First, fans on game day know little about the team. Those that go to practice every day know infinitely more. What is working currently may or may not have anything to do with what was working a game or two ago. A player’s readiness does not have much at all to do about his direct answer when asked about how he doing. What works against team A may not work at all against team B, only many times of repeating what worked before to see it fail helps you to study the small details as to why which will not at all be apparent to fans watching the games. Each game is different, each player is different team to team, each player is different week to week.
Next, the differences can be quite small and unapparent to game day only observers. In my experience, very few can make sense of so many player interactions week to week and make productive changes. This is made more complex by in the words of George Patton, “the other side has a plan also”, meaning they are also making adjustments. In the Pac, the other teams often have more resources than us and are equally driven to have success. This year there are 6 teams that are quite close in strength making week to week dynamics sometimes the differences.
That said, we can’t go off our rails after important losses. We can hope to be on top especially after being on top last year but expectations realistly need to be something short of our hopes. All things equal we could be on top 1 in 12 years then adjust for being better or worse than average. Much more than average can be very tough given the number of very good teams that have been at this in the Pac so much longer than us. These are important points of understanding if you are to enjoy the so many seasons that fall short of a championship but still in the top third of the conference.
Going into the game I saw Oregon was very tough on the run and when they have lost good teams did so with passing. The coaches, I think, knew we were not a good enough passing team to lean on that aspect as much as those teams. They had hopes on a balanced attack because that likely was what we were most likely to deliver the best. Very early we could see that Rising was not at his best, for reasons unknown. Yesterday was not all Rising can be it was simply all he was on that day given a condition we know not much at all about. The defense made adjustments that made it possible for us to have a chance. We came up short.
The most important observation from others that I agree with is place kicking. These guys are almost never subject to injury or dynamics of the opposing team players. The lack of this component was key in the red zone and big related to the outcome. Most everything else was week to week variations that I have come to expect.
My way of coping with enjoyment of football longterm…
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