Way too early projections for the 2021 season.

[DuckzRule]

I still firmly believe our biggest threat apart from Ohio State is the opponent in the Pac-12 Championship Game

[DuckzRule]

We must definitely rank our opponents from most concerning into least concerning.

[DuckzRule]

Some people are saying Ohio State still has a bigger chance to beat Oregon even tho they lost many of their talent, mainly because of a "explosive offense".

I just hope the game is much closer than the 2015 natty, but sometimes I feel confident we'll beat them and other times not.

[lukeyrid13]

I felt most confident about Ohio St in 2009. Pryor was super inconsistent all year, like 54% completion rate....and then played the best game of his career against us.

[DuckzRule]

Some people are still overrating USC, I saw some bowl projections released today and we are projected to the Alamo Bowl for some reason while the Trojans are projected to the Rose Bowl.

[lukeyrid13]

Some people are still overrating USC, I saw some bowl projections released today and we are projected to the Alamo Bowl for some reason while the Trojans are projected to the Rose Bowl.

They have very good players, but not sure they have the overall depth and talent to truly be an elite team.

Thankfully their 2020 recruiting class was almost worthless. They have recovered very well with the 21 and 22 class, but they'll still struggle with depth over the next few years I think.

[DuckzRule]

Guess what, 247Sports released new bowl projections and we got downgraded from the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin to the Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma State a-la Sporting News.

Well at least Oklahoma State is a decent program but I still heavily believe we will make a NY6 bowl.

[DuckzRule]

Some people are predicting a Rose Bowl rematch between us and Ohio State, which would be awesome.

https://www.profootballnetwork.com/coll ... ns-2021/2/

[DuckzRule]

Bold prediction: We finish 11-1 and make the Orange Bowl against #1 Alabama (as the fourth seed).

But it won't happen.

[karlhungis]

Bold prediction: We finish 11-1 and make the Orange Bowl against #1 Alabama (as the fourth seed).

But it won't happen.

We will have a more talented roster than every opponent outside of Ohio State. If we do much worse than 11-1, it will be a statement on our coaching.

[StevensTechU]

What will Oregon get out of Anthony Brown, and will our run defense repeat itself from 2020?

I re-watched highlights from 2020, and though Sewell made some big plays here and there, he was poor against the run. Mase Funa setting the edge was awful to watch. It made me more concerned than ever that ISM transferred.

On the positive side, I watched some Anthony Brown highlights from his last season at BC before he went down with an injury. The claim that he can't pass downfield is bologna. Even on the stat sheet, you see that he was averaging 9.1 yards/attempt, which is more than 3/4 of Herbert's seasons. It's not Vernon Adams but it's quite good. He also had 9 TDs to 2 INTs that year, which I feel like if he can replicate for the Ducks, is going to lead to a lot of wins.

So yea, the secondary needs to stay healthy, Funa needs to re-find himself, some linebackers really need to take giant steps forward, and Brown needs to ball out.

[karlhungis]

What will Oregon get out of Anthony Brown, and will our run defense repeat itself from 2020?

I re-watched highlights from 2020, and though Sewell made some big plays here and there, he was poor against the run. Mase Funa setting the edge was awful to watch. It made me more concerned than ever that ISM transferred.

On the positive side, I watched some Anthony Brown highlights from his last season at BC before he went down with an injury. The claim that he can't pass downfield is bologna. Even on the stat sheet, you see that he was averaging 9.1 yards/attempt, which is more than 3/4 of Herbert's seasons. It's not Vernon Adams but it's quite good. He also had 9 TDs to 2 INTs that year, which I feel like if he can replicate for the Ducks, is going to lead to a lot of wins.

So yea, the secondary needs to stay healthy, Funa needs to re-find himself, some linebackers really need to take giant steps forward, and Brown needs to ball out.

I am really hoping that a new DC with a full offseason of practice and conditioning, combined with a year of growth for our young LB's will show a huge improvement this year. I agree that Noah was pretty rough to watch from a technical standpoint on most plays. He looked way more instinctual in his high school tape. I hope that a year of maturity will really help him.

[lukeyrid13]

What will Oregon get out of Anthony Brown, and will our run defense repeat itself from 2020?

I re-watched highlights from 2020, and though Sewell made some big plays here and there, he was poor against the run. Mase Funa setting the edge was awful to watch. It made me more concerned than ever that ISM transferred.

On the positive side, I watched some Anthony Brown highlights from his last season at BC before he went down with an injury. The claim that he can't pass downfield is bologna. Even on the stat sheet, you see that he was averaging 9.1 yards/attempt, which is more than 3/4 of Herbert's seasons. It's not Vernon Adams but it's quite good. He also had 9 TDs to 2 INTs that year, which I feel like if he can replicate for the Ducks, is going to lead to a lot of wins.

So yea, the secondary needs to stay healthy, Funa needs to re-find himself, some linebackers really need to take giant steps forward, and Brown needs to ball out.

I think all teams have fans that overreact, but Ducks fans are saying Brown can't throw the deep ball because he overthrew Devon Williams on one play in the Fiesta Bowl. Neglecting that he completed (overturned on penalty) a 40 yard strike to Pittman the play prior and has tons of highlights at BC showing he can complete the deep pass.

Go and watch Shough attempt a deep ball against USC and underthrow it by 15 yards if you want to see a poor deep pass.

[lukeyrid13]

What will Oregon get out of Anthony Brown, and will our run defense repeat itself from 2020?

I re-watched highlights from 2020, and though Sewell made some big plays here and there, he was poor against the run. Mase Funa setting the edge was awful to watch. It made me more concerned than ever that ISM transferred.

On the positive side, I watched some Anthony Brown highlights from his last season at BC before he went down with an injury. The claim that he can't pass downfield is bologna. Even on the stat sheet, you see that he was averaging 9.1 yards/attempt, which is more than 3/4 of Herbert's seasons. It's not Vernon Adams but it's quite good. He also had 9 TDs to 2 INTs that year, which I feel like if he can replicate for the Ducks, is going to lead to a lot of wins.

So yea, the secondary needs to stay healthy, Funa needs to re-find himself, some linebackers really need to take giant steps forward, and Brown needs to ball out.

I am really hoping that a new DC with a full offseason of practice and conditioning, combined with a year of growth for our young LB's will show a huge improvement this year. I agree that Noah was pretty rough to watch from a technical standpoint on most plays. He looked way more instinctual in his high school tape. I hope that a year of maturity will really help him.

Noah had some pretty bad angles at times last year. On the whole our defense was just a mess all year long with some really bad angles at all positions.

The good news, is guys like: KT, Dorlus, KWH, Funa etc all have highlights from the 2019 season showing them playing true to their gap and maintaining leverage and forcing plays in a certain direction. All of that gap integrity (sans KT) was gone for the entire 2020 season.
Ajax also tends to just rush outside shoulder and go for the speed rush every play, which can pull him out of plays pretty easily and open up a large gap between the guard and the tackles.

We will see some growing pains from Sewell and Flowe on gap integrity but they will be monsters by the season's end I think.

[DuckzRule]

We're now nearly 1 month away from our first game against Fresno State, shall we make a thread out of it?

At least that will be an easy first game unlike the canceled NDSU game from last year.