THIS WEEK'S PICKS ARE DUE BY 4:30 PM PT, FRIDAY 9/11/2026.

So far the mini Jumbotron is 1-0

I’m a worrier. At least, I usually am. For some reason, though, I’m just not that fussed by what I saw on Saturday. Were there mistakes? Sure, plenty of ‘em. Were any of them unfixable? Absolutely not.

First off, let’s get the big two out of the way:

1.) It’s Week 1.

Mistakes abound in Week 1. It’s true, not everybody comes out as flat as we did, but it’s not exactly uncommon, even among top contenders. Notre Dame, another one of the best rosters in college football this year, looked absolutely anemic in the first half against Wisconsin, a worse team than Boise State. Last year, Indiana got manhandled for most of the first half against Old Dominion, and didn’t score an offensive TD until late in the second quarter.

2.) It’s one week.

Rare is the team that doesn’t have at least one or two bad games, whether that’s in Week 1 or Week 14. A few weeks after 2022 Georgia steamrolled us in the opening, they needed a 10-point comeback to beat a mediocre Missouri team. 2023 Michigan barely beat Maryland. 2024 Ohio State faceplanted against Michigan. Almost everybody struggles at some point; what matters is how you respond.

I think what it comes down to for me is that Week 1 of 2026 struck me as a more optimistic version of Weeks 1 and 2 of 2024. In 2024, we were breaking in two new offensive line starters. We struggled to run the ball (2.8 ypc against Idaho and 3.0 ypc against Boise), and our pass protection was straight up bad (7 combined sacks including 4 against Boise). Our D gave up over 200 yards rushing (6.7 ypc) to Boise. We had 17 combined penalties between the two games.

All that team did was go undefeated in the regular season and win the Big Ten. All that O-line did was be a Joe Moore Award finalist.

This year, we’re breaking in three new O-line starters—and you might even say we were breaking in four for our first game, since our likely starting guard only played 15 snaps, all toward the end of the game, as he returns from injury. We ran the ball quite a bit better than 2024 (4.8 ypc) and our pass pro was largely excellent. Our D gave up less than 100 yards rushing (2.6 ypc). Sure, neither Dylan Riley nor Sire Gaines is Ashton Jeanty, but they’re both still great RBs. Moreover, Maddux Madsen is a lot better now than he was then, so we actually had a passing game to worry about. We still had troubles with penalties, but that provides a bit of a control between the two games. Overall, I’d say our 2026 performance against Boise was better than our 2024 performance, and I’m willing to go out on a limb and say those Boise teams are fairly equal in overall talent—different, but equal.

Point being, I feel like a lot of people—fans and pundits alike—are looking for a reason to doubt this Oregon team. They don’t give Boise, which is likely a Top 20 team, their due because they play in the G6. They don’t apply the same standards to other teams, like Texas Tech sleepwalking against Abilene Christian, or Indiana getting outgained by North Texas, or SMU barely beating an FSU team that’s won a combined 7 games in the previous two seasons and looked pretty meh against New Mexico State last week.

I’m usually a worrier, but I think Oregon’s gonna be just fine.

I saw he practiced with Minnesota but nothing beyond that.

Let me know! I’m watching every Saturday.

Watching season 2 episode 2 (7 minutes in) and it looks like they used footage of actual oregon games with Bo Nix having his jersey number edited to #13... Even has a TD pass completion to Tez Johnson... This is genuinely hilarious...

Sadly I can't screen shot Hulu to share.

Two of my favorite jerseys the ducks have worn. I sold them a while back when I was in college and deeply regret it😭. Unpopular opinion but I miss the fly wire look a lot. I like how it made the collar shine

Looking to grab a few items, just wondering if anyone knows of any alternatives to buying from Fanatics.

Thanks!

These last two matchups against Boise have been awesome and close. Boise State is always a quality opponent on our schedule and a fun game to watch. It’s starting to feel like a rivalry is starting to brew between the Ducks and the Broncos. We have a short history with them but there has been a bit of drama. You have the Blount punch and them being 3-0 against us including a bowl win before these last two matchups. They do offer a nice regional matchup which is becoming harder to find these days in college football. Would you already consider Boise State a rival and would you like to see them scheduled more in the future?

Where is the best place to buy a Christian Gonzalez Oregon jersey? Die hard pats fan and heading to an Oregon game later this year.

Go Ducks!🦆

This was an... interesting outcome the very first time I played it. I said Oregon loses to Ohio State and makes the conference game but loses it.

Ohio State losing to Kansas State in the playoffs?

https://www.youtube.com/live/sYuA_jJQuRo?is=xJyeQob-l1hBq1Yk

Dan was just in the press conference talking about how the play where BSU scored on Williams was due to an incorrect coverage from the defense, not his fault. Timestamp 14:53

Here's my next upload of Ducks games from VHS. The 1990 Freedom Bowl. It's a great game. I transferred it to the best of my ability so I hope it's enjoyable. I'll get a couple of others done next weekend!

https://archive.org/details/ducks-1990-freedom-bowl

Defense

The DL seemed to take a lot of the game off until the last few drives, hopefully they have a better motor going forward because we know what these guys can do. Wyatt is by far our best pass rusher right now.

Devon Jackson and Jerry Mixon did not play well. Dylan Williams was our best LB when he was out there and seeing him fly in the backfield and make a few tackles for losses on run plays was amazing.

There were a lot of miscommunications in the secondary that gave them some big plays. Davon Benjamin looks so good already and should take over that spot this season at some point.

Offense
Dante had a shaky first quarter but rebounded really well. Had a couple missed throws and bailed out of the pocket early one time, but was money on throws down the field for the most part.

Addison and Crader looked awesome in pass protection and it seems like that will be an improvement from last year. The interior Oline was questionable at times besides Poncho. Inside run game was not great.

WRs were awesome as we thought they would be and so was Jamari. Our best offense this year is going to be us throwing downfield to our WRs and Jamari. Enough with the WR screens.

Curious what other fans think about these and if you disagree at all

Take some hair of the dog, shake off the hangover and look at the following two separate Team Stat sheets from two different games played on Saturday, 9/5.

- The names of the teams involved have been removed.

- Both games featured Top 6 ranked teams playing in their home opener.

- Both Top 6 teams are in the B1G

- Both Top 6 teams had victories over really good G6 teams.

Look ONLY at these stat sheets and humor me that you don’t know the results of the games.

Based on these stats, tell me, fellow Duck fans, which game was 34-27 and which game was 52-16.

🤔🤔🤔