At the end of the game, Daewood Davis alertly picked up a squib kick and ran it 33 yards to the Auburn 36.

The Ducks had time for one more play and a chance to steal the game.

I feel like if Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Marcus Mariota or Vernon Adams had been the quarterback for that play, everybody on the offense and on the Oregon sideline would be believing "we got them right where we want them."

Please understand, I'm not talking about Justin Herbert's ability. The dude has a rocket right arm. I'm talking about the way those guys, Smith, Harrington, Mariota, Adams, would PROJECT in that situation.

They weren't infallible. They might fail. But the attitude they'd bring to that last chance would be one of we're not giving up until we're out of bullets. Harrington, in similar situations, would have gone from player to player along the bench. I remember one afternoon against ASU, "WE'RE NOT GOING TO LOSE THIS GAME."

A shot from the 36 with Justin Herbert throwing is a very viable shot. He can pick a fly off a goal post from there.

Somebody runs around and gives him a window, they can shock the world.

Herbert shuffled up in the pocket, found time to throw and heaved it.

It sailed on him and flew well out of the end zone.

But a big part of succeeding in those situations is having the attitude we're never dead.

Justin Peelle, Jeff Maehl, Pat Johnson went down in Oregon history for making plays in crazy, last-hope moments.

I feel like Oregon has lost a little of the plucky underdog mentality that allowed them to pull games out of the fire. I'm not quite sure why. But remember Maehl at Arizona, or the crazy onside kick versus OU, or Masoli trucking an OSU defender on 4th and 2?

You have to be bigger than the moment to make plays like that. You can't be an Adam Morrison crying at midcourt. You have to have a determination that today we're going to write the script, not our opponent.

Oregon has had so many wrenching losses, partly because they try so hard and they're always in games. Yesterday's goes down as one for the Hall of Infamy, leading for 59 minutes, 51 seconds before it slipped away.

The Ducks had one last chance and I'm not sure they fully believed it was a chance.

Not blaming the loss on anyone, especially not Justin. Just saying to get back to that championship level, you have to allow room for miracles and the impossible, always ready to take one more shot.

Lot's of familiar names, especially Figgins who moved up to Sheldon from Cally, and several other P12 commits. Not the best year, but probably not the worst.


https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/g...hool-football-preseason-allstate-offense.html

Rivals250 QB Malik Hornsby has pressed reset on his recruitment and new suitors are lining up.

"Everybody" is in play, he says.


He has one official visit on deck and communication with schools from the SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and the hometown Houston


➡️https://rvls.co/2HJGDrz

Krysten caught up with the nation's No. 3 wing following his SC OV to get the latest. Ducks likely to get one of his final OV's but not for sure (until he shows up lol)

Ziaire Williams update

The coaches got their asses handed to them.

Just had a chance to catch up with five star offense of Lyman Bryce Foster from Katy, Texas

Foster, who camped in Oregon over the summer and has become a top target for the ducks and the 2021 class tells me he will be in Dallas this weekend to watch Oregon play Auburn

I’ll have a full reaction on Monday, but Foster said he really likes Oregon and despite being a pack 12 team likes how Coach crstobal is making the team a more physical contender moving forward

The good.

Defense, it's going to be a strength both this year, and in coming years. I really liked what I saw from that group. I know they let up those late scores, but really, they were on the field basically the whole 2nd half. We are lacking depth along the DL, and it showed. Especially at Nose Tackle. I thought despite losing a wheel route, again (why do we keep missing these?) the linebackers showed well, as did the secondary. I would have liked to have gotten more pressure on Nix without needing to bring extra bodies, but kudo's to the Auburn OL as they also played well.

The offense...well...ok, you have to take into account that Auburn has a very good defense, especially along the DL. I thought the OL did about as well as they could and that the depleted WR core did about as much as they could. Which means the running backs (who missed TON of pass pro blocks) and Herbert were well, not very good.

However, I think the players played well enough to win.

I have one HUGE gripe, and it's the same exact one I had last year, so don't give me the excuse that the coaches are young and learning. They struggled, big time, with in game and half time adjustments last year and in my opinion, that struggle cost Oregon one, if not two games.

Where were our halftime adjustments? Where were the in game adjustments? I didn't see any, but I sure saw Auburn make some.

I saw improvement, especially defensively. I liked the improvement of the wide outs catching the dang ball. I liked what I saw out of the defense. But what I have seen in 1 year and 1 game doesn't show me any improvement whatsoever on the offensive side of the ball, specifically play calling and scheme.

I know Mario wants to beat opponents into submission, but his job is to win games with what he has, not what he wants. You can do that once you have the horses to do that with, but until then, you need to be more cognizant of the what you actually have to play with.

There is no shame in losing that game the other night. I can't speak for others, but that wasn't what upset me. I honestly didn't think we had much of a chance anyway, so it was a nice surprise. But to continually lose games because you're HC is too stubborn to try something other than student body left and student body right is not good.

I said when hired...I love that he can recruit. Now can he coach? So far, I don't know if he can yet.

As do Cam Smith and Jake Browning. Mitchell must have tuned in Sat.


https://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/...h-oregon-ties-who-joined-practice-squads.html

Here are five of my takeaways from the Auburn game including a trip down memory lane to the 2009 Boise State game.

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A statistical analysis by Dan Orlovsky, a quarterback who spent 13 years in the NFL and is now an analyst for ESPN

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The Ducks threw mainly short, but that was a reasonable game plan given the strength of the Auburn defense.

Herbert was putting the ball right on guys. In the second half before the Hail Mary he was 18-19.

For the game 28-37 for 242 yards, 75.7% completions against a very good defense in a high pressure game.

Be interesting to see how he'll do once he gets some of his targets back, along with developing more trust and timing with Spencer Webb, Josh Delgado, and an improved Jaylon Redd and Johnny Johnson III, who both had good games yesterday.

The throw to Webb under pressure for the 20-yard TD, plus the way his RS freshman tight end skied for the ball and snatched it out of the air, that was a great play by both of them.

The 47-yard completion to JJIII was one of the few times the Ducks had a guy wide, wide open.

They'll have better chances against some more malleable competition, but really, a good start for the Oregon passing game. Auburn tackles so well, usually right after the catch. In future games they'll have more opportunities one-on-one in space.

Like the way they used Redd on those quick screens. Got the offense immediately in rhythm. He's a threat to break one of those down the line every so often. And it sets up the vertical route Darron Thomas used to use so well.

Have they completely given up on the Jet Sweep? Seems like it might add a little variety to the attack.

Man! I almost forgot another real positive, the punter. It has been awhile since we haven’t had to worry about punting, but Blake Maimone was an elite punter last night. Long, and deep, I believe they announced in the second half Blake had averaged over 50 yards a punt. Now that is a huge improvement.

Jack Sears decision to enter the transfer portal and J.T. Daniels getting injured the next day got me to thinking.

Oregon hasn't faced this issue much yet, but they're recruiting a lot of talented players. A year or two down the road, attrition could go through the roof.

How can anybody field a two-deep or have a balanced roster with all this movement?

At the same time, the players aren't getting paid, and their coaches are getting millions and can change jobs at will.