Well, it's been a while since we've done any sort of link dump, but I thought I'd do one today, as there are a few things I'd like to comment on.
First, there has been a lot said about the QB situation, and who should start. But no matter our opinion on the subject, we have a starting QB. Jeremiah Masoli, despite his faults, is without a doubt the starting QB for our football team. He showed calm and poise on the final drive of the Stanford game, and did not let his previous mistakes get into his head. He made mistakes on the drive, but also made some nice plays to help move the team into position to win the game.
And as much heat as Bellotti has taken in past years for switching up the QBs mid season, given the situation, he has picked a QB and gone with him this year. And though I've been upset with Masoli (read the latest game thread), I am very glad that the coaching staff is going with one QB. I don't think any of the QBs would make as better in any way, so going with one and sticking with it is the way to go.
Rickert also comments on the booing that occured at the game, and gives some perspective. Masoli was in his 5th start, in the 12th week he's been with the Oregon team. He was playing in some horrendous condidtions. It doesn't excuse the mistakes, and improvements must be made, but booing fans make us all look bad.
While our defense did not have a great game this weekend, the struggles should not be surprising. Stanford held the ball for almost 40 minutes and had 8 more plays. At one point, Oregon had 17 points on only 8 plays. Stanford had stellar field position most of the game, and Oregon still ended up winning. Ron Bellemy from the RG has a nice piece on the entire defensive situation.
Lastly, the highlight of any postgame write up is Ken Woody's blog post. He goes over every play in the final drive, and also notes the improvement of Masoli on 3rd down. He was 4/5 for 46 yards, with all completions going for 1st downs. He also had his huge scramble to move Oregon to the 8 with less than a minute to go.
Another positive in the game was linebacker play, as both Matthews and Paysinger had 9 tackles. They were penetrating well most of the game, racking up 10 TFLs and a sack. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Oregon defense was all or nothing. There would be either big tackles for loss, or big gains, especially to Kimble.
Overall, Woody attributes the win to the improvements seen in the passing game, as well as 3rd down play, and that seems about right. It would have been fun to see how well Oregon would have done had they not turned the ball over 4 times and hiked a ball out of the end zone. The offense only punted once the entire game, and still scored only 35.
Overall, there are positives and negatives to take from the Stanford game, but there is a lot of room for improvement. If Oregon puts together a complete game, they can beat anyone in the conference. Unfortunately, they haven't done that this season. And the two games remaining will provide little margin for error.
GO DUCKS!