Nevada-Oregon 3rd Quarter Thoughts

No, I'm not posting here because I think it's time to fire Ault. If we play like this against San Jose State, we'll talk.

It's easy to forget this, but, when Oregon isn't playing NFL-level defenses fielded by SEC teams, this is precisely what they do to people. Even against LSU, they managed to score 27 points while committing four turnovers. Most teams would be fortunate to score at all under such conditions. Last year, they did what they are doing to us against just about every team on their schedule until Auburn proved that, yes, it's possible to stop Oregon's high octane offense if you field the Carolina Panther's starting defense against it.

The good news, at least from where I'm sitting, is our offense is moving the ball fairly effectively against a solid defense. Granted, there have been a few miscues, and it's clear our offensive line isn't as solid as it was last year, but Lantrip looks comfortable back there and our running game is holding its own. When we're not playing national championship contenders, it will be much more obvious that we've only lost half a step there since last year. Our defense, meanwhile... well, it's not really fair to knock them. Our secondary is about as mediocre as always, but our linebackers are doing a good job of pressuring the quarterback. Sadly, Oregon's offense is explicitly built to punish teams when they pressure the quarterback, or when they attempt to focus on coverage, or when they attempt to stop the run, or when they step on to the field at all.

The simple truth is Oregon is really, really good, and has a lot more talent on both sides of the ball than we do. They also have Nike funneling money into the program, while we have troubles filling a 30,000 seat stadium. As tempting as it might be to pin this one on Ault, it would be like blaming Belgium for not putting up a better fight against Germany in World War 2. We lost this game the instant it showed up on our schedule - the only question was whether or not Oregon would forget that. If they beat LSU, we might have had a chance. They didn't, so we didn't.

Don't feel bad - Oregon will make a lot of schools look silly. We're just their first victim of the year; we'll be in good company soon enough.