[msqueri]

9. If this season had any prospects it would have been so devastating to lose a game like that because your All-American kicker missed two field goals. Did not see that one coming. I know Karty (which could also be to say the Parsons-Weselman-Karty field goal unit) wants those two misses back. I hope he can get some 50+ yarders the rest of the way. I haven't given up on records and awards for him. Still second in the nation in made field goals, one behind the leader, and I have faith he can get the percentage back up to be among the best in the nation. The other interesting, and less unpleasant, thing that happened on special teams was the opening up of a punter controversy. Weselman's mediocrity continued with a net punt of 33 yards, after which point we let the true freshman Flintoft try his foot, which Flintoft resoundingly rewarded the coaches with a net punt of 50 yards to pin Arizona deep and then a net punt of 52. When Taylor was asked about this postgame he was, by his standards, pretty salty and direct in talking about how every position is a competition and playing time is determined by performance in games. You (or at least he) can't get much more direct that Weselman played himself out of a clear role. I dig it. Flintoft was a massive prospect in his own right and if he can punt like he did yesterday we may have a big upgrade available to us. That it's a true freshman in it for the long haul of the rebuild is also appealing. So why, after two beauties by Flintoft, did Gregory (or Taylor or whoever makes that call) did the last and most crucial punt opportunity go to Weselman, who promptly shat the bed with a net punt of 25 yards out of bounds at the 34 in a clutch part of the game? Not the finest coaching moment and goes totally against the idea performance on the field dictates playing time. I hope to see more of Flintoft going forward. The other thing to highlight on special teams was true freshman DB Aaron Morris' role on the big-time punt coverage tackle to pin Arizona deep. Nice to see a newcomer with a big moment. He's one of those guys I'd like to see emerge on defense, but no indication yet that Morris (or Ojarikre or Frausto-Ramos) is really pushing.

10. Game balls: Tiger Bachmeier, Anthony Franklin, Aidan Flintoft, Ross Kolodziej

11. In terms of morale and momentum I think this game stemmed the bleeding a bit. Next week is a game that would on paper be expected to open up the bleeding anew. Nobody is going to expect us to be competitive with Oregon. I propose we look at it as an interim report card over a month into the season to see how far we've come since getting run out of the Coliseum by USC. In the AP poll, USC is #8 and Oregon is #9. Will we again be so outmatched that the opponent can just pick the score and pull starters at halftime or can we have some fight in us? We have things that really need shoring up in pass protection, pass rush, QB ball security, and the passing game generally, and Oregon is a daunting opponent in pretty much all of those respects. If we can find some signs of fight in any of those areas that will be nice. We also can root for the continued emergence of young players, some of whom will hopefully start stringing together good games rather than merely giving us one off performances. Taylor appears to be taking a long view and is unbothered by the losing. That's the healthy, big picture view right now, but losers need to guard against being so eager to embrace moral victories that it locks in the loser DNA. That's a tough slog and hopefully there's as much to take from next week's game in terms of the right kind of signs as there was yesterday.

[msqueri]

9. If this season had any prospects it would have been so devastating to lose a game like that because your All-American kicker missed two field goals. Did not see that one coming. I know Karty (which could also be to say the Parsons-Weselman-Karty field goal unit) wants those two misses back. I hope he can get some 50+ yarders the rest of the way. I haven't given up on records and awards for him. Still second in the nation in made field goals, one behind the leader, and I have faith he can get the percentage back up to be among the best in the nation. The other interesting, and less unpleasant, thing that happened on special teams was the opening up of a punter controversy. Weselman's mediocrity continued with a net punt of 33 yards, after which point we let the true freshman Flintoft try his foot, which Flintoft resoundingly rewarded the coaches with a net punt of 50 yards to pin Arizona deep and then a net punt of 52. When Taylor was asked about this postgame he was, by his standards, pretty salty and direct in talking about how every position is a competition and playing time is determined by performance in games. You (or at least he) can't get much more direct that Weselman played himself out of a clear role. I dig it. Flintoft was a massive prospect in his own right and if he can punt like he did yesterday we may have a big upgrade available to us. That it's a true freshman in it for the long haul of the rebuild is also appealing. So why, after two beauties by Flintoft, did Gregory (or Taylor or whoever makes that call) did the last and most crucial punt opportunity go to Weselman, who promptly shat the bed with a net punt of 25 yards out of bounds at the 34 in a clutch part of the game? Not the finest coaching moment and goes totally against the idea performance on the field dictates playing time. I hope to see more of Flintoft going forward. The other thing to highlight on special teams was true freshman DB Aaron Morris' role on the big-time punt coverage tackle to pin Arizona deep. Nice to see a newcomer with a big moment. He's one of those guys I'd like to see emerge on defense, but no indication yet that Morris (or Ojarikre or Frausto-Ramos) is really pushing.

10. Game balls: Tiger Bachmeier, Anthony Franklin, Aidan Flintoft, Ross Kolodziej

11. In terms of morale and momentum I think this game stemmed the bleeding a bit. Next week is a game that would on paper be expected to open up the bleeding anew. Nobody is going to expect us to be competitive with Oregon. I propose we look at it as an interim report card over a month into the season to see how far we've come since getting run out of the Coliseum by USC. In the AP poll, USC is #8 and Oregon is #9. Will we again be so outmatched that the opponent can just pick the score and pull starters at halftime or can we have some fight in us? We have things that really need shoring up in pass protection, pass rush, QB ball security, and the passing game generally, and Oregon is a daunting opponent in pretty much all of those respects. If we can find some signs of fight in any of those areas that will be nice. We also can root for the continued emergence of young players, some of whom will hopefully start stringing together good games rather than merely giving us one off performances. Taylor appears to be taking a long view and is unbothered by the losing. That's the healthy, big picture view right now, but losers need to guard against being so eager to embrace moral victories that it locks in the loser DNA. That's a tough slog and hopefully there's as much to take from next week's game in terms of the right kind of signs as there was yesterday.