Auburn has had four games this close. The BCS show guys will probably be talking about how Oregon was exposed, but they did exactly what they needed to do to win this game. They managed the clock and the game perfectly, with a 67-yard, 19-play, 9:25 drive to end the game, taking the ball from their own 20 to the Cal 13. They took a knee twice. It was a character victory, a refusal to give in. Does anyone doubt if they needed another score they would have got one?
Winning on the road before a charged-up crowd and against a fired-up defense, that's just fine. The reporters will try to grill Chip on what went wrong or if Cal has figured out the spread, but he will probably repeat the score 20 times in response to every question.
Jeff Maehl made one of the most difficult catches imaginable, then on the very next play, dropped a 25-yarder right to his chest.
The penalties are driving me crazy.
It was a gutty effort by the defense. Anyone still want to fire Nick Alliotti? Cal scored twice, once on a short field, once on a fumble recovered in the end zone. And they stuffed a two-point conversion attempt. Cal had 193 yards of offense, 69 yards passing. Vereen had 112 yards, but most of that came early. After his 31-yard run they kept him in check, and there were a lot of negative plays.
Tremendous effort by the defense. Zac Clark had a forced fumble, and a tfl at the goal line on 3rd and short. Casey Matthews, Talmadge Jackson, John Boyett all contributed in a tremendous team effort.
Can't wait to read what Ken Woody has to say about this one.
Funny thing: the Ducks played Tressell ball.
Utterly the worst performance by the offensive line in recent memory. They made Thomas and James look slow. They aren't, but play after play they had nowhere to run or little time to throw. Far too many negative plays and self-inflicted wounds. Darron Thomas must improve the clock in his head and his ability to sense pressure in the pocket.
Every championship season has a game like this. Sometimes you just have to gut it out. Strategically, it was a great coaching job by Kelly. They killed the last nine minutes of the clock with a two-point lead, a great adjustment to tempo. This team never panics.
James 29 carries for 91 yards. Great relief effort by Kenjon Barner. He got 40 of the biggest yards of the season, most of them on that final drive.
Tuinei and Paulson did not have a touch.
The schedule this year has played out perfectly, as we have discussed before. Great time for a bye week, I'd say. They'll have Arizona at home in two weeks, a Friday night game. Plenty of time for Maehl and James and others to heal.
Now it can be said: Oregon is 10-0. Arizona lost to USC. If the Ducks win one more game, they're going to the Rose Bowl. They win both, they are in the national championship game. Wow. At the beginning of the season if you had told me they'd be 10-0 with wins over Stanford and on the road at USC and Cal, I wouldn't have asked the score, or cared.
Versus replays caught blatant, obvious faking on three separate occasions by Cal defensive linemen. They looked over to the sideline and went down on cue. Not sure what can be done about it, but it gets me swearing at the TV. Tedford looked across the field like, whaddya gonna do about it? I wanted to reach into the TV screen and punch him. What kind of message are you sending to your players, "we can't compete with this team, so we're going to lay down like a dog playing dead to gain a competitive advantage." Nice.
His name is Cliff Harris, and he's here to make things happen.
That was a nail biter, for sure! But you're right- a win is a win. It was on the road. It was against a team that plays tremendously well at home. Our backup QB is out so we had to play more conservatively, our top RB had a sprained ankle and no strength to break away, and we won.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a better victory than people think.
And, you're spot on in that our defense played excellent- that will be overlooked.
But we have two weeks to get healthy, get ready for AZ and work some kinks out of the offense.
Bottom line:
10-0
Dale, what's your take on yet another lazy, uninformed, cliche-ridden "analysis" from Pete Fiutak (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1021647.html)? I like some of the writing by the other guys at College Football News, but Fiutak consistently lets his own agenda drive what he puts in print. Too bad, because he seems like a relatively smart guy. Smart, but incredibly lazy and intellectually dishonest.
ReplyDeleteFiutak has it backwards. He says Oregon's offense only works on bad defenses. It's just the opposite. The Oregon offense makes teams look bad. Stanford is probably the best one-loss team in the country, and the Ducks torched them.
ReplyDeleteEvery game has its own character. The Ducks gutted out a win in a slugfest. They did exactly what they needed to do to win. Special teams, a key turnover, and a masterful, smashmouth drive at the end, possessing the football for the last 9:25 of the game to ice it. They could have punched in another score to make it look better.
They won. And only three other teams in the FBS are undefeated. Oregon will beat Arizona and Oregon State, and then we'll see how they match up against a good defense.
I like the Ducks' chances. They have two weeks to heal and improve, and secure their second straight conference championship.
Fiutak's trying to get readers. The criticism was that Oregon couldn't win a close game or a defensive battle. Now the criticism has to amended, so now it's "the offense is a gimmick that only works against poor competition." We'll see. They are 20-3 in the last two years, so they must be doing something right.
Dale
BP--
ReplyDeleteThe drive at the end reminded me of the one versus OSU in last year's Civil War.
Before the season, if someone had told you they'd be 10-0, escaping with a 2-point victory at Cal, would you have taken it? Heck yes we would.
Dale
Agree with you completely. Fiutak takes the easy way out and paints only with broad brushes. You and some others look at the detail. Makes a huge difference.
ReplyDelete