Pac-12 CG: #5 Oregon v #3 Washington (Dec. 1, Fri 5 PM ABC)

[5$]

Penix might be hurt, maybe from as far back as our previous meeting. People are speculating that he suffered some re-injury to that during Apple Cup:

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Here's his post-game interview, every time he coughs he stops listening to the question being asked (maybe pain response?).

[woundedknees]

His breathing looks labored... the way he is raising and lowering his shoulders appears as if his breathing requires more effort than usual.

I seem to recall doing that after breaking 3 ribs a few years ago.

Who knows?

Maybe some extensive bruising would cause the same type of thing. I fell awkwardly on a lof while crossing a small stream on a fishing trip a few months after the incident I broke my ribs in, and severely bruised the same area.

that sort of thing effects ones ability to not only breathe normally, but lift, run, and throw.

We'll see how things work next Friday, eh?

[Greenblood]

I'm assuming UW will be the designated "home" team due to having the better conference record?

[nogerO]

I'm assuming UW will be the designated "home" team due to having the better conference record?

I sure hope the uni combo is something amazing to fit the finality and enormity of the game.!

[Phalanx]

I'll take Oregon at damn near every position over uw- QB, RB, OL, DL, and I'd even say neutral at LB with Jacobs now playing. That all said, the matchup that will continue to make me question whether we win or lose is going to be uw's WRs on our DBs. With Florence out, we're looking at Odunze, G Jackson, Polk, and McMilan against Jackson, Reed, Manning, Bridges, one-handed E Williams and T Johnson. It's not a matchup that favors us, so the Ducks will have to make up for it by getting to Penix early and causing him to miss some targets.

Yep. Oregon has done the worst against teams with good QB's, and this is the best QB in the conference besides ours. If the Ducks are relying on Trikweze Bridges to save them, it's going to be a long game. Hopefully the D-line can get the same kind of pressure on Penix that they got last time, and the Duck passing game is as sharp as it has been the last several games.

[OregonFan4Life]

To me the biggest key will be redzone offense, I’m sure Huskies will score and the Oregon offense will move the ball, but the ducks will need to score once in the redzone. Last time Vs the Huskies Ducks had two empty redzone trips and just last Friday against the Beavs Ducks had two consecutive redzone trips with 3 combined points. Ducks need to be better in the redzone IMO.

[ducks5ever]

I'll take Oregon at damn near every position over uw- QB, RB, OL, DL, and I'd even say neutral at LB with Jacobs now playing. That all said, the matchup that will continue to make me question whether we win or lose is going to be uw's WRs on our DBs. With Florence out, we're looking at Odunze, G Jackson, Polk, and McMilan against Jackson, Reed, Manning, Bridges, one-handed E Williams and T Johnson. It's not a matchup that favors us, so the Ducks will have to make up for it by getting to Penix early and causing him to miss some targets.

Yep. Oregon has done the worst against teams with good QB's, and this is the best QB in the conference besides ours. If the Ducks are relying on Trikweze Bridges to save them, it's going to be a long game. Hopefully the D-line can get the same kind of pressure on Penix that they got last time, and the Duck passing game is as sharp as it has been the last several games.

Game comes down to a few things:

1. Bo Nix. He missed multiple reads that last game that would've led to 1st downs or TD's. As the season has progressed, I think he's gotten better. Going into the UW game, it felt like he would either toss a checkdown or hit Franklin on a go route. This goes hand in hand with the emergence of Tez Johnson/TFerg but I see him doing a much better job pushing the ball down the field in the 2nd half of the season. I haven't seen him have happy feet lately either, which was visible during and before the UW game.

2. Penalties. We've been very hit or miss on penalties the entire season. It's pretty much a given that we'll pick up DPI's in this game but we at least have to avoid the pre-snap penalties and other dumb stuff.

3. OL/run blocking. OL has played fairly well but they haven't been very consistent. JPJ had bad snaps against USC. Steven Jones (or whoever the RT was) didn't block a free edge rusher against OSU twice.
Then on James' TD run, Casey Kelly looks like he's out of position. James scores but he does it because of his own power, not because the blocking was good.
This point is less important than the first 2 points.

Lastly, I don't expect the defense to play much differently than how we did last game. It's going to give up points especially with this secondary and I don't think there's much anyone can do about it at this point. The defense has largely felt the same the entire year, with slightly better run defense down the stretch. No one seems to have "broken out" on the defense as the season progressed; maybe you can make an argument for 1 of the freshmen. Bassa has definitely stepped up. Jestin Jacobs is an upgrade over Boettcher but that's all I can say for him.

[greenyellow]

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[lmduck]

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Think it's more than the flu but of course no one is going to say anything.

[duckfan96]

Any word on injuries? Florence and Bryant come to mind

[5$]

One poster at HH posted Penix has appendicitis. No replies in the thread. Clearly not definitive, but interesting. Another thread there said Penix missed last night's 3-hour walkthrough. The excuse for that was class responsibilities... But who knows.

[Phalanx]

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Think it's more than the flu but of course no one is going to say anything.

I'm not sure what is being implied here. What do you think he has? I've seen people allude to a rib injury, but it seems pretty far-fetched to me, given the risk involved with something like that.

[QuackininBama]

I have a job that allows me to listen to podcasts while I work, and I will say even Huskie podcasters are getting curious as to what is up with Penix. They have done the same thing as we have and noticed since the Oregon game his play has dropped off dramatically. I think there is fire to this smoke with Penix. I don't think he's 100% and I will even go so far as to say he might be playing with broken ribs and he and the coaching staff are just not saying anything about it.

[pezsez1]

I'm not sure if he's injured. I think he might have had a panic attack at the end of the WSU game.

During the kick, when he had his head in the garbage container or whatever that was, my first reaction was that he was throwing up. Toward the end of the game he looked stressed AF. And even when he's playing well, he regularly disintegrates under pressure. He made like two good throws while facing intense pressure during our earlier matchup, and all season long he's been equally bad when guys are coming at him. I just wonder if maybe he has issues with the pressure of this moment. He was pretty bad during UW's last drive against WSU and to know everything hung in the balance might have just been too much for him.

I don't know enough about Xs and Os to know this for certain, but I think we exposed something about UW's pass protection during our second half against them and that other teams have been using what we put on film. Washington has survived, but seems like he's been running for his life ever since we played them. Maybe he is banged up but my gut feeling is he's just buckling a bit under the pressure.

[DuckMastaFunk]

I'm not sure if he's injured. I think he might have had a panic attack at the end of the WSU game.

During the kick, when he had his head in the garbage container or whatever that was, my first reaction was that he was throwing up. Toward the end of the game he looked stressed AF. And even when he's playing well, he regularly disintegrates under pressure. He made like two good throws while facing intense pressure during our earlier matchup, and all season long he's been equally bad when guys are coming at him. I just wonder if maybe he has issues with the pressure of this moment. He was pretty bad during UW's last drive against WSU and to know everything hung in the balance might have just been too much for him.

I don't know enough about Xs and Os to know this for certain, but I think we exposed something about UW's pass protection during our second half against them and that other teams have been using what we put on film. Washington has survived, but seems like he's been running for his life ever since we played them. Maybe he is banged up but my gut feeling is he's just buckling a bit under the pressure.

I would hate for him to feel the pressure/anxiety of the game being on his shoulders so I really hope we hang 40+ points on them in the first half while shutting down their O so Penix can be saved from an uncomfortable situation.

No mercy, Ducks. It's the merciful thing to do.