You can always play what if, but I agree with this. It looked like the offense was finally clicking and OSU was off balance for the first time all day. They were gashing their defense with big plays. That fumble was body blow #1. The 2nd was on that 3rd and 13 for OSU with 9 minutes left. Pryor rolling out and as he's falling down he does exactly what you're not supposed to do - he throws a jump ball. The one mental mistake he made all day . . . too bad for Oregon that in between 3 Ducks, somehow the Buckeye Receiver came down with it for a 30 yard gain and 1st down. They scored a TD a few plays later to stretch it to a 9 point game. The safety for the Ducks (#1, Marvin Johnson) went for the INT instead of breaking up the play, and the TE for OSU made a great catch. So even when Pryor finally made that big mistake, it works out to their advantage. You could see how deflated the defense was at that point. Not to mention LaMichael had just gone to the locker room before that series to have x-rays. That was the back breaker.
...I especially loved how cocky most every single Duck fan was going into this game, must have been blinded by their grellow colored kool-aid glasses
Not all of us were cocky. I knew it would be a tough game. I'm proud of the Ducks for ending USC's streak and getting to the Rose Bowl. Ohio State played a great game, and they were due after getting smoked the last few Bowl Games. UO will be back.
See as a duck fan I wasn't cocky. In fact I woke up this morning thinking "OSU will want this game more than the ducks especially for their seniors who are 0-3 in bowl games". I was unfortunately right. I think it was the media that made the Ducks over confident going into this game. All I saw from the media was "Oregon's offense is unstoppable!" And then the pre-game video was all about the OSU players praising Oregon's offense. And then all the talking heads picking Oregon to win. After seeing all that I was like "This will end in an Oregon loss." OSU was the more experienced team--Oregon has a TON of freshman/new guys starting for them this season. BTW, I love all the Beaver fans posting going "HAHA you ducks LOSS!!!!" When the Beavers didn't even show up to play their bowl game. I know I didn't go and post in threads bragging about the Beavers losing. Here's an interesting take on the game/future of the Ducks.
Canzano - who picked the Ducks 42-10 . . . LOL. So John now thinks Masoli is too short? And Pryor is the 2nd coming of Vince Young? Before the game he said if the Ducks win and Masoli plays well they start next season in the top 3 and have a legit Heisman Candidate. Please. Pryor just turned out to be a bad match up for an Oregon Defense that plays hard, but lacks size and athleticism up front. Would anybody really want to start NEXT season with Pryor instead of Masoli? Dude was HORRIBLE in in about half of their games this year. If Pryor isn't able to stiff arm slower & weaker DE's, and if he doesn't have all day to throw - the guy stinks. I'll give it up for the guy - he played great tonight. He exploited the weaknesses of our defense really well. But even on his best night ever, he still looked confused at times. He can't go through progressions if his 1st option isn't open, and even though he's fast - he's not very quick and elusive. He didn't make anybody miss, he just stiff armed and broke tackles and you can't do that every week. He sure did do it tonight though. Good for him. But I'll tell you what - if Ohio State asks this guy to throw 37 times a game, he'll have some 1 TD, 4 INT games guaranteed. And Canzano once again puts the flavor of the day up on a pedestal, and takes a shot at a guy he spent the last several weeks building up. Weak.
Why? I've never been impressed with Locker. I know he's fast, and he can make all the throws, but is he really a good football player? For his career he's 9-20 as a starter, completed only 53% of his passes and thrown 36 TD/26 INT. Is this guy really THAT good of a football player? I know he hasn't been surrounded with blue chip talent, but it's not like UW's skill players should be playing for Portland State. And he's had different coordinators . . . blah, blah. I know he's a projected 1st round draft pick, but I wouldn't pick him. Too erratic.
...and again, the only reason the score was that close was because Pryor missed two EASY TD passes, I'm just saying
He's also played behind a crappy line and didn't have any kind of a receiving corps or running back until this year. The Husky D has also sucked throughout, which meant the team was forced to pass more to try and catch up. Add that up and factor in one of the toughest schedules in the country and those stats lose their meaning. I'm stuck in Seattle and watched a bunch of games and the guy is an absolute stud. According to sports talk guys up here, he considered OSU and I'd have loved to have seen him in the orange and black.
WRT Locker, the fact that this was the first year he'd ever been coached in anything other than a Wing-T or whatever the heck Willingham ran gives him a bit of leeway in my book. Sarkisian is trying to turn him into a pro quarterback, and what he's picked up just since last December has been night and day. Another offseason under his belt, and I really like his chances going forward. He has decent rapport with a couple of freshman stud receivers, Polk is a RB Beast, and most of the line is back. I'm super-excited for Navy next year, but pretty interested in what UW can do in the Pac-10.
Buckeyes were the better team, but the Ducks had chances that they blew. The fumble. The penalties. The defense repeatedly giving up first downs on 3rd and long. And while the game was probably out of reach at the time - not going for it on 4th and 1, and instead going for a long field goal and missing it. I admit, I bought the hype - I don't follow college FB closely enough to know better - and believed the Ducks would win this game. But at the end of the first quarter, I didn't have the same feeling as during the Civil War, when the Ducks were down, but just seemed "out of sync." The Ducks were being pushed around by a bigger, better team - and when that happens in football (this much I know about college FB), you lose.
For the record, I can't stand Duck fans, so I always root against their team. I lump the majority of Duck fans in with Lakers', Yankees', and USC fans. Sorry, but UO fanatics come off as elitists and extremely annoying. I had projected OSU to dominate and win by more than 10. The Buckeyes were the champions of a far superior conference. UO did better than I expected. They should be proud of their solid season. Talk of contending for a national championship is laughable though to me. Not going to happen, IMO.
I agree that Ohio State played better tonight and deserved to win. I'm not sure if they played 10 times, Ohio State would win more than 3-4, but they only play one time, and the Buckeyes came better prepared, exexcuted, and didn't shot themselves in the foot. They looked like the team with BCS experience and Oregon looked like a team who didn't know how to preform on the big stage. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining game, that could have gone either direction.
I definitely don't have a dog in the fight, so I ask: what has UO done in the last 50 years to have "elitist" fans? L*kers have won around 10 championships....Yankees 27. USC won the Pac-10 7 times in a row. What has UO done to have elitist fans?
I believe if they played ten times, you'd see, on average, a wider margin of victory by the Buckeyes. OSU would have continued to eat up the possession clock, continued to methodically move the ball down the field, and make fewer mistakes. Look at the conferences. Big Ten was by far the better conference. I don't believe UO could have defeated Penn State (beat LSU), Iowa, or Wisconsin (beat Miami) either. Ducks had a good season, but they were ranked way too high IMO.
You're question doesn't make sense. Their team doesn't have to have national accolades to act in an elitist manner.
