SSFF… (Started Stumbled Farted and Fell)…That was
our wonderful (sic)
U of O Ducks on Saturday last. Or was it? Ah, the plot thickens. Actually
someone made a grave error and ran in North Eugene High School at the last minute. Perhaps I shouldn’t say that, but face it,
I’ve seen high school teams play with more fire than the Ducks did on Saturday against Arizona. Ever since the loss to Stanford and subsequently losing a shot at the title, our Ducks have played without desire. You could see it on their faces and practically read their minds: "Without the title game to shoot for, why work so hard?" and "Rose Bowl? been there, done that." And as for the look in the Arizona players' eyes we could see that they wanted to win,
they wanted this game and they wanted to beat Oregon.
Obviously, we were out-played, and certainly out-coached. When we got put down, we didn’t get up swingin’. Oh, there was an occasional effort, but in the words of Yoda "Do or do not, there is no try." Alabama doesn't have that choice. Their only option is to WIN! They have that fire. Their coach has that fire, their whole staff has that fire. We didn't, and sadly, don't. We “try”…We fail.
Mostly I blame the coaching. You can bet that if Chip Kelly was still here they would have won. He wouldn’t have let them lose. He wouldn’t have let them just "try" to win. I say get rid of this Mark Helfrich guy and get a decent coach. It’s like Chip gave Helfrich the keys to this finely tuned, extremely technical, perfectly working Maserati with these instructions: "Just keep it on the road." But Helfrich wasn’t qualified (or capable) of driving such a machine and ran it off the road. Whatever happened to the spread offence that worked so well? And what about Nick Allioti? How many times do you run your boys into solid stone wall before it dawns on you that "gee whiz, this doesn’t seem to be working." DUHH!
Do this: Add up the number of plays up the middle in both Stanford and Arizona games, and divide by how many times the play was successful. What’s the average? Is this good coaching? And what the hell happened to our defense? How is it that they can get to our Quarterback but we cannot get to theirs? When I played, it was hit and hit and hit again if necessary. Now it seems that our linemen hit and fall down, or worse, hit and hang on. I can’t say how sharp these linemen and defensive backs are, but it doesn’t take a lot of intellect to know that if you close your hands and/or arms on a opposing player in defense, you're going to get called for...wait for it…HOLDING…another DUHH. At the beginning of the season we were so confident in the red Zone and especially at the goal line, that we regularly went for 2. Now we can’t even punch it in from 2 feet out. I was so disappointed with Saturday’s game that I almost couldn’t finish my whiskey. Almost. I’ll tell you what - I’m seriously concerned about the civil war game. I can see it now - the icing on the cake - beaten by OSU. Oh the pain, the heartbreak, the shame. OH THE HUMANITY ...!
Obviously, we were out-played, and certainly out-coached. When we got put down, we didn’t get up swingin’. Oh, there was an occasional effort, but in the words of Yoda "Do or do not, there is no try." Alabama doesn't have that choice. Their only option is to WIN! They have that fire. Their coach has that fire, their whole staff has that fire. We didn't, and sadly, don't. We “try”…We fail.
Mostly I blame the coaching. You can bet that if Chip Kelly was still here they would have won. He wouldn’t have let them lose. He wouldn’t have let them just "try" to win. I say get rid of this Mark Helfrich guy and get a decent coach. It’s like Chip gave Helfrich the keys to this finely tuned, extremely technical, perfectly working Maserati with these instructions: "Just keep it on the road." But Helfrich wasn’t qualified (or capable) of driving such a machine and ran it off the road. Whatever happened to the spread offence that worked so well? And what about Nick Allioti? How many times do you run your boys into solid stone wall before it dawns on you that "gee whiz, this doesn’t seem to be working." DUHH!
Do this: Add up the number of plays up the middle in both Stanford and Arizona games, and divide by how many times the play was successful. What’s the average? Is this good coaching? And what the hell happened to our defense? How is it that they can get to our Quarterback but we cannot get to theirs? When I played, it was hit and hit and hit again if necessary. Now it seems that our linemen hit and fall down, or worse, hit and hang on. I can’t say how sharp these linemen and defensive backs are, but it doesn’t take a lot of intellect to know that if you close your hands and/or arms on a opposing player in defense, you're going to get called for...wait for it…HOLDING…another DUHH. At the beginning of the season we were so confident in the red Zone and especially at the goal line, that we regularly went for 2. Now we can’t even punch it in from 2 feet out. I was so disappointed with Saturday’s game that I almost couldn’t finish my whiskey. Almost. I’ll tell you what - I’m seriously concerned about the civil war game. I can see it now - the icing on the cake - beaten by OSU. Oh the pain, the heartbreak, the shame. OH THE HUMANITY ...!
One more thing. Who in hell makes the decisions concerning uniforms? This is ridiculous. Forgive me, but I think school colors are necessary! Who in their infinite wisdom decided that silver and gray (or whatever that color was) promotes school pride? Or brown/olive green or whatever that was? Why not just put them in fatigues. Oh wait, they did that too. Now I’m damn proud of my school colors. And I want to see them on my football team’s uniform. No college team needs 180 different football uniforms. I think 6 is plenty. Enough for home and away games, and enough for a little variety, but all having some yellow and/or green on them. U of O is a very well-to-do school thanks to our “special” alum, but it’s just plain rude to flaunt our financial position the way we do. Much better to take ½ to 2/3 of that revenue and use it on lowering tuition for low income students. See you next week.
G.B. Foonman
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