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On avoiding mistakes, Christine Sinclair’s legacy and that sneaky Illinois game on the schedule.
It’s noon on a college football Saturday and the Oregon Ducks are still eight hours away from kickoff against UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
Welcome to the Big Ten, right?
This is, admittedly, a bit of a subdued entrance into this new era for the Ducks. They’re playing a familiar opponent in a familiar location with a familiar storyline to many of the meetings between these two former Pac-12 rivals.
No. 8 Oregon has a lot on the line. UCLA does not.
Coming off a bye, I like the Ducks’ chances of winning favorably against a UCLA team that’s a last-minute field goal against Hawaii away from an 0-3 start. In their first year post-Chip Kelly, the Bruins are averaging 15.4 points per game and have the 102nd-ranked defense in the country. And while Oregon’s offensive line still isn’t entirely healthy — Matthew Bedford was limited again this week at practice — I don’t think it should take much to deflate the Rose Bowl after the 8 p.m. kick.
We didn’t get those in the Pac-12.
However, what we saw happen in New Jersey last night gave a pretty strong reminder of the errors the Ducks need to avoid. In Washington’s 21-18 loss to Rutgers, the Huskies looked a whole lot like the Ducks did during Oregon’s first two games of the season. UW had a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard receiver, a 100-yard rusher and a defense that largely kept the Scarlet Knights in check, yet the game remained close because Washington couldn’t get out of its own way.
From Christian Caple over at On Montlake:
They committed six penalties for 69 yards on Friday. That’s not an egregious number, but each was more costly than the average infraction. Two personal fouls against offensive linemen killed drives. A low block penalty against Cam Davis wiped out a first-down completion inside Rutgers’ 20-yard line on a drive that ended with a missed field goal. A false start with a first down at Rutgers’ 11-yard line put UW behind the sticks and led to the Huskies settling for a field goal. A facemask penalty — albeit a dubious one — wiped out a big TFL on a second-down play in the fourth quarter on a possession that yielded the Scarlet Knights’ final touchdown.
In their first loss, to Washington State, the Huskies committed 16 penalties. It’s a problem.
“That’s the saddest part of the night,” Fisch said.
Sound familiar?
The Ducks had 17 penalties for 134 yards in their first two games, with eight being called on the offensive line alone.
“It’s painful to see because you can’t build momentum, you can’t build any rhythm, you just can’t do anything moving forward when you’re shooting yourself in the foot,” Oregon guard Marcus Harper said before the Oregon State game. “We can’t be the offense that we want to be if we aren’t even gaining any momentum because we’re shooting ourselves in the foot from the first drive.”
In Oregon’s following 49-14 win over the Beavers, the Ducks cleaned things up with only three penalties. And while the Ducks have left the state for the first time this season, Dan Lanning will be quick to remind one that they’ve already played a road game.
It was probably in front of a better crowd, too.
OK, onto the mailbag.
How will we win another Big Ten special teams player of the week if the voters in Piscataway, NJ are fast asleep by kickoff time? — James Voss
Here’s how, James: The Ducks and Bruins are going to play late into the night. I’m thinking of long replay reviews, a delay for a scoreboard malfunction and hell, maybe even a thunderstorm. The typical college football game lasts about four hours. They’ll stretch this one out to six, allowing those viewers on the wrong coast to wake up to Ross James’ 99-yard fake punt touchdown run to punctuate Oregon’s win late in the fourth quarter.
So Boise State is a likely playoff team and Idaho is currently top 5 in the FCS. Did I give myself an ulcer over nothing and football in Idaho is just having a moment, or is this just cope? Alec E.
Let’s get down to the spuds:
Since nearly snatching the breath out of the lungs of 56,000 in Autzen, the Vandals won their next three games — a streak that includes a 17-13 win over FBS Wyoming.
Over at Boise State, the only thing that’s slowed down Ashtyn Jenty is a bye week — the Broncos’ star running back rushed for another 127 yards (on 11 carries) in a 56-14 win over Portland State last Saturday and is off today.
Idaho is an FCS playoff team. Boise State is working on its case for being an FBS Playoff team. Having a close game against one of them isn’t the worst thing in the world — especially if you win.
But it’s that the Ducks struggled with both of them that felt off. To be clear: I think this Oregon team is still really good. They could even be great. We’ve just never seen one of Oregon’s elite teams struggle like that against inferior competition.
Oregon has had six teams in its history finish the season ranked in the AP’s top 5. Here’s how their nonconference games went:
2001
31-28 win against No. 22 Wisconsin.
24-10 win against Utah
38-21 win at Utah State.
2010
72-0 win against New Mexico
48-13 win at Tennessee
69-0 win against Portland State
2011
27-40 loss at No. 4 LSU
69-20 win against Nevada
56-7 win against Missouri State
2012
57-34 win against Arkansas State
42-25 win against Fresno State
63-14 win against Tennessee Tech
2014
62-13 win over South Dakota
46-27 win over Michigan State
48-14 win over Wyoming
2019
27-21 loss against Auburn
77-6 win against Nevada
35-3 win against Montana
What do you see here? A lot of blowouts of teams Oregon should be blowing out and a few tough games against teams Oregon should have tough games against. In 2024, Oregon’s had one close game against a team that, even though good for its level, the Ducks should have blown out. Then they won by a field goal over a team they were favored to beat by two touchdowns.
Maybe we look back a few months from now with hindsight and see that’s the win the Ducks needed to kick into gear — again, I think Oregon wins by a few scores tonight — but I’d still keep that Pepto close by just in case.
With Christine Sinclair announcing she’ll retire at the end of the season, where does she rank in the pantheon of Portland athletes? — Derek E.
It’s No. 1 and I don’t think it’s particularly close.
While Sinclair has a career that includes accolades far greater than what she achieved in Portland — she’s the leading goal scorer in International soccer history and owns a gold medal — what she accomplished in the Rose City is unrivaled.
At the University of Portland, Sinclair led the Pilots to a pair of national championships and set an NCAA Division 1 single-season record with 39 goals in 2005. She joined the Thorns for the NWSL’s inaugural season in 2013 and led Portland to three NWSL titles. She spent her entire NWSL career here and will finish as the third-leading goal-scorer in league history.
Sinclair’s never been one for fanfare — she announced her retirement Friday with an Instagram post while the team’s on the road — and she’s never reached the mass popularity that some of her competitors in this category have had in this city.
If you want to make an argument for Damian Lillard, Clyde Drexler or Bill Walton, you can certainly do that.
It’s just not going to stack up well.
There’s multiple reports that the Portland Diamond Project is close to purchasing a 33 acre parcel for a SW Portland waterfront stadium. Will Portland’s MLB dream finally come true? W Clack
Would Major League Baseball be cool on Portland’s Southwestern waterfront? You betcha. Does it sound a lot better than the Red Tail location we talked about a year ago? Yep.
What about the Lloyd location? Or the shipyard? Or the PPS building? Am I forgetting any?
Again, I’d love baseball in Portland to happen. And I’ll be the first to sing the Diamond Project’s praises if they ever complete this quest that’s been dangling carrots in front of this city’s baseball fans for the last eight years.
This would have been awesome:
This would have been awesome:
And I’m sure the next incoming renderings will be, too.
When do we get a crossover between The Duck and Buoy? — Adam B.
Unless Oregon suddenly gets interested in elevating its club hockey team to Division I status — which it’s currently not — I don’t see any forthcoming unions between the Duck and the Seattle Kraken mascot.
Maybe if the NHL runs out of locations for its stadium series, they’ll venture south down The 5 for a game at Autzen. An outdoor game in Oregon in the middle of the winter might be a hard sell, but I’ve heard it never rains there.
Is Illinois sneakily becoming a huge matchup at Autzen? — Jeff
We’re about to find out, aren’t we? No. 19 Illinois plays at No. 9 Penn State at 4 p.m., a game featuring two undefeated Big Ten teams that’ll be over before the Ducks even kick off tonight.
If Illinois can go into Happy Valley and come out with a win, yeah, that significantly beefs up an Oregon schedule that sees the Ducks play them a week before jetting out to Michigan.
Since you are asking for questions about the Winterhawks: Portland made a nice run through the WHL last season and then went up against the likes of Moose Jaw and got rolled. Clearly, I’m only dropping in for Jr. Hockey as a visitor, but, is the Eastern Conference THAT much better or was it a matchup problem for Portland? Thanks for entertaining this newbie’s question. — Matt Faatz
I think this one was more of a matchup issue. While the entirely Canadian Eastern Conference has been a tad stronger over the last decade — the East has won six of the last 10 championships — that Moose Jaw team was just a wagon. They had multiple first-round picks in their starting lineup, they had WHL Defenseman of the Year in Denton Mateychuk, CHL Player of the Year in Jagger Firkus and the Edmonton Oilers top prospect Matthew Savoie.
And while that blowout loss in Game 2 at home is likely the one that feels like it sums up that sweep back in May, the Winterhawks had their chances: they blew leads in one-goal losses in Game 1 and Game 3.
But enough about last year: the Hawks are already two games into the 2024-25 season, posting wins over Kelowna and Kamloops. It’s about time the Corridor got down to The Vet to write something up on new coach Kyle Gustafson.
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
