Embarrassed? No. Need to find something on defense, yes. Lost to a better team. UCLA still having a great season with more to do. Next up.. Furd.. just don't want the ducks to beat us two weeks in a row.
I think you're both right. Yeah, today was embarrassing. I'm sure none of the team is proud of the defensive execution. But it doesn't make them bad. Hopefully it makes them hungry to prove today's game was an aberration.
I think it was a perfect storm of Oregon playing its best game of the year and our defense coming back to earth. Felt the same way watching this game as i did the 49ers Chiefs game. As long as the 49ers could match the Chiefs on offense, it would be a game, but the second the 49ers had to settle for a field goal, the Chiefs pulled a way all because the Chiefs offense imposed their will against the 9er D for 60 minutes. Same with UCLA's defense. Oregon had their number. They needed 2 yards, they got 3. They wanted a 7 yard pass? They got it. They wanted a deep ball? completion. I think until the last possession Oregon scored on every possession?
A bad day, but it just removes the Bruins cushion. Now they need to refocus and win out, which will get them a trip to Vegas and possibly a chance at revenge.
..well, it certainly would NOT be precedent-setting. Long time ago, we lost to Duffy Daugherty's Michigan State 13-3 in 1965 and came back to beat them in the Rose Bowl, 14-12. Also, in the 1976 Rose Bowl, we beat Ohio State 23-10 after Woody Hayes' team beat UCLA 41-20 in the Mausoleum that previous October. Both of the Big 10 teams were either National Champs or ranked number 1 when they played UCLA.
The 1965 Bruins were coached by Tommy Prothro for their first Rose Bowl Win and the 1975 Bruins were coached by Dick Vermeil for their second.
If the Chip Shot wants to approach anything close to noteworthiness as a UCLA coach, he will take the material he has accumulated now and win out. But it is surely a shame he could not go back to Oregon and win. Not to come down on Chip, however, it was apparent who worked harder during the two-week layoff that both teams had. Clearly, Oregon was not the same team that had it's ass handed to it by Georgia, 49-3.
Either this is a wake up call for Chip to recruit, or this is as good as the Bruins ever will be. A good Bruin team was bewitched, bothered, bewildered and baffled, not to mention steamrolled and embarrassed, by a more gooder Duck team.
I hope this at least puts to bed the narrative that Oregon is a fraud
All week I’ve been hearing how Oregon is trash for getting embarrassed to Georgia, like teams don’t improve throughout the season and like that wasn’t a defacto away game against the defending champs
We’re better than this but we did get out coached and out talented. I hope the team comes out angry these next few weeks and uses this as motivation to throttle Stanford/ASU.
I also hope that Chip realizes that this is why you can’t just hit the transfer portal to fill your roster spots, and you need talent on more than the first string
Totally agree - and, as bad as yesterday was, just like Oregon wasn't trash for getting hammered in a defacto road game against an elite team, neither are we for getting hammered in our defacto first true road game, or at least first road game against non-Colorado competition.
Now the task is on Chip and the player-led leadership group to improve throughout the back half of the season and get back to a neutral site rematch - we failed the midterm, the term paper and final are still to come.
That’s not a fair comparison, as Alabama put up 49 points. We would’ve won with that kind of offense.
It is only one loss, but it’s a loss that might reveal the ceiling level for our program under this current Chip’s leadership. That could be much more of a L, if we really have championship aspirations.
The only thing that slowed the Ducks was opting for PAT instead of going for 2 point conversions. That would have given them 50. And you don't think they could have scored again in the final 2 minutes instead of managing the clock?
I'm glad the Bruins are angry, and hope they direct it positively.
Two great offenses against two meh defenses. They went for TDs, we settled for FGs, and they won. It looked like Ducks realized that defenses weren't going to stop anything, so that onsides kick was a genius play, giving them one extra offensive possession. It was the play that changed the game tbh. After this play, it was obvious that Ducks had no respect for our D, and honestly, why should they? I heard people say this wasn't embarrassing, but what do you call it when a player on the sidelines who isn't even playing gets called for unsportsmanlike conduct? Pretty f'n embarrassing, and that lands fully on the Chipster, since head coach sets the culture. Hopefully we can win out and meet these Ducks again on a neutral field and hopefully get a different ending.
Great stuff, bruinballer. Like everyone, I was really surprised about that onside kick. I think the main/only reason you try that there is that you've seen some tendency on film that makes you think that's open, so credit to their coaches for scouting that, and enormous credit to the kicker for perfect execution. It's really hard to kick a pointy oblong object that straight and exactly the right distance. I agree with you that onside kick determined the course of the game from that point. It worked just like a turnover.
Joe, I gave you your headline: "Oregon Nixes Bruins' Hopes".
Alas.
The good news...we win the rest of our games (and there's no reason we can't) and we get to play those guys again at a neutral site in a few weeks for the P12 title.
The bad news...I think this game demonstrates a ceiling effect of this team and particularly its staff. I believe an offense can be successful with solid players and a creative scheme and good play calling, and Chip Kelly is demonstrating this pretty regularly. However, I don't think that approach works for defense. A successful defense is far more reliant on having high end talent to go along with the scheme and play calls. And because the Bruins (and formerly Oregon's) recruiting under Kelly has been pretty average, we are highly vulnerable on the defensive end if we can't get out to a big lead and make an opponent one dimensional. We have a bunch of solid defensive players, but are guys like Latu or Osling or Blaylock game wreckers and difference makers on defense? I love them, but I don't think they are. And that got demonstrated pretty regularly today. Like on every Oregon drive until the game was in the bag. Until we recruit and develop some top end defensive monsters (and esp at linebacker...today...oof) a high powered opponent is gonna put up big numbers on us.
If we get embarrassed, again, we will be at that fork in the road. Will we decide to stick with Chip and be merely good, or attempt to find another coach to take us to the elite level?
A little bit of being smacked in the mouth might be just need what this team needs to push themselves to another level. How they react to adversity will define this season.
Your last sentence nailed it. Time will tell. Not that I want this team to have a perfect season but the loss befuddled me. Just when I was beginning to think that perhaps we are indeed peaking at the right time, here comes this disappointment. This is life I guess.
Spot on! I would expect the Bruin players to come out of this more poised and hungry. I believe this will not define us by season's end, given the leadership (and talent) of DTR and Charbonnet.
I hope you are correct. I honestly do because my alma almater has been maligned for so long. A word of caution here. Two players do not a team make. Labron James cannot win every championship by himself.
Honestly, I attribute our winning season far more to these two, and far less to coaching. And I seem to recall some laker teams winning based largely on the play of a superstar duo.
Obviously not applicable to our team, but just wanted to throw that out there :-)
Yes and no, my friend. The Lakers' Jabbar and Magic tandem was unbeatable in the early eighties. At their peak, these two alone could indeed handle some also ran basketball teams handily. But football teams require more manpower, cohesion among players and coaching strategies. I also wonder. Have we only recognized recently that Chip wants to win with transfers - on the cheap, in other words - and does not care to recruit ? Sure, he may seem to have yet tamped down on the prospect of coaching change with those wins so far. But is this all we want from our team, year in and year out ?!?
One other factor which hasn't been discussed but I noticed right away...no Pre Game Guesses yesterday. Never mind the defense. We can pin this L squarely on Stephen. ;-)
It's back to reality for Chip Kelly and the Bruins. The bye week didn't seem to help, except to over-inflate their ranking and giving fans false hope. Being outcoached and lacking an effective defense have been agonizing to watch. Curious to see how they perform after this loss and what they can accomplish the rest of the season.
Not talking about one or a few players to fill in and help out.. But you can not build an entire defense on them. DTR was recruited out of high school. It was obvious that UCLA's DB's did not have the talent or speed to cover the Oregon receivers.
The teams with highly ranked recruiting classes are the teams that consistently are in the top 20. UCLA has consistently been rated far back in the ratings during the Chip era. UCLA is rated 89th in the current ratings, just ahead of Kent State and behind Florida Atlantic. 62nd for the class of 2022, 33rd in 2021.---not one five star and a few four stars. Before Chip, we were always in the top 20 with a couple five stars. Top teams--Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas and Note Dame, Oregon, Texas A&M have consistently been in the top ten
With the current AP listings, Tennessee is the only top 5 school with a true transfer QB. Only three out of the top 11 have a transfer QB, and sc’s was recruited out of high school by his coach, so it’s more like two out of eleven. That should prove that it’s best to have strong high school recruiting COMBINED with great transfers.
There have been several articles regarding studies on the correlation of strength of recruiting classes and performance. Do not know if links are allowed but a Google search will easily find them. Here is a good one showing the correlation is around .785: https://uga.rivals.com/news/the-correlation-between-recruiting-classes-ap-rankings
We were embarrassed by a better team.
Embarrassed? No. Need to find something on defense, yes. Lost to a better team. UCLA still having a great season with more to do. Next up.. Furd.. just don't want the ducks to beat us two weeks in a row.
I have my doubts, dad, but still some hope.
I think you're both right. Yeah, today was embarrassing. I'm sure none of the team is proud of the defensive execution. But it doesn't make them bad. Hopefully it makes them hungry to prove today's game was an aberration.
I think it was a perfect storm of Oregon playing its best game of the year and our defense coming back to earth. Felt the same way watching this game as i did the 49ers Chiefs game. As long as the 49ers could match the Chiefs on offense, it would be a game, but the second the 49ers had to settle for a field goal, the Chiefs pulled a way all because the Chiefs offense imposed their will against the 9er D for 60 minutes. Same with UCLA's defense. Oregon had their number. They needed 2 yards, they got 3. They wanted a 7 yard pass? They got it. They wanted a deep ball? completion. I think until the last possession Oregon scored on every possession?
A bad day, but it just removes the Bruins cushion. Now they need to refocus and win out, which will get them a trip to Vegas and possibly a chance at revenge.
100% agree. If im chip i make the new goal/motivation of the team to get back to the pac 12 championship for a rematch
..well, it certainly would NOT be precedent-setting. Long time ago, we lost to Duffy Daugherty's Michigan State 13-3 in 1965 and came back to beat them in the Rose Bowl, 14-12. Also, in the 1976 Rose Bowl, we beat Ohio State 23-10 after Woody Hayes' team beat UCLA 41-20 in the Mausoleum that previous October. Both of the Big 10 teams were either National Champs or ranked number 1 when they played UCLA.
The 1965 Bruins were coached by Tommy Prothro for their first Rose Bowl Win and the 1975 Bruins were coached by Dick Vermeil for their second.
If the Chip Shot wants to approach anything close to noteworthiness as a UCLA coach, he will take the material he has accumulated now and win out. But it is surely a shame he could not go back to Oregon and win. Not to come down on Chip, however, it was apparent who worked harder during the two-week layoff that both teams had. Clearly, Oregon was not the same team that had it's ass handed to it by Georgia, 49-3.
Either this is a wake up call for Chip to recruit, or this is as good as the Bruins ever will be. A good Bruin team was bewitched, bothered, bewildered and baffled, not to mention steamrolled and embarrassed, by a more gooder Duck team.
I think we've seen peak Chip.
I hope this at least puts to bed the narrative that Oregon is a fraud
All week I’ve been hearing how Oregon is trash for getting embarrassed to Georgia, like teams don’t improve throughout the season and like that wasn’t a defacto away game against the defending champs
We’re better than this but we did get out coached and out talented. I hope the team comes out angry these next few weeks and uses this as motivation to throttle Stanford/ASU.
I also hope that Chip realizes that this is why you can’t just hit the transfer portal to fill your roster spots, and you need talent on more than the first string
Then we’re in trouble. It’ll be death by attrition.
And as has been repeated time and again, the transfer portal is not enough to over come roster deficiencies.
Even with free agency in the NFL, the best teams use that AND intelligent drafting plus strong development to built a consistent contender.
Fact of the matter is UCLA will never get back to the top of the sport consistently until they start recruiting blue chip HS talent better
Fantastic points, E. Totally agree.
Totally agree - and, as bad as yesterday was, just like Oregon wasn't trash for getting hammered in a defacto road game against an elite team, neither are we for getting hammered in our defacto first true road game, or at least first road game against non-Colorado competition.
Now the task is on Chip and the player-led leadership group to improve throughout the back half of the season and get back to a neutral site rematch - we failed the midterm, the term paper and final are still to come.
Meh. I pegged this game as a loss right from the start. Whether by one point or a hundred, it's still just one L. We'll see them again in Vegas.
The Alabama D gave up 52 points last week. And tgey are MUCH better than we are. Time to focus on Stanford. We got beat today.
That’s not a fair comparison, as Alabama put up 49 points. We would’ve won with that kind of offense.
It is only one loss, but it’s a loss that might reveal the ceiling level for our program under this current Chip’s leadership. That could be much more of a L, if we really have championship aspirations.
Embarrassed is a strong word. Judging by postgame interviews, our players are more angry than embarrassed by the lack of execution.
It’s the toughest adversity we faced but our offense kept fighting until the end. I’m sure our team has a lot to learn from this game.
You wanna see embarrassed - MS State and Mike Leach vs Alabama, and Ole Miss lost by an even bigger margin against an unranked team.
The only thing that slowed the Ducks was opting for PAT instead of going for 2 point conversions. That would have given them 50. And you don't think they could have scored again in the final 2 minutes instead of managing the clock?
I'm glad the Bruins are angry, and hope they direct it positively.
Two great offenses against two meh defenses. They went for TDs, we settled for FGs, and they won. It looked like Ducks realized that defenses weren't going to stop anything, so that onsides kick was a genius play, giving them one extra offensive possession. It was the play that changed the game tbh. After this play, it was obvious that Ducks had no respect for our D, and honestly, why should they? I heard people say this wasn't embarrassing, but what do you call it when a player on the sidelines who isn't even playing gets called for unsportsmanlike conduct? Pretty f'n embarrassing, and that lands fully on the Chipster, since head coach sets the culture. Hopefully we can win out and meet these Ducks again on a neutral field and hopefully get a different ending.
Great stuff, bruinballer. Like everyone, I was really surprised about that onside kick. I think the main/only reason you try that there is that you've seen some tendency on film that makes you think that's open, so credit to their coaches for scouting that, and enormous credit to the kicker for perfect execution. It's really hard to kick a pointy oblong object that straight and exactly the right distance. I agree with you that onside kick determined the course of the game from that point. It worked just like a turnover.
The sad thing is this is exactly the kind of thing Oregon Chip would’ve tried. Instead, older Chip had his special teams unprepared.
Great call on this; I appreciate the perspective!
Joe, I gave you your headline: "Oregon Nixes Bruins' Hopes".
Alas.
The good news...we win the rest of our games (and there's no reason we can't) and we get to play those guys again at a neutral site in a few weeks for the P12 title.
The bad news...I think this game demonstrates a ceiling effect of this team and particularly its staff. I believe an offense can be successful with solid players and a creative scheme and good play calling, and Chip Kelly is demonstrating this pretty regularly. However, I don't think that approach works for defense. A successful defense is far more reliant on having high end talent to go along with the scheme and play calls. And because the Bruins (and formerly Oregon's) recruiting under Kelly has been pretty average, we are highly vulnerable on the defensive end if we can't get out to a big lead and make an opponent one dimensional. We have a bunch of solid defensive players, but are guys like Latu or Osling or Blaylock game wreckers and difference makers on defense? I love them, but I don't think they are. And that got demonstrated pretty regularly today. Like on every Oregon drive until the game was in the bag. Until we recruit and develop some top end defensive monsters (and esp at linebacker...today...oof) a high powered opponent is gonna put up big numbers on us.
We’ll see how we fare, if we get the rematch.
If we get embarrassed, again, we will be at that fork in the road. Will we decide to stick with Chip and be merely good, or attempt to find another coach to take us to the elite level?
A little bit of being smacked in the mouth might be just need what this team needs to push themselves to another level. How they react to adversity will define this season.
Your last sentence nailed it. Time will tell. Not that I want this team to have a perfect season but the loss befuddled me. Just when I was beginning to think that perhaps we are indeed peaking at the right time, here comes this disappointment. This is life I guess.
Spot on! I would expect the Bruin players to come out of this more poised and hungry. I believe this will not define us by season's end, given the leadership (and talent) of DTR and Charbonnet.
I hope you are correct. I honestly do because my alma almater has been maligned for so long. A word of caution here. Two players do not a team make. Labron James cannot win every championship by himself.
Honestly, I attribute our winning season far more to these two, and far less to coaching. And I seem to recall some laker teams winning based largely on the play of a superstar duo.
Obviously not applicable to our team, but just wanted to throw that out there :-)
Yes and no, my friend. The Lakers' Jabbar and Magic tandem was unbeatable in the early eighties. At their peak, these two alone could indeed handle some also ran basketball teams handily. But football teams require more manpower, cohesion among players and coaching strategies. I also wonder. Have we only recognized recently that Chip wants to win with transfers - on the cheap, in other words - and does not care to recruit ? Sure, he may seem to have yet tamped down on the prospect of coaching change with those wins so far. But is this all we want from our team, year in and year out ?!?
One other factor which hasn't been discussed but I noticed right away...no Pre Game Guesses yesterday. Never mind the defense. We can pin this L squarely on Stephen. ;-)
Been thinking about Stephen after Ian hit.....hope he is doing ok!
Dam, I hate the morning after.
It's back to reality for Chip Kelly and the Bruins. The bye week didn't seem to help, except to over-inflate their ranking and giving fans false hope. Being outcoached and lacking an effective defense have been agonizing to watch. Curious to see how they perform after this loss and what they can accomplish the rest of the season.
As has been pointed out many times before, the bye week ends up being the kiss of death to Kelly-coached UCLA teams.
QUESTION: How many four and five star high school players has UCLA successfully recruited in the last three years?
QUESTION: How many four and five star high school players has U$C or Oregon or Georgia or etc. recruited in the last three years?
Good coaching alone can not make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Never be an elite team with only portal transfer players.
Not talking about one or a few players to fill in and help out.. But you can not build an entire defense on them. DTR was recruited out of high school. It was obvious that UCLA's DB's did not have the talent or speed to cover the Oregon receivers.
The teams with highly ranked recruiting classes are the teams that consistently are in the top 20. UCLA has consistently been rated far back in the ratings during the Chip era. UCLA is rated 89th in the current ratings, just ahead of Kent State and behind Florida Atlantic. 62nd for the class of 2022, 33rd in 2021.---not one five star and a few four stars. Before Chip, we were always in the top 20 with a couple five stars. Top teams--Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas and Note Dame, Oregon, Texas A&M have consistently been in the top ten
With the current AP listings, Tennessee is the only top 5 school with a true transfer QB. Only three out of the top 11 have a transfer QB, and sc’s was recruited out of high school by his coach, so it’s more like two out of eleven. That should prove that it’s best to have strong high school recruiting COMBINED with great transfers.
There have been several articles regarding studies on the correlation of strength of recruiting classes and performance. Do not know if links are allowed but a Google search will easily find them. Here is a good one showing the correlation is around .785: https://uga.rivals.com/news/the-correlation-between-recruiting-classes-ap-rankings
That link is dated January 2021.
Dam, I hate the morning after.