“Oregon Sucks,” Says The Media. “Not So Fast,” Says I.

Yep, the Ducks can’t play football after all.

Within minutes of the end of Monday night’s National Championship Game, actually minutes before the end and slightly before Urban Meyer danced on Oregon’s grave with that last second touchdown, pundits, haters, and simply every ignoramus this side of Mars sang from the rooftops of Oregon’s gridiron ineptitude.

It is, what it is.

In today’s culture of “What have you done for me lately,” you’re only as good as your last performance, and let’s be real; Oregon’s last performance wasn’t very good.

Yet, upon final examination, 13 wins, a conference title, a Rose Bowl win, and a trip to the sport’s inaugural championship game, would qualify by nearly everyone as a pretty darn good season.

Oh, and the school’s first Heisman Trophy.

Did I forget that?

I didn’t, but most did, along with what Oregon had done up to Monday night’s game, in addition to how they’d done it for the better part of 6 years.

Ohio State beat the Ducks, there’s no debating that nor is there any debating they deserved to based on how the game played out.  But, suggestions inferring another example of Oregon’s inability to beat a team with elite talent in the trenches is off-the-mark, and low-hanging fruit for observers taking the easy way out.

If you’ve watched Oregon since and after Chip Kelly entered the equation, you should’ve gathered the manner by which the Ducks attack their opponent:  Get up early and make them get away from what they do best.

When the Ducks have success against bigger, more physical fronts, they do so by getting up a couple scores and forcing said teams to get away from their strength:  Running the ball, milking the clock, and playing staunch defense.  When they fail do such, they’re stuck playing their opponents’ game and subsequently to their own weakness.

Oregon wasn’t guilty of being inadequate Monday night; they were just guilty of doing what they do poorly and becoming what they try to regularly make their opponent.

The Duck “bend don’t break” defense operates under the philosophy that “we’ll get touchdowns, hold you to field goals, and when you get behind; force you into turnovers through the process of trying to catch-up.”  And it works … most of the time.  But Monday night, they were the team settling for field goals, they got behind, and Ohio State was able to work the clock and Oregon’s front-7.  Over and over again.  The same way Stanford has when they’ve had success against Oregon, the same way LSU did a few years back, and the same way Auburn did in the BCS title game in 2010.  This doesn’t mean Oregon can’t beat these teams, it just means they can’t when they don’t execute in the manner they planned.

They’ve beaten USC in their prime (under Pete Carroll) and in recent years, beaten Stanford 3 of the last 5 times they’ve played, beat Michigan State, and boat-raced Florida State in this year’s Rose Bowl, all teams with the same elite level of athleticism as Ohio State in the trenches, and all similar to the teams many are suggesting Oregon “can’t” beat.

Some have suggested that if played 10 times, Ohio State wins 10 versus a Duck team simply overmatched.

Nonsense.

If Charles Nelson catches that 3^rd down pass on Oregon’s second drive, they likely score, take a 14 point lead, and Ohio State doesn’t get to continuously pound the ball at will.  Cardele Jones doesn’t get to throw only in favorable situations.  And a quarterback with just 2 starts under his belt is burdened with winning the game, rather than just executing under the blanket of a lead and a running game built to thrive with such.

The point being this: Oregon wasn’t incapable against Ohio State, just inept on a night they couldn’t afford to be.  Any assertion otherwise is either lazy, or an attempt to besmirch a program worthy of better.

Congratulations to the Buckeyes for a job well done.  Winning a national title with a 3^rd string quarterback is something to behold, and doing so under the black cloud of a conference lacking clout, makes it that much better.  But this wasn’t proof of an Oregon program unworthy of the stage, but rather a bad night for a team that needed to be better.

Sometimes you just lose, it doesn’t always have to mean something.

I wish people would occasionally remember that.