On Losing and Winning (Simultaneously): A TWITS Perspective

This week I've seen many excellent, lucid attempts at blogging catharsis on this here web site. As expected, our emotions range from desperate ("OMG that was our only chance OMG") to realistic ("Patience, grasshopper")  to pissed off.

Me, I was a sad duck. I couldn't really think about the game much for a few days.  I'd pop on here now and then to make a snarky aside or two, but couldn't really get inspired beyond the level of Fuck Juju to comment. Finally, I fired up the DVR tonight and replayed the critical parts of the 4th quarter, ending it with the Dyer Down Dash. With few exceptions (DT's nasal probe was an unfortunate bit of timing), I found myself marveling at how good my Ducks looked on the biggest stage around. And I found my inspiration...

I've never really been convinced that My Team has actually made it to the next level until now. So, like others here, I'm not as upset as I might have expected myself to be. Yes, it would have been awesome to win. But we were right there - and remember, no other team in our position in the last 5 BCS games against SEC opponents has been close to "right there."

Oregon Football made its statement on Monday; the loss was almost insignificant.

I had to travel on business this week, and as usual wore my O hat and shirt on the planes. I can't count the number of positive comments I heard from other travelers, most of whom weren't Oregon fans. Everyone was impressed. We may have a rep among conference foes as a bunch of jerks, but that rep doesn't extend far.

A friend who is a huge OSU honk (a writer on BTD) watched the game in a Salem bar with other OSU fans. His group had started the game rooting for Auburn, big time, but by the 4th quarter they were all pulling for Oregon along with the Duck fans. The guy sitting behind me on the plane back from California -- a USC alum -- begrudgingly admitted doing the same thing. 

It didn't hurt that this game had its Manichaean angle, and we were on the good side in this one -- unless you were an Auburn fan. (And, after all, don't they deserve something for having to live in Alabama?)

Our team looked great - personally, the electric chartreuse is growing on me -- and played better than that.

Puddles is a national hero. Our cheerleaders set a national standard. Our coaching staff is great. Our stadium is awesome. We're on TV every week. And the BCS game was the capper. To me, this game meant more to the program and perception of Duck Football than any Rose Bowl win I can imagine.

I am so immensely proud of these guys, I could just burst like the overstuffed bag of microwave popcorn I'm told I resemble.

Because the team is living up to the standard that has been set for it by Uncle Phil and the Oregon marketing team. 

The comments of some younger Oregon fans, or post-Pickers, who have never really known what futility and loss REALLY mean, should make me mad. They don't. I just chuckle. Some of y'all have NO idea how good you have it. For perspective, let's return to my core competency, which is "reminding all y'all how much better things are now, regardless of Monday's result."

Did you know..

• Since Chip Kelly arrived in February 2007, Oregon has won more games (41) than any other Pac10 team? Yes, this includes USC (40), despite their 11- and 12-win seasons of 2007 and 2008.
• Oregon's 41-11 record since 2007 ranks 6th among all FBS teams, trailing only fBSU, TOSU, TCU, Utah and Florida.
• The Ducks scored 611 points this season. Putting this number into TWITS perspective:
  • From the first game of The Suffering, a season-opening home loss to Missouri on 9 Sept 1972, it took Oregon 42 games to eclipse 611 points. They finally totaled 617 after a 50-17 loss at UCLA on 8 Nov 1975. Almost 4 seasons, and 2 coaches.
  • Don Read's Oregon teams only managed 406 points during his three seasons.
  • Rich Brooks' first three Duck squads? 537 points.
  • Worse, Brooks later managed to outdo the dubious achievements of Enright and Read by taking 43 games to break 611 points (5 Sept 1981 - 10 Nov 1984).
• Four of the top 5 margins of victory records in the modern era (post-WW2) are held by this year's senior class.
  • 2010 - 28.3 average MOV
  • 2007 - 14.5
  • 2008 - 13.7
  • 2001 - 13.0
  • 2009 - 12.3
    (By comparison, the first seasons of Rich Brooks and Don Read occupy the bottom rung in the "non-MOV" records.  Brooks lost by an average of 19.4 points in '77; Read, by 19.5 in '74.)

• Oregon posted two shutout victories this season for the first time since 1964, when Bob Berry led the Ducks to back-to-back whitewashings of Arizona and Washington. By contrast, Oregon has only been shut out once since 1985; we won't talk about that one. (During The Suffering, we were skunked 14 times in 13 seasons, including thrice in '74 and '76.)
• Paid attendance at the 13 Oregon games in 2010-11 was 823,279. Home attendance over 6 games - 356,387 - was an Autzen record for 6 home games. At the risk of piling on the record of a Really Nice Guy, Autzen attendance during Read's coaching career at Oregon totaled 364,900 - in 15 games.

So.. yes.  A fond farewell to this year's seniors. These guys made this the best year ever.

Until the next one.