who was the big 10 team in the rose bowl?

[thegodfather187]

after 2 days of not eating or sleeping, i finally feel strong enough to post my rant.

i was pondering this question over the course of the whole game, and i believe it led directly to the absolute decimation of two cell phones and a christmas tree during the game. were WE the damn big 10 team, or was it ohio state?

how many times did we throw the ball on first or second down?

did kelly really think he could just out muscle those guys and run right at them every play? did it look like they were fooled by the zone read?

we never threw the ball except in obvious passing situations. for someone who built his rep on running a high flying, creative, wide open offense, why go 3 yards in a cloud of dust in the biggest game ever? we get defenses so off balance sometimes its not even funny. they have no idea what's coming. part of that is MIXING IT UP. after a successful zone read play for a first down, maybe fake it and PASS THE BALL.

you are telling me we can't line up on first down and look downfield? maybe get more than 1 or 2 recievers in the pattern? where was the run pass option stuff? maybe one of those tight end screens to dickson not utilized since the cal game?

its gonna take a few months i think to finally not want to curl up and die.

sorry for the ultra-negative first post ever.

[soduck]

I agree we needed to throw more, but Masoli had very little time. They also had good coverage with a good secondary all game, but some dink and dunk, quick short passes might have opened things up a little more.

[hjpop]

I dunno, Masoli had time to throw but I agree, OSU's D played just enough coverage to make him look off Maehl and Dickson. They know that after those two, he doesn't go to others and scrambles/hands off/runs. Maehl-656, Dickson-551 and then the third highest is DJ Davis-233. UO used to have QBs who could throw and WRs with 800-1000+ yd seasons. Now, with the run, we barely get one close to 800. If you know he's not prone to throw, look off his primary and second options, and a runner, all you need is putting double team on his main guy and load the box, force him to run or throw it through a narrow window. OSU did it and played UO well. It's not a failure on the coaching or the players, it's just that on any one day, a team can be great. That's why we measure rankings over a season's worth of games. Same here. What worked for us September-December may not work on January 1.

[duckgrad99]

I agree 100% with the original poster. I understand Ohio State has a great defense, but we didn't make them work very hard. Outside of the Boise St game, that was the worst game as far as play calling that I saw this season. Other weak big 10 teams had qb's that threw for 200 yards against Ohio State, so there was no excuse for Masoli not to do so. The passing game is one thing that needs to be more consisent next season. We cannot just expect to win every game just by running the football.

[briarduck]

I agree as well but in the end the defense has to make more stops to give the offense (that was starting to look dangerous) a better chance to score more points...18 mins is not enough time against a defense like that!

Lets hope we learn from these mistakes and we come back next year stronger and wiser!

GO DUCKS!!

[thegodfather187]

well the defense can take its share of the blame as well. i really hate that helpless feeling on 3rd and 12-15 when you just know we're going let them get the first down. that feeling has been a thorn in my side for years.

but frankly, to be on the field for 42 minutes against a top 10 team and only give up 26 points is not such a terrible thing.

[briarduck]

well the defense can take its share of the blame as well. i really hate that helpless feeling on 3rd and 12-15 when you just know we're going let them get the first down. that feeling has been a thorn in my side for years.

but frankly, to be on the field for 42 minutes against a top 10 team and only give up 26 points is not such a terrible thing.

True but why do we play our DBs 7-12 yards of the line and give up 3-8 yards on any giving down...it just odd and incredibly frustrating to watch! We were killing them with blitzes and they countered (after a bit) to throwing to the outside into soft coverage! If were tight on them they are screwed/sacks/stopped for short gains/intercepted...

Any who, if it were just one game no big deal but its year after year of the same BS...we should model our defense after the teams that do it right because what we are doing leads to what we just saw!

GO DUCKS!!

[chapelhillduck]

you guys do realize that even including Masoli's 6 carries for 9 yards, we still averaged 5.4 yds per rush. Without Masoli it was 6.3 per rush. OSU didn't stop our running game, they just held us in check when they most needed to.