s hand early, it’ll give our LB’s a fighting chance on the zone option – the longer JM can string that out, the more a defense will commit one way and he’s off the other. SP has been a monster for us all year, and we need the game of his life.
I cannot wait for this game.
Sorry XCalifguy…I guess I should read all of the comments before making my own!
What’s important is not that we keep their offense off the field. What’s important is that we push their defense down the field on a consistent basis. Teams have demonstrated that this can be done easily, and disciplined offenses simply make the Ducks defense look silly. It’s possible that this is a shoot-out. But there are three obvious problems with the Ducks:
1. Their defensive line is small. Aliotti likes to bring two linebackers over the strong side and have his ‘linemen’ pursue from the weak side. They are good at lateral pursuit, but they leave the middle open… which leads to…
2. Their secondary is horrible… including linebackers who drop coverage. The seam is ALWAYS open. Quick outs and bubble screens can and do turn into big plays. If their safety misses a tackle in the hole, the back can gain considerable yardage since there’s usually nobody on the second level. It’s a good thing the Beavs running back is known not to make people miss. Shoot, he just falls at the wave of an arm in his general direction. Right?
3. The Arizona game was the first time all season that they came back from a two score deficit. But it was a late lead created by halftime adjustments. In their two losses, they went down early and spent the remainder of the first half dazed and confused. They scored late on Stanford, but the game was out of hand by that time.
If we trade scores through the first half, the Ducks will find a way to break open a two or three score lead. Even last year was close until the phantom pass interference call late in the second. A missed tackle here… a pick-six there… you get the idea.
If we trade FG’s for TD’s it’s over before it starts.
If we do what we did against Stanford I’m going to call my relatives in SoCal to see what they’re planning for New Year’s Day.
What OSU does on its first possession will be a bellwether for the rest of the game. If we can handle it, I wouldn’t mind seeing OSU play the first possession of each half in a hurry-up mode. We run the two-minute offense extremely well, and I think it would get into UO’s heads. Of course, the two-minute offense might rely on the players’ knowing the game is on the line to be effective. Sports psychology and all that.
On D, I think the best thing we can do is to shut down the running game and take the short passes seriously. I’m not familiar enough with the spread to know what I think is the best way for OSU to do that, but I’d rather that Masoli have to beat us with his arm–he’s still dangerous that way (incredible performance against UA) but I think he’s less effective overall when he’s forced to pass than when the run is an option. That approach would probably hurt us sometimes but I think that pursuing it over the course of the game would cause Masoli to make mistakes just enough to turn the time.
These are two incredibly well-matched teams. Similar yardage on offense the last five games, but UO gets about four more points per game during that period. I do trust the OSU defense a little more than UO’s, even against the spread but I will admit that we haven’t faced a high-scoring team since USC. After the USC game, I thought OSU would lose if spotted a 100-point lead. Now I think it’s completely a toss-up.
I was cleaning up in the kitchen and still caught that Al Michaels identification error. Not the first time that has ever happened to the Beavs, and won’t be the last. The Ducks are Media darlings with all those uniforms and have all but been written in for the Rose Bowl. They’re higher ranked, favored, more well known nationally, getting picked by the pickers, and playing at home. It’s setting up nicely for a Beaver upset.
If the D shows up, the Beavs has a good shot.
Hard to get the taste of last year fully cleared. Knew the ducks were good and that we would not roll easily but to get hammered that bad has me very skittish. The ducks look so good on offense that I have no idea if we can stop them. I will say how wonderful it is to be playing for the Rose Bowl two years in a row. Heck Ohio State cannot even say that. We must have two to three stops in the first half where the ducks are forced to punt. If we can keep them below 21 first half points, then maybe they tighten up a bit knowing the stakes and that they are the favorites in the game. Canfield has had a great year and if he can pull together one more 70% completion game that includes half a dozen 15-20 yard passes then I think we stay with them. A great scenario would be up 7 with nine minutes to play and we eat up the rest of the clock with a game ending drive. Come on Beavs. Maybe it is OUR TIME.
I believe that the key to stopping masoli is controlling the line of scrimmage. When teams aggressively rush up field with the D-ends, masoli just steps up and makes a play with his legs. Arizona did a great job of make him scramble side-to-side rather than forward-and-back and make him make a play with his arm rather than his legs and created mistakes and turnovers. Also, something that I felt went unnoticed was that arizona did a great job bottling up kenjon barner, one of the conferences best return men
While we’re all throwing out our favorite platitudes, I’ll get this one out of the way….
The key to winning the game will be to score more points than the opponent.
There. That ought to clear things up.
Thanks for the laugh.
lol. That’s been Oregon’s motto, seems to have fared fairly well for them!
Everyone likes to think that ‘sustained’ drives mean time off the clock, but that wasn’t the case for Stanford against UO. While UO had a fresh defense, Stanford marched on them twice in the first quarter for 4:17 and 4:55–both TD’s. Early in the fourth, Stanford had its only other drive longer than four minutes (4:12) with a very conservative short drive (37 yds) for a FG. Besides the two first quarter drives, Stanford’s four other TD drives averaged 2:11.
The lesson Arizona failed to learn was that once you get a cushion on the Ducks offense, their defense doesn’t stand a chance against you. If they’re winning or trading scores, then they play like they’re in control of the game–which they have proven is correct to this point.
Right. The problem with “sustained drives” and “ball control” is that your OC winds up calling plays to hold the ball, and those might not be the best plays to actually score. Calling plays out of fear like that results in FGs rather than TDs. I think it’s what we saw vs USC to be honest, at least until the game was seemingly out of hand and Landsdorf opened things up. The Beavers do need to keep Oregon off the field, but there’s a balance there that needs to be achieved.
If the Beavers are to win we have to sustain momentum, as we saw in the Arizona game, they will not give up. We have a bad habit of letting teams get some late points(see Stanford, UCLA). That will kill us vs. the Ducks. I don’t see us having a problem running the ball after seeing the Arizona game, but key will be defending the option and scoring points.
I am very confident that our O can go toe to toe with theirs this year. I am worried that one series of conservative play calling nets us a FG while they get a TD and its the difference. I am worried that our D will just bleed like we did against USC. Keep in mind that we had two weeks to prep for USC also. GO Beavs!
Yes, we couldn’t stop the SC backup RB, but we held McKnight under his avg. That tells me we need to worry about LaGarrette Punch getting into this game if we start stalling LMJ. I can see us scheming for both and the only game we have with Punch is the BSU game, so that should make it easier to scheme how to stop him, since it’s been done once this season and we haven’t seen him since. I saw we will see Punch because it’s Senior night and it will be his last CW of his College Career.
With that said, I think since the Ucks haven’t seen the Rodgers Bros. I find it funny how they’re so arrogant and cocky that they say, they’re 75% of your offense, we’ll stop them! They’re done for LMJ is a much better back…yada yada yada!!!! GIBBERISH!!!
OSU 45 Ucks 42
A lot of good points made here. Agree, “sustained drives” and clock mgmt aren’t enough. Drives have to result in 7’s on the board – not 3’s, not 0’s. Opportunistic play calls that may not milk the clock cannot be overlooked (a 30-40yd pass here or there). Beavs have to play loose I think, take it one play at a time. Conservative won’t get it done, some smart risk taking and surprises will be necessary on both sides of the ball. SadBeav is right – OSU has to keep the balance of momentum in their favor – all the way to the end. That will be tough to maintain in Autzen, but it’s imperative. I think, in the end, they obviously can’t lose their poise, and defense will be the key to OSU winning, not offense.
Good Points. I will add another cliche line: Defense wins championships.
This year in the Pac 10 has been wild. You really don’t know if OSU blows out the O’s or vice versa. Last year Moevou was hurt and no Rogers bros. Almost no running game and we still scored 38. The D last year played fairly well, but kept getting burnt on the big plays. They had O at 3rd and too much several times, but Masoli or Blount would run for a touchdown. I don’t know, is there someway someone can stay behind to pick up Masoli? The pocket peels behind him leaving a freeway in front to the end zone. Earlier this season I thought it would be worse than last year, but in watching O and OSU play recently I like our chances. I hope when we get into the red zone we refrain from ramming it up the middle 3 times and kick a field goal. I also noticed ESPN forecast OSU in the Las Vegas Bowl. I hope they all eat crow (or Duck).
Canfield: Pocket Passer | Passing: 260/370 PA, 2,797 yds passing, 70.3 CMP%, 7.56 yds/A, 19 TD, 6 INT, 147.5
Passing Rating | Rushing: 42 Attempts for -151 yds, -3.6 avg., 7 longest, 1TD
Masoli: Run/Pass | Passing: 154/264 PA, 1,865 yds, 58.3CMP%, 7.06 yds/A, 14 TD, 4 INT, 132.1 Passing Rating | Rushing: 105 Attempts for 619 yards, 5.9 avg., 48 long 12 TD’s
Passing Rank: 92nd | Rushing Rank: 8th
Best Passer in Pac-10 vs. Best Running QB in Pac-10.
Rankings Nationally
OSU: Defense: Pass Rank: 94th | Rushing Rank: 13th
Offense: Passing Rank: 24th…Rushing Rank: 57
Oregon: Defense: Pass Rank: 33rd | Rushing Rank:47th
Offense: Passing Rank: 92nd | Rushing Rank: 8th
Best Teams Oregon faced all year’s Rankings offensively:
Passing: Purdue: 20th, Rushing: Oregon(next Best: Stanford: 13th)
Defense: Passing: Utah: 13th | Rushing: Soon to be Oregon State(Next best: Arizona: 17th)
OSU’s Best Teams Faced All year Offensively: Passing: Cincinatti: 16, Rushing: Soon Oregon(next Best: Stanford: 13th)
Defense: Passing: Cincy: 19th | Rushing: The Beavers(but next best: Arizona: 17th)
I think this game can be decided by the arm of Canfield’s arm.
Oregon’s secondary is atrocious, and about the only thing they do really well is get cheap shots in on receivers. Riley will need to attack them aggressively through the air to help open up Quiz. I believe that finally, our O-line is ready to handle Oregon’s pass rush (or any pass rush, for that matter) and if they provide enough time Canfield SHOULD dissect them and Quizz/James should get some good shots to hurt the Duckies. Canfield will truly need to be the general out there, and make the sort of drives that everyone has mentioned already.
Oregon State’s defense and Mark Banker are the KEY to this game and if they can STOP Oregon, then this game is won.
However, this is the same thing that could be said for any game…but if we get curb stomped again Angry, I’ll expect you to bring the heat on Banker because this will finally prove that he doesn’t have the ability to stop a spread like the Ducks.
Vote Quizz for Heisman:
http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/2009/