first of all, congrats to the Beavs for being bowl eligible for the first time in 8 years. Smith has done a great job, although his face appears to be morphing into Yoda or Chip Kelly
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I think we are starting to see the kind of team Cristobal wants to build and perpetuate. The Duck OLine is starting to pretty consistently dominate opposing front-7's. Now, the two Washington schools aren't the test that Utah or OSU will be, but gaining over 600 yards on the ground over two games is impressive. And the Ducks are doing while nobody is confusing Travis Dye with a Blount or a LMJ or a Freeman
Mario came out of the Alabama system and they won national championships while having a bruising physical running game and a prolific passing attack at the same time. That was their elite offense. Of course they had an elite defense to go with it
Mario is getting there. He certainly is recruiting and building great OLines. Lately, the Ducks have been recruiting good WR's. They might have a good RB in Cardwell; and a great young QB in Thompson. They are also recruiting at an elite level at LB and DB. But they are still laboring to recruit any elite interior talent on the DLine. That's the gap they haven't closed yet
the flaw in this year's defense is mostly due to injury. The are missing 4 starters (Mathis, Flowe, Williams, Stephens)
and the flaw in the offense is if a front-7 can shut down the Duck running game, it's really questionable that Anthony Brown can pass consistently enough to offset the loss of running yards and the likely 3rd & longs the Ducks will face
I still don't believe Oregon will make the playoffs. It could be Utah-OSU-Utah in the 3 remaining games assuming the Ducks win the North. I think running the table will be too tall an order
