I’ve got nothing this week. Too busy today.

But I did read the most hilarious sports bit ever: Ed Orgeron had chainsaws playing during practice. Seriously!!? He fears the chainsaw? So funny.
The only USC I’ve seen this year was a quarter vs ASU and Notre Dame. ASU’s speed dominated them. Notre Dame is more similar to OSU, so I expect a game closer to that one. Some weird matchups in that USC has a very good run D, but OSU passes every down.

Anyway, give your take on the game, and I’ll read the comments later. Curious to hear from those who have watched more USC than I have.

Home team has won 9 of the last 10 meetings, so history favors the Beavs. I don’t have a pick, but gun to my head, I think USC gives a scare in the first half, but the Beavs pull it away at the end.

Per this letter from Canzano. Anyone know who the player is?

One thing we know is that life moves in cycles. The Ducks will be bad one day; the only question is how it happens. I assumed scandal, but maybe the players wake up and realize they’re playing for ESPN/Disney + shitty fans, and they just stop signing LOIs…

Click this link to watch the final two plays: Stanford

A discussion SS and I had about the plays.

SilverStream:

Sure seems to me that Mullaney was wide open near the goal line on the second-to-last play. Mullaney lines up split wide to the left. He runs a soft curl, and camps out on the one-yard line, with a defender about 3 yards behind him. Seems to me that if Mannion had thrown the ball to Mullaney’s inside shoulder, Mullaney would very likely have caught the ball and scored. I like OSU’s odds a lot better throwing a short pass to an open Mullaney rather than throwing a longer pass to the back of the end zone to a double-covered Tyler Perry. Seems to me it was simply a bad read and a mistake by Mannion on this play that likely cost the Beavs a TD that could have led to OT. If the Beavs had gotten to OT, OSU would have had the advantage, since Stanford was relying on an inexperienced substitute placekicker. Coulda, woulda, shoulda….

Angry:

I agree with your assessment of those two plays. Mostly. I do think Mullaney was open on the last play, but I see what you mean that the defender might have jumped the Cummings route (I’d have to see a different angle, because from the one shown it looks like he arrived at Cummings too quickly to be near Mullaney, too). I wish we had an overhead. If that route developed quicker, Mannion could have pump faked to draw that safety, then hit Mullaney. But Cummings came across the entire formation, which took forever.

The numbers look decent, but only 6.6 yards per completion.

My two issues are he missed Cooks on a wide open TD. Easy throw.
And then forcing the ball into double coverage on the last play. He had Mullaney wide open behind cummings. If you watch the coverage before the snap, the left back of the end zone was wide open. Mullaney ran a post right into that area, and would have had the score (I don’t have access to any replay, so that’s from memory).

Point being, I think any of the truly great, clutch QBs (Kellen Moore is probably the best I ever saw) would make those plays, would win the game…Mannion managed the game, and blew the two chances he had to win it. I don’t consider the fact he threw 57 times without an interception some kind of moral victory. Especially when the yards per completion were only 6.6. He played average, at best, and I think if he were on the Ducks you’d all admit that.

I’m going to keep it short, but I wanted to note that was a typical Riley game, in that, on the big stage, they had every opportunity to win, yet came up short. As usual, it was Riley himself costing the team. He was calling a great came early on, and then those 4th downs got him. They weren’t even second guesses on my part. I wrote “take the points” and “why go for it?” before the plays. It’s impossible to know if playing those downs correctly would have mattered, but I do know it wasn’t smart football. It was gutsy football…but not smart football. There’s a time and place for risk, and when you’re winning the game and playing dominating D, that isn’t the time. Riley was trying to push things and become a maverick to show he’s still aggressive and relevant. Problem is it’s not his natural tendency, so he doesn’t know when to do it, and when he does it’s forced.

That game should have been a win. It just required smarter coaching decisions and a little more execution (Mannion missing the easy TD to Cooks). The offense was clearly nervous early on. Mannion played alright, but he’s definitely not a Heisman candidate, and we know now he was benefiting from the light competition. The game answered some questions.

Overall, that was a strong kick in the nuts. Fans have been stoked twice this year, opening day and Saturday, and both times they got a steel-toed in the sack. This will repeat over and over, as it is Riley’s wont. Big hat, no cattle.