Sunday, August 31, 2008

My report Oregon 44 UW 10!

I am going to start out talking about Ducks special teams. I was a little disappointed with the field goal kicking. First missing a little chip shot that could have put us up 7pts at half and then the missed extra point. It didn't turn out to cost us but I just hope our field goal kicking doesn't become an issue as the year goes on. The Ducks punting and kickoffs looked significantely better then they have in the past. They were pinning the Huskies back inside the 20 yard line punting and booting 40 to 50 yard punts which ducks fans are not used to, and the kickoffs were either going out of the endzone or at the very least Washington was recieving the ball so far deep in the endzone that they would not return it. Ducks fans have not been used to that either. Overall our kicking game was pretty solid. I would give our filed goal kicking a C-, our punting a B+, and our kickoffs an A. On returning the ball the Ducks didn't get many chances but Jarius Byrd had a very nice punt return where he was breaking tackle after tackle, and I thought he was going to bring it to the house. It was very impressive. I would give the returners a B grade.

Next is the U of O offense. The QB situation is scary. they will now be using a 2 headed monster now that Roper has a concussion. I didn't see him take any big hits, is he just a softy or was there a legitiment hit there? Masoli was the primary QB used with spotted showings of Harper. They both played OK. Duck fans, How crazy is it to know that we will be going into ther next couple of games using our 3rd and 4th string QB's? Of course depending on how long Roper will be out. I loved seeing Masoli tryng to make plays while being flushed out of the pocket, he looked very good doing that. However it seemed as though when he was going out of the pocket he wasnt looking for something down field. He looked like he would take off from the pocket with no idea or intentions of what he wanted to do. Still looked great though. Just my opinon from what I saw, maybe i'm wrong. Harper also saw some time. However he didn't get a chance to throw the ball. No suprise there. UW coaching staff should have known that Harper has been having semi serious shoulder issues and that he most likely wasnt going to throw it especially as good as his running ability is. If I was UW I would have brought the house and made him throw it to see what he's got. They didn't do that and I thought Harper looked very impressive running the ball. I give the QB's a B-.

The Receivers and O-ling played pretty good. J- Will is still a freak athletically. I knew that as soon as he cought that ball for the TD he was gone and no one would get him. I am very excited about Terrance Scott who looked like the best reciever out on the field all night long. WOW! receivers. B+. The RB's JJ and Blount both looked really good running behind a solid O-Line. JJ made some very nice jukes and spins, while blount was running through people. blount was better then advirtised and I wish he would have got more carries. Not only is he a load to bring down, he is very fast with some jukes. I was expecting a Lendale White type back, but not only is he big, he is fast and quick. RBs/Oline B.

Defense was very tough. I thought that the Corners could have played a little better on man coverage but really not enough to complain about. The Front line was very dominant. They completely shut down the run and were able to contain locker pretty well. Our line played better than people think they should have in the experts opinions. however, I beleive our line backers are very good and they are a lot better then people think. Spencer Paysinger was a beast flying all over the field making play after play. Only a Sophamore, and I think that he was our best backer last night. WOW! LB get a B+, D-line B+, and secondary B.

Friday, August 29, 2008

The toughest shedules in college football

There is no question that the Pac-10 is the conference with the toughest schedules. As a fan of any conference you have to respect what the Pac 10 does. They are the only ones that added an extra conference game when the NCAA added a 12th game. It gets a little nasiating seeing these SEC teams get so much credit because of how tough the teams are in that conference. I'm not saying it isn't the toughest conference top to bottom... Don't get me wrong I think they are one of the best conferences. For example LSU non-conference schedule- Appalachian State, Troy, North Texas, and Tulane (All at home) there is 4 guarenteed wins. All they need is 2 more wins and they are bowl eligable. They beat Ole Miss and Miss St. both home as well and they will be bowl eligible. That is pretty pathetic for a program with the prestige of an LSU. I'm not saying that all SEC teams follow the LSU schedule of cream puffs, but every team not Pac 10 in the country chose to schedule one more non-conference because the coaches and athletic directors of other universities would rather schedule another North Texas, Alabama A&M, or Youngstown State. Scheduling another conference game might possibly mean another loss. And we wouldn't want teams to actually earn their bowl games. That being said... IT IS TIME THE REST OF THE COUNTRY FOLLOW SUIT AND MAN UP... EARN YOUR BOWL... QUIT DODGING OPPONENTS... IT PROVES NOTHING.

Now back to the Ducks game. Living in Seattle, I have had the opportunity to listen to quite a bit of local Huskies radio and make no mistake about it... they have nothing to lose. It is tough to start a season out with this rivalry and I fully expect the Huskies to be prepared. They have lost 4 in a row to the Ducks. Their coach who all of the players seem to have a great amount of respect for is on the hottest seat in college football. If the Huskies lose this it could be the beginning of the for Tyrone Willingham. Their schedule is absolutely brutal. One of the writers in the Seattle Times reported that "this is the most important opening game in ever for Husky football." No one is putting more pressure on the Huskies than themselves... and that is what scares me. I might feel better about it if we played Utah State or Boise State before we started a conference game. At least I would know something about the team before playing Pac 10 games. Either team could be out of a shot of a conference title before they even know what they really have, and that is the scary thing about starting off with a conference game, and a rival at that. With that said, I fully predict that the Ducks Defense will be too much for the Huskies to handle. I could see the Ducks defense forcing 3 plus turnovers and if that happens I don't really see the Huskies able to overcome that. The noise and craziness that is Autzen Stadium will also be a big factor. If the crowd noise causes false starts or delay of games, or if it even causes Washington to use timeouts prematurely than that will also be very tough to overcome. As tough as it is to know this is our opening game, it brings excitement that you usually don't get until mid to late season. I know I'm excited...

GO DUCKS!!

Trash

Real quick

this is not a full post but more of an update. I won't be posting tonight but am getting a good night sleep for the home/pac 10 opener for the DUCKS tomorrow at the Mecca of college football Autzen Stadium in Euegen, OR. It's going to be a tough game to open up the season. Trash what's your take on opening the season with a conference game? And its a rivalry game which makes it even tougher. the atmosphere inside and outside of Autzen cannot be matched on a regular day game let alone a season home opener night game against a rival. this will be an amazing experience, and you can expect a full report on Sunday or Monday. I will be critiquing everything and giving my own grades from my grading scale. EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT LABOR DAY WEEKEND. GO DUCKS

Smitty

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Was that a good showing for the Beavers?

I cant stand all of the biased talk that goes on about OSU. "That they do more with less", or "if Riley had what belotti had they would have won a national championship", or "that Riley is a better coach then Belotti". Give me a break. 95% of the people that talk trash abut the ducks A) are jealous of what they have (Money, phil Knight, Facilities, and better recruiting) or B) our success. Granted OSU has been over achieving for the last couple of years, but that's only because they have low expectations. Belotti has built the program to such power that nothing but success is expected no matter what happens. Mediocrity is accepted at OSU an that is why they . "over achieve" so often" The Ducks and Beavers have very similar records over the last deccade with OSU having theadge in bowl wins (due to playing weaker teams in less revenued Bowl games). What I'm getting at is that it was some what poetic justice to see an overhyped overrated Beavers team go into Palo Alto and start the conference season off 0-1 all while losing to one of the weaker teams in the PAC-10. I fully predict OSU will not make a bowl game this year which will be acceptable by the so called "Beaver Nation" because medocrity is expected and acceptable.

You look at what U of O endured last year with with Paysinger going down after week 2, Colvin going down against Cal, John Bacon starting Middle linebacker out for season, Jerimiah Johnon out for season, and then of course Dennis dixon heisman canidate out for season. Then you look at Clemens going down after all the success they had, and now Costa going down for season. I know that they have already used Costas red shirt, but I sure hope they can get him a mediccal redshirt and he can have 3 years of elligibility left over. I don't see why not because Oregon State WR Sammie Stroughter received a medical red shirt after playing 4 games and then getting injured. Fair is fair right?

Anticipation and Predictions

So college football is here and I havn't officially made any predictions yet... so here I go. I will start with the Pac-10. I have USC winning the Pac-10 again with my Ducks taking number 2 followed by ASU. Cal will finish fourth and Arizona fifth. Oregon State, Washington, Stanford, and Wazzu will finish the Pac-10 in that order. My pick for the Big 12 is Missouri and for the Big-10 I have Ohio State. I have Florida as the SEC champ, South Florida as the Big East champ, and Clemson as the ACC champ. My Heisman pick is Chase Daniels. He has all the tools, great players around him and have only gotten better from the last year with their experience. Other Finalists at the end of the year will be Tim Tebow, Beanie Wells, and Sam Bradford. MY upset of the year is going to be Utah over Michigan. Sorry Michigan but you just might have another tough season and another large upset... but that remains to be seen. My suprise team of the year will be South Florida. I predict that South Florida will be a top 12 team at the end of the year. Matt Grothe is a good quarterback and has a winning attitude. And they may have the defensive player of the year with Selvie. They will be a tough team. One team that I think might struggle this year other than Michigan is LSU they do have great athletes but their question mark at qb might hurt their season. They lost some other players so I think this is the year where Les Miles can prove what kind of a coach he is and we will see if Gary Crowten is the offensive genius that everyone in Baton Rouge thinks he is. I don't think so and I think their offense will struggle.
I'm so pumped for another season of college football. The atmosphere is what does it for me. The rivals, the crowd noise, the craziness, the tailgaiting, and just the special bond that I have with my school that I can't quite seem to find with professional sports. It is amazing gives me chills just thinking about it.

News out of Eugene say Costa out for season. That is actually a good thing though. I don't think that he would have been ready for game speed even if he did come back in week 8 or 9. Now the team knows what quarterback is going to be leading the team from game 1 and there is no question about it. He can get a medical redshirt and still have 3 years of eligability left. I think the only question now is will he ever play for the Ducks. That is a lot of time to miss and now they need to work on developing other quarterbacks. One of these guys might improve over time and become a clear cut starter and have a long tenure. Who knows but I see this as a good thing going into the season. Obviously I would want Costa to start but with the injury this will be better for the team in the long run.

Trash

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Nice to meet ya.

My name is smitty and just the same as trash this is my first blogging experience. I just cant get enough of sports and this is a great way for me to stay current and interactive on whats going on in sports locally and globally. I am aslo a graduate of the "MECCA" that they call the one, the ony, the University of Oregon. I love all sports and competition and anything is fair game for dicussion. You will find me talking about hot topics and maybe some things that you have not even heard of. I welcome any one to have an opionion about the topics I post about or the posts I leave. Any kind of thoughts, opinons, or critisizims are welcome. Too many times when I talk sports I get interupted and cannot finish my thoughts. This allows me to say what I want, when I want, uniterupted. The more eyes that see this and read the better.

Come one
Come all
See what its all about and share you thoughts.

Smitty

Welcome to The NW Sports Report.

My name is Trash and this is my first blogging expierence. I am only one of the author's of this blog. I am a graduate from the great University of Oregon. I am very passionate about the Ducks as I am sure you will find out as time goes on. I enjoy sports more than anything and I am very excited to have this opportunity to express my feelings about sports. I couldn't have started this blog at a better time. College football is one of my favorite times of the year. I am doing this because it is fun for me to do. I would like to see other people take interest and provide feedback on my posts. Negative feedback and criticism is just as welcome as positive feedback. If I only have 1 reader I will be happy but obviously I would prefer a high number of viewers. I will discuss a wide range of topics from the four major sports to whatever might be a big story at the time i.e. Tennis, U.S. Open, Michael Phelps. I will ring in on many different topics even some local stories such as: Winterhawks hockey, Pac-10 athletics, and possibly other amatuer sports in the area. I look forward to posting daily ( or almost daily) and getting more involved in reading and reacting to other blogs and sports forums. Time for me to catch some z's so I can wake up early put in my 8 hours and be ready for college football to start tommorrow. Most important game for me is the Stanford vs. Oregon State game. I would look for Oregon State to win that one but always a tough start to the season with a conference game first... should be interesting... I can't wait.
Happy opening weekend of College Football to everyone.

Trash