MotSaG’s West Coast Bunker: Speed and Swagger…A study in Oregon and OSU Fandom Stupidity

OSU FootballSo…times are slow…the Champions League has decided it is only for teams that can play defense (FU Liverpool and your inability to NOT give up a goal in the last 8 minutes of play)

This is the time of the year where an incredible void of no football games and the bowl selections have created what most people (including yours truly) cannot stand in the least bit…

“Message Board Heroes”

OSU has them…they talk about the school’s eleventy-billion national championships that happened before they were born or how they were there when “The Horseshoe” was dedicated…or maybe the lore of OSU Heisman Trophies from yesteryear. If someone from another team’s fan base says anything against these irrefutable facts, they “just dont respect OSU’s rich history and tradition as a national college football power.”

Here is a summary of my thoughts on those points in the above paragraph..

“You know what these things will do for the 2009 Edition of your OSU Football squad?” “Absolutely NOTHING!”

Dont you worry Oregon message board guy/gal/beer snob/phish listening pseudo-hippy/etc, I havent forgotten about you. Congratulations! You have won the Pac-1+9 for the first time in ‘like’ forever (or since 2001..shared with USC). That team looked spendid this year. Apparently, Oregon’s offense is putting up points equivalent to the Fielding Yost teams of Michigan back in the day. As a college football fan, I appreciate the fact Oregon has a dynamic offense that seems to be as lethal as there is and has the play-calling craziness that only Les “The Hat” Miles could rival. They were fun to watch this year…for realz. I mean that…srsly. I live out here in Pac-10 Land, which means I hear all about Oregon, U-Dub, and USC. Pac-10 has some entertaining football in general. Lots of offense…a little bit better defense (sans Oregon State and USC) than the WAC or Mountain West…and some of the schools use QB1 to determine play calls in any situation.

So what I have gathered from the small amount of perusing on the Oregon Message Boards and the local media is as follows:

  1. OSU hasnt played against a team as good as Oregon on it’s schedule this year
  2. Speed kills…wait until OSU sees the Oregon offense
  3. OSU doesnt have the offense to keep up in this game
  4. Terrelle Pryor is nowhere near the talent-level of Masoli

I figured that I would address some of these generalized lifted comments from the Oregon Scout Board…

1. OSU hasnt played against a team as good as Oregon on it’s schedule this year

This may be correct. It is probably a fair statement. Sagarin has the SOS for Oregon at #4 and OSU coming in at a cool 59th. I wont even argue that point. Regardless of SOS, OSU brings something to the table that none of the other teams on Oregon’s schedule possess, which will be addressed a little later.

2. Speed kills…wait until OSU sees the Oregon offense

I (along with most of Buckeye Nation) take some offense to this statement. While it is true that speed is the ultimate weapon for a football team, any speed that Oregon has on offense is equally countered on the Ohio State defensive side of the ball. This is where a lot of the confidence in this game is originating within the OSU fandom. This is by far the best defensive line that OSU has possessed since the 2002 National Championship squad. Think about that for a second. Miami was an offensive machine that year..just like Oregon. Oregon may have speed in the backfield with James and Masoli, but if the O-line gets blown up on regularity by the OSU D-Line…Oregon is in trouble. For the record, OSU has plenty of speed on the edges and at LB (Spitler’s participation will be minimal as most of us imagine that the OSU defense will be in the nickel for large chunks of the game).

3. OSU doesnt have the offense to keep up in this game

Sorry, OSU does have the offense to keep themselves in this game. Tressel plays to a gameplan and his game planning has never been to get into a shootout with another team. It is reckless and that isn’t the way that OSU plays football. If he has some trust in Pryor (work-in-progress), he will open up the play book a little. However, Oregon is a turnover machine. With this in mind, I would imagine that the gameplan will look a lot like Oregon State’s, until Oregon stops it. The only difference is that there is a runner taking snaps instead of a pocket passer…whether that is a good thing or not remains to be seen. If Masoli and James continue to put the ball on the ground in the Rose Bowl, OSU will win by about 20. What does that have to do with OSU’s offense? Everything…

4. Terrelle Pryor is nowhere near the talent-level of Masoli

Masoli has been a diamond in the rough this year for the Ducks. He is a fantastic system quarterback that has been a perfect fit for the Oregon offensive scheme. Without him, they lose about 4-5 games this year. Does that mean he is infallible? Absolutely not. Masoli carries the ball around like Tate Forcier, which equates to opportunities for a ball-hawking defense to sample in some tasty “fumbalaya.” With that in mind, it is amazing how a fantastic offensive display can mask the stink of all of the other shortcomings of a team. On the other hand, Pryor has been a work-in-progress this year (to say the least). There have been times where it may have been advisable to bench him for a series or two just for a reality check (See Purdue..ZOMG) and other times where he has played nearly flawless football (ie the last three games of the season). Now for the Oregon fans that read this little ditty have to realize a few things when they go back and watch some OSU highlights of those last three games of the season…

  1. Flawless football for an OSU quarterback is to not turn the ball over, regardless of the other stats.
  2. Most of the OSU fans (while annoyed with this approach) understand that when the OSU quarterback doesnt make mistakes there is a strong likelihood that OSU will win. It might be ugly…but a win is a win. Let me help you…would you take a 1-pt ugly win against Stanford (Jeebus..What happened there?..)? Thought so…

A couple of other notes for the Oregon faithful that dont understand the OSU fans.

  • There are a lot of us. I mean a shit-ton..especially on West Coast. Yeah…we get it…Who wants to live in Ohio? Well, some of us do and some us dont, but it is still home. Come on…we take over a bar every Saturday in Portland (Blitz-Ladd)…
  • One of the things about growing up in Ohio is that most of us have a pretty good understanding of football, because we have grown up with it in our faces every Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the Fall and Winter months. This gives us a lot of perspective for the primary lifeblood sport of the state, and it is competitive in every region of the state. Most of us understand that match-ups and fundamentals mean more than schemes. Sure talent will win over a lot of games in high school, but this isnt high school. Again, this where a lot of the confidence that you dont understand is coming from. I could give a “rats ass” that Oregon’s defense held Oregon State’s Rodgers to like 60 yards of rushing and the offense went run happy against the #1 Rush Defense in the country (at the time). It just doenst matter in this game for a number of reasons like….
    • Rose Bowl isnt at Autzen..sorry Uncle Phil couldnt buy this one…no matter what hideous uniform combination you guys put out there.
    • Oregon State may have a comparable defense, but it doesnt have the depth of Ohio State on the D-line, which was worn out by the middle of the 3rd quarter in the Civil War.
    • Rodgers is one back (a great back nonetheless, but still one back)…Ohio State has two running backs that run hard and are very good and not easy to bring down. I wont go into their stats and whatever. Let’s just put it this way…these guys would be playing at any school in the Pac-10 on a regular basis…even Oregon.
    • Oregon’s O-Line…I believe that Masoli’s Knee Brace weighs more than half of the starters. We’ll see if they can handle the onslaught of pressure coming at them from the Big AND FAST OSU defensive line.
  • Allow me to digress for a moment…Speaking of Ohio High School football (in particular NW Ohio region), I notice that Patrick Henry is still doing it’s thing in the midget division of the state with Coach Bill Inselmann. When is Big Bill going to get off of the gravy train and coach in a real division for another school where making the playoffs isnt a mere formality? I understand the allegiance, but come on….I can remember PH used to be a basketball school, until they found a loophole in the system (ie small school with minimal competition in the area outside of Liberty Center = guaranteed playoff spot every year in region). Maybe you should take a queue from your neighbors down Route 108 and get out of that joke of a conference and go independent or join a tougher conference…maybe play some real schools that are more than 20 miles away from Hamler on a regular basis…I’m just sayin’. Winning the NWOAL is like being the world’s tallest midget.

Back on topic…I really do look forward to a great game with Ducks in January. Hopefully, Oregon fans will realize that the OSU team that shows up in Pasadena will not be the same team that showed up to play USC or Purdue earlier this year…or Florida in 2006, as much as you might want to believe it is. And yes, speed does kill…it kills offenses, as easily as it does defenses.

~YNBA

Comments

  1. Brilliant as always. The nice thing, though, is that many Oregon fans are of the “bandwagon” variety (see U$C), so we’re not hearing about the game/”Big T1e1n Collapse” anywhere other than on message boards.

    West Coast- represent.

  2. One other thing Oregon fans like to say….they claim that “no team in the Big Ten has an offense as highly ranked as Oregon’s.”

    They seem to leave out one fact…..that Toledo has a higher-ranked offense than the Ducks do.

    Yeah, that Toledo. The one that scored zero times against the Buckeye defense.

  3. Touche Jeff….Touche….

  4. Did I just read about NWOAL football after moving 2400 miles away from Toledo?

  5. This post was a like a big bag of presents left by Santa under my tree. Good work YNBA.

  6. Red Faced Duck says

    This Pac-1+9 Orygun(for Lou Holtz) fan commends you on an accurate but depressing article. I actually had some hope for the Ducks but now feel down in the dumps. You made me understand many faults in my thinking. I erroniously thought the once maligned Duck defense was pretty good this year. Undersized but fast. Since Oregon was scoring so fast our defense was on the field around 45 minutes per game. Oh well. Now I understand why in preseason polls the Big-10+1 (can’t you fellas count) have so many teams ranked compared to the Pac-1+9. I blamed it on population density. Now I know it is 3 yds and a cloud of dust. I felt that way because your National Championship was tainted due to a bad call on Miami. I felt that way because in looking up face to face meeting the past six decades the Pac-9+1 came out on top each and every decade. Was I ever wrong. We have no chance. We’re 0-7 lifetime against tOSU.

  7. Red Faced Duck..

    A couple of things..

    1. Thanks for proving my points for me. Nothing like having opposition come over to the site and make my job easier in the post. Btw…what does the last seven years of Pac 10 dominance in the rose bowl have to do with anything? It has about as much bearing as Oregon’s last Pac10 championship and OSU’s last NC…

    2. 3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust…See the last paragraph in my post and keep talking. You are the reason why I am stating that Duck fans and Buckeye fans are idiots. The only difference is that we have had a reason to be idiots longer than you guys. That is what happens when you keep winning..not just practice at being competitive once every four years. Try looking at Penn State over the last 10 years and then look at Oregon…the similarities are ridiculous.

  8. TotalDuck1950 says

    Greetings Buckeyes….I have four tickets on the 10 yards line…row 40. They are in Buckeye territory. I am looking for a Buckeye fan with four similar tickets in the Duck sections. I would like to trade tickets so we can both enjoy the friendly confines of our own fans……write me at: russ at addirector dot com.

  9. TotalDuck1950

    Good luck finding someone to switch for four tix. If it doesnt work out, take solace knowing our traveling fans are as classy as they come.

    Matt

    I cant believe that I was talking NWOAL football either. There are multiple competitive programs in football in Henry county (Napoleon and PH..and even Liberty Center). I had Inselmann as a teacher at Napoleon before he left to start his mini-dynasty over at PH. Great teacher…very well spoken..but his ego is massive. While Coach Snoad over at Napoleon is having to face huge schools like Steubenville and Findlay and Fremont Ross, PH would be content to play Tinora 10 times a year and get that playoff spot. Sometimes people need a kick in pants…and Inselmann (regardless of his success) is not devoid of such a kick…Hey Bill go play someone…anyone. Hell play Amanda-Clearcreek or Coldwater before that meat-grinder of a schedule (lol..NWOAL) comes into full swing. Either that..or go coach somewhere that things may actually be a challenge. Defiance probably could use a new coach…they are awful.

  10. Oregon’s title in 2001 was outright, not shared with USC.

    Depending on how one counts a decade, to include 2000 or not, The Ducks have won the Pac-10 three times, sharing just in 2000. The Ducks are the first team to win the league by two games since the 1991 Washington Huskies did it.

    I think we’ll be capable of giving you a better game than Illinois, Toledo, Penn State, Iowa’s back-up QB “from Keokuk, Iowa, in his first start,” and Michigan did.

  11. Canard..

    I apologize for shorting you some Pac-10 titles. Was not my intent.

    Speaking of backhanded compliments…(I am pretty good at these, as well as just plain old insults)

    For Oregon’s sake, I hope that they do. But hey, you are the second Oregon fan to mis-interpret the post. I guess the smart peeps in Oregon head up the road to Corvallis when they want an education. I’m just sayin’

  12. Wow, what a bitter Buckeye.

    Couple of things: Toledo’s highly ranked offensive stats this season were accumulated against what strength of schedule? Apples and oranges here.

    Ohio State’s D-line might be deeper than OS(u)’s, but they will have a tough time subbing in when Oregon gets into hurry-up mode. If you are being honest in your assessment of the game, that has to concern you.

    Turnovers: The Ducks like to cough it up? 6 interceptions and 15 fumbles on the year. tOSU had 16 and 7. Last I checked 23 was more than 21.

    Personally, I think it is going to be a great game. Just get tired of reading how Oregon is going to get run out of the Rose Bowl. And yes, I will be drinking a vertical of 2007, 2008 & 2009 The Abyss while I watch the game.

  13. Correction: Pryor only threw 10 Ints. My bad.

  14. Ohio State Buckeyes 2009 Football Highlight Video, watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLHAYmWvlvk

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