SB Nation - Ed Dickson

Ranking the 2009 Pac-10 Football MVPs: Part I

Avinash — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:00:29 -0000

Mike Mohamed had some big plays this season. Was it enough to be a Pac-10 MVP?

In case you missed it, here's Part 1: the LVPs of their respective teams.

This post got too long, so I had to split it into three. Here are the honorable mention categories and the Pac-10 players and units ranked #30 thru #21 (#20-11 coming this afternoon, #10-1 coming Friday morning). Let's dive into it.

Honorable Mention

Jeff Locke, Reid Forrest: You know your team's in trouble when your punters are higher than anyone on your offense. And in Forrest's case, you know your team is royally fucked when your punter is the only one on your team who appears on this list.

Donald Butler: Didn't really do anything spectacular this year, but 96 tackles will get you on this list.

Daniel Te'o-Nesheim: So will 9.5 sacks and 12.5 TFL. Too bad the Huskies defense ranged from 'sheer brilliance' to 'human atrocity'

Ed Dickson: I'll be nice as possible about this--FUCK ED DICKSON. AGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

Damola Adeniji: Despite all the production of James Rodgers, he wasn't Canfield's main target on 3rd down. Probably because secondaries keyed in on Rodgers, Adeniji racked up 27 catches in that situation, 21 for first downs, 5th in the country. Only 49 catches overall, but considering he only had 1 last season, I'll say this is a slight upgrade.

Chris Polk: Finished this season on a tear: Five ninety+ yard games and a 1000 yard season overall. Hard to measure his impact though, since the Huskies lost three of those games and Locker and the defense were the focal points of the other two.

Trojan offensive line: Lost season for these guys. 17 sacks allowed, 40 tackles for loss allowed, only a top 40 rushing offense. Ho-hum for them. I would've dreamed of something like this for the Bears.

Mike Mohamed: Cal's most productive defensive player on a not-so-great defensive unit. You have to give massive props for a 100 tackle season (his 104 tackles were tops in the Pac-10). And he saved another Cal season from sliding into disaster with a crucial interception in the Big Game.

Kyle Williams, Dmitri Nance: Solid production considering their quarterback struggled to complete half of his passes. Plus I feel bad for Williams ending his career like that.

Syd'Quan Thompson: If Cal had ONE guy (Hagan, Hill, Nnabuife, Conte, Rope Guy, someone) step up at corner on the other side of the field, who knows how our season turns out. We sure as hell don't get lit up by Oregon, USC or UDub on defense (Syd's limited ability in the final game pretty much assured we were screwed against Locker).

He was still a fabulous open field tackler when he got the chance, and when quarterbacks threw to his side of the field, he usually shut down. Like Asomugha in Oakland, that kind of effort only gets rewarded with first team All Pac-10, and minimal impact on the box score. So while his talent is easy enough to gauge, it's really hard to measure his value. Which is why he's honorable mention and not on the top 30.

After the jump, here's #30-21. If there are any thoughts of players or units left off, or guesses as to who will end up in the top 20, leave them in the comments.

#30 Damian Williams, #29 Joe McKnight

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These two are actually the first since Bush and White to break 100+ all-purpose yards a game since Bush and Leinart. Solid seasons, but other than McKnight on the final drive against Ohio State and Williams tearing up Notre Dame, how many moments do you remember concerning these two? That kind of year for the Trojans. It's up in the air whether either will return too.

#28 Ryan Whalen

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6th in the Pac-10 in receptions, turned into Luck's best passing threat when Owusu went Section Eight in the biggest games. Thought about ranking him higher, but I don't have any Whalen moments to really justify putting him further up. Perhaps the Cardinal fans can refresh my memory...oh, wait, there are no Cardinal fans. #28 it is.

#27 Arizona's receiving corps (Turner, Criner, Roberts, Dean, Douglas)

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Five guys with 30 catches or more? Now that's spreading the wealth around. By contrast, Cal had only one receiver (Jones) catch more than 30. Obviously, Cal isn't built to be a passing offense, but still, this is a far cry from two-three years ago. Sigh.

#26 UCLA's secondary

via images.ocregister.com

I know Rahim Moore led the nation in picks, and Alterraun Verner had another fine year--but how good are these guys? Other than shutting down Jonathan Crompton and whoever the hell Kansas State's quarterback is, the Bruins pass D has been surprisingly average. Even Kevin Riley burned them deep. I repeat, KEVIN RILEY BURNED THEM DEEP. Does this happen to good secondaries?

Oh well...at least Moore is capable of that "deep, longing, alluring, penetrating, soul-piercing, heart-tugging look".

#25 Tyson Alualu

via cache.daylife.com

Kind of hard to say how bad the Bears defense would've been without Alualu cracking apart the line. His efforts alone helped shut down Minnesota's passing game in a tight 4th quarter. Extra linemen often were forced to commit to him, and it opened up the rest of the front to get after Arizona and the Furd's high powered offensive attack.

Unfortunately, he never really had a Mebane-like force on the line--he couldn't really disrupt the passing attacks the way his predecessors did How much of that was dictated by scheme or by his own pass rush methods is beyond my knowledge, but Cal's pass rush was far weaker than anticipated, far weaker than the 27 sacks they put up this year.

Still a great season for Tice though--Cal's run defense was top-tier, and a lot of that had to do with #44.

(Story that really depressed me this week: Bear Insider's look at how close Ndamukong Suh came to being a Golden Bear. Imagine Alualu and Suh coming together in the 3-4 the last two seasons, particularly last year. I'm getting bummed out now.)

#24 Jahvid Best

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For a guy who was supposed to be a Heisman hopeful, it's shocking to see Best not even crack the top 20. But that's how it is in a frustrating season for Jahvid, whose season seemed to peak in Minneapolis. Still had some spectacular runs, but running behind the crappiest offensive line in the Tedford era, it could've been way, way better.

#23 Chris Owusu

via a.espncdn.com

A menace for us, and a big game-changer for the Furd, having huge returns on almost every opponent this year. Surprisingly (and stupidly), everyone in the Pac-10 continued to kick to Owusu long after he demonstrated he would outrace their coverage to the end zone. The Furd ranked 3rd in the country in kickoff returns, mostly due to Owusu's skills.

He gets bumped down a bit because if he could just hang onto a few passes (he dropped big catches in EVERY conference loss), the Furd are going to Pasadena.

#22 Kai Forbath

via tnjn.com

Laugh all you want that a kicker cracks the top 25. When a Bruins fan describes him as your most consistent player...well, that says a lot.

Take a look at the games Forbath swung this season.
~13 of UCLA's 19 points in a 4 point win over the Vols in Rocky Top
~11 of UCLA's 23 points in a 10 point win over the Sun Devils
~6 of UCLA's 24 points in a 1 point win over the Huskies
~11 of UCLA's 23 points in a 14 point win over K-State.

Add in these stats
~26 field goals, second most in the country behind Alabama's Tiffin
~99th scoring offense in the country

Not hard to say Forbath was UCLA's offensive MVP this season, isn't it? Switch Forbath with an average kicker and the Bruins win four games? Three?

#21 Shane Vereen

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(Image from dmo580)

Surprisingly had more impressive performances than Best this season, cementing away a Cal victory in Pasadena and being the workload in two upsets over the Wildcats and the Cardinal. Best racked up big numbers against two of the worst teams in the country and an FCS opponent, managing only one great game this season against a bowl-eligible team. Although Best ended up with more rushing yards, Vereen had more all-purpose yards thanks to his kickoff returns and his own pass-catching abilities. Most importantly, when the offensive line collapsed, Vereen had more of the elusiveness to slip away from encroaching defenders.

Best might be the better talent, but Vereen was the more valuable Bear for this Cal squad...but only by a little.

Coming this afternoon: #20-11.

Who Were the Worst Performers in the Pac-10 in 2009?

Avinash — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:30:02 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

Meet the Pac-10 MVP of interceptions!

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It's always hard to measure the value of good teams in football. It almost always starts with a good quarterback, followed closely behind by an offensive line and a running back. Then you want a strong front seven, with receivers and secondary coming somewhere after that. You can build a good team around the front four, a great one with everything else coming together

So in determining a football MVP (or I guess for college football, Heisman), we're looking at people from the first three or four categories strongly. In the next two days we'll start counting down the best players and o-line/defensive units in the conference to try and figure out who deserves to be the Pac-10's most valuable player

That's right, instead of doing a national college football consensus (which would be tedious and terrifying), let's go with what we know well. This is all Pac-10.

Because most of us are sick inside, we'll start with the worst Pac-10 performers. What player or unit (offensive line, particular aspect of defense, coach, other thing, etc.) do you feel played the worst this season? Did I leave anyone off that requires mention? Discuss in the comments!

USC--Matt Barkley

Wait a second. Didn't Barkley just beat Ohio State in the Horseshoe? Nothing can stop him now! He's on his way to college football greatness!

Anyway, it seems like Carroll's petty anger at Mark Sanchez was a bad sign of things to come. I'm not saying that Sanchez could've saved USC from the avalanche at Autzen, but he should've outdueled Luck and Foles with essentially the same offense from last year. It would've been a B- version of the 2005 team, all offense and average defense. And they'd probably have ended up in Tempe.

If Sanchez was like an ice cream sundae at Fenton's (a little bad here and there, but still a tasty ride the whole way), Barkley was like a strawberry cream pie shake at Sonic's (tantalizing at first taste, but man would it make you sick down the road). He threw the most interceptions in the Pac-10, more than Sullivan, Prince, and any of the Wazzu troupe. His four turnovers in the Cardinal romp led to 28 Furd points, and he threw another killer pick against Arizona that led to what turned out to be a crucial seven points for the Wildcats. His 4th quarter stats were abominable--50% completion rate, one touchdown, SEVEN interceptions, 83 passer rating, which is good for 117th in the country, only about a drop of about a hundred in the rankings from the season before. His most memorable touchdown throw of the year was only meaningful in the sense that UCLA's defense will be headhunting him in eleven months.

Add in these continuing rumors from Thoroughbred that many of his teammates despise him, and all is not well at Heritage Hall for the first time in...well, a decade. The rest of the Pac-10 couldn't be more delighted.

Note: Thought about the Trojan run defense here, but come on, those guys got DECIMATED (entire front seven gone, plus another four or five guys injured). They had no chance against the Quack Attack or the power run game of the Furd.

UCLA--The entire Bruin offense

via cache.daylife.com

Man, it was brutal watching these guys this year.

Some more fun stats:

There were four teams in the Pac-10 (Oregon, Arizona, USC, Cal) who had two rushers that ran for more than UCLA's leading rusher (Johnathan Franklin)
The Bruins leading man in yards for scrimmage was Nelson Rosario, who finished 19th overall. There were seven teams in the Pac-10 with two or more players with more yards from scrimmage, and four (Furd, Oregon State, Arizona St., Oregon) with three.
Navy threw the ball 96 times this year, Army 161 (http://www.cfbstats.com/2009/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category02/sort06.html), Kevin Prince 267. Navy and Army scored 5 touchdowns apiece on those passes. Prince scored 6. Somewhere Norm Chow is wringing his neck (could be either Prince's neck or his own).
The USC game perfectly encapsulates UCLA's offensive abilities: To prevent from being shutout by their crosstown rivals, the Bruins needed a 13 play, 65 yard, five and a half minute drive that included two fourth down conversions, and two forced fumbles.
Bruins fans are actually calling on Kevin Craft for the bowl game. Yes, THAT Kevin Craft. (Okay, they only want him to start because he wasn't happy at playing hookie, but still). You know your offense is in desperate straits when your fans are ACTIVELY CALLING for Kevin Craft.

Furd--The ENTIRE CARDINAL DEFENSE

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Exactly the same thing we did for UCLA. Let's just rattle off the numbers...

A few examples of their defensive fails:

Their defense never forced a fourth down in the first half at Corvallis; five times Oregon State got the ball, five times they marched down the field and put points on the board, 31 in all.
The Cardinal surrendered not one, but two 40+ yard rushing touchdowns to Arizona to blow a two score lead in the 4th quarter, the last one on a 50+ yard scamper by Nwoko on THIRD AND SEVENTEEN.
The Cardinal took a 14-0 lead on the Bears with 6 minutes left in the first quarter; Cal responded by holding onto the ball for 35 of the final 50 minutes, including ripping off 24 unanswered points and scoring on five of their next six drives.

Perfect example of their horrid season came against Notre Dame. Toby Gerhart rushed in the go-ahead touchdown with a minute left in a tied game against an awful Irish defense, and Harbaugh looks about as pleased as Michael Corleone finding out Kay had an abortion. Why? The Cardinal could have kneeled down three times and kicked a chip shot extra point-type field goal at the buzzer to win. The touchdown put the Cardinal defense back on the field against Jimmy Clausen. Sure enough, after getting pinned at their own ten, in TWENTY SECONDS the Irish are at the Cardinal 24 and nearly pull a win out of their asses. All thanks to the Cardinal's hideous defense.

Yeesh. Maybe Gerhart did deserve the Heisman. But we'll get to the MVP candidates soon enough.

Oregon State's September swoon

via blog.oregonlive.com

This isn't really a unit fail as opposed to a team fail; the Beavers suck in September EVERY SINGLE YEAR. They could never get going against Cincinnati even though they were at home. They allowed Nick Foles in his starting debut in Corvallis to complete 74% of his passes at 7.5 YPA with 3 touchdowns and no picks. And they needed a last second Kahut field goal to beat a 5-7 UNLV squad. And these guys plan to play TCU in Dallas and Boise in the Smurf Turf next September?

Cal's pass defense not named Syd'Quan Thompson

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108th in passing yards given up; 103rd in completion percentage; 81st in passer rating. The Bears dropped from 3rd in the country in INTs to 71st, from 1st in the country in passes defended to 47th. So let's say they regressed a little.

(You might say the offensive line deserves this...but Cal still ranked top 40 in rushing yards per game and top 25 in yards per attempt. You might even say the special teams, but they didn't have as much impact as our defense, plus their general incompetence over the past half-decade deserves its own post. A lot of that had to do with Best and Vereen, but that's still only a mediocre unit, not an awful one. Nothing hurt the Bears more in 2009 than their pass defense...the offensive line just exacerbated the situation.)

Washington--Nick Holt

This one's hard to say. Holt's defense was much improved from last year, especially in the run game. USC, Cal, Wazzu, Arizona all fell. On the other hand...his defense still got ripped apart by the Oregon schools and the Furd. They weren't that bad, but they weren't that good either, so it's hard to call them the worst. So I'll go with the easy to hate Holt here.

Ultimately though, Holt's defense still provided us with the most comical college football moment of 2009, which could've been the difference between Locker and his first bowl game...

Arizona State

Only four games into the season, Pitchfork Nation wrote an open letter to his beleaguered starting QB withdrawing his support.

I retract anything positive I said about Danny Sullivan. Not only are you not physically talented enough to start for a Pac-10 team, but as you proved last night, you’re what we call in my family a "mental midget."

..

Instead, you exhibited the same physical problems we saw in each of the Sun Devils first three games. You sailed balls, you completely missed wide open receivers and left your pass catchers out to dry with several horribly thrown balls. Your most accurate pass was one you threw away in the 3rd quarter that perfectly nailed the "C" on the Muscle Milk sign on the side of the east bleachers.

Well, that sucks.

The numbers don't get much better for Sullivan: He never threw better than 56% in any quarter, he threw well on 1st down but didn't make much of a dent otherwise, and he generally struggled with everything. He hit 60% completions in only three of his games, all against bad pass Ds (Cal, Furd, Oregon State). For God's sake, he struggled against Wazzu. Shouldn't there be a shaming list for athletes who struggle against Wazzu?

And it wasn't like he was throwing to turds out there; both Kyle Williams and Chris McGaha notched 57 catches, and Dmitri Nance was a capable runner. No, it looks like most of the wounds were self-inflicted.

Wazzu--Everyone?

via cache.daylife.com

I'll save those poor Cougar fans an explanation; I really don't want to go over this hundred car pile-up, and they've suffered enough. At least they have Klay Thompson.

Oregon: LeGarrette Blount?

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He's probably the Ducks Least Valuable Player. I'm not happy stating it since the dude got a huge punishment for a totally surreal moment, but he redeemed himself, so that's always good.

But I put a question mark there...because for not-so-obvious reasons, you could make the case that he's the unintentional Pac-10 MVP. Why?

1) The Punch changed the whole Oregon running dynamic. For nearly a month Oregon struggled to get past the rust, but slowly things started to click and their offense got back in sync for the Utah game; once James and Masoli started operating in tandem the Quack Attack began rolling.

So...does Oregon win close games versus Purdue and Utah if Blount is in the backfield? Do the Ducks slow the pace down against Cal, USC, UCLA, Arizona State, Arizona and Oregon State instead of attacking, attacking, attacking? Does James get going at all? Does Barner break out as a pure speed demon? Would Oregon have gone 10-2 without the Punch? I doubt it. In a strange way, Blount's actions made his team BETTER in the long run--the Ducks were able to play that fast up-tempo offense that Kelly relished, and they blew through the Pac-10 relatively unscathed.

(I will always believe that if the Bears had played Blount and Masoli that we could've snuck that game out--not necessarily won, but the opportunity would've been there. We could've bottled up Blount the way we held Gerhart in check, play deliberate 3-4 football and wait for Blount to find the hole before matching him at the line of scrimmage. Of course, we still wouldn't have been able to defend Ed Dickson, but at least it's a step up from defending no one.)

2) The media hatefest gave the Ducks an 'us against the world' mentality. You can't underestimate the power of ESPN and the Internet on these guys--when Oregon became the dominant storyline of the opening college football weekend, when they heard about how they stunk and that their coach should be fired...it's not implausible they didn't rally around the hate and use it to fuel their overall mission. It's hard for me to say that Chip Kelly didn't use that to motivate the Ducks to play better, execute better, keep the pace going; they only let down once (the Cardinal), rolled everyone else and delivered in what amounted to Rose Bowl quarter and semifinals against Arizona and Oregon State.

If it had just been an awful loss the Ducks would've been forgotten by the national media--the Punch gave it the attention, gave Oregon the fire they needed to run through the rest of the season. It was the perfect black swan event. Everything went wrong on the first day of the season, and the Ducks spent the next three months trying to prove that it was an aberration. Didn't do too shabby, did they?

Of course, you could say he would've been theoretically least valuable; were the Ducks a better team if Blount wasn't playing? We'll never totally know, but the fact they barely missed a beat without him says a lot. They probably beat the Furd with him, but do they blow out USC, Cal, Arizona State, Washington and UCLA? I'm not so sure about that.

So Blount gets his team's LVP...only because the rest of the Ducks played like MVPs the rest of the year. For some reason, I feel he won't mind it that much.

Tomorrow: Pac-10 MVP honorable mentions

Pac-10 All Conference teams announced: Chip Kelly named COY, LaMichael James offensive freshman of the year

jtlight — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:40:42 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

Chip Kelly led the Ducks from disaster to a Pac-10 championship. Congrats on being named coach of the year, Chip!

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First off, Congratulations to Chip Kelly and LaMichael James, who were given great honors today. Coach Kelly was named the Pac-10 Coach of year, and he undoubtedly deserved it. After the debacle at Boise, Oregon rebounded and won the Pac-10 be two whole games. LaMichael James was named the offensive freshman of the year, setting the Pac-10 rushing record for freshman, and was the most explosive running back in the conference, if not nation.

Rounding out the Ducks on the all conference teams, Ed Dickson was named to the first team, while Jeremiah Masoli, LaMichael James, Will Tukuafu, and Casey Matthews were named to the second team.

I think what the voting for this award proves is that Oregon was by far the best team in the conference. It's pretty shocking that Oregon won the conference by two games, yet only got 5 players onto the all conference teams.

Meanwhile, OSU had 7 players on the first team alone, yet couldn't hang with Oregon in the 4th quarter. UCLA had four players on the first team defense, but had a worse defense than Oregon by almost any statistical measure.

While it would have been nice to see the individuals on the team recognized to a greater degree, Oregon gets to take home the ultimate prize: the Pac-10 championship.

Thursday night NFL Draft watch notes

Mocking Dan — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:10:29 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

2 months ago: Oregon State quarterback Sean Canfield cocks his arm to throw a pass against Arizona State in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009, in Tempe, Ariz. Oregon State won 28-17. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

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Considering tonight's Oregon/Oregon State game is for a spot in the Rose Bowl, it might be good idea to tune in. And if you, you'll see a good bit of NFL talent on display.

• The best pro prospect on the field tonight could be Oregon senior T.J. Ward. Although he's only played in six games this year because of injuries, he's very effective. He has 53 tackles on the year and is equally adept against the run and pass. He plays a hybrid position for the Ducks, but projects as a strong safety at the next level.

• After Ward, the next best player is Ducks tight end Ed Dickson. The senior is a great athlete with a good vertical leap and solid speed. His production has been a little inconsistent this season, but he has 42 receptions for 551 yards and six touchdowns. He could be a second-round pick.

• Oregon junior middle linebacker Casey Matthews is the latest in the Matthews tree of football players. His brother, Clay Matthews, is having a good rookie year for the Packers. Casey isn't as great of an athlete, but he's productive and heady.

• After struggling early in his career, Oregon State quarterback Sean Canfield is having a banner season. In his senior campaign, Canfield is completing 70 percent of his passes for 2,797 yards, 19 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Canfield is a traditional pocket passer and puts a great touch on his passes. He's a left-handed thrower rising up draft boards. When the rankings are re-done here again, look for Canfield to be in the heart of the top 10 seniors.

• Beavers defensive tackle Stephen Paea might be slightly undersized at 6-foot-1 and 288 pounds, but he's very stout against the run. Paea is a fundamentally sound lineman with good agility and technique.

• Senior linebacker Keaton Kristick is a player to keep an eye on tonight. He's 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds and leads the Beavers in tackles with 80. He has seven for a loss to go with two interceptions and a sack. Kristick has some flaws -- he's not especially fluid in space, he struggles to get off blocks -- but he can be coached up at the next level.

Remembering the Seniors

jtlight — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:00:45 -0000

When we look back on the seniors of 2009, I don't think they will be remembered in the same vein as some of the other Oregon greats. We'll remember 2001 for Joey Harrington. We'll remember 2007 for Dennis Dixon. We'll remember 2008 for the stellar offensive line and Jeremiah Johnson.

But 2009 is different. The face of the offense, LeGarrette Blount, was suspended for most of the season. The face of the defense, Walter Thurmond III, missed most of the season with a knee injury. And this year may end up being known as a year of transition, as successful as this team may end up being.

But this class is something special. They lived through 2006, when the team imploded down the stretch, and carried those lessons forward, helping to bridge the gap between 2007 and 2009, and providing leadership on a very young team.

Without the leadership and production of Walter Thurmond, Ed Dickson, Will Tukuafu, and T.J. Ward this team would not be where it is. On top of this, many other seniors who didn't see the field as much are just as important to the program. Morgan Flint, Andre Crenshaw, Rory Cavaille, Willie Glasper, Blake Ferras, Simi Toeaina, Titus Jackson are vital and productive members of the team, and worked their butts off day in a day out. Their hard work helped pushed other players to that next level. Lastly, we can't forget the contributions of three walk-ons, who all earned scholarships by their seniors years. Riley Showalter, Mike DiVincenzo, and Pono Kam earned their scholarships, and their play on special teams helped give Oregon one of the top special teams units in the conference.

Thanks for the memories guys. You will all be greatly missed. Enjoy your final game at Autzen.

After the jump, we have some videos, to remember the contributions of another special Oregon class.

Ed Dickson

In a long line of great Oregon tight ends, Dickson goes down as the most productive, with big plays over and over again during his career. His catch against Arizona was simply spectacular. Here are some of my favorite Ed Dickson moments:

T.J. Ward

He will be remembered as the enforcer of the Oregon defense, laying hits over and over again, and likely go down as the most YouTube'd Duck of all time (for exploits DURING the football game).

Walter Thurmond III

He had a knack for the big play. I feel cheated that we missed out on most of his senior year.

LeGarrette Blount

We'll ultimately remember Blount for his essentially lost senior year, which is too bad. He was utterly dominant as a change of pace his junior year. So let's remember him for that, and by one of my favorite runs of all time.

I'm sure I missed some big moments, so leave your favorite memories of our seniors in the comments. GO DUCKS!

Quack Fix: Ducks lose to Montana and more from Saturday's big win

ntrebon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:19:10 -0000

More photos » by Wily Low - AP

25 days ago: Oregon's Ed Dickson (83) celebrates after scoring a touchdown with six seconds left in regulation against Arizona in the second half of an NCAA college football game at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009. Oregon won 44 - 41 in overtime. (AP Photo/Wily Low)

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Ugh. What a deflating loss last night in basketball. Thankfully, we have nine more days of Civil War hysteria. Here's your morning quack.

The men's basketball team suffered an embarrassing 68-55 loss to the Montana Grizzlies at home last night. A poor first half did the Ducks in, as they managed only 20 first half points -- despite an early 12-2 lead. As some of you noted elsewhere, this result is quite a buzzkill. The Ducks are off until Sunday night when they host Montana State.
John Hunt has a blog entry with some quotes from Scott Frost talking about the impact of Saturday's dramatic win and reflecting on one of his own. Frost also notes that Jeff Maehl was the only receiver not rotated out late in the game on Saturday: "Jeff's earned the right to be in there when the chips are down because he's the kind of kid who makes big plays in big situations.'' Looks like that was the right call.
Rob Moseley's feature piece today takes us through the final drive against Arizona. That 18-yard run by LaMichael James on 3rd-and-11 is probably my favorite play of the drive, save for the touchdown catch by Ed Dickson.
George Schroeder also has a piece up that talks about Pat Kilkenny's decision to move the Civil War game to a Thursday night. While the move may be inconvenient for some of you attending, it's hard to argue that the date change and the fact that the game will decide the Pac-10 championship means that the nation's undivided attention will be focused on Autzen stadium next Thursday night.
Finally, the prolific Moseley also has a notebook entry up about Nate Costa earning conference player of the week honors for special teams after his game-saving hold on an errant extra point snap. Apparently the Sporting News named it the national "play of the week."
KEZI has a report up of a group of Oregon fans in yellow, including one dressed as the grim reaper, made their way through the OSU campus. I gotta say, I don't think a yellow grim reaper is all that effective.<sarcasm> Besides, isn't black one of our colors now too? </sarcasm>
Civil War baseball tickets for the May 26th game at PGE Park go on sale today. The game is officially a non-conference game, but will serve as the fifth game between the Ducks and Beavers in 2010.

After the jump are is a video of Steven Jackson talking Civil War, so check it out.

Here's Steven Jackson with some of his own thoughts on the rivalry between the Ducks and Beavers:

Quack Fix: Ducks Getting Healthier; Did A-Rod "Masoli" During Baseball's Postseason?

JConant — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:01:33 -0000

Two more days...anyone else feel like time is moving way too slowly? Here is today's quack to help pass the time:

The R-G's Ron Bellamy caught up with the guy who probably is the key to the outcome of Saturday's game - Arizona QB Nick Foles. But for a couple fluky miscues by the sophomore QB, it could have be Arizona in first place heading into this match-up.
Rob Moseley's Wednesday practice report had some good news, including the return of Ed Dickson and LaMichael James following illnesses.
Brian Kimball of the Arizona Daily Wildcat writes that UA coaches are taking notice of Oregon's improvement on defense. Greg Hansen of the Arizona Daily Star calls Jeremiah Masoli a "magic man."
ESPN's Ted Miller introduces us to "masoli", his new term for describing instances where an athlete suddenly morphs into elite status. Miller's weekly Pac-10 picks. And, what to watch this week in Pac-10 play.
Ken Goe of The Oregonian weighs in on the university's attempt to squash the popular viral video, 'I Love My Ducks'. Stupid lawyers. Any video that garners good ratings from the scribes at EDSBS.com needs to be promoted vigorously.

You know the drill from here. Go Ducks!

Game Day Notes - Oregon

Paragon SC — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:31:18 -0000

I am just going to throw out some observations about tonight's game. Too many have already over analyzed this match-up. These are just some things that I see.

I get the feeling that a lot of people are or will be picking Oregon to win in tonight's game at Autzen.

The tone of the articles I have read that have either criticized the defense or the coaching are setting an interesting tone. I think Oregon is fine team. They have got their heads on straight after that stinker of a loss against Boise St. Boise is a tough place to play and when you couple that with Oregon playing their first game with Chip Kelly as head coach you could see where there might have been some growing pains. seems to have got things tuned up pretty good.

A lot has been made of how Oregon has played since that loss.

So, lets take a not so scientific look...

I am going to throw out the ucla and WSU wins for the obvious reasons because those teams are just bad. Yes, they are wins but it almost seems that any local high school could play those teams competitively.

Oregon's win against UW is impressive and to the casual observer, one could (like that idiot Eddie George) point to the fact that the Duckies handled UW pretty easily while SC struggled against UW in their loss...that would be a mistake. Give SC Barkley and Mays, take away all the emotion of two former SC coaches facing their mentor, knowing all the teams weaknesses (read Aaron Corp) and that is a win. USC's loss to UW was because of two things emotion and an exposed USC QB.

Oregon dominated Cal...but so did USC, so that is a wash...

So looking at just how Oregon has played this season comes down to really just two games Utah and Purdue...

Lets take Utah first. From SBN's Mountain West Connection...

The run defense which was to be Utah's strength but in this game Oregon ran all over Utah. Oregon was lead by LaMichael James who had 152 yards, also QB Jeremiah Masoli made timely runs to keep drives going and happened to score two touchdowns. However Oregon was able to win by only completing four passes.

So, we know this Utah team is a shadow of the team that beat Alabama. But this shows that Oregon needs to run the ball to win. Masoli only completed FOUR passes in this game and the Ducks win by 7. I can assure you that USC run defense is much better than Utah's run defense. Masoli can run ball...so could Terrelle Pryor and the USC defense shut him down. Now, there will be those that will then point to Jake Locker in his win over USC...but the missing factor there was Taylor Mays. Regardless of all the criticism of his pass coverage skills as of late there is no denying his run defense skills. We all remember his stops of Jahvid Best and of Terrelle Pryor.

As for Purdue, the Duckies barely got past them at Autzen. Purdue's Defense is not as good as Utah's and the barely beat them...at home! The Oregon Defense bailed them out setting up 17 points off of turnovers. But the game also showed that the Oregon D line can be run on but I also know that Oregon D line has tightened things up a bit since that win.

Those two wins were early in the season so you know there were some adjustments to be made and it would appear that they have tightened things up.

Here is an interesting take from The Trojan Empire...

Anyone watching and reading about Oregon in the past week has surely seen the repetitive focus on the so called "high flying" Ducks offense. Truth be told, despite being ranked 16th in scoring, Oregon ranks 66th in total offense (368 ypg). In comparison, the Trojan offense, as conservative as it began the season, ranks 13th nationally at 440 yards per game. USC’s past opponents, Oregon State, Notre Dame, and Cal, have more productive offensive units.

The reason for the lagging production total is simple. The Ducks are 108th in the country passing the ball, which represents the lowest of all Trojans opponents so far this season. USC is most threatened by balanced attacks, so emphasizing the need to air it out is a definite key to Oregon success.

Another myth exposed is that Oregon lacks defensively. When the Trojans travel to Eugene tomorrow night, they will face the best defense since playing Ohio State in the second week of the season. The Ducks rank 19th in total defense, allowing season opponents fewer than 300 yards per outing. When you couple the defensive effort creating short fields, you come to understand their ranking in scoring offense without productive numbers. If there is a soft spot, it would be against the run, which could prove favorable for USC on an expected rainy field that would limit passing abilities.

That's a good take...SC has played in the rain before and has done fine like against Cal in 2007 and with the arrival of Allen Bradford on the scene coupled with Joe McKnight it will be an interesting battle. I also agree that a rainy forecast keeps the ball out of the air...maybe we see some throws underneath but I would not expect many deep balls thrown in the game.

My biggest area of concern for the USC defense is stopping Oregon TE Ed Dickson. He had a monster game against Cal and it made me take notice.

Dickson is the leading receiver in Oregon's run-first offense with 27 receptions for 362 yards. He has 23 catches for 304 yards and four touchdowns in his past four games, including an 11-reception, 148-yard, three-TD performance in Oregon's upset of then No. 6 Cal on Sept. 26.

"Ed Dickson really draws your focus," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "He's a great player. They've been going to him for years so he's going to be hard to stop anyway, so we're going to have to focus on him and try and keep him from being a big part of their offense."

The Trojans face Dickson a week after the USC defense gave up 127 yards on nine catches to Oregon State tight end Joe Halahuni in a 42-36 Trojans victory.

"Last week, we just kind of made a lot of mistakes," USC linebacker Chris Galippo said. "This guy is actually their go-to guy. You know they're going to see that film from last week.

"We exposed ourselves, obviously. We're scheming up for that. We've got stuff that's going to take care of that. It's really just trusting in the players who are going to be on him, and hopefully he won't be a factor."

SC got exposed last week against Oregon St. when they allowed the Beavers TE Joe Halahuni run wild underneath. I actually think that poor performance could not have come at a better time. It was clear last week that SC was overly focused on the run and they missed the open TE right in front of them. But now that they have had their scare they have seen the error of their ways so they should adjust accordingly. I would expect to see a balanced approached on Defense.

OK so lets quickly look at USC's offense...

Many Ducks fans think that Autzen is going to rattle Matt Barkley. Maybe...then again maybe not. Barkley has already stated that while he acknowledges the noise he doesn't see how it will affect his play on the field. He knows like the rest of us that when USC comes to town that is the other teams Super Bowl so they line up to take their best shot. The crowd gets a little louder, the opposing team gets up for the game a little more.

Barkley had a less than stellar performance last week against Oregon St....That is fine, he can't have a great game every week. Leinart and Sanchez didn't so why should we expect Barkley to. He still makes some freshman mistakes but some of those types of mistakes are made by 5th year seniors too.

Like I said earlier If the weather is a factor then I see SC trying to push their ground game. If not we will see USC attempt a more balanced attack.

This one is hard to pick. We all know what happened the last time SC played in Eugene but we also know what happened in 2005.

To me this almost a pick-em game. I do not see a blow out. this one will tight all night. It could be a barn burner as much as it can a low scoring affair.

I think SC has better over-all talent but the Duckies are not to be taken lightly and while I don't think Autzen will affect Barkley I do think Autzen will fire up the Ducks. We saw it when the Ducks demolished Cal and I do not expect anything less from their fans tonight.

- - -

Here are some links....

Pac-10 Q&A: USC defensive coordinator Rocky Seto - College Football Nation - ESPN

Sports Radio Interviews - Pete Carroll and The Trojans Will Have Their Hands Full With Oregon This Weekend

USC hopes to mask Oregon's advantage: its rabid fans - LA Daily News

Damian Williams expected to play for Trojans -- latimes.com

Trojans missing some pass catchers - OCRegister.com

Leaving the USC football team in a sorry state -- latimes.com

Oregon-USC: Pac-10 showdown poses big recruiting opportunity, too | The Ducks Beat - OregonLive.com

Quack Fix: wait, who do we play this week? The Trojans? Are they any good?

ntrebon — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:49:57 -0000

Good morning, Duck fans. Our quack today focuses primarily on our impending showdown with USC. Let's get right to it.

First, Rob Moseley writes about Oregon's injury situation following the Washington game. Talmadge Jackson III was back participating at practice on Monday, Josh Kaddu and Mark Asper were not. As excited as we all are about the promise of some of younger players in the secondary, we can't really afford to lose any more bodies. Kaddu, on the other hand, who had been playing well, will be replaced by Bryson Littlejohn in the two-deep -- which goes to show just how deep the linebacking corps really are.
Moseley's feature piece for today looks at the matchup between Chip Kelly's offense and Pete Carroll's defense. While this is clearly the premiere matchup of the game given the backgrounds of the two head coaches, I am much more interested in how Oregon's athletic and opportunisitic defense will fare against the USC offense, which looks like it may be the least intimidating the Trojans have had during their current run atop the conference.
John Hunt has a blog entry on Matt Daddy's current man-crush, Cliff Harris, and discusses the confidence and instincts displayed by the true freshman. It should come as no surprise, then, that Harris is being mentored by Rashad Bauman.
Wade Evanson of eDuck Sports is close to calling this a speical Oregon team. Evanson runs down the injuries and adversities the Ducks have overcome that has left them in first place in the conference with a chance to, in all liklihood, end USC's streak of conference championships with a win on Saturday. Fellow eDuck writer Steve Summers previews the USC game by looking at some of the preparation the Trojans have done to get ready for Oregon.
With this weekend's USC game looking like the "Pac-10 Game of the Gear," Nick Daschel notes that these big games don't always live up to their lofty expectations as he runs down the "Pac-10 Game of the Year" from this decade. And, not counting this year's game, Oregon has participated in 5 out of the 9 games Daschel determined as the key game from each season and compiled a 4-1 record in the process.
Ted Miller has a story on Ed Dickson, noting that the USC game was set to feature two of the top Pac-10 tight ends not named Rob Gronkowski until Anthony McCoy was hurt during the USC's last game.

Finally, don't forget to check out a few videos after the jump.

Go Ducks!

Here's Chip Kelly discussing the upcoming matchup:

Oregon Ducks coach Chip Kelly

Here's a brief interview with Jeremiah Masoli discussing USC and his knee:

Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli

Ducks embarrass Washington 43-19

John Berkowitz — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:52:30 -0000

More photos » by Elaine Thompson - AP

about 1 month ago: Oregon's David Paulson (42) catches a 32-yard pass as Washington's Nate Williams (8) and Mason Foster defending the first half of an NCAA football game Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Browse more photos »

Some of the brightest minds in sports journalism including mine thought this one had the potential of being a trap game for Oregon. It did look that way for awhile in the first half when the Huskies shut down Oregon in the first quarter and outgained them in the first half despite falling behind 15-3 because of errors in the red zone and on special teams.

Washington needed to come out firing on all cylinders in the second half and they didn't. Oregon scored 21 straight points in the third quarter to put this one away early. The Husky defense didn't have any answer for the Ducks offense and the offense led by Jake Locker didn't help them out at all keeping them on the field way too long.

This was just a terrible game for Jake Locker. He looked dazed and confused out there much of the day. Jake was hesitant and was slow to make decisions. When he did make decisions they weren't very good one's. He just never really settled down.

Once again the coaching was pretty questionable. Sarks clock management in the final minutes of the second half was attrocious. His decision to go for it one a fourth and two in the first half near the goal line instead of going for a field goal is another thing that will be second guessed this week.

Jeremiah Masoli didn't look like a kid with a knee injury today. He was 14 for 22 for 166 yards and one TD. He also rushed for 65 important yards and two touchdowns. LaMichael James picked up 151 yards and two TD's on only 15 carries. The tight ends were big for Oregon as expected. David Paulson had two big receptions for 59 yards and Ed Dickson three for 44.

Jake Locker was 20 for 40 for 234 yards no touchdowns and two drive killing interceptions. Chris Polk had a good game with 100 yards and on 16 carries but he coughed up the ball in the second half for a drive killing fuble which resulted in an Oregon TD only a few plays later.

For Washington it is back to the drawing board during the bye week. The Huskies could really use a week to heal and get their heads back on straight for the stretch run of the conference season. Washington falls to 3-5 and has a tough hill to climb in their last four games if they want to qualify for a bowl game.