I'm usually a fan of the NFL. It's like the dessert after your four course college football weekend meal. And first week is usually pretty exciting as every team thinks they have a shot of making the Super Bowl, except for Cleveland, they'll never make a Super Bowl. But opening week this year was different. Maybe the fast paced, high scoring college games have spoiled me, or with how corporate and advertising soaked the NFL has become it has soured me a little, this year I wasn't as excited. Anyway, let's talk about the Ducks and dive into some quack:
- The big news dropped late yesterday as it looks like potential All-American and Oregon's clean up man on defense, John Boyett, will miss the rest of the season with knee surgery. You have to be concerned with how this leaves a hole at safety, but in all I'm not too worried. First of all, the guys still in the line up will now have an extra coach on the sideline helping them out and keeping them sharp on what is happening in the game. Second of all, the last time Oregon lost a highly talented safety and a potential NFL draft pick, we got John Boyett in his place. I'm fairly confident Neal and Boyett will have his replacement more than ready.
- Moseley has a wrap up of the teleconference with Chip Kelly. As expected, it's littered with coach speak and very few details about what is going on with the team. For me, I think the most frustrating thing about Kelly as a coach has been his stance on no information about injuries. I understand why he does it, but as a fan it's frustrating.
- Ducks remain #4 in the AP poll, and 2 other Pac teams jumped into the top 25 this week with Arizona at #24 and Ucla at #22. But, wow Arkansas... um, wow!
- Ken Goe of the Oregonian has a little wrap up about the conference from the weekend. After the surprising wins by Ucla, Arizona and OSU, I'm pretty sure it will be a while before we have to hear about how it's all about USC versus Oregon this year.
- I guess there are still a lot of questions about this team this year, but isn't there more answers at this point? We know Mariota will be fine at QB. He'll probably struggle like any redshirt freshman, but I have a hard time seeing Oregon being better with any other QB they could of or do have. We know DAT is special, the wide receiver play is much improved, and that's even without Huff, Barner is a workhorse and the depth we all knew was there, will most likely be needed due to attrition. So what are the burning questions about this team that people are so worried about?
- I agree mostly with Gemmell's bowl projections for the Pac. It should be interesting to see if OSU can continue their momentum and challenge Utah or Uw for lower bowl spot.
I'm sure there is plenty more quack out there, but that's what I have for right now. Leave any other links in the comments.