I think it's safe to say that we were not satisfied with the outcome of the last game, so I stayed off the forums for about a day. I'm coming back after giving it some time to mull over the loss to express my thoughts that nobody asked for.

A few clarifications:

1. Since my goal is to give raw, honest opinions, I have not looked at many sources or other peoples' opinions. If I get/remember something wrong, that is probably why.

2. This will be similar to the "care/don't care" posts in terms of format, starting with a thing I like, then a thing I don't, then a conclusion.

3. Obviously this is all my opinion. I may discuss in the comments and I may state things relatively definitively, but feel completely free to disagree with me.

1 Thing I Liked: Will Howard's Play

Did he make some mistakes? Yes, including one critical one on the last play of the game (don't worry, I'll get to that too). But all things considered, the game as a whole was a pretty impressive body of work. Over 300 yards, 3 touchdowns, no interceptions and very few bad throws in general. He did have the one INT that wasn't called, but Howard put the ball exactly where it needed to on that play and Kacmerak just didn't come up with it.

He did not make as many plays on the ground: really just the one TD and his infamous scramble. But I think we can say pretty easily that his legs were a silent factor in this game and made it easier to gash the ground (particularly for Trey), even if Howard didn't have much on the statsheet. That is a MAJOR plus that we haven't really had since Justin Fields.

Overall, I continue to have confidence that Howard is good enough for us to win every game we play this year. While he did have a few mistakes, and perhaps we would have won if we took one of them back, it's rare for a quarterback (let alone any other player) to make no mistakes and there are other issues that I think were far more pressing than our quarterback play.

1 Thing I DIDN'T Like: The Final Play

In that situation, you either have to get it out quick for some yards and time out or go for the end zone. It seems like they were going for the former. But since we weren't going for a touchdown, there probably weren't a lot of great match-ups to bet on in the end zone.

Howard's hesitation leads me to believe that Oregon did a good job covering up our receivers. Now, you either have to run it with 6 seconds remaining or throw a pass that's probably not getting caught. Lose-lose for Howard and I understand why he hesitated, even if that ended up costing us the game.

I don't really place that play squarely on any one coach/player's shoulders: perhaps Howard could've gone down/ran earlier, or we could have just called a hail mary or deep pass instead. But the ambiguity of the situation is what did it in for us, and that's never fun.

1 Thing I Liked: Zen Michalski's Play

I have not checked a lot of resources or anything, so I did not see his PFF grades or anything like that. But I genuinely did not notice much of a difference in our offense when Michalski went in. We were still able to pass it and run it the same way we were before. What killed were not sacks or pressures, but penalties and mistakes. Since Simmons may not be coming back, that's an encouragement considering our tackle depth was a major concern heading into this year.

Am I still stressed about our tackle situation? Absolutely. It helps that Michalski did not have to deal with Oregon's best pass-rusher today, so I have worries about how he'll match up against better defensive linemen. But for a guy pressed into emergency play, he was pretty impressive.

1 Thing I DIDN'T Like: Denzel Burke's Play

This is what I was talking about earlier when I was talking about Howard. Would rolling back one of his mistakes win us the game? Perhaps. But when you look at other spots of the team, it's far more reasonable to ask certain other players to do their fair share than the one who did mostly well that day.

And now, I have to critique one of my favorite defenders to ever come from the school... I love Burke. Was shocked and encouraged to see him start as a true freshman, was an avid apologist for him his sophomore season, and was exhilerated to have him back as a senior after a solid junior campaign. But this game was just not it for him.

Evan Stewart's a good receiver, but he bodied Burke in a way that made me flash back to Cornell Powell bullying Shaun Wade against Clemson. We won that game because we were able to get defensive stops in other ways, but when the game falls upon you locking down the pass, you need to stop at least some of those deep shots.

I expect Burke to bounce back. He's shown that level of talent previously and my guess is that last night was just not the best game for him. But you can't just "not have a good game" in the playoffs or the CCG. Love the guy, hope he bounces back, and I believe he will. But most of his criticism is warranted.

1 Thing I Liked: The Game

I have heard several people saying that this is the game of the year so far, and in all honesty, I don't disagree. The momentum was back-and-forth and kept me on the edge of my seat. Our offense had some great plays, our defense had that fourth down stop, and both teams had some highlight moments. Lastly, it helps that we really can't blame the refs, considering we had a major call in our favor with Howard's interception. Losing sucks, but losing to the refs feels even worse.

Another thing is that this honestly may have been the best kind of loss to take. It was only by 1 point at the very end of a game with a very clear home-field advantage for Oregon. The fact that we have not beaten a ranked team this season, yet are still ranked above Georgia as the best one-loss team (who has a blowout win over #10 Clemson and a one-score loss to a top 10 opponent) shows that we have earned the respect of the voters.

In terms of losses, it's about as good as it can get. Doesn't make us look bad, doesn't horribly hurt our CCG/playoff chances, and it lights a fire under our team.

1 Thing I DIDN'T Like: Lack of Pressure on Dillon Gabriel

Gabriel had a pretty impressive game, but even our secondary will be picked apart by an offense as good as Oregon if we don't get pressure off. While Gabriel is not a gunslinger, he is good enough to make deep throws and he did so numerous times. Part of this is on the secondary (see my section on Burke), but another part of this is on our D-line for not getting pressure off.

This is not to say that they had no impact. Some people are overdramatic about the fact that we aren't getting sacks: many times this season have opposing quarterbacks been cleanly hit right after the play, which also majorly affects the game. This happens a few times last night, but nowhere near as much as it has previously.

In general, I think both sides bear blame, but I think the defense has more to clean up after this game than the offense with its allowance of big plays. Similar to what I mentioned with Burke, I believe we have the talented players and coaches to rebound. But whether or not they do so will determine whether we have a 2014 story where we win it all or a 2019 story where this is one of the most talented teams to not win it.

CONCLUSION:

I already said this, but it bears repeating: this is about as good as a loss can be. Nobody worth their salt is dropping us far for losing, it was a VERY far away game, and we were in it the whole way through. My confidence in our ability to compete with anyone remains even if we came up short.

That said, we have a tough Nebraska team to play in two weeks. I fully trust Ryan Day to be focused on that game and to rebound well against Dylan Raiola and the Cornhuskers.

As always, win or lose, Go Bucks!