SB Nation User Blog: Addicted to Quack

Pasadena Bound!

Addicted to Quack — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:32:02 -0000

We saw a bit of everything. A long bomb. Blount force trauma. Sean Canfield playing out of his mind. And Jeremiah and LaMichael being amazing. Credit the Beavers for a valiant fight, but WE'RE GOING TO THE ROSE BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me say that again:

WE'RE GOING TO THE ROSE BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll have some thoughts up later, but for now I just want to shout and smile.

Pac-10 Champions! Pasadena, here we come!

ATQ BlogPoll: A Clearcut Top Nine

Addicted to Quack — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:26:08 -0000

I won't elaborate too much. The top six are undefeated, so that's pretty clear. I think the next three are pretty much beyond debate as well, except for the order. The rest is a crapshoot, but I'm still not buying Penn State, who hasn't beaten anyone with a pulse.

Rank	Team

1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	TCU
5	Cincinnati
6	Boise State
7	Oregon
8	Georgia Tech
9	Ohio State
10	Virginia Tech
11	Oregon State
12	Iowa
13	Miami (Florida)
14	LSU
15	Pittsburgh
16	Stanford
17	California
18	Southern Cal
19	Brigham Young
20	Penn State
21	Houston
22	West Virginia
23	Nebraska
24	Northwestern
25	Temple

Oregon 44, Arizona 41: Celebration Thread

Addicted to Quack — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:02:05 -0000

It wasn't pretty. And more than once I thought we were done. But Jeremiah was brilliant when it counted, and we are one win away from smelling roses.

All hail the great Juju.

Postgame thoughts here.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Some thoughts on the mens' hoops TV schedule

Addicted to Quack — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:20:59 -0000

In case you didn't know, and you probably didn't, today will be the first chance to catch our mens' hoops squad on television as they take on Colorado State at 3:30 on Comcast SportsNet. UO released the TV schedule the other day and all I could think was "wow, that's terribly underwhelming." Of our 30 games, only 16, barely more than half, will be available to television viewers. That means that 14 games--including six conference matchups, won't be shown this season. To sum it up in a word: pathetic.

I'll confess that I don't know what the ratings for a local broadcast of an Oregon basketball game is, and they were definitely down with the team's performance last year. But its clear that this university wants to be a major player in the college basketball scene. Lets look at the major players. Gonzaga has all their games shown in their local market. UCLA does. Duke does. Washington has all but two. Now, I understand that the non-conference schedule is a bit soft this year, and that CSN gives preference to the Blazers when making the schedule. But a whopping 14 games nowhere to be found? And its even more baffling when you look at some of them.

Next Saturday, the Ducks will go on the road and take on a Portland team that is expected to finish second in the WCC. A home game against a good St. Mary's team won't be shown. And a whopping six conference games: at Cal, at Stanford, vs. Stanford, at USC, vs. Washington, and vs. Washington St. (admittedly, the latter two could be picked up by FSN at a latter date).

Bottom line--there is no excuse for half the schedule not to be on TV. If that cannot be rectified next season, then there is a major flaw in the local TV contract that needs to be fixed. In the meantime, here is the TV schedule. Hope you have a subscription to goducks.tv or a good radio handy:

11/15 vs Colorado St. CSNNW

11/28 vs Montana St. CSNNW

12/05 @Missouri ESPNU

12/19 vs Oakland CSNNW

12/31 @Washington St. CSNNW

1/02 @Washington CSNNW

1/10 vs Oregon State FSNW

1/14 vs Arizona State CSNNW

1/16 vs Arizona FSN

1/28 vs UCLA FSN

1/30 vs USC CSNNW

2/06 @Oregon State FSNW

2/11 @Arizona FSN

2/13 @Arizona State CSNNW

2/20 California CSNNW

2/27 @UCLA CSNNW

Ducks 44, Sun Devils 21: Postgame thread

Addicted to Quack — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:38:39 -0000

More photos » by Rick Bowmer - AP

25 days ago: Oregon's LaMichael James breaks a tackle from Arizona State's Mike Nixon (25) while teammate Dexter Davis (58) pursues in the first quarter during their NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Browse more photos »

Well, no questions about the Ducks rebounding from last week's disappointment. Oregon did just fine and, if not for Kenjon's fumble on the punt return, this game is never really close. Masoli and James were their stellar selves, and the defense was much improved from last week.

Stanford's win today means we have to win out. One down, two to go.

Talk about it in this thread.

ATQ BlogPoll: Are There Even 25 Teams Worthy of Being Ranked?

Addicted to Quack — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:16:40 -0000

This is supposed to get easier as the season goes on. The cream rises to the top. The rest fall back. And most of the top 25 is pretty clearly defined. Not this year. Because, once you get into the mid teens, I don't really find a whole lot of teams worthy of the prestige of a top-25 ranking. And, since I actually, um, watch the games (unlike tose voters who actually count), I can't just rank teams because they have a big name. Among the teams that the mainstream pollsters rank that are nowhere on my ballot:

Penn State: They've lost their only two big games this year by multiple scores at home. Their best wins this year? Minnesota and Northwestern. Hardly top 25 material.

BYU: They can't ride the Oklahoma win anymore because Oklahoma has been exposed as a giant fraud. Meanwhile, in their biggest home games (TCU and Florida State), they have been throttled in both.

Wisconsin : Upon further review, their resume isn't much different from Penn State's. They're remarkably similar, and neither are any good.

South Florida: Beating West Virginia isn't enough to get you ranked.

West Virginia: The BEST wins here are Colorado and UConn. Hardly inspiring.

You also won't see quirky or lazy rankings among teams with similar resumes. Oregon is ahead of USC who is ahead of Ohio State. Despite the love affair with TCU, Cincinnati does have a slightly better resume and is ranked accordingly, and in keeping consistent with my previous complaints about Boise's schedule, I have Georgia Tech ranked above them with the better resume. The one case where teams with the same record aren't ranked based on head to head are Navy and Temple, where Navy's resume is clearly superior. And when Navy and Temple are ranked, you know that there is a serious dearth of major conference schools deserving. Here is our ballot:

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	2
2	Florida
3	Texas	2
4	Cincinnati	3
5	TCU
6	Georgia Tech	4
7	Boise State	2
8	LSU
9	Oregon	3
10	Southern Cal	4
11	Iowa	7
12	Pittsburgh	1
13	Miami (Florida)	3
14	Ohio State	4
15	Houston	2
16	Arizona	1
17	Virginia Tech	5
18	Oklahoma State	1
19	Oregon State
20	Utah	5
21	Stanford
22	Clemson
23	Central Michigan
24	Navy
25	Temple
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Penn State (#12), California (#20), Notre Dame (#21), Wisconsin (#23), Brigham Young (#24), South Florida (#25).

Pre-Game and Crappy Big Ten Morning Game Thread

Addicted to Quack — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:11:51 -0000

I've had a request for a pregame thread, so here it is. Talk about your predictions for the game, as well as any comments on whatever morning games are on today.

For the record, I've got Oregon by three touchdowns. I just don't think Stanford's defense had the speed to keep up.

Friday Juju/Panic Open Thread

Addicted to Quack — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:03:26 -0000

More photos » by Paul Sakuma - AP

Does Stanford have all the Luck on their side?

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Not having an opposing blog makes for a strange week. The USC win, coupled with some of the favorable matchups that Jared talked about, has me feeling really good about the Stanford game this weekend. Then I think about the last time I felt really good about a game. We were playing on some field that wasn't green.

PANIC!

My feeling good about a game has not been kind to us in the past. This has put me in major panic mode, and I think we need to humble ourselves to appease the Juju.

This thread is open to humbly discuss all of our reasons to panic for this game, as well as to shower Juju with compliments.

Poll

What is your level of panic for the game this weekend?

We win going away

112 votes

OMGZ its a trap!

45 votes

The Juju alone can decide the outcome

102 votes

259 votes | Poll has closed

Fun and interesting Duck quiz

Addicted to Quack — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:38:22 -0000

Fun and interesting Duck quiz

Fun little quiz I made up at Sporcle

Oregon 47, USC 20: Celebration Thread

Addicted to Quack — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:43:53 -0000

More photos » by Rick Bowmer - AP

How brilliant was he tonight?

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Can you say domination? Oregon outplayed SC at every position on the football field, and, for all intents and purposes, USC's run at the top of the conference is dead. Juju has once again blessed us, and its shaping up to be a magical season.

The place for your celebratory musings is here. And an extra hour for drinking to boot. Enjoy this one, because that was one of the finest performances ever by an Oregon football team.