Good Luck Ducks, Week 2: EWU

 

The Ducks look to regroup against a top FCS opponent. 

 

Last week's game was the equivalent of watching someone repeatedly hurl themselves against a brick wall, without making so much as a scratch against that wall. It was one of the worst college football games I've ever seen any team play. If the team was looking to get off to a good start with a new coaching staff and a massively revamped roster, well, that was not it at all. No matter the circumstances, I can always find some sort of positive to take away from a game involving a team that I root for, but I'm really struggling here. At least there weren't a lot of... injuries?

Next up on the schedule is the Eastern Washington Eagles. While this is obviously a much needed step down from the reigning champs, it's still a storied FCS program that can cause a lot of problems for any so-called Power 5 program. Bo Nix should have an easier time against the EWU defense. A lot of things should happen that didn't happen last week. Let's just see how it all plays out.

Notes and other things:

• I don't want to complain about conference defections all season (or really at all), but certain events have only continued to add to the continued decline of the Pac-12 (on the football side, at least.) In hindsight, I think adding Colorado and Utah years ago really hurt the conference's standing, even though Utah clearly was the best team in 2021. They're never going to overcome the time zone issue on their own, but tradition was one of the best things they could hang on to.
• There is no way that the sudden, tragic death of tight end Spencer Webb didn't affect the Ducks roster in the worst way. It happened back in mid-July, but it had to have been weighing heavily on his teammates mind as they took the field for the first time.
• Okay, fine, I'm going to talk about it again. USC has barely been relevant since Reggie Bush was getting paid to play before being paid to play was cool, and UCLA hasn't made a top tier bowl in almost 25 years. It's almost like these decisions are being made by out of touch geriatric idiots! Have fun with your mediocrity, B1G.
• Eastern Washington has one of the sillier, but still kind of cool sports logos. I'm not jealous, but I'm kind of interested.
• Oregon sent out some sort of "we know we told you to wear black, but, just kidding... please wear yellow" email blast this week. This is the first time I've heard of such a change, and it makes me wonder what prompted it. It was mentioned that the team was going to wear yellow, but in the past the directive to wear a certain color didn't always match up with what the team was planning on wearing. Also, having attended a few games in the past dozen years or so, Ducks fans don't really follow the rules all that well.
• Big thanks to buckstorecards for my first ever Kayvon Thibodeaux card. Man, I miss him. He made the last couple of frustrating, post-Herbert seasons more bearable.