10-07-2019, 05:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-07-2019, 05:18 PM by CardinalSagehen.)
One dominant win over a good team doesn’t solve all our problems. That said, I believe the evidence of great coaching - actual fundamental improvement, particularly among our freshmen and inexperienced starting ILBs - is starting to show.
So it’s not entirely crazy to begin reconsidering our ever-so-slim chances of winning the North. We often speculate on far-fetched matters here. In addition, it would please me enough if we merely entered temporary contention for the North, which would only take Oregon losing their next game before we do. This could have happened this past Saturday, had Cal been able to muster any offense with their backup QB.
Our chances seem to depend on (a) going 5-0 in our remaining conference games; and (b) Oregon going 5-2 (with two North losses) or 4-3. (The two-loss scenario presumes a three-way tie with Oregon and UW, in which all teams would be 1-1 against each other and the tie-breaker would be our better North Division record - quite unlikely.)
Basically, we want Huskies wins and Ducks losses the rest of the way - so that's what I'll be watching this weekend as Stanford takes its bye. Oregon does not strike me as such a great or dominant team that a loss to any team on their remaining schedule would be totally inconceivable. In fact, I was much more surprised when they lost at Arizona in late-November back in 2013, catapulting us to the CCG and the Rose Bowl, than I'd be if this year's team lost two games. I think the biggest problem is that we have no margin for error, and we're not all that great (or healthy) ourselves.
Thank you for permitting me my daily delusion. Now back to the real world.
So it’s not entirely crazy to begin reconsidering our ever-so-slim chances of winning the North. We often speculate on far-fetched matters here. In addition, it would please me enough if we merely entered temporary contention for the North, which would only take Oregon losing their next game before we do. This could have happened this past Saturday, had Cal been able to muster any offense with their backup QB.
Our chances seem to depend on (a) going 5-0 in our remaining conference games; and (b) Oregon going 5-2 (with two North losses) or 4-3. (The two-loss scenario presumes a three-way tie with Oregon and UW, in which all teams would be 1-1 against each other and the tie-breaker would be our better North Division record - quite unlikely.)
Basically, we want Huskies wins and Ducks losses the rest of the way - so that's what I'll be watching this weekend as Stanford takes its bye. Oregon does not strike me as such a great or dominant team that a loss to any team on their remaining schedule would be totally inconceivable. In fact, I was much more surprised when they lost at Arizona in late-November back in 2013, catapulting us to the CCG and the Rose Bowl, than I'd be if this year's team lost two games. I think the biggest problem is that we have no margin for error, and we're not all that great (or healthy) ourselves.
Thank you for permitting me my daily delusion. Now back to the real world.

