[Snorlax94]

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.

Cardinal Sagehen,  I have to admit that in my hope of hopes I have entertained the exact same delusional dreams.

I was so wishful that I even looked up the pac 12 tiebreaker rules. It would seem somewhat possible that Washington could beat Oregon, then Oregon could lose Some other game in the pac 12 N., maybe even to Oregon State.

But when I reviewed the tiebreaker rules, my impression was that it doesn’t matter whether oregon got two conference losses in the north or one in the north, one in the south: division standings are based on the conference, not division, record.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/pac-12.com/...tion%3famp

So if Oregon had two conference losses, even if both were in the north, they would have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Stanford. So Not only would Stanford have to run the table in conference,Oregon would have to lose *three* conference games, which seems unlikely barring a crazy number of injuries.

But yes, like you, I am sayin’ there’s a chance.

[Snorlax94]

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.

Cardinal Sagehen,  I have to admit that in my hope of hopes I have entertained the exact same delusional dreams.

I was so wishful that I even looked up the pac 12 tiebreaker rules. It would seem somewhat possible that Washington could beat Oregon, then Oregon could lose Some other game in the pac 12 N., maybe even to Oregon State.

But when I reviewed the tiebreaker rules, my impression was that it doesn’t matter whether oregon got two conference losses in the north or one in the north, one in the south: division standings are based on the conference, not division, record.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/pac-12.com/...tion%3famp

So if Oregon had two conference losses, even if both were in the north, they would have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Stanford. So Not only would Stanford have to run the table in conference,Oregon would have to lose *three* conference games, which seems unlikely barring a crazy number of injuries.

But yes, like you, I am sayin’ there’s a chance.