well, the Ducks played without Bol Bol and Abu Kigab...Bol is their best player, by far, and Kigab is their defensive and hustle glue-guy. Sure, it's an excuse, but in this case, it's legitimate. The pre-season expectations that the Ducks would challenge for the Pac-12 title were pretty unrealistic. Altman has had some misses in recruiting the past 2-3 years, and he's failed to get any high caliber shooters like he used to get. He's still a good coach though as for the football team, 2 years ago they were a 4-8 team that got man-handled by the Beavers. And they sure as hell weren't the best 4-8 team around. That's how far they had fallen and they had major holes all over their roster. They've had 3 different coaches and 3 different OC's and 3 different offensive systems in 3 straight seasons. They came into the season having lost 6 starters on defense to graduation and the result of Helfrich's failures and the successive coaching turnover was that the Ducks had their worst group of skill players (WR & RB) in the last 20 years. Yet, they were one terribly timed fumble away from a 9-3 record. that's some 'actual performance' to at least consider. Cristobol is trying to radically change the culture of the team, and the way they approach the game. I do have some doubts about how his physical down-hill philosophy will work in the Pac-12, but it almost always takes a new system and culture 2-3 years to show just how good it can be so I have some patience, although I did lose my mind at times watching the stubborn inside run game leave the Ducks in 2nd and 9 all the time. Bottom line though is that the X's and O's work a lot better when you have great Jimmy's and Joe's and MC's staff seem to be able to get those Jummy's and Joe's at a pace even Chip couldn't match. The trick is to make sure 4-star recruits perform like 4-star players. We'll see
By the way, the fact that a 30 point loss is our worst home loss since 2004 goes to show how consistently good we've been since then.
Great points....MC is doing essentially the same things a Peterson has done in Seattle by changing the culture and it took him 2-3 years. By beefing up size and strength on both lines and having a very good D coordinator all thats need is a balanced Offensive attack. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the same O coordinator. I to was going crazy on the 2 &8 or 9's.
Love the positivity brother, but until we become a better defensive team we won't get out of the first round.
This whole thing is an act, right? Or some sort of baiting scheme? I mean, wtf. This delusional drivel is just salt in the wound of our Trail Blazer reality. I don't like it.
[rant mode on] there was all this feel-good nonsense after the 3 game winning streak, 2 of which were at home and 2 of which came against teams missing integral players. But the bottom line is that Portland is 6-9 over their last 15 games and 8-11 over their last 19 games. That mini-winning streak needs to be viewed in a context a little larger than just 3 games now, here's where the apologists enter to talk about how tough the schedule has been or that teams sometimes just get blown out, even at home. That's all true but the thing is, the same apologists will excuse the Pelicans series as a match-up problem while guaranteeing that if the Blazers would have played OKC or Minny they would have won a series. Obviously, it's sunny skies all around in an alternate universe. Another way to look at all those rationalizations is it's all bullshit because if it was just a matchup problem in the last playoff series then the Blazers wouldn't be folding this season when the schedule was difficult. And they wouldn't be coming out flat against a decades-long division rival who was on a 5 game road losing streak and getting their butts kicked all over the floor. No, Portland would be actually taking care of business and showing that this year was going to be different but they ain't. This is the 7th year under Olshey/Stotts; and it's the 4th year of the Dame/CJ experiment. Since Dame hit that series-winning three against Houston, Portland is 7-22 in the playoffs; that's a 24% winning rate which would translate to 20-62 regular season. That sucks donkey balls, especially considering that 3 of those wins came against the Clippers without Griffin and Paul, and another came against the Warriors without Curry. Yeah, I know Portland has had some playoff injuries themselves, but you'll excuse me if I don't see equivalency between Griffin-Paul-Curry and Nurk-Harkless-Turner. Besides that, this is my rant so piss-off with your yeah-but logic anyway, what I'm ranting about is that after 7 years of the same GM/Coach I'd expect to see improvement. At the very least I'd expect to see changes in the frequency & manner in which the Blazers are losing games. But it's still the same-old-same-old-rinse-repeat inertia. Management made the decision to build a team around Dame/CJ, giving them the lion's share of possessions & usage as well as the lion's share of the salary cap. It was a decision that had plenty of obvious dangers right from the get-go, and just about all those dangers have turned into realities. A team that reverts to midget-one-on-one whenever there is notable resistance or adversity is going to repeat the same mistakes and find the same route to losing games. And it's happening for the 4th straight year I fully expect the Blazers will go on a hot streak again. And then they'll regress. We've seen this show before; Perry Mason never ended a show a loser, and this Blazer team will never end a season a winner [/rant mode off]
MFs I here are bipolar AF. Last night.... I turned that shitshow off too... But I remember when we beat Mil, Tor, Bos...
I react negatively in the moment then get over it. People should know not to get too high or low with this team.
During games I tend to react in the moment, but usually after the game, its “on to the next one”, I mean sure I have some issues with the team but cant get to high or low.
I can only give you one like, but if i could i would give you 100 likes. You a very good poster man. Realtalk bro
hey thanks, although I'm sure many would disagree. I do like ranting sometimes unless it's my wife ranting at me (looking over my shoulder now)
So, basically what you’re saying is that the Blazers are inconsistent, aren’t going to contend for a title, and need upgrades that you think this GM and coach can’t accomplish. Amazing what you can say in one sentence.
usually, but it depends I use to go on hunting trips with 3 other guys. We devolved into having a kind of contest on the first night we were together. That being trying to plan out diets in the previous 12 hours or so to see who could have the grossest flatulence. It's actually an art. I think I won one time by ingesting a combination of deviled eggs, kosher pickles, tamari popcorn, and bean tacos. the thing is you had to keep sniffing to judge the winner. It was a semi-sacred responsibility to the collective I was thinking about that next you could write a message to Earnest Hemingway saying "old man catches fish too big for his boat...big fucking deal" does that mean I'm comparing myself to Hemingway? nope. You might be a sourpuss though but I'm not sure yet by the way, if you do send that message, make sure you send it to the dead letter office
Some things can only be shared well with close friends. Remind me not to go hunting with you guys. Ha! Good one, although Hemmingway was generally noted for his tight prose. Not usually. Maybe a bit of a wisenheimer sometimes though.
