Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

It seems like Stein coordinated this year as if he had Bo Nix at QB, where you just call the play and Nix either audibles, adjusts mid-play, or just calls his owns play entirely. Gabriel wasn’t quite on that level but he was still the most experienced QB we’d ever had. So Stein has been spoiled with über experienced QBs and just didn’t ever adjust to having a talented but inexperienced QB.

Moore simply isn’t that QB yet. From what I can tell, he runs the play as it’s called. Which is what happened on that pick six—the call was to hit the quick out so that’s where Moore was throwing the ball. McClellan was never getting the ball, no matter how open he was.

So I don’t think it’s as simple as it’s either all Moore’s fault or all Stein’s. Moore is clearly limited when it comes to on-field management and, in that case, Stein’s job is to work with Moore as he is, and create scenarios where he can consistently succeed and avoid major mistakes.

From Stein’s comments, he seemed to think it was good enough to just call good plays and hope Moore figured it out. And I know it’s unavoidable but having your coordinators simultaneously running another football program during the most important games of the year is really getting old. Never mind your players hitting the portal… The entire CFB system is a fundamentally broken mess.

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 9:03 am That is truly a mind boggling quote by Stein. First, watch the all 22, he clearly was on Benson so it was a terrible decision by Moore to throw it there. Plus it’s clear he wasn’t developed by Stein cause a high quality QB would’ve seen wide open McLellan that play. Also it’s clear Indiana knew it was coming indicating Stein has a tendency to call that play early. Finally Hythloday did a film study and showed clearly that Indiana’s secondary cover the boundary really well so that play LITERALLY goes right into their strength and doesn’t exploit their weaknesses. For whatever reason OC’s all season long played right into Indiana’s defensive strength including Stein, not once, but twice.


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The McLellan thing drives me nuts, because fans act like QBs have an aerial view of the field like you do in Madden. The design is a quick out to one side of the field. You don’t have time to survey the other side of the field in case another guy happens to be wide open. There is no QB given the play call that would have seen McLellan open. You can argue they are too predictable with the play call, as they often use a quick short pass on the first play to get Moore comfortable, and Indiana exploited that tendency. I don’t accept that any QB would have seen McLellan open given the design was a quick out to the opposite side of the field.

droop10 wrote:

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 9:03 am That is truly a mind boggling quote by Stein. First, watch the all 22, he clearly was on Benson so it was a terrible decision by Moore to throw it there. Plus it’s clear he wasn’t developed by Stein cause a high quality QB would’ve seen wide open McLellan that play. Also it’s clear Indiana knew it was coming indicating Stein has a tendency to call that play early. Finally Hythloday did a film study and showed clearly that Indiana’s secondary cover the boundary really well so that play LITERALLY goes right into their strength and doesn’t exploit their weaknesses. For whatever reason OC’s all season long played right into Indiana’s defensive strength including Stein, not once, but twice.


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The McLellan thing drives me nuts, because fans act like QBs have an aerial view of the field like you do in Madden. The design is a quick out to one side of the field. You don’t have time to survey the other side of the field in case another guy happens to be wide open. There is no QB given the play call that would have seen McLellan open. You can argue they are too predictable with the play call, as they often use a quick short pass on the first play to get Moore comfortable, and Indiana exploited that tendency. I don’t accept that any QB would have seen McLellan open given the design was a quick out to the opposite side of the field.

Yeah I could not disagree more. We’ve seen Oregon QB’s like Bo, Mariota, Herbert, VA, heck even DT be able to hit their 3rd/4th read. That’s the natural progression of a good QB, they don’t just look at one side or the field. And good QB’s are also able to read a defense pretty quickly and have an idea who is open. I get it, Dante is young, but he hasn’t progressed through reads and missed open guys all season long. If Will was fine with it then that’s on him, but you can’t expect an NFL QB to make plays like that in the playoffs and the coaches to just shrug it off like it was nothing and to expect a QB to only see one side of the field. That’s a weak excuse for a poor decision/play by Dante.


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dthomas=ddixon wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 11:19 am It seems like Stein coordinated this year as if he had Bo Nix at QB, where you just call the play and Nix either audibles, adjusts mid-play, or just calls his owns play entirely. Gabriel wasn’t quite on that level but he was still the most experienced QB we’d ever had. So Stein has been spoiled with über experienced QBs and just didn’t ever adjust to having a talented but inexperienced QB.

Moore simply isn’t that QB yet. From what I can tell, he runs the play as it’s called. Which is what happened on that pick six—the call was to hit the quick out so that’s where Moore was throwing the ball. McClellan was never getting the ball, no matter how open he was.

So I don’t think it’s as simple as it’s either all Moore’s fault or all Stein’s. Moore is clearly limited when it comes to on-field management and, in that case, Stein’s job is to work with Moore as he is, and create scenarios where he can consistently succeed and avoid major mistakes.

From Stein’s comments, he seemed to think it was good enough to just call good plays and hope Moore figured it out. And I know it’s unavoidable but having your coordinators simultaneously running another football program during the most important games of the year is really getting old. Never mind your players hitting the portal… The entire CFB system is a fundamentally broken mess.

Great take on the situation. I want to add something else. I saw various posts pre-game talking about how each team and individual players had grown during the year, specifically since the first meeting, and I honestly watched Moore all year, and the truth is, he looked like the same player that stepped on the field in September. This is not a knock on Moore, he is a good player, but not a great player. He has all the tools, just don't look at his cringeworthy runs (no one will mistake him for Mariota), but he honestly hasn't progressed much all year. Now granted, TT was an elite defense but he STILL won't step up in the pocket to avoid pressure which is maddening to watch. He won't throw the ball out of bounds either. He will either get sacked, or run a few yards, then get sacked.
He doesn't see the field all that well. How many games did we see open receivers streaking down the field this year, and he simply didn't see them. YES, we got spoiled with (last 4 quarterbacks to play at Oregon), but that tells me its possible, and Dante just isn't doing it. Hell I can still see Bo finding Tez like 44 times a game, Bo nearly always found the open guy, so it's possible. Defenses could focus on taking his first two reads off the table and Moore was toast, he was running, or standing there to get sacked.

Honestly, if he goes to the NFL with the Raiders or Jets, kid will be out of the NFL in 3 years. I think he CAN learn and improve, he is just a super slow learner. He needs to do himself a favor and come back for another year. The NFL defenses will eat him alive.

QuackininBama wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:44 pm

dthomas=ddixon wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 11:19 am It seems like Stein coordinated this year as if he had Bo Nix at QB, where you just call the play and Nix either audibles, adjusts mid-play, or just calls his owns play entirely. Gabriel wasn’t quite on that level but he was still the most experienced QB we’d ever had. So Stein has been spoiled with über experienced QBs and just didn’t ever adjust to having a talented but inexperienced QB.

Moore simply isn’t that QB yet. From what I can tell, he runs the play as it’s called. Which is what happened on that pick six—the call was to hit the quick out so that’s where Moore was throwing the ball. McClellan was never getting the ball, no matter how open he was.

So I don’t think it’s as simple as it’s either all Moore’s fault or all Stein’s. Moore is clearly limited when it comes to on-field management and, in that case, Stein’s job is to work with Moore as he is, and create scenarios where he can consistently succeed and avoid major mistakes.

From Stein’s comments, he seemed to think it was good enough to just call good plays and hope Moore figured it out. And I know it’s unavoidable but having your coordinators simultaneously running another football program during the most important games of the year is really getting old. Never mind your players hitting the portal… The entire CFB system is a fundamentally broken mess.

Great take on the situation. I want to add something else. I saw various posts pre-game talking about how each team and individual players had grown during the year, specifically since the first meeting, and I honestly watched Moore all year, and the truth is, he looked like the same player that stepped on the field in September. This is not a knock on Moore, he is a good player, but not a great player. He has all the tools, just don't look at his cringeworthy runs (no one will mistake him for Mariota), but he honestly hasn't progressed much all year. Now granted, TT was an elite defense but he STILL won't step up in the pocket to avoid pressure which is maddening to watch. He won't throw the ball out of bounds either. He will either get sacked, or run a few yards, then get sacked.
He doesn't see the field all that well. How many games did we see open receivers streaking down the field this year, and he simply didn't see them. YES, we got spoiled with (last 4 quarterbacks to play at Oregon), but that tells me its possible, and Dante just isn't doing it. Hell I can still see Bo finding Tez like 44 times a game, Bo nearly always found the open guy, so it's possible. Defenses could focus on taking his first two reads off the table and Moore was toast, he was running, or standing there to get sacked.

Honestly, if he goes to the NFL with the Raiders or Jets, kid will be out of the NFL in 3 years. I think he CAN learn and improve, he is just a super slow learner. He needs to do himself a favor and come back for another year. The NFL defenses will eat him alive.

Bo was in his 5th year of college. It didn't really click for him until midway through his 4th year. Gabriel was in his 5th year. Herbert improved significantly in his 4th year. Are you starting to see a theme? With experience, QBs improve their field vision. The difference you're seeing is that Moore has taken significantly fewer game snaps than those guy had when they were peaking.

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:35 pm

droop10 wrote:

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 9:03 am That is truly a mind boggling quote by Stein. First, watch the all 22, he clearly was on Benson so it was a terrible decision by Moore to throw it there. Plus it’s clear he wasn’t developed by Stein cause a high quality QB would’ve seen wide open McLellan that play. Also it’s clear Indiana knew it was coming indicating Stein has a tendency to call that play early. Finally Hythloday did a film study and showed clearly that Indiana’s secondary cover the boundary really well so that play LITERALLY goes right into their strength and doesn’t exploit their weaknesses. For whatever reason OC’s all season long played right into Indiana’s defensive strength including Stein, not once, but twice.


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The McLellan thing drives me nuts, because fans act like QBs have an aerial view of the field like you do in Madden. The design is a quick out to one side of the field. You don’t have time to survey the other side of the field in case another guy happens to be wide open. There is no QB given the play call that would have seen McLellan open. You can argue they are too predictable with the play call, as they often use a quick short pass on the first play to get Moore comfortable, and Indiana exploited that tendency. I don’t accept that any QB would have seen McLellan open given the design was a quick out to the opposite side of the field.

Yeah I could not disagree more. We’ve seen Oregon QB’s like Bo, Mariota, Herbert, VA, heck even DT be able to hit their 3rd/4th read. That’s the natural progression of a good QB, they don’t just look at one side or the field. And good QB’s are also able to read a defense pretty quickly and have an idea who is open. I get it, Dante is young, but he hasn’t progressed through reads and missed open guys all season long. If Will was fine with it then that’s on him, but you can’t expect an NFL QB to make plays like that in the playoffs and the coaches to just shrug it off like it was nothing and to expect a QB to only see one side of the field. That’s a weak excuse for a poor decision/play by Dante.


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Yes, there are plenty of passing plays that allow you to go through your progressions. However, there are also plays where the design is a quick hitter. My point is that it's not realistic to expect a QB to always go through all progressions and see the most open receiver, because it's not Madden. The play design was a quick out to the WR. Ponds baited him into it, he threw the ball late and not quite to the right spot. This was not a designed pass play to sit back in the pocket and scan the field. Ponds made a great play. Maybe in the future Moore checks out of it, but I think that was really just a byproduct of great scouting on their part and playing to the tendencies. I will stand by the fact that on that particular play, I don't think may QBs would have made it to McLellan in the progression .

droop10 wrote:

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:35 pm

droop10 wrote:

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 9:03 am That is truly a mind boggling quote by Stein. First, watch the all 22, he clearly was on Benson so it was a terrible decision by Moore to throw it there. Plus it’s clear he wasn’t developed by Stein cause a high quality QB would’ve seen wide open McLellan that play. Also it’s clear Indiana knew it was coming indicating Stein has a tendency to call that play early. Finally Hythloday did a film study and showed clearly that Indiana’s secondary cover the boundary really well so that play LITERALLY goes right into their strength and doesn’t exploit their weaknesses. For whatever reason OC’s all season long played right into Indiana’s defensive strength including Stein, not once, but twice.


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The McLellan thing drives me nuts, because fans act like QBs have an aerial view of the field like you do in Madden. The design is a quick out to one side of the field. You don’t have time to survey the other side of the field in case another guy happens to be wide open. There is no QB given the play call that would have seen McLellan open. You can argue they are too predictable with the play call, as they often use a quick short pass on the first play to get Moore comfortable, and Indiana exploited that tendency. I don’t accept that any QB would have seen McLellan open given the design was a quick out to the opposite side of the field.

Yeah I could not disagree more. We’ve seen Oregon QB’s like Bo, Mariota, Herbert, VA, heck even DT be able to hit their 3rd/4th read. That’s the natural progression of a good QB, they don’t just look at one side or the field. And good QB’s are also able to read a defense pretty quickly and have an idea who is open. I get it, Dante is young, but he hasn’t progressed through reads and missed open guys all season long. If Will was fine with it then that’s on him, but you can’t expect an NFL QB to make plays like that in the playoffs and the coaches to just shrug it off like it was nothing and to expect a QB to only see one side of the field. That’s a weak excuse for a poor decision/play by Dante.


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Yes, there are plenty of passing plays that allow you to go through your progressions. However, there are also plays where the design is a quick hitter. My point is that it's not realistic to expect a QB to always go through all progressions and see the most open receiver, because it's not Madden. The play design was a quick out to the WR. Ponds baited him into it, he threw the ball late and not quite to the right spot. This was not a designed pass play to sit back in the pocket and scan the field. Ponds made a great play. Maybe in the future Moore checks out of it, but I think that was really just a byproduct of great scouting on their part and playing to the tendencies. I will stand by the fact that on that particular play, I don't think may QBs would have made it to McLellan in the progression .

That’s a fair assessment and if that is the case it falls on Stein, who I hope by now fans put more blame on by Moore. If that was indeed a designed pass Stein was not only too predictable but called a play right into the strength of Indiana’s defense.


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droop10 wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 1:42 pm

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:35 pm

droop10 wrote:

OregonFan4Life wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 9:03 am That is truly a mind boggling quote by Stein. First, watch the all 22, he clearly was on Benson so it was a terrible decision by Moore to throw it there. Plus it’s clear he wasn’t developed by Stein cause a high quality QB would’ve seen wide open McLellan that play. Also it’s clear Indiana knew it was coming indicating Stein has a tendency to call that play early. Finally Hythloday did a film study and showed clearly that Indiana’s secondary cover the boundary really well so that play LITERALLY goes right into their strength and doesn’t exploit their weaknesses. For whatever reason OC’s all season long played right into Indiana’s defensive strength including Stein, not once, but twice.


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The McLellan thing drives me nuts, because fans act like QBs have an aerial view of the field like you do in Madden. The design is a quick out to one side of the field. You don’t have time to survey the other side of the field in case another guy happens to be wide open. There is no QB given the play call that would have seen McLellan open. You can argue they are too predictable with the play call, as they often use a quick short pass on the first play to get Moore comfortable, and Indiana exploited that tendency. I don’t accept that any QB would have seen McLellan open given the design was a quick out to the opposite side of the field.

Yeah I could not disagree more. We’ve seen Oregon QB’s like Bo, Mariota, Herbert, VA, heck even DT be able to hit their 3rd/4th read. That’s the natural progression of a good QB, they don’t just look at one side or the field. And good QB’s are also able to read a defense pretty quickly and have an idea who is open. I get it, Dante is young, but he hasn’t progressed through reads and missed open guys all season long. If Will was fine with it then that’s on him, but you can’t expect an NFL QB to make plays like that in the playoffs and the coaches to just shrug it off like it was nothing and to expect a QB to only see one side of the field. That’s a weak excuse for a poor decision/play by Dante.


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Yes, there are plenty of passing plays that allow you to go through your progressions. However, there are also plays where the design is a quick hitter. My point is that it's not realistic to expect a QB to always go through all progressions and see the most open receiver, because it's not Madden. The play design was a quick out to the WR. Ponds baited him into it, he threw the ball late and not quite to the right spot. This was not a designed pass play to sit back in the pocket and scan the field. Ponds made a great play. Maybe in the future Moore checks out of it, but I think that was really just a byproduct of great scouting on their part and playing to the tendencies. I will stand by the fact that on that particular play, I don't think may QBs would have made it to McLellan in the progression .

I would agree with this on a rare occasion, but Moore had a tendency to lock onto receivers waiting for them to get open, or just making a bad pass altogether. How many times did we see him get hit while waiting to throw the ball downfield when there was an easy checkdown 5 yards away? Or he threw the ball into traffic when there was a guy open downfield field?

His pocket awareness isn't good; in fact, it's actually pretty bad. Not only that, but instead of stepping up, he runs backwards. I hope whoever comes in to coach the quarterbacks can run some drills to teach the them how to make quick reads when pressure is coming, or to just tuck it and run, because if Moore decides to go to the nfl with his current skillset in the pocket, he's going to get destroyed.

All that said, recent history has shown us that guys have made significant jumps going into their 4th year, so hopefully Moore stays and makes those same jumps.

I’m with Droop10 percent…and if he is who I think he is there is not a person we should listen to MORE on this board. (If my hunch is correct I’m sorry to blow up your spot, but I love your takes and you speak from experience).

At the start of the year WE (well, about 99% of us)…YES, THE ROYAL WE…on this board predicted a maddeningly inconsistent team due to youth, a pieced together Oline and Dante’s lack of starts.

Well what happened? In a shocking development, we were inconsistent. The Oline was great at times and at times it struggled.

This team also gutted out some big victories in hostile, high- leverage situations and they put absolute no question asswhoopings on teams that were beneath them, which is generally one marker and trait of good teams.

We lost to an inevitable team of destiny 2x. Those are our only 2 losses. We overcame a white out and we beat a top-25 level defense in a hostile Husky stadium. Lots to improve on and grow from.

The calls to abandon Moore are mindnumbingly stupid. There are dozens of people who make their professional living and reputations off of evaluating football talent and they all RAVE about his arm talent. I find him to be a mix of Aaron Rodgers and Mahomes. How did Mahomes do this year BTW? Does Dante have things to work on? Yes, climbing in the pocket first and foremost. But Bo had that problem at Auburn and Caleb Williams is just NOW learning that skill and this is his 2nd year in the NFL after 3 seasons with an alleged “QB Guru” in Riley. The throw ‘Te Moore made to Benson in Iowa during a game winning 2- minute drill was one of the greatest throws I’ve seen an Oregon QB make. The 2pt conversion to Jamari and another one yesterday were throws that not even Mendoza could make (even though Fernando is the master of the back shoulder quick out). The scramble and throw to Bryant for the win in Penn Stat was brass balls, grit and talent.

Deep breaths, trust Dan and the process and we will be fine.

This sucks, this absolutely hurts, but we made the Final 4 while replacing starts with:

- a new QB (still mentally recovering from UCLA)
- 3 of 5 Oline
- 2 of 4 DLine
- 1 new LB (Bryce also was a new green dot)
- an entirely new secondary
- 2 true frosh RB’s in the rotation
- 2-3 new rotation wr’s (JMac, Moore, Benson)
- 1 new TE in 12 personnel (Johnson)

My God, I’m sorry, but I feel like I have to jump in and defend my man droop10. I feel ok in putting this out there since a small bit of publicly available research will make it obvious who they are. Again, if I broke some kind of secret “chat room code” I profusely apologize.

I went back through all the game thread to take the temp of the room and all I see is most everyone on here arguing with his quite levelheaded takes.

I would encourage everyone to do some research, then once you realize who he is, come back and:

#1 - apologize for arguing
#2 - thank him for coming on here with a bunch of fans and giving us his opinions
#2 - thank him again for the ride that was that magical year, so many moons ago.

If anyone can speak to being a different QB after getting game experience and if anyone can speak to how key players getting lost for the season right before a big game can be a punch in the balls it’s him.

Again, not to doxx the dude or blow up his spot but unless one of you is Joey, KC, VA or DT I’m going to value his opinions much more than a reactionary fans.

I say that with love. Everyone on this board brings something to the community, even during meltdowns after tough losses.

bdkipe wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 8:46 pm My God, I’m sorry, but I feel like I have to jump in and defend my man droop10. I feel ok in putting this out there since a small bit of publicly available research will make it obvious who they are. Again, if I broke some kind of secret “chat room code” I profusely apologize.

I went back through all the game thread to take the temp of the room and all I see is most everyone on here arguing with his quite levelheaded takes.

I would encourage everyone to do some research, then once you realize who he is, come back and:

#1 - apologize for arguing
#2 - thank him for coming on here with a bunch of fans and giving us his opinions
#2 - thank him again for the ride that was that magical year, so many moons ago.

If anyone can speak to being a different QB after getting game experience and if anyone can speak to how key players getting lost for the season right before a big game can be a punch in the balls it’s him.

Again, not to doxx the dude or blow up his spot but unless one of you is Joey, KC, VA or DT I’m going to value his opinions much more than a reactionary fans.

I say that with love. Everyone on this board brings something to the community, even during meltdowns after tough losses.

I don't think there's any reason for you to apologize. Most of us here are armchair quarterbacks that relive our glory days like Al Bundy through these kids, that includes myself. We see the field from a much different point of view with cameras, but in reality we'd be flat on our backs if we were down in the field. Droop10 clearly has personal knowledge that most of us don't, but it doesn't mean we can't give our opinions either.

We all just want to see this team get the championship it deserves, and I don't think there's a single one of us who has any ill will towards these kids, win or lose

bdkipe, a lot of us probably fully know what the name droop10 is, so don’t think you’re spoiling anything, I’ve just assumed that user is a fan, not the actual person. If that is truly who you think it is, then yeah the rest of this forum should listen to everything he has to say and shut up (though nothing can make me shut up), but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s just a fan.


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So what's the significance of the name droop10? I'm clueless

TheDrake wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 10:09 pm So what's the significance of the name droop10? I'm clueless

It’s Dennis Dixon’s insta

dthomas=ddixon wrote:

TheDrake wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 10:09 pm So what's the significance of the name droop10? I'm clueless

It’s Dennis Dixon’s insta

Wait, are you Darron Thomas AND Dennis Dixon?!


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