Once A Shough, Always A Shough
For whom the Texas Tech bell ringer tolls.
Going into the year, people said this road game against an up-and-coming Texas Tech team was supposed to be Oregon’s first major test, but then the Red Raiders got lasso’d in Laramie, Wyoming.
So, maybe this won’t be that big of a test for the Ducks after all?
But first, let’s talk about how Oregon rolled over Portland State 81-7. It was quite literally a historic drubbing, and it was damn-near perfect, just like I asked for.
The Ducks’ offense ran 72 plays, gained 729 total yards, and they did it while only possessing the ball for just two and a half minutes more than Portland State.
FCS game or not, that is just about as efficient as it gets.
Also, the Ducks were penalized just twice. That’s it.
Troy Franklin and Bucky Irving were dynamic as always.
I was especially glad to see the running game pick up right where they left off behind our new O-line. Both Bucky and Jordan James looked solid.
It always seems like the rushing attack travels better than our deep passing—especially early in games—and if it gets a little hairy in the first quarter in Lubbock, we can count on Bucky The Kid to wake us up.
Bo didn’t have to do much at all last Saturday, but then again I wrote last week’s entire preview without mentioning his name even once. We know what to expect from him.
There is no longer a good Bo or a bad Bo there is simply just Bo.
Ty Thompson looked great in relief, too. That was nice to see! And true freshman/heir apparent Austin Novosad even got some playing time there at the end and looked comfortable. We might have a backup QB (or two) after all.
USC transfer Gary Bryant Jr. was a monster in the receiving game and he quickly emerged as target number two for Bo. I’m not sure where Kris Hutson and Noah Whittington were. It sounds like they were back at practice this week though, so we’ll hope to see them back at full strength tomorrow.
Now, as we look at Texas Tech, a lot of fans probably think this game lost its luster. You might expect that the Red Raiders are a wounded animal now after losing to Wyoming.
Maybe that’s fair. Maybe TTU isn’t going to be as good as some of the pundits thought they’d be In 2023. Or maybe Wyoming just messes you up in a way that’s hard to explain.
Kanye moved out there, and just looked how he turned out.
But Texas Tech has always been known to be an entirely different team when they play at home.
Think of them as the West Texas version of Wazzu. The fans party hard, they throw tortillas out onto the field at kickoff, and they have this dude ring a bell in a highly questionable way after every touchdown:
You just can’t overlook that special brand of rowdy.
Now, if we’re checking our histories, I’ll have you know that Justin Herbert and the Ducks did not lose to Wyoming at Wyoming. And I’ll also have you know that we literally played there when they had Madden ‘24 cover athlete Josh Allen under center.
Just wanted to clear that one up.
This Red Raider-Ducks matchup has also been billed as a revenge game of sorts for our old pal Tyler Shough—who most of you already know is the starting QB for the Red Raiders.
But even if they had beaten Wyoming last week, I still don’t think it would actually be a revenge game at all, and I’ll tell you why:
Firstly, Tyler won’t be playing the same team he transferred out of. It’s an entirely different coaching staff and thanks to the transfer portal the roster has nearly fully flipped since he left.
However, he is certainly returning to the very same fanbase that generally was ready to get rid of him by the end of his tenure in Eugene.
And I say “generally ready to get rid of him” because those of you who read this blog back when I started it in 2020 know that I was always the #1 Tyler Shough defender on the entire internet.
I rooted so hard for the guy, and he would always give me pretty good stat lines to back up my arguments—even if he was otherwise failing the eye test and losing football games.
I plastered the early pages of Ditch Rich with so much Shough propaganda that you would think he was paying me.
But it was quite the opposite, actually.
In fact, I defended him so hard that even after he had transferred away, I went and paid for him to make a Cameo™ video to wish my cousin Andy a happy birthday.
For some background, Andy was decidedly not a Shough stan, and so I thought it would be funny to toss Tyler some NIL cash and get it on the record that I was always a firm believer. Even to the bitter, bitter end.
And so maybe there’s a world where Shough wants to silence the Oregon haters and losers—of which, there are many.
But also maybe he will remember that one Duck fan named James Vos who always stood up for him in his blog and also sent him $15 that one time to say “Go Ducks” and to forgive a guy named Andy for talking shit.
And then tomorrow, all thanks to me, he won’t come out with revenge in his heart.
Instead he’ll be content and at peace, which is probably the worst possible mentality somebody could have going into a football game.
More than likely, I’ll have zero personal impact on this football game whatsoever. But hey, a blogger can dream.
The artist formerly known as RoboShough definitely had a tough game last week, and now it’s all the Texas Tech fans’ turn to call for his job.
But he actually threw for over three hundred yards and three touchdowns—and he specifically looked really sharp to start the game with two quick scores.
Even though Shough threw a pick and definitely lost steam, I thought that poor play-calling, weak offensive line play, and Texas Tech’s overall sleepiness had way more of an impact on them losing that game than just the QB play.
There I go defending Tyler Shough again. Old habits die hard I guess.
But I did notice something rotten in Shough’s game (and can now retroactively admit was a bad pattern for him at Oregon) and that was that he had a TON of balls batted down at the line of scrimmage.
Teams must know that he has a lower arm angle, or that he has some obvious tell to make defenders know it’s time to put their hands up. Whatever it is, I know that Dorlus and Burch are going to eat those short little passes for breakfast.
I think we’ll score plenty of points, so I’m not going to be too worried about our offense against a Big 12 opponent. The real difference is going to come with our defense stepping up and refusing to let it be a shootout.
Let’s stay efficient, make Shough’s life very very difficult, and make sure that dude doesn’t get to ring that poor bell too many times.
Oregon 38, Texas Tech 20.
Go Ducks.