Respect™ Week 2022
One in the hand is worth half of Reser Stadium.
I drove down to Eugene last weekend with doubt in my heart and a sympathy limp in my step as I believed our QB1 was out for a big game against Utah.
Me of little faith, huh?
I gave you a prediction—albeit a hedged one based on who would be under center—and it was the first time since writing this blog that I felt legitimately Not Good about a Duck game.
If you read Ditch Rich regularly—I’d like to apologize, of course, but—you know that I’m a sunshine pumper to a fault. However last week I was down bad, and I thought we were in trouble.
Losing to the Huskies will do that to a man.
But thanks to a gutsy, defense-powered win over the Fighting Whittinghams, I now have renewed confidence in Bo’s ankle, and in all the opportunities that lay before this Duck team.
It’s been a super fun year, after all, and I’m sorry I allowed one game to cloud my joy and confidence so mightily.
So now we look ahead to tomorrow’s Beaver game, and it’s time for our annual giving of the Respect™ to the upstart program that hails from the supposed greatest college town in the Pac-12.
When it comes to play-style the Beavis are a lot like Utah in a lot of ways. And since they are basically the opposite of Washington’s air-heavy offense, the Ducks match up pretty well against them.
The Beavs lack electric pass-catchers, but their biggest weakness is Ben Gulbranson—the Beavs’ QB3, and anyone else in the Pac-12’s QB5.
If they ever let Gulbranson throw more than 20 times per game, the Beavs would probably be 6-5 rather than 8-3. But he (and interception-happy Chance Nolan) also might be the reason they aren’t a 10-win team, either.
The Beavers run the ball very well, they might have the best defense in the Pac-12, and they definitely have the best secondary in the conference, but their lack of a quarterback puts a wildly frustrating ceiling on just how good they can ultimately be.
Jonathan Smith—who is very good at the transfer portal—should be HUNTING for a QB this summer.
#DJUiagaleleiTo Corvallis ?
Casey Rogers, Noah Sewell, and the rest of the Ducks’ defensive front really stepped up in the tackles-for-loss department against Utah, and they’ll have to keep it up to get in the face of the Beaver’s pretty good o-line and their stellar freshman RB, Damien Martinez.
Martinez, along with South Carolina transfer Deshaun Fenwick have really impressed me on the ground for the Beavs this year.
It has amazed me with just how well they’ve run the ball this year, it seems like Jonathan Smith inexplicably takes the ball out of their hands on the most important plays of the most important games.
And aside from their bad-bad quarterback play, I think it’s Smith’s tendency to outsmart himself—much like like the late-stage version of his mentor Chris Petersen—is another major obstacle for OSU.
Watch it carefully tomorrow, but on third/fourth down, or in must-score scenarios, Jonathan Smith will look to switch things up in the hopes of catching you off-guard.
The Beavs could (and might) run for a clip of 6.5+ yards per carry, but in a short yardage situation in the fourth quarter he’ll roll Gulbranson out and doom his team to an almost sure turnover on downs.
What he should do way more of, however, is put the ball in Jack Colletto’s hands.
The Jack Hammer is one of the State of Oregon’s top athletes right now, and maybe one of its most compelling stories. He is one-part linebacker, one-part running back, one-part quarterback, and all parts total throwback.
A player after Jim Thorpe’s one heart, Colletto is a mildly more likable version of Taysom Hill.
If the Beaver offense can lean on Martinez and soak up every chance to run the Colletto package, then I think Oregon State will make the game an absolute fist fight. A lot like the Utah game we watched last week.
But if Oregon’s rush defense and linebackers can plug things up, scaring Smith into getting off schedule or fooling himself into Plans B, C, and Q, then I think the Ducks’ defense will eat Ben Gulbranson alive.
And I think that’s where the game is basically going to be won or lost, really.
Hopefully Bo is ever-so-slightly more mobile than he was last week, and hopefully Bucky and Noah can run the ball better than 59 total yards to help diversify our attack, but a steady diet of scoring, possessing, and protecting the football should help pull the Ducks through in front of that Half Reser Stadium crowd, sending the Ducks to ten wins and a conference title game once again.
37-20, Rich Brooks’ favorite team.
Go Ducks.