Why Oregon Will Defeat Boise State

[monster]

Q: What do non-conference games count for? A: Rankings, which can help a team to earn an invite to the national championship game or an at-large BCS game. Nothing else. Consider that beating Washington State is more important to the Ducks than beating Boise State. For the Ducks, it's all about Pac-10 play. Take care of business in conference games and the Rose Bowl awaits.

That's why Oregon spent the 2008 summer prepping for Washington - the Huskies went 4-9 in 2007, so the expectation going into the 2008 season was that they could be decent. As bad as the Huskies turned out in 2008, that game could not be overlooked. The Ducks then had an easy one in Utah State and the next week traveled cross-country to Purdue.

That's an important conference game, one cupcake and one big-time road block.

How about Boise State?

If the Broncos want to make the BCS, it starts with beating Oregon. Winning the WAC just isn't enough. Subsequently, they spent the 2008 summer prepping for the Ducks. In the first two weeks of the season, they destroyed Idaho State - who wound up with a 1-11 record in the Big Sky conference - and then beat up on a decent team in Bowling Green. If the nation was going to pay respect to Boise, it wouldn't start until the next weekend.

When September 20th finally came around Oregon had played 3 games to Boise's 2 and 1 conference game to their 0. That meant slightly more wear-and-tear (See: Roper, WTIII) and less summer preparation for the Ducks.

In 2009 -- all that is different. On September 3, both teams will be playing their first game of the season and will have spent all summer preparing for one another. This time, it's mutual.

Prediction: The first quarter of the new season usually entails ironing out the kinks, so we can expect a shaky start on both sides. But in the end, superior athletes and more time to prepare will make all the difference. The Broncos will not recognize the Ducks from last year, or the result. Preparation makes all the difference. 41 - 31 Ducks.

[liberalduck]

Don't care for those particular excuses. Four games is still pretty early in the season in regards to overall team health. And the Broncos and Ducks had an equal amount of time to prepare. The Ducks simply didn't play well on defense - especially in regards to the play action fake, and the offense was not at full power due to injury and inexperience at QB. As long as Masoli and Blount are healthy and our offensive line is playing pretty well and the defense doesn't play similary to last year, this game will be different. The Ducks will win by 10. Our D let us down last year and when Masoli went down, C. Harper was not prepared to lead the offense. Boise was a good team and they will be again this year. But playing at their best they are no match for an Oregon team playing at their best.

[akili1133]

We will win because we are more talented.

[goducks75]

We will win because we are more talented.

Sure helped us last year against them.

[ducksin2010]

We will win because we are more talented.

Sure helped us last year against them.

If you watched last years game then you wouldn't make the d-bag comment. You can be the more talented team, but if your talent isn't on the field then you can't win. Sorry about the d-bag word use, but lets say something worthwhile next time.

[Greydrake]

I don't like to make excuses, but I think the humidity of the Purdue game took a physical toll on the defense add dehydration which normally occurs in flight and the body is tweaked for a couple of days. Of course the staff should know this, but whether the kids followed the letter of the law for proper rehydration is another thing. Having coached kids in a hot environment, hydration "ettiquette" was a hard disipline to teach.

Ducks looked sluggish in Purdue and it seemed to carry over to the following week as being unfocused.

I like our chances in this game due to the mindset of the team, the arrogance which is building in Boise, and that BSU is getting a lot of hype which might work to our advantage. Best thing for the Ducks to do is shut up and show up.

[neezy3]

first game of the year is always scary because you never know what your're gonna get. wasnt indiana an opener, either way im just glad we have the motivation for this game no way we show up flat for a primetime espn game on the smurf.

[woundedknees]

Wasn't there a problem with flight arrival time for the Purdue game (Huge delay that resulted in an earlymorning arrival...), which affected sleep the night before?

I may be confusing this with another game.

[GoDucksIn09]

I will take the two sides of the coin approach considering both aspects for this game first for the ducks.. then for Boise State. My gut feeling is as good as Boise State is.. and make no mistake they are a very good team I think with the focus the Ducks have on Boise State this game will not be close. I see the ducks winning by like 48-31. It could even be more lopsided. Here is a couple of interesting facts to consider. First off Kelly.. is undefeated when it comes to having extra time to prepare for a team. He has a whole month to prepare for Boise State. Secondly their will be a revenge factor for the ducks and they want to show they are the real deal this year and get a big win for their first year coach.

For Boise State this is a big game as well and they are very very tough to beat on the smurf turf. Only losing I believe one game in the last 3 years on the road. They are a good team and have played in the BCS beating an Oklahoma team which is still by far one of my most favorite games not involving a duck team. I laughed hysterically at it. If the Ducks do not come in and play well then Boise State will then beat the Ducks again. Boise State looks to make an early statement.

My prediction given everything as I said.. is 48-31.. Ducks.

[spinseeker]

Don't care for those particular excuses. Four games is still pretty early in the season in regards to overall team health. And the Broncos and Ducks had an equal amount of time to prepare. The Ducks simply didn't play well on defense - especially in regards to the play action fake, and the offense was not at full power due to injury and inexperience at QB. As long as Masoli and Blount are healthy and our offensive line is playing pretty well and the defense doesn't play similary to last year, this game will be different. The Ducks will win by 10. Our D let us down last year and when Masoli went down, C. Harper was not prepared to lead the offense. Boise was a good team and they will be again this year. But playing at their best they are no match for an Oregon team playing at their best.

I disagree. Our defense was put in a bad situation. Our Offense let us down last year. If the Offense were able to sustain some drives, our defense would have had time to rest AND strategize to come up with solutions. It doesn't happen by magic, and when you are constantly being put back on the field with little time to rest and think, bad things snowball.

And it was really just a bad half of defense (mostly second quarter at that). They did a good job of stopping BSU in the second half allowing the Ducks to mount a comeback.

[goducks75]

We will win because we are more talented.

Sure helped us last year against them.

If you watched last years game then you wouldn't make the d-bag comment. You can be the more talented team, but if your talent isn't on the field then you can't win. Sorry about the d-bag word use, but lets say something worthwhile next time.

Not only did I watch the game but I was there in person. Too many people blame our loss on the cheap hit and yes, while that did have an impact, it wasn't the only factor. Our defense had one of the most hideous performances I'd seen in a long time, and that's saying something. Even if our offense was going at the regular pace with Masoli healthy (which I doubt because Masoli hadn't hit his stride yet and was still learning the offense), our defense would have still lost us that game. Talent does help, but there's another factor known as coaching that can either enhance or deflate even the most talented teams (see Alabama vs. Utah last year). Boise's OC coached circles around Aliotti and he didn't know how to respond. When he started figuring it out, it was too late because they were ahead by too much.

[wheaton4prez]

I agree that our defense didn't do well in that game. I think it was an overly aggressive scheme designed to focus on Ian Johnson. And that was well exploited by Peterson.

However, I disagree that we would still have lost if Masoli had stayed healthy. We almost won the game with Chris Harper throwing 2 interceptions, going 3-and-out how many times and Thomas playing a small part of the game. I don't think it's even remotely plausible that Masoli wouldn't have played even marginally enough better (one score) to win that game. Remember that sustaining a drive on offense takes away from the opposing offenses chances to score.

[ducklydoright]

There is no way we would have lost that game had Masoli not suffered a concussion from that dirty hit. Because if im not mistaken Masoli played the 1st quarter, half of which he had tweety birds flying around his head, and he was still able to keep us ahead 6-0. What turned the game around was when BSU realized that Harper couldn't throw a football to save his life and once that happened everyone on the Bronco defense was brought up in to the box and we couldn't do anything offensively. If Masoli had been in the game, even with his lack of experience running our offense, we would have been much more successful moving the ball because his arm would have helped to keep the BSU defense honest and it would have also have helped our defense as well by not forcing them to be out on the field as much.
I will say that even though our offense played crappy last year against BSU and didn't do our defense any favors, our defense didn't play that great either and as the poster mentioned above, the playaction pass absolutely destroyed us last year and those big plays we gave up can't be blamed on fatigue nearly as much as they can on blown assignments, bad scheme and poor technique. Hopefully our guys on defense were so embarassed by that performance that they will do everything in their power to never let it happen again and I truly believe that last years loss to BSU has left a really bad taste in not only our players mouths but our coaches as well and I really believe that the Broncos will see a completely different team come Sept 3 and it will be Bronco fans leaving the stadium with their heads down.

[tonyd]

We will win because we are more talented.

Sure helped us last year against them.

That's what happens when you go 5-deep at QB.

Here's a few reasons...

*Boise State has only one senior in their entire two-deep
*Oregon's not taking them lightly at all this year, especially on the road
*BSU has a brand new DL to complement Oregon new OL but talent wise is definitely on Oregon's side
*Jeremiah Masoli and Walter Thurmond should be healthy unlike in last year's game
*Boise State only has one more returning starter than Oregon does so this "Oregon lost too much" talk by the media is hilarious.
*Oregon's depth and Overall talent level>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Boise State's depth and Overall talent level

Oregon wins by two TDs minimum.

[echo31]

To be honest, I don't see why people are worried about this game. BSU took advantage of playing a very thin and one-dimensional UO team last year. They won't have that luxury this year. This year the difference in talent will be made apparent since both teams should be at full strength.