Jon Wilner: Journalistic Fraud, or Colossal Buffoon? --the lines are open

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Last week, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News had Oregon 14th on his official AP poll ballot. He had the Ducks to losing to Stanford 38-34, predicting Stanford would wear them down physically and pound the ball with power running. He was hugely wrong, as he often is.

He's a Bay Area writer, and it wouldn't be so annoying except he unfailingly downgrades Oregon on his ballot, several spots worse than their actual position, and repeatedly picks them to lose in conference play. Last year he predicted losses to Washington, UCLA, Stanford, USC, Arizona, and Oregon State. He got the Stanford game right, so give him credit.

If Jon Wilner had been a part of The Greatest Generation, they would have had to downgrade it to The Mostly Great Generation. This would have been Wilner's AP ballot the week before D-Day:

1. Germany
2. Japan
3. Italy (based on their body of work in spite of a recent loss)
4. Russia
5. Switzerland (for beating every country on their schedule)
6. France
7. Stanford
8. Cal
9. Turkey
10. Stuffing
11. Mashed Potatoes
12. Dressing
13. Brazil
14. USC
15. United States

And for that week's big game, Jon Wilner would have taken Germany and the points, citing their tough, physical defense and potent ground game.

The AP poll comes out today and Wilner probably will have Oregon somewhere between 8 and 12, and his pal from LA, Scott Wolf will probably have them two or three notches behind USC. Oh wait, the Trojans LOST to the Huskies at home yesterday. Wolf probably downgrades Troy to 22 or so.

No wonder Chip Kelly says he doesn't care about polls and tells his players to pay no attention to them. He has a simple, elegant solution to the whole mess: Win The Day.

The Ducks won yesterday, and I have a pretty good feeling about today. Wonder if Wilner noticed.

This just in: Wilner moved Oregon to number four on his ballot. Never mind they probably deserve to be number two. Welcome to reality and logic, Jon. Maybe your parents never believed in you.