A letter of apology

And Erickson’s kids looked towards UGA… Classic trap game although with a senior QB you wouldn’t expect that.

On the front page, it says “No. 3 Oklahoma rips Wazzu.” We get that they don’t watch any West Coast football there, but come on…

Any chance we rise more than one spot?

ugh

well almost.. that was certainly a brutal day for the conference.

thank god the ducks pulled off that win, otherwise we’d be hearing all the b.s. about the pac 10 being renamed to “USC and the 9 dwarves” again out east…

Ugh is right.

Looking at the national scoreboard, quite a few teams were probably guilty of believing the hype this week. Some survived, and others – mostly in the Pac-10 – got burned.

Georgia by one score thanks to some divine intervention?
Auburn wins 3-2 against Miss. State. Who got the save?
ECU squeaks it out against Tulane?
Illinois by 3 over Louisianna-Laughitup?
Cal, Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA and at least for one half, our Ducks.

I think the weekend just showed that the Big XII is probably the best conference in the country. Ugh.

the pac-10 had a miserable day but i think we will have 2 bcs teams USC-national championship Oregon-Rose Bowl

that is all.

Mike Stoopid and Arizona lost. The quest for another 5-7 season lives on in Tucson.

1. Anyone who thinks less of Georgia because of the closeness of the Bulldogs’ win over South Carolina knows nothing of the history of the series.

The rivalry is particularly huge from the Gamecocks’ perspective and Georgia always gets South Carolina’s best effort. In the last 20 years, fully half of all Georgia-South Carolina games have been decided by a touchdown or less, including six of the last eight series meetings. Six of Georgia’s last eight S.E.C. championship teams (including the 1980 national championship team) beat South Carolina by eight or fewer points. It’s always a close game, even when the ’Dawgs are very good.

There was no “divine intervention” yesterday: Rennie Curran went for the ball and forced a fumble, which Asher Allen recovered; the ’Dawgs held on fourth down; and Reshad Jones, after almost intercepting a pass on first down, intercepted a pass on second down. That is good defense rising to the occasion.

2. The Auburn-Mississippi State outcome, on the other hand, wasn’t good defense, it was bad offense.

The Plainsmen are changing systems and the new offensive approach is not working; it remains to be seen whether it will, but, right now, it isn’t. Mississippi State has been bad on offense consistently as long as anyone can remember.

While I believe S.E.C. teams concentrate on playing good defense, not every low-scoring game is attributable to being stout defensively; some of them are due to being bad on offense, and this was one of them.

3. No matter who you are, it’s hard to go on the road and win.

In 2006, Cal went to Knoxville and took a drubbing from Tennessee, even though the Bears went on to post a better record than the Vols. In 2007, Tennessee went to Berkeley and took a drubbing from Cal, even though the Vols went on to post a better record than the Bears. The Beavers rebounded from an early loss at Cincinnati last year to finish 9-4.

This year, Tennessee lost to U.C.L.A. in Pasadena, Cal lost to Maryland in College Park, and Oregon struggled with Purdue in West Lafayette. Does anyone seriously think the Volunteers, the Bears, and the Ducks won’t finish with better records than the Bruins, the Terrapins, and the Boilermakers, respectively?

It’s very impressive when teams are able to go on the road and win (e.g., Southern California at Virginia, Wisconsin at Fresno State), but going outside your own region to play a legitimate opponent is a real challenge, whether you’re moving east to west or west to east. Time zone differentials matter. Unfamiliar surroundings have an impact. Flukes occur.

Bad things happen to good teams and to good conferences. One bad Saturday does not diminish decades of achievement. Don’t be so hard on yourselves.

I see it a little differently. I think Oregon’s effort on defense was absolutely outstanding other than the second play of the game when they lined up incorrectly and put themselves at risk for exactly what they got…a long touchdown.

As I see it, I find a confidence and strength in Oregon’s effort because they overcame a flurry of turnovers which would have caused a lesser team to fold. Oregon’s defense flat out won the game, but the resolve of their entire sideline should be noted. Great teams do not panic when they get behind. USC’s loaded Reggie Bush / Matt Leinert teams from a few years past were behind in many of their games, but had the confidence and resolve to settle the ship until momentum could get back on their sideline, and then answer in a hurry. I see Oregon moving in that direction if the QB position can stay settled. I have confidence in Musoli (spelling?). He is an excellent QB, possibly even better than Roper if given the chance to succeed.

I was halfway expecting Oregon to fold and get completely blown out considering the turnovers the offense coughed up on the field. Other than the Big Play touchdown on the second play of the game, Oregon pretty much controlled Purdue. That in of itself is evidence that Oregon may have in fact turned the corner and will continue to play with confidence rather than flinching and getting rattled or panicky when they get more than one score behind. Great teams respond and I liked what I saw.

To me, I can tell a great deal more about a team when overcoming adversity, rather than winning by 40+ points every weekend. If it was my choice, however, I’d take the 40+ point victory any day of the week. To play that poorly and still pretty much dominate the game would be a good sign to a coach, because the mistakes are fixable mistakes. Great job Ducks!

The Ducks victory over Purdue was very similar to South Florida’s victory over Kansas.