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Just got home. Saw a lot of positives.

CougPatrol

Hall Of Fame
Dec 8, 2006
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It's hard for fans to gleam a lot of positives after such a tough loss, but I came away optimistic about our team. Oregon had too much offense for us, and being without our top safety; particularly late in the game, was a massive death blow. Still, the team played hard against one of the top teams in our league. I'm sure I'll bitch about the concerns I have in other threads, but for now, this one focuses on the positive take aways.

Cam Ward was exceptional yesterday, and I see a huge upside for him (and us) if he stays healthy. For a sophomore who's still adjusting to D1 ball, his poise and swagger is impressive. He has a natural pocket presence and seems to effortlessly flow with the pass rush. His short to mid-range passing accuracy is stellar. We don't have a lot of deep threat WRs, but the offense looked better than it has all season yesterday. In the era of the transfer portal, I'm excited to have a kid like him for the next season or two. I suppose there's an outside chance he'll declare for the draft, but I don't see that right now. Draft boards have him listed as a 6th round pick, or the 15th rated QB. Staying another season seems like it would help him up those projections.

I still like our defense, especially against the remaining teams on our schedule. Oregon and Wisconsin were matchup nightmares for us up front, but now we're settling into a run of teams who we can line up with. Cal ran for 341 yards vs. Arizona, but I don't see them coming close to those numbers against us. Utah's offense has looked mediocre this season, and they just lost their starting TE and top receiver likely for the season. USC and Oregon State will be difficult road games, but neither of them bring to the table what Oregon does. Stanford, ASU, and Arizona are all teams we can beat. The Apple Cup will be extremely tough. UW has a super soft schedule this season, missing USC and Utah, and Michigan State just got waxed at home by Minnesota 34-7. We don't know a lot about UW just yet.

I don't know, I guess for me this season is looks brighter now than it did after our game vs. Idaho. If we can avoid the injury bug, I could us finishing with 8 wins. October is going to be brutal, but our final games are against Utah, at Stanford, ASU, at Arizona, and UW. With Ward and the offense continuing to ascend, I can envision us making a late charge. Gotta get this one vs. Cal.

We've gone 1-1 against Wisconsin and Oregon. The P12 has a lot of parity this season, but none of the remaining teams on our schedule are overwhelming. Huge game this week vs. Cal. The winner heads into October 4-1 with everything still in front of them. Looking forward to Homecoming,
 
It's hard for fans to gleam a lot of positives after such a tough loss, but I came away optimistic about our team. Oregon had too much offense for us, and being without our top safety; particularly late in the game, was a massive death blow. Still, the team played hard against one of the top teams in our league. I'm sure I'll bitch about the concerns I have in other threads, but for now, this one focuses on the positive take aways.

Cam Ward was exceptional yesterday, and I see a huge upside for him (and us) if he stays healthy. For a sophomore who's still adjusting to D1 ball, his poise and swagger is impressive. He has a natural pocket presence and seems to effortlessly flow with the pass rush. His short to mid-range passing accuracy is stellar. We don't have a lot of deep threat WRs, but the offense looked better than it has all season yesterday. In the era of the transfer portal, I'm excited to have a kid like him for the next season or two. I suppose there's an outside chance he'll declare for the draft, but I don't see that right now. Draft boards have him listed as a 6th round pick, or the 15th rated QB. Staying another season seems like it would help him up those projections.

I still like our defense, especially against the remaining teams on our schedule. Oregon and Wisconsin were matchup nightmares for us up front, but now we're settling into a run of teams who we can line up with. Cal ran for 341 yards vs. Arizona, but I don't see them coming close to those numbers against us. Utah's offense has looked mediocre this season, and they just lost their starting TE and top receiver likely for the season. USC and Oregon State will be difficult road games, but neither of them bring to the table what Oregon does. Stanford, ASU, and Arizona are all teams we can beat. The Apple Cup will be extremely tough. UW has a super soft schedule this season, missing USC and Utah, and Michigan State just got waxed at home by Minnesota 34-7. We don't know a lot about UW just yet.

I don't know, I guess for me this season is looks brighter now than it did after our game vs. Idaho. If we can avoid the injury bug, I could us finishing with 8 wins. October is going to be brutal, but our final games are against Utah, at Stanford, ASU, at Arizona, and UW. With Ward and the offense continuing to ascend, I can envision us making a late charge. Gotta get this one vs. Cal.

We've gone 1-1 against Wisconsin and Oregon. The P12 has a lot of parity this season, but none of the remaining teams on our schedule are overwhelming. Huge game this week vs. Cal. The winner heads into October 4-1 with everything still in front of them. Looking forward to Homecoming,
Nice post. way too many chicken littles losing their poop every week.
 
Interesting view of the game.
UO offensive line is better than most and I see the defense having a better game next week.
Team is still 3-1 and most would have taken that at the start of the season.
WSU-CAL game is huge for both teams.
 
Interesting view of the game.
UO offensive line is better than most and I see the defense having a better game next week.
Team is still 3-1 and most would have taken that at the start of the season.
WSU-CAL game is huge for both teams.
The way we lost was a gut punch, but it wasn’t shocking. Candidly, we could have easily lost to Wisconsin as well. Dickert had a good perspective after the game. Have to grow from it.

I’m excited for the Cal game, and after 3 Seattle to Pullman trips in 4 weeks, that’s not typically the case. Interested to see how we respond.
 
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I agree with your initial assessment but it seemed like our Defense backs were just plain exposed. In addition, I did feel like their OL got away with some the most blatant displays of holding that even Ray Charles could see. Langford looked to be the who was picked on constantly late in the game. He was playing so soft on the WR and never pressed them when they needed it most. Oregon's DBs were pressing our WRs all game. Incredibly frustrating to see them rip off huge plays all game and make zero adjustments.
 
I agree with your initial assessment but it seemed like our Defense backs were just plain exposed. In addition, I did feel like their OL got away with some the most blatant displays of holding that even Ray Charles could see. Langford looked to be the who was picked on constantly late in the game. He was playing so soft on the WR and never pressed them when they needed it most. Oregon's DBs were pressing our WRs all game. Incredibly frustrating to see them rip off huge plays all game and make zero adjustments.
Playing without our top safety didn't help, and allowing Oregon to run the ball the way they did forced our secondary to play the very good Duck WRs on an island.
 
Playing without our top safety didn't help, and allowing Oregon to run the ball the way they did forced our secondary to play the very good Duck WRs on an island.
Very true... I got to meet up with some of players and their family/friends and their reaction post game was a bit heart wrenching. They took this one hard and it was plain to see that they knew they had this one. Side note, tailgating with some of the player's parents was a lot of fun, especially Jackson's mother. She is a LOT of fun to tailgate with. Definitely the life of the party type and probably the most devoted supporter of all things Coug football.
 
Very true... I got to meet up with some of players and their family/friends and their reaction post game was a bit heart wrenching. They took this one hard and it was plain to see that they knew they had this one. Side note, tailgating with some of the player's parents was a lot of fun, especially Jackson's mother. She is a LOT of fun to tailgate with. Definitely the life of the party type and probably the most devoted supporter of all things Coug football.
Yea, we saw several of the players in Valhalla Saturday night. Didn't talk with any of them. They were shaking their heads when they met with their friends, but didn't seem overly down. Their faces just said "well F$#K!"

Very interested to see how we come out vs. Cal. The defense got worked, but like I said in my previous post, Oregon's running game was working so well that their play-action deception was almost unfair to our secondary.
 
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Yea, we saw several of the players in Valhalla Saturday night. Didn't talk with anyone of them. They were shaking their heads when they met with their friends, but didn't seem overly down. Their faces just said "well F$#K!"

Very interested to see how we come out vs. Cal. The defense got worked, but like I said in my previous post, Oregon's running game was working so well that their play-action deception was almost unfair to our secondary.
Cals RB is no slouch. We will get beat if the D doesn’t tighten it up.
 
Cals RB is no slouch. We will get beat if the D doesn’t tighten it up.
Yea, Jaydn Ott is exceptional. Was a 4-star recruit with offers from USC, Wisconsin, BYU, Oregon. He had 274 yards last week vs. Arizona and is averaging over 8 ypc for the season.

The caveat is that Arizona is terrible defensively, particularly up front, so it was a matchup nightmare. Cal scored 49 points, but in the 3 previous games they scored 34 vs. UC Davis, 20 vs. UNLV, and 17 vs. Notre Dame.

Looks to be an evenly matched game across the board. A lot will depend on our energy level at the start. Cal is riding high after pounding Arizona.
 
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Yea, Jaydn Ott is exceptional. Was a 4-star recruit with offers from USC, Wisconsin, BYU, Oregon. He had 274 yards last week vs. Arizona and is averaging over 8 ypc for the season.

The caveat is that Arizona is terrible defensively, particularly up front, so it was a matchup nightmare. Cal scored 49 points, but in the 3 previous games they scored 34 vs. UC Davis, 20 vs. UNLV, and 17 vs. Notre Dame.

Looks to be an evenly matched game across the board. A lot will depend on our energy level at the start. Cal is riding high after pounding Arizona.
All I ask against Cal is that the OL goofs are errors of commission, not errors of omission. I can live with a failed block. I can't live with not recognizing one's assignment and simply being too late to the party to carry out the block. If our O line has its head in the game for the full and complete game, then I expect that we will win. But it will take that, and nothing less.
 
Yea, we saw several of the players in Valhalla Saturday night. Didn't talk with any of them. They were shaking their heads when they met with their friends, but didn't seem overly down. Their faces just said "well F$#K!"

Very interested to see how we come out vs. Cal. The defense got worked, but like I said in my previous post, Oregon's running game was working so well that their play-action deception was almost unfair to our secondary.
I can imagine after it sank in and they were able to digest it a bit, that they would try and move on from it as quickly as possible. I was there in the FOB right after the game ended and I can tell you that wasn't the reaction on their faces. Heads buried in their parent's shoulder, looks of disbelief, anger and disappointment were all present.
 
I can imagine after it sank in and they were able to digest it a bit, that they would try and move on from it as quickly as possible. I was there in the FOB right after the game ended and I can tell you that wasn't the reaction on their faces. Heads buried in their parent's shoulder, looks of disbelief, anger and disappointment were all present.
That’s good, honestly. Shows that they’re fully invested. Dickert seems to possess the ideal coaching mindset when comes to getting past tough losses. Positive, upbeat, level headed.

The fact that it’s homecoming this weekend should help as well. Good crowd and it’s expected to be sunny and mid 70s. No excuses.
 
That’s good, honestly. Shows that they’re fully invested. Dickert seems to possess the ideal coaching mindset when comes to getting past tough losses. Positive, upbeat, level headed.

The fact that it’s homecoming this weekend should help as well. Good crowd and it’s expected to be sunny and mid 70s. No excuses.

The thing that Dickert is doing that is exceptional is that he stresses that any struggles that we are having stem from execution and not talent. He takes the heat and says that he and his staff need to work harder to make sure that the team is prepared. He doesn't make excuses and say that we can't win until we get rid of our current players like Wulff did. He didn't say some of the dumb, hateful things that Leach used to say to deflect the blame onto the players.

Right now, while he isn't on the hot seat and we are playing competitively, he is saying all the right things and in the right way. I wasn't "amazed" by him in his first press conference but the more I see of Dickert, the more I like. As Patrol said, he has an upbeat nature that this team needs. He clearly is a "players coach" and you can tell that they are working hard for him. I believe that it will pay off in the long run and he'll be a great coach for us. I hope that we can afford to keep him.
 
The thing that Dickert is doing that is exceptional is that he stresses that any struggles that we are having stem from execution and not talent. He takes the heat and says that he and his staff need to work harder to make sure that the team is prepared. He doesn't make excuses and say that we can't win until we get rid of our current players like Wulff did. He didn't say some of the dumb, hateful things that Leach used to say to deflect the blame onto the players.

Right now, while he isn't on the hot seat and we are playing competitively, he is saying all the right things and in the right way. I wasn't "amazed" by him in his first press conference but the more I see of Dickert, the more I like. As Patrol said, he has an upbeat nature that this team needs. He clearly is a "players coach" and you can tell that they are working hard for him. I believe that it will pay off in the long run and he'll be a great coach for us. I hope that we can afford to keep him.
Naw…let’s cut his and his staffs salary 50% for a 10% down payment on some empty bleachers. That will show them how serious we are as a program and they’ll probably sign lifetime contracts!
 
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Naw…let’s cut his and his staffs salary 50% for a 10% down payment on some empty bleachers. That will show them how serious we are as a program and they’ll probably sign lifetime contracts!
Sarcasm alert for those whose knee jerks too quickly....
 
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