Oregon Game will be big Crapshoot

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

10 hours ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

And as far as people "not being worried" about Oregon... 

In 2010 we had one of the most dynamic offenses in college football history... We were led by a heisman winning QB and Lombardi winning defensive lineman. No one was worried about what Oregon could do to us. We would out physical them. Nick Fairley would be a defensive lineman unlike they had EVER seen. 

Their defense back then was as bad as it is now i know this, i was in eugene at the time, going to games. It took a once in a lifetime run by a true freshman RB for us to win with a last second field goal... While we had one of the greatest college football QBs of all time...with one of the best defensive linemen (at the time) in SEC history...

 

Anyone not worried about ANY major team on our schedule, especially early season, under Gus, has more faith in Gus than he deserves.

Neither of these teams are anything like the ones in 2010. Don't mean to be rube but this is a awful take.

Always be worried about Gus and any decent power 5 team. But this one sets up great for Gus. He can dominate a weak D like no other coach I've seen. IMO, he will do it again in this game.

[aujeff11 6,243]

14 hours ago, Slammer1 said:

Finally, a positive attitude!!!

You’re gonna love what our frand Danny Sheridan has to say about it all.

Hint: He reads this forum. 

 

[bigbird 60,529]

19 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Do believe they are very concerned with the safeties.

They are.

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Neither of these teams are anything like the ones in 2010. Don't mean to be rube but this is a awful take.

Always be worried about Gus and any decent power 5 team. But this one sets up great for Gus. He can dominate a weak D like no other coach I've seen. IMO, he will do it again in this game.

Definitely feels like a game where we do to them what MSU did to us last year- especially if Joey starts- except they shouldn't be able to keep us out of the end zone like we did the Moos last year. This feels like a game where we fall forward and run the Wildcat for a lot of <5 yard conversions, control the clock, get some pace going and gas them, just like you said. That's what it feels like.

But, except for the first couple series of every single game, Gus doesn't like sticking to scripts soooo

[aujeff11 6,243]

Oregon has an SEC caliber OL and return every starter. That will be a fun matchup against our DL. 

 

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, bigbird said:

They are.

"They"

I see you, Coach.

[Sizzle 3,913]

30 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Oregon has an SEC caliber OL and return every starter. That will be a fun matchup against our DL. 

 

 

SEC caliber OL? The SEC is the only conference with good Olinemen?

[BigWhiskey91 632]

1 hour ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Neither of these teams are anything like the ones in 2010. Don't mean to be rube but this is a awful take.

Always be worried about Gus and any decent power 5 team. But this one sets up great for Gus. He can dominate a weak D like no other coach I've seen. IMO, he will do it again in this game.

I could easily see this game being a beat down. If we run a clean sheet turnover wise, I could see a 21+ pt win. Tickets are fairly cheap and Oregon doesn’t really travel well.

Youre right about Gus vs Mediocre defense. If Oregon hasn’t improved in their discipline, we are going to gouge them with big plays. 

[aucom96 1,618]

Oregon is not a strong defensive team but with a first time starting QB, average running game and an always predictable passing attack with Malzahn, who knows. If they put some points up quick, we could be in trouble. It will be a good test of where we are, for a certainty.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, BigWhiskey91 said:

If we run a clean sheet turnover wise

Mercer lends serious gravity to this comment. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

57 minutes ago, Sizzle said:

SEC caliber OL? The SEC is the only conference with good Olinemen?

All the time I hear about Cristobal bringing the SEC to Oregon, but you’re offended. Why is that? For years the PAC-12 has been criticized for not being tough enough. 

 

Cristobal is on a mission to duplicate SEC-like success and development at Oregon, and he thinks the gap between Oregon and his Southern counterparts is closing because he has taken a lot of what he learned from Saban and implemented it into his own program.

He's building from the trenches up, which really started when he signed 6-foot-6, 349-pound left tackle Penei Sewell in 2018. Oregon also has moved to a more functional strength training program that balances strength, speed, agility and flexibility under former Georgia assistant strength coach Aaron Feld.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/26710729/how-oregon-importing-sec-pac-12

[DAG 33,983]

2 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Should. If the offense struggles against the ducks, we are in for a long year. Even with a new young starting QB.

Yep.If we can't seem to will ourselves against Oregon then I am going to be very worried about SEC play. Oregon's coach is doing big things in Eugene recruiting wise, but they are hardly going to be the best group of guys we see this year. 

[toddc 13,194]

2 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Neither of these teams are anything like the ones in 2010. Don't mean to be rube but this is a awful take.

Always be worried about Gus and any decent power 5 team. But this one sets up great for Gus. He can dominate a weak D like no other coach I've seen. IMO, he will do it again in this game.

I agree, and this isn’t a NCG where teams that are outmatched can go for broke with nothing to lose. I believe it will be a close game and might be won by a field goal, where we have a advantage.

[McLoofus 35,182]

7 minutes ago, toddc said:

I agree, and this isn’t a NCG where teams that are outmatched can go for broke with nothing to lose. I believe it will be a close game and might be won by a field goal, where we have a advantage.

Omg that's my favorite movie ever. It had a little bit of everything.

[AU64 10,122]

2 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Neither of these teams are anything like the ones in 2010. Don't mean to be rube but this is a awful take.

Yep...Gus is the only holdover from the 2010 game and he was just the OC at that point.  Otherwise, nobody is left on either staff from that game...and we never knew if he or Chiz was setting the offensive strategy.

SO.....just my view on the matter, but this is the game where we see if the Purdue game was the beginning of the 'new Gus" era

[toddc 13,194]

27 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Yep...Gus is the only holdover from the 2010 game and he was just the OC at that point.  Otherwise, nobody is left on either staff from that game...and we never knew if he or Chiz was setting the offensive strategy.

SO.....just my view on the matter, but this is the game where we see if the Purdue game was the beginning of the 'new Gus" era

This! CGM can write the narrative for the season in this first game, for good or bad!

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

31 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Yep...Gus is the only holdover from the 2010 game and he was just the OC at that point.  Otherwise, nobody is left on either staff from that game...and we never knew if he or Chiz was setting the offensive strategy.

SO.....just my view on the matter, but this is the game where we see if the Purdue game was the beginning of the 'new Gus" era

The September 21st game is going to be a huge one for Gus.

[bigbird 60,529]

48 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Omg that's my favorite movie ever. It had a little bit of everything.

I wish we could channel his nasty edge to some of our players

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 minutes ago, bigbird said:

I wish we could channel his nasty edge to some of our players

Maybe even our coach. 

 

[auburn4ever 1,266]

If we play poorly and we get blown away, that will be a sign of how Malzahn's coaching will be for the season.

[I_M4_AU 7,838]

3 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

IMO, game is over in the middle of the 3rd QT. One thing Gus can do and do very very very good is destroy a mediocre defense. He will have that D so gassed by the half.

The opinion that this game will be over by the middle of the 3rd QTR would indicate Gus has had an attitude change.  For the last few years he has struggled to even score in the 3rd QTR.  I will be happy to see this type of change is Gus’ attack.

[Freindly Duck Troll 0]

Friendly Duck Troll here

Hello Tigers

We are all pretty pumped for this game, to say the least. With a great venue and national attention, I would expect both teams to play their hearts out. I understand that Auburn is breaking in a new QB, but I have heard your DL is pretty nasty. I will give you guys some insight into the Ducks and what you can expect from them.

Offense;

We return Justin Herbert at QB-He's very good, if the receivers can catch.

We return the entire Oline. This will be the best matchup of this game no doubt. I'm excited to see how we hold up against one of the best DL units in the country.

RB-we return our 1st and 2nd string guys. I like them but they aren't all American standard backs but can get the job done.

Receivers-last year they were the worst I have ever seen. This was easily the biggest weakness to our team last year by a large margin. They return some guys but Im not excited about them at all. They will be bringing in some new talent but they will be true freshman, so we will see how they develop between now and kickoff.

Play calling/game planning (last year)-Our offense was tough to watch at times last year. Duck fans are pretty apprehensive to get excited about our offense. Play calling was also pretty dismal at times. Creativity and proper game planning was also non-existent at times. Apparently, they are going to spread guys out this year and give more looks.

 

Defense;

We are breaking in a new Def Coordinator (Andy Avolos). He came from Boise State and had some pretty salty Defenses there with 1 and 2 star talent. This will be a huge question mark for us.

We return quite a few guys and finally have some depth here but we don't really know how his 3-3-5 will translate over to power 5 football in his (Andy's) first year at Oregon. Our D-line should be decent but not exceptional.

Linebackers is the same. We deff have some talent here (Troy Dey) but nobody knows how on field success or lack there of will look.

secondary-They should be serviceable to really good. We had some decent success last year (2starting sophomores) so I'd assume we take a step forward here.

 

Take care Ya'll

[BigWhiskey91 632]

3 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Mercer lends serious gravity to this comment. 

Our offense was cooking that game, just an obscene amount of fumbles and the INT on the slant.

[meh130 1,043]

Those Oregon 2010 comparisons are interesting. Oregon was a very different program back then. A big, hulking OL and small, agile WRs, RBs, and QBs with a maddening Chip Kelly option based offense that made Gus Malzahn "Fast" seem slow. Cam was playing hurt the whole game with a back injury. As for the belief a "miracle run" by Dyer won the game, we had to slow down and eat up the clock after that. And Dyer popped off another big run and almost scored. We only needed a field goal, so even if Dyer had been called down on the miracle run, we likely would have gotten well within field goal range with the time that was left.

The Ducks are the favorite to win the Pac-12 this year. This seems so much like the 2018 game against Washington, who was the Pac-12 preseason favorite last year. The biggest differences I see are the Ducks to not have to travel as far, and we have to travel farther.

Oregon will likely be ranked around #10 to #12, and we will likely be ranked around #16 or #17. My guess is Oregon will be a slight favorite.

Obviously, the big battles will be our DL vs. the Duck's OL, and our secondary vs. the Oregon WRs. On our offense I think it will be our OL vs. the Duck's DL, and the overall performance of our QB(s). I might go a little deeper and say our Buck's performance will be critical, and our RB performance will be critical.

[meh130 1,043]

22 hours ago, AUght2win said:

I still don't get this take. Nobody should act like they didn't see Auburn as a playoff contender. Everyone did. We had what looked like an absolute stud at the most important position in sports, and a stacked receiving corp. We had just missed the playoffs by a hair. Most of the defensive starters back. There was no reason to believe, (and still no reason to understand) why we couldn't win 10 games. It's easy to say in hindsight that you saw it coming. Last year was a lot like 2003. We had a TON of talent returning and were highly picked, but we fell flat.

Here's to hoping 2019 turns out like 2004. 

I don't disagree. But I think it is much easier to replace a skilled position or DLs (who do a lot of rotating) than replacing OLs. In hindsight it kind of makes sense. We had a track record over the prior few years of OL struggles.

The second thing is Stidham struggled in 2017 when his OL struggled early in the season, and when his best blocking RB, Kerryon Johnson, was injured late in the season. Stidham without confidence in his protection was a different QB in 2017 than with protection. In 2018 is protection was a problem most of the season, and his confidence struggled. Again, in hindsight, this all makes sense.

I have a lot more confidence in our OL this year. They were playing better late in the year, and have had an off season to improve.