I must be getting older, this game didn't affect me as much as games like this have in the past.
I love when we have common ground. Same here. I've never been one to get angry when we lose, but definitely in the past there were some games that really left me feeling down. (I remember that Stanford game, that was brutal!)
My philosophy now is to just have fun watching the games. I always gather with family and/or friends, and we put some thought into whatever our gameday meal is going to be. We slacked a bit against Okla State because of it being 9 a.m., but the week before, I smoked a pork butt while my brother made homemade tortilla chips and we had amazing pulled-pork nachos. We drink whiskey, good tequila, etc., just do all we can to "win the day" just in case the Ducks fall short.
Well, we are both Duck and Blazers fans and both grew up in the Three Rivers League, so lots in common.
That's cool that you make it a family affair. I am the only Duck fan in my family and I didn't pass it on to my kids. My wife and son have indulged me by going to games once in awhile, but I doubt they could even name the starting QB this year. So I suffer in silence.
I’ve watched hours of film study and the defense is bad, it’s definitely underperforming, but the offense is a complete hot mess at this point. Any recruit that wants to play offense should go anywhere but Oregon. If the offense doesn’t improve by the USC game Lanning needs to fire multiple guys starting with A’Lique Terry to send a message. But I’m really pissed at Lanning as I’m realizing just how bad the offense is, we’re Oregon, not a G6 team, we don’t “experience” with coaches, we get the best coaches. If Lanning wants to be the head coach of a blue blood then he needs to start acting like it and hire serious offensive coaches, not the inept offensive coaching staff that we have, and yes, the offensive coaching staff appears to be inept based on the film so far.
It is hard to argue, going back to the days of Koetter and Tedford, the position of OC at Oregon isn't a "golden ticket" for rising OC who want to be HC one day. Even guys like Arroyo and Moorhead who were pretty mid at Oregon left Oregon for HC spots.
If Oregon enters a season without a top 10 FBS OC, its a fair criticism the HC is wasting the resources made available to him.
I did my own film study and watched other film studies and after about an hour and a half I came up with the following evaluation of each position for the Okie St game, I’m not afraid of criticism as I’m far from being a football expert and just want to learn more about it so if anyone seems anything different feel free to correct me.
QB: Moore is fine, but that’s also a problem, cause people expected him to be Bo Nix 2023 or Mariota 2014 and he’s nothing close to that. He is a good QB with amazing arm talent, but he is inconsistent with progression, doesn’t maneuver the pocket well, sometimes waits til guys get open instead of throwing them open, and never uses his eyes to fool defenders which Mestemaker did multiple times. From game 2 footage Mestemaker is objectively a much better QB. Moore is probably taking too much hate from the fanbase but also, he’s not the great QB I think fans expected him to be so far. He’s also not an ideal QB to have with bad OLine play and that’s unfortunately what we’re stuck with.
OL: this unit is a freakin disaster, no other way to describe it. Outside of Poncho they’re all playing horrible, at least one guy loses his battle badly every play basically causing this team to have no running game and give up unnecessary pressures/sacks. Poncho is having to do so much, bounce around so much because all of his fellow OLineman are drastically underperforming and are constantly getting beat. I don’t care if past OLines did good against bad to mid competition and was a JM award finalist, A’Lique Terry has done an awful job early on, hope it improves drastically cause if this OLine doesn’t improve a ton quick we might struggle to be a .500 team in B1G play with a QB that isn’t comfortable taking hits, maneuvering the pocket, and scrambling. But the OLine is the main reason our offense was so bad against Okie State.
RB: Fine, but hoped for better, there were a few busted plays caused by the RB’s doing something wrong. I will say I’m kinda disappointed in the vision of Hill and Davison, they’re just kinda following the play design and aren’t seeing other holes open up with a cutback, they’re running a little too much like CJ Verdell and just running into the pile. We didn’t see that last year particularly from Davison so not sure why it’s happening now, maybe it’s injury related or maybe Samples’s coaching has suffered after his DUI.
WR: Again, fine, not outstanding, which is a bummer cause they should be elite. McLellan’s effort was lacking, and they had 3 drops total against Okie State, one which would’ve been a TD on 4th down and one by McLellan that would’ve been a first down (assuming he outruns the defender). Blocking was ok but not amazing but perhaps the most disappointing thing was the starting 3 never really hustled or adjusted to the scramble drill, they didn’t try to get open they just stood, and with this horrible OLine play they better get used to the scramble drill fast. Only receiver that did consistently adjust to the scramble drill was Messiah Hampton.
TE: Johnson was a huge loss, but the decision to start Olesh was puzzling. No clue where Markus Dixon is, but when Kendre Harrison was in he was fantastic. He could probably teach our OLine outside of Poncho how to block. Olesh struggled blocking but also doesn’t possess the athleticism that Harrison has to be a threat in the passing game, especially vertically. No catches for Harrison but he ran good routes and had solid blocks. What’s funny is on the Dak TD Harrison was the primary read and was wide open for a big gain but Moore said screw it and threw it to Dak which I like cause sometimes you gotta do that with this receiving corps.
DLine: Bad, undisciplined, and poor effort, but honestly not as bad as initially seemed. DLine has to do a lot to make up for bad LB play, Tuioti spent a good chunk playing ILB in a 3-3-5, and Bear was running some QB spy. It’s clear Hampton and Lanning don’t trust the LB’s, and rightfully so and I think they’re over extending the DLine to make up for that.
LB: Awful, just plain awful, kept mis-aligning before the snap, no urgency after the snap, constantly standing and hesitating, lost, they’re just really bad and looked uncoached. Only LB with a pulse was Jackson, but on that huge opening run he was the one who missed the assignment and was supposed to stay on Mestermaker and he got lost. This unit is atrocious and it’s clear that Lanning and Hampton don’t trust them, which might have been why they went for it on 4th and 8 cause our LB’s cannot run fit to save their lives and with the time on the clock Okie State most likely would’ve tried to run out clock. I think Lanning thought if they punt they don’t get the ball again. I have a feeling Lanning has already told Michalowski to go look for other opportunities cause he won’t be on the coaching staff in 2027. The unit is thin, there were good portal LB’s, but Wasikowski’s stubborness and poor coaching is really inhibiting this defense.
CB: Really good, not quite great. Finney has amazing instincts but has some little things to work on particularly in run play but he knows how to read a play immediately, and Ify and Offord are also good but not quite Finney good. Only issue is they’ve dropped a couple easy picks that would’ve been game changers. I know they play defense but if they want to be an elite CB group they need to take advantage of bad QB decisions/passes. When they got beat against Okie State it was mostly play design, just simply their OC beating Hampton, which happens every game.
Star: Williams and Benjamin are constantly turned around. Can’t tell how good they truly are cause they’re so lost all the time. Hope Williams is ok but this position continues to give up plays simply cause they’re confused. Benjamin seems to have a lot of talent and I imagine he’ll get better quickly since he’s only a true freshman and learned some valuable lessons Saturday the hard way.
Safety: Not as good as expected. I feel Koi is misused as they’re trying to make him the next Thieneman, and he ain’t Thieneman. He’s a great high safety in pass coverage but that’s not what he’s playing. And I can tell playing a role he’s not comfortable in with a more complex system is causing him to be hesitant. My hope is Hampton just puts him as a high safety and he gets comfortable then I think he has the potential to be really good. Flowers has been disappointing, his communication seems poor and his run fitting and pass coverage has just simply been average. He’s not doing anything bad but he’s not doing anything good, he’s just kinda average. I wonder if McNutt passes him up soon.
Special teams: Hurych and Ettridge are the MVP’s of this team, not even kidding.
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Last edited by OregonFan4Life on Mon Sep 14, 2026 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It’s abundantly clear that this team is poorly coached at a number of positions and has been for years. Playcalling may be a problem as well but the issues we’re seeing play out on the field are much deeper than scheme and play calls.
Our talent evaluation and development sucks and Lanning promoted from within for every position this offseason. Which is why, IMO, the underlying issues have come to the surface in such an obvious way.
The LBs have no idea what they’re doing, and haven’t since Lanning’s been here. The film is genuinely stunning. If a 5th year guy doesn’t know what to do when he’s on the field then why is he playing? Regardless of who’s to blame for an individual players lack of ability, it’s still on the coaches to not play guys who don’t know how to play. It’s inexcusable.
I’ve never understood the love for Terry. The OL is a mess to start every year. How does it take 3-4 games for the OL coach to figure who should actually be starting? These are all his players so there’s no more excuses and it’s the worst OL we’ve had under him.
Our future #1 pick has such poor fundamentals that teams can predict the play based on his foot alignment. He still panics in clean pockets and creates sacks from nothing. And who’s his QB coach? A proven guru? No, a guy who’s never coached QBs. How does Lanning justify stuff like this? It’s an unserious approach and reeks of a HC who thinks he’s just smarter than everyone and everything he touches turns to gold.
We have an NFL DL and they are all playing terribly. Getting blown off the ball and dominated by OSU’s patchwork line. Just no excuse for any of this.
The program is being run by 30 year olds and it seems that they’ve been too busy sniffing their farts to actually notice how bad they are at developing players. Lanning needs to make major changes at the position coach level and ditch the plan of only hiring your bros if he wants to be a serious CFB coach. In some ways, them cobbling together a decent season is the worst case scenario because it’ll allow the program to convince itself that all these mediocre coaches are actually pretty good, just like they’ve been doing Lanning’s entire tenure.
Btw while everyone is frustrated with the QB coach I’d also like to remind everyone our edge/pass rush coach is 28 years old, never played defense and was an offensive analyst prior to 2026. Our pass rush was nonexistent against Okie State and it looks like Matayo and Tuioti forgot how to set the edge on run defense. Just to continue the narrative that Dan chose to hire buddies that he likes rather than proven coaches.
OregonFan4Life wrote: Tue Sep 15, 2026 9:48 am
Btw while everyone is frustrated with the QB coach I’d also like to remind everyone our edge/pass rush coach is 28 years old, never played defense and was an offensive analyst prior to 2026. Our pass rush was nonexistent against Okie State and it looks like Matayo and Tuioti forgot how to set the edge on run defense. Just to continue the narrative that Dan chose to hire buddies that he likes rather than proven coaches.
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He's also being helped out by a pass rush guy they hired from the NFL. I do agree they need to get some more veteran, proven coaches on the staff instead of all these young guys who likely wouldn't be hired anywhere else.
OregonFan4Life wrote: Tue Sep 15, 2026 9:48 am
Btw while everyone is frustrated with the QB coach I’d also like to remind everyone our edge/pass rush coach is 28 years old, never played defense and was an offensive analyst prior to 2026. Our pass rush was nonexistent against Okie State and it looks like Matayo and Tuioti forgot how to set the edge on run defense. Just to continue the narrative that Dan chose to hire buddies that he likes rather than proven coaches.
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He's also being helped out by a pass rush guy they hired from the NFL. I do agree they need to get some more veteran, proven coaches on the staff instead of all these young guys who likely wouldn't be hired anywhere else.
From my perspective there’s a huge difference between hiring someone with NFL experience to assist/help a young coach vs actually lead the position group. Gonna result in much more motivation. But better than just hiring someone young without support for sure. But I think it’s really showing this season how that was not a smart move by Lanning.
LOL, I'm trying to find a silver lining in this game but every time I do, it gets worse.
At first, I was hoping that maybe Tulsa is a legit good team in the past.... and then I see that they were 4-8 last year in one of the worst conferences in America....
And then, I was hoping maybe they had a big turnaround this year (like Indiana 2 years ago).....well, in Week 2 - after crushing OK State 23-10 - they played Sam Houston and won by a score of 23-17. Sam Houston - for reference - was 2-10 last year and has already lost to Troy this year!
Speaking with the utmost clarity and sobriety that one could offer in such a situation, I propose that this is the single-most horrendous loss in Oregon ducks football HISTORY.
