String of Excellent Foottball Weekends Continues

Well, it was a very good weekend in my private little football land.

As a reminder, I graduated from the University of Oregon, was born at the University of Iowa, and as a long-time resident of Seattle I keep tabs on the Huskies and Seahawks.

This past weekend, my Oregon Ducks (6-1 overall, 4-0 in Pac-10 play and now #10 in the AP and BCS standings) trounced rival Washington (3-5 overall, 2-3 in Pac-10 play) by a score of 42-19.

Let me count off the ways this is so good:

First, Diane and I attended in person. Sitting in the visitor’s section we didn’t have a great view of the action, but good enough – and we were surrounded by fellow Duck fans. Better still, on this beautiful fall day, we and some friends from out of town traveled to the game on one of the Argosy “Husky Boats.” We’d never done that before and so this was a real treat. Everybody on board proved good natured and up for a good time. Husky fans exhibited restrained, good natured ribbing…nothing harsh. Standing on the front deck of the boat watching the Seattle views go by was really great.

Second, the Ducks won! At Husky Stadium! Sure, the UO has won 11 of the last 15 in this series to take a bit of the bite out of the rivalry, but winning one up in Seattle is still a fairly rare thing. It’s also something that when I was attending the UO (1988-1992) was pretty much unthinkable. So, I’m pleased to have witnessed another victory here in Seattle.

Third, the Ducks looked really good and QB Masoli appears back in good form after his knee injury a few weeks ago. After the first two series in which their offense sputtered, Oregon caught fire after blocking a Husky punt and recovering it for a touchdown. After that, everything seemed to click. And, not just on offense. The Duck D showed up yet again with goal line stands, intercepting Jake Locker twice, sacking him four times and managing a decent UW running game enough.

Fourth and finally, the win keeps the Ducks in first place in the Pac-10 and sets up a HUGE game next week against an all-of-a-sudden-looking-beatable USC at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. The winner of that game will have a strong position to winning the Pac-10 and getting to the Rose Bowl…at minimum.

The Iowa Hawkeyes beat Michigan State on a last second touchdown pass. This keeps them alive for the Big-10 championship and, because they have not lost any games, technically in the hunt for the national title game. I’m enjoying Iowa’s success, but the more they and Oregon win, the closer we get to a major college football fan conundrum – namely, a Oregon vs. Iowa Rose Bowl. Of course I’d root for Oregon to win, but it would be a strange situation.
Luckily for the Seahawks, they play nobody this week as they have a bye. Ironically, they’re putting about the same effort this week vs. nobody as they did last week vs. the Arizona Cardinals.

The other football kicker...

The Seattle Sounders (MLS Soccer) won its final regular season game and are now off to the playoffs.