Know Your Enemy – Addicted to Quack Stops by to Talk Oregon vs. Purdue

Are they as optimistic as we are pessimistic?

One thing I’ll say about these newcomers to the Big Ten, so far they have good manners. I try and reach out to a blog for the other team each week and despite my best efforts, Illinois continues to simply not have time to talk questions, but newbie Oregon jumped at the chance and didn’t…duck the questions.

I was able to exchange questions with Badwater from Addicted to Quack. He was kind enough to answer my questions, some more serious than the others.

Take me back to when you find out Oregon was joining the Big Ten, how did you feel about the move at the time?

I personally was and am very stoked about the move, and I think I speak for a lot of Ducks fans. The downside is the disintegration of the Pac-12 conference, and there is a lot of sentimental attachment out there to what was lost – especially if you were a fan of the Pac-8 and Pac-10. Emotion aside, the Pac-12 deserved to blow up in a great ball of fire. Former commissioner Larry Scott had the right thing in mind with the Pac-12 Network, but he totally screwed up when it was not available to all of the cable companies. Personally, I thought he should have been sued for mismanagement, but that’s me emoting. He was released long after he should have been, and his replacement, George Kliavkoff, was no better. But scratch the surface and you’ll find that the real villains here are the university presidents that did not hold the Pac-12 commissioner accountable FOR YEARS. The lot of them should have been drawn and quartered. Live on the Pac-12 Network, because no one will see it.

The move to the B1G was a no-brainer for Oregon. Oregon doesn’t get a full payout of media income until, what, 2030 or so, but Oregon doesn’t need that. Setting Phil Knight or Division Street aside, Athletic Director Rob Mullens operates the athletic department in the black – I think last year the Ducks were 12 million or so in the black. The other former Pac-12 schools that came over have been hemorrhaging money for years, and that’s not sustainable. (We know that’s the case for Washington and UCLA; USC is a private school, but my guess is that if they opened their books there would be problems).

Money is not the issue for Oregon, it’s the exposure that membership in the B1G offers. The Ducks have been getting incrementally better year after year, and not just in football, but because Central and East audiences never saw them it can seem like they just popped up out of nowhere. Well, now you can see them. What the Big Ten gets is a team that has a national footprint. Love them or hate them (and even a die hard Ducks fan like me can appreciate both sides) – everyone knows who the Oregon Ducks are.

Now that the move is official and you’re playing a conference slate in football and other sports, how are you handling the change?

We’ve been talking football, but the move is welcomed by other sports as well. The anti-Pac12 bias was real, and it will be a relief to get away from that. The B1G has excellent representation in all sports, and I think the Ducks teams welcome the challenge. Perhaps no team other than football welcomes the new league more than volleyball. The strongest volleyball conference in the nation is the Big Ten, and Ducks volleyball has been embracing the challenge; but it’s going to extend into basketball, softball, baseball – all of the sports that Oregon competes in. I do not foresee any hiccups from just moving to a new conference.

Given Purdue’s struggles on defense this season, just for no reason at all, I’m wondering what the most points Oregon has ever scored in a game?

Last season, the Ducks put up 81 on Portland State. I don’t pay attention to hanging those kinds of numbers on an FCS school. If we’re talking a P5 school, then the Ducks racked up 70 on Colorado in 2012 and 69 on Oregon State in 2017.

Kudos to taking down Ohio State at home in a night game, it seems to be their one vulnerability. Is there any hope for a letdown game by the Ducks after such an intense contest?

Not a chance. (Don’t think for a moment that I didn’t see all you readers rolling your eyes. I saw you). Head coach Dan Lanning has brought a certain culture with him and has been able to implement it from the very beginning with a high degree of success. If your readers want to see that in action, go on You Tube and watch some of the Ducks vs. Them videos on the GoDucks channel. It’s not possible to see a few of the videos and get the impression that these Ducks will fall for a trap game. Lanning is a unique coach, and even if you don’t like the Ducks it’s hard to not like this guy. See a couple of videos and see for yourself on the GoDucks You Tube channel.

Are there any vulnerabilities on either side of the ball that you are worried about heading into the back half of the season?

If you had asked me this a couple of games ago, I would have said the offensive line. That is now not a concern – Ohio State and their 5* line of future NFL players did not record a single sack on Dillon Gabriel.

Take what I’m about to say in context: I don’t think the Ducks have a lot of glaring vulnerabilities as long as they stay healthy and continue to improve. With star defensive lineman Jordan Birch out for the foreseeable future, does that make the DL vulnerable? Sure didn’t look like it against Ohio State. But I will say that potential injuries would create vulnerabilities on both lines. Oregon left points on the field on Saturday. Lanning is not afraid to be aggressive, but if the offense or defense does not properly execute then that’s a problem, and I’ve seen many times this season where it has been a problem. Getting past the Buckeyes was huge, and viewers of the game would have to admit that both of these teams are championship caliber – and neither has a whole lot of vulnerabilities. That’s what you expect of championship caliber teams, and it’s certainly not limited to these two teams.

The Purdue offense looked completely different in their last game against Illinois, but going up against a tough Oregon defense is a whole other challenge entirely. Which unit on the defense is the key to Oregon’s success?

For any team, all three defensive components have to be solid in order to find defensive success. What the Ducks have lacked in Lanning’s first and second seasons, however, was a defensive line that’s built with the MINT defense in mind. This is the season where he finally has the bodies and depth to do what he wants to do defensively. Your readers saw this defensive line push around Ohio State fairly readily, and the Buckeyes have a bunch of highly ranked offensive linemen. It’s a tired cliché, but it’s true – the success of any offense or defense is made or broken in the trenches.

Of all the different uniform combinations Oregon has, which one is your personal favorite?

Good lord, I like all of them. That’s a cop-out, though, so I’ll go with this one, because I like the throwback vibe:

What’s your prediction for Friday night’s game?

If anyone has followed my picks on Off Tackle Empire, they would note that I really good at picking the winner but I totally suck at the spread. This is why I don’t put real money on sports bets – I know I suck at it, so I’ll just head to the craps table…

I think the Boilermakers are going to struggle mightily on both lines. Oregon 51, Purdue 10.