tore it up last week:

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Football is a game, one we all love, but it is still just a game. Sometimes it brings us moments bigger than the game:

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In a new weekly feature on Rivals.com, we take a look at the weekend’s standout performances from both college and pro football and pick one player from each star rankings group to spotlight.

This week's unranked player was former Oregon DB T.J. Ward. You can read the complete feature here.

TJ Ward

Recruiting revisited: Ward, a member of the Class of 2004, didn’t have a Rivals profile as a high school prospect even though he was part of Concord (Calif.) De La Salle’s 151-game high school win streak. After being injured early in his senior year of high school, he elected to walk-on at Oregon where he would earn a scholarship midway through his career.

What he did this week: Ward has been one of the stars of the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos defense and on Sunday he had a team-high eight tackles in his team’s 34-20 victory over Indianapolis. Despite struggling with injuries in college he has been a star during his NFL career, earning multiple Pro Bowl invitations as well as a Super Bowl ring with Denver last season.

Following his unofficial visit to Eugene for the Virginia game, DSA spoke with Brandon Pili to get his impressions of the visit and his recruiting so far.

DT Enjoys Visit:

Nothing new from this last week, but here are some of his senior year clips

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How good do you have to be for the Ducks to offer at that age?

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Tyrell Crosby ‏@Tyrellcrosby 20m20 minutes ago


Thank you everyone (especially the Oregon and Nebraska fans) for your get well tweets. I'll bounce back from this, I promise!

I caught up with Coach Cam and got what I could from him about Freeman's injury. He sounded fairly confident it wasn't a long-term thing. That and analysis of his unit against NU.

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Any news on his knee? That did not look good.

Recruiting has hit a dry spell from the commitment side of the equation. It feels like key recruits are going to be watching this game very closely. I have a feeling (or is that gas again ) our recruiting year will take an upward trajectory with a win. We're past due for a commitment.

Scott- good thoughts in your Fifth Quarter article. There are lots of questions remaining. Let's hope Helf and staff do all the right things going forward. Reading some of the Twitter posts of various team members there seems to be a vibe of maturity (read the tweets of Pharoah and Throckmotrton) and taking what was learned yesterday and using it to go forward.

Here are Mark's comments after the game.

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Ok guys...there has been many a time in my life I've had to step back and do what I titled this thread! Definately not saying anyone persons opinion is right or wrong & I'm not in the Helfrich love or hate camps.

But here is a little insight from a retired 20 year coach and high school & college athlete. DUCK alum, booster, and one who has seen good, bad, and ugly during my countless years of bleeding green and whatever color you want to put with it!

Helfrich...4th year coach
11-2 Alamo Bowl Winner
13-2 Rose Bowl Winner..Won 1st playoff game and played for Natty
9-4 "Forced" to Hire a bad D coordinator & yes I know this to be FACT...fielded one of the worst D's ever at Oregon...then was allowed to re-assign that coach! Has inherited bad recruiting at LB & Secondary that lies at the feet of Pellum, ONeal, Helfrich, Aliotti, and Chip. I also believe that the actual player development of Pellum, ONeal, and Frost has also played into where we are today.

Fact 1...4th year head coaches make mistakes
Fact 2...Having a first year DC & first year OC is going to cause some growing pains
Fact 3...We still have mediocre LB & Secondary personnel that I personally believe are not being developed very quickly & perhaps just are not talented
Fact 4...We have a greener than bird poop OL and another brand new QB in our system...we are an overall very young team
Fact 5...We lost arguably our two best if not our 3 best offensive players in the Nebraska game. Also had 2 key LB's not playing in a LB group that is far less than inspiring
Fact 6...We had a chance to win in the final minutes...these young men did not quit on their coaches and the coaches did not quit on the program
Fact 7...Stupid Penalties and dumb green horn mistakes hurt us again..coaches coach- players play, can both do better yes!
Fact 8...There is NEVER one player or one coach or one play that loses a game...
Fact 9...Nebraska is not some chump and it was at their place
Fact 10...It's the 3rd game of the year
Fact 11...If you think OREGON is going to roll out 11-12 game winning seasons EVERY damn year...you are in for a real miserable college football life!
Fact 12...MOST coaches & programs have in their history, some lean years, perhaps this is one of ours. Hopefully, we can get healthy and win 8+...get better recruiting, get some experience and win 11-12 for the following 3 years. GO DUCKS!!!

2017 4-star PF Ira Lee put Oregon in his Top 3 along with Cal and Arizona. Conventional wisdom states that it is a dead heat between Cal and Arizona. Can anybody on here give me the Oregon perspective? What are the odds he chooses the Ducks? I'd love to get some perspective to share with our Cal Rivals subscribers. Thanks!

With all this criticism flying around Helfrich on this board, I wonder if anyone knows if he actually has carte blanche on coaching hires. For example, we've heard, right here, from those in the know, that MH had little or nothing to do with DP's ascension to DC. And this fairly raises the question if he has has the discretion to hire and fire any or all of the staff.

We've had a stable, if not institutionalized staff at many positions for years. Amidst all the criticism leveled at our D and our apparent weaknesses at positions because of recruiting or (fill in the blanks), it seems fair to ask if this is on MH. Let's leave the offense out of this discussion for another day.

Anyone?

Hope I am wrong. Afraid the Marcus years were an anomaly.

Wear your cup.

Nebraska fan here, just dropping a note to any of you that are coming to Lincoln if you have any questions about the area or tailgating, etc...feel free to drop me a line.

Hoping for a good game this weekend, sounds like the weather is gonna be perfect.

apologies if this had been addressed in one of the other threads...was Troy Dye injured last weekend? I do not remember seeing him on the field at all.

I see a lot of people complaining about the head coach (something I'm prone to, also), from simply questioning his decisions (perfectly acceptable) through calling for his removal and attacking him personally (totally unacceptable). Many of those posts include a phrasing along the lines of, "I didn't like him from the beginning" but "I kept an open mind" and/or "I gave him a chance."

Large piles of odiferous bovine excrement.

- If you opine about a series of situations and the FIRST thing you say in each case is, "I never did like that guy" who you then blame for the situation...you are NOT open-minded.

- If you look at every decision, every hiring (or firing) based on "How would <fill in the blank> have done that?" instead of trying to see why the person who DID do it made that decision, you aren't open-minded.

- If your first impulse upon our team not succeeding at ANY aspect of the game is to criticize it as a shortcoming of the head coach, you aren't open-minded.

Not being open-minded isn't one of the "seven deadly sins"...but it is more than a touch disingenuous to claim it while prefacing your remarks with a statement noting your preconceived bias and then proving the reality of that bias.

I know we don't release much info on injuries but wondering if anyone has heard anything about Freeman, Crosby, Allen (who was already discussed in another thread) as well as why Dye and Jelks were not even there?

Former Ducks JJ Birden & Rod Green did a great job with their analysis of the Nebraska game. In the episode they breakdown and analyze some of the schemes and X's & O's that led to the narrow defeat.

Here it is:
http://thehuddlenetwork.com/oregon-nebraska-game-recap/

Enjoy & Go Ducks!

From Ken Woody's article on Register Guard app speaking to Ducks getting outscored in second half last week: "so it appears there might be some offensive and defensive let-down going on, made worse by penalties. This will be a concern for the coaches going forward as the Ducks' easy games are over."

This was also a big issue last year. Thoughts on why? Is it half time adjustments, or lack thereof? Player rotation? Or, is it not an issue at all?

To paraphrase Einstein...."the definition of Insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result."

Two point conversions.......insanity.

Helfridge must have been channealing Scott Frost and his...."let's run a reverse again".

Corey

Oregon's last opponent lost to UConn.

UConn lost to Navy and squeaked by Maine.

UC Davis lost to Wyoming 22 - 45

Talking with Matt Lubick after the Nebraska game.

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