I dug deep for the most optimistic headline possible. That’s the best I could do. Congratulations Jackson Rice, you are good. Now, for the rest of the story.
Sports will humble you fast. It’s a constant roller coaster and there are moments like Boise State, 2009. You can doubt what you saw a year ago, but there is no getting around what happened tonight. Boise State dominated Oregon. The argument will be left on the table for a later date whether or not that makes the Broncos a BCS-worthy team. Tonight, duck fans, you’ve got to take it on the chin like a blow from LeGarrette Blount. The team from the WAC controlled the line of scrimmage limiting Oregon to 31 yards rushing while racking up 164 of their own.
That was quite possibly the worst-played game by an Oregon team that I can remember (for young’uns like me, it all started in 1994). I’m staring right now at these stats: 8 points, 152 total yards, 17:28 time of possession and six first downs. Only the 2007 UCLA game featured a more inept offense, but that made sense following the loss of Dennis Dixon.
The worst part of it is how woefully unprepared the team looked. You listen to Kelly and you are impressed with his organization, his expectations and his cry for accountability. And then you see the results of game one under his watch and you can’t marry the two together. It doesn’t make sense. The defense was lost as they were constantly out of position. So much was made of Boise’s shifting and motion and being accountable for that, so what happened from paper to reality?
As for the offense, on exactly one drive, they used all the offensive weapons they are purported to have. LaMichael James, Ed Dickson and Jamere Holland all made plays. The result? Touchdown. Otherwise, it was run left, run right, force a throw to Jeff Maehl, punt the ball. It was an endless night of bad play calls and poor execution.
And then there’s the biggest story that doesn’t involve an idiotic fit of rage: Jeremiah Masoli. I said it a month ago somewhat tongue-in-cheek that Jeremiah Masoli had gone from underdog to overrated. His three game run to end the season perhaps created more hype than was deserved. After one game in 2009, there may be a legitimate quarterback controversy. He couldn’t make the right decisions on the read-option, his throws were terrible and on one play that resulted in an interception, he was so frozen, you were sure he’d been struck by Mr. Freeze (lame Batman reference, just go with it). He’s not done yet, but you can’t say it’s unequivocally his job to keep.
I don’t regret hyping Chip Kelly. I get a good feel from the way he talks about running a program. I think he gets it, but it’s become clear there’s a lot more to it than just having a plan. At the end of the day, it’s just 0-1, but it might be so much more. Being a head coach just go real, Chip. What do you do?
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