I watched most of the UO/OSU game last night (I was flipping back and forth a bit watching the Jets vs Bills because one of the Bills is on my fantasy team so I had to keep up with his stats). It was a very entertaining game although I couldn't help but relate it to a flea circus what with all the little ankle biters for both sides running up and down the field with the ball. The midget beavers (brothers James and "Quiz"--short (pun intended) for Jaquis or something equally ghetto -- Rodgers) were most annoying little rodents. Almost every play one of them either ran the ball - Quiz - or caught the ball - James and Quiz. OSU has a pretty good QB but everytime he handed off or passed the ball it was to one of the rat brothers. By the second half the Ducks figured out that the ball was going to one of them every time so they quadruple covered them and when they ran around they just stepped on the their big ugly tails...
As the game started I thought that the Ducks surely could have picked a better uni combo for this big game. They had on bright white pants, simple green jerseys with yellow numbers and some gawd-awful shade of yeller hats. Maybe I am a purist, but I think that no matter what color unis that they wear they should stick with the green helmets. If you have ever hunted mallards you would know what I mean, the green head is the most distinctive characteristic of the drake. The absolute best are the green helmets with the yellow facemasks (like the color of the beak). Now that is excellent football couture. Anyway, I think that the fluorescence of those helmets was a bit distracting at first because Oregon came out kind of flat and had two big turnovers early in the game that led to 10 OSU points. The ball was on the ground so often and so many penalties were called that I thought for a minute that I was really watching Georgia and my TV was broken vis a vis the color. UO ran back a kickoff for a TD early that was called back because about 100 Ducks were caught holding -- no wonder the guy scored!
Autzen Stadium looks like a weird place. It does not seem symmetrical at least from the TV. The top line of the stands is kinda wavy like it was a regular stadium before an earthquake hit and they decided not to fix it. The weather was cold but not frigid -- 30 degrees F (or -1 C for you international voyagers) and the crowd was pretty much rocking the whole time. My main complaint was that they did not show near enough shots of the fine UO cheerleaders and too many shots of that Howard the Duck looking mascot.
The game was back and forth all night but most of the damage done to UO was self-inflicted. The OU offense is wild and wacky with guys running every which a way led by the QB Masaoli (the best sign I saw was "Holy Moly Masaoli") That guy escaped more times than Houdini but a few times it looked like he got tired of running around and just headed for the nearest Beaver and said "ok you can tackle me now". They would do well in the CFL. The star for the Ducks was the redshirt freshman RB #21 LaMichael James. He got the RB job after the first stringer -- LeGarrette Blount -- (what is with the Le or La in front of perfectly good names -- do people in Oregon want to sound French?) sucker punched a Boise State player and was suspended indefinitely after BSU upset the Ducks in the first game of the year. Blount took his punishment like a man and was eventually reinstated a few weeks ago but could not get his starting job back because LaMichael was larunning like a lamadman. Blount did play in the second half last night and had some nice runs including a TD. LaMichael ran for over 150 yards and lascored lathree laTD's.
In the third quarter the Beav's went up by nine points thanks to a Duck turnover and failure to step on Quiz's little tail but then LaMichael and LeGarrette and LaMasaoli took over and scored a couple of times and the UO defense rose up to squash those bug brothers. When the scoreboard read 0:00 it was the Ducks that were Pac-10 Champs (or maybe Canadian FL champs) and are headed to Pasadena (or maybe Toronto) to play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl (or the Argonauts in the Grey Cup). Final Score: Ducks 37 - Beavers 33.
This will be only the fifth time UO has played in the Rose Bowl and they have only won once, in 1917 -- that is almost as bad as the Cubs! Since my grandparents went to Michigan I have a natural hatred for Ohio State (and really the Big Ten in general since they think that their slewfooted brand of knuckle-dragging oafish football is any comparison to the swift and stylish SEC) I will be pulling for my new favorite Pac-10 team, the Oregon Ducks! Congratulations on winning the championship of the left coast little league! Beat Ohio State (another OSU - how ironic) and I will declare you minor league bowl champs (you can't consider yourselves real champs unless you can beat an SEC team). I hope they wear the green helmets in Pasadena!
This is the end of my special report. Have fun in Hawaii...
Dad
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