kevin hogan looks like a clown out there against a below average northwestern team lol. the defense looks horrible compared to years past, this team is dead in the water. i think we are starting to see that david shaw is not harbaugh....not even close.... this team is almost pathetic to be honest with you....almost^
I don't think so... After what Stanford showed today, the north is almost a sure lock for the ducks. Speaking from a scheme standpoint, Stanford is setup much better than cal to beat Oregon. They usually play great defense, control the clock, force turnovers and basically dominate the line of scrimmage.... Cal can't do any of that; they are built to score a lot and play very little defense. Oregon thrives in shootouts against teams that just try to score. Wazoo does it every year and the ducks throttle them... USC did it 2-3 years ago and got boat raced.... The formula to beating Oregon is very simple.... Disrupt the line of scrimmage while they are on offense and control the clock by limiting their possessions.... I'll take my chances with cal every day of the week and twice on Sunday's. Not to say cal isn't improved, because they very much are, but you don't win shootouts against Oregon. Have to beat them from a defensive standpoint and with clock management/ball security.
Let's not over react to one game folks. Those 9am west coast kicks can be tricky sometimes and NW is more than capable of hanging with many teams at home. Although he made his first start today, the NW red shirt frosh QB is a 4 star recruit and so is their young RB. Their D is somewhat underrated as well. For you PAC12 gurus do you guys think the PAC is somewhat of a trendy league? By that I mean it seems that some teams seem to mysteriously have other teams numbers in conference play? For example Stanford does well against Oregon and UCLA, UCLA does well against USC, etc
ok i see what youre sayng...let me start by giving Nw their credit. theyve got a great head coach who is very defensive minded. they played well and simply put were more physical than stanford. now, lets get down to it. Stanford should never lose a game like this because its who they are. they live for physical games that are all about ball control, run game, clock management and defense. northwestern is not that good, they will compete in the big 10 but likely get knocked around quite a bit. so for stanford to get embarassed like they did today, i think its ok to pencil the ducks in barring any sort of major injuries. yes i do feel that league is trendy. certain teams and coaches seem to have each others numbers and its quite obvious. im in concurrence with you there. i think the ducks now have a legitimate shot at losing one game against michigan state and still making the playoff if they run the table in conference and win the pac 12 title game. thats all depending on whether or not they make it, but like i said, its hard not to see them in there now. with how poor the north has played, oregon really only needs to beat ASU and they can actually afford a loss to sparty.
i think the pac 12 has a ton of parity and a lot of similar offenses, so its easy to prep for each week, and some coaches refuse to change schemes, making it even easier for defenses year after year
