[UPDATE] Masoli: "Day-to-Day After Suffering An Injury To His Right Knee"

by Nestor on Oct 5, 2009 3:14 PM PDT Comment 12 comments

Per John Hunt of the Oregonian Oregon's Jerimiah Masoli didn't practice today:

Ducks coach Chip Kelly said he expects Masoli to practice this week and to make the trip to UCLA, along with backup Nate Costa and third-stringer/redshirt candidate Darron Thomas.

Masoli walked with a limp, his knee on ice and braced Monday - not a real heartening sign for Oregon fans, but there's simply no telling at this point whether he will play against the Bruins.

Uhm. Don't get too excited.

I don't think it's a big deal and I am going to assume the UCLA coaches will prepare with the expectation will not only Masoli will be ready, but he is going to present the same danger he did to UCLA offense last year.

In case any one wants a reminder here are couple of plays from this past Saturday:

Q1: 3rd and 8 at UCLA 19 Andrew Luck rush for 12 yards to the UCLA 7 for a 1ST down.
Q3: 2nd and 4 at STAN 31 Andrew Luck rush for 15 yards to the Stanf 46 for a 1ST down.

IIRC KSU RB Daniel Thomas had some success against our D taking direct snaps from the center. Plus there is the detail of Masoli sprinting around our defense for 170 rushing yards in 24 carries last year.

So, I wouldn't get too comfortable if I were Chuck Bullough, Reggie Carter, Akeem Ayers, Bosworths and rest of the front-7. The UCLA's defense dating back to Walker era doesn't have a great track record when it comes to stopping spread offense or bottling up explosive athletes such as Masoli playing in that kind of system allowing them to spring outside and operate in open spaces.

We will see how the defense reacts on Saturday. They certainly should be expecting a Masoli in full speed no matter what the news they are hearing from Eugene during this game week.

GO BRUINS.

UPDATE (N): Ted Miller on WWL has more:

If Masoli can't play at UCLA, junior Nate Costa would start.

Costa was slated to be the starter in 2008 before he suffered a major knee injury during the preseason that required season-ending surgery -- the third such knee injury he's suffered.

Costa played well after replacing Masoli against the Cougars. He completed 7 of 9 passes for 80 yards and ran for 26 yards and a touchdown. For the year, he's 11 of 16 for 115 yards with 38 yards rushing.

Kelly said he believes Costa has put his injury history behind him.

"He's over it," Kelly said. "He's taken some hits in the two games he's played. He's scrambled around the pocket and done a nice job. If we have to go with Nate, I've got all the confidence in the world in him."

The Ducks No. 3 quarterback is sophomore Darron Thomas. Thomas saw some quality action last year as a true freshman, most notably while leading a late comeback against Boise State, but the goal is to redshirt him.

Losing Masoli would be a big hit. After a slow start -- a really slow start -- he's completed 35 of 43 passes -- 81.4 percent -- for 369 yards with four TDs and no interceptions over the past six quarters. He's also rushed for 73 yards and a score during that span.

Ducks have also have few other players nicked up, who Miller goes on to list. Either way I don't think Ducks fans are worrying all that much. I suspect Masoli is going to play and be himself when he comes out at the Rose Bowl this weekend. GO BRUINS.

UPDATE II (N): Another Duck injury report from Rob Mosely at the Register-Guard:

Kelly is optimistic Masoli can prepare to play against the Bruins.

“We’ll see what happens this week when Jeremiah starts practicing,” Kelly said.

Masoli was injured in the second quarter of last week’s win over Washington State, when a defender dove at his right leg to make a tackle. He watched the second half from the sideline wearing sweats, as did right tackle C.E. Kaiser (shin), who was on crutches again today.

If the Ducks have to shuffle their offensive line, Darrion Weems and/or Nick Cody will get the call. Both have played in every game this season, Kelly said.

The Ducks were also without running back Kenjon Barner (shoulder) and receiver Jamere Holland (knee) this morning.

Safety T.J. Ward, out since the opener with an ankle injury, did conditioning drills with coach Radcliffe and hopes to play at UCLA. He said he felt good after doing drills, which hasn’t always been the case the last couple weeks.

I am guessing Kaiser might not be ready for Saturday. However, it sounds like Weems and Cody are already part of their regular rotation. GO BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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It doesn't matter who their QB is

if our defense gives him 10-15 free yards per drive.

Tough stretch coming up for the Bruins. I can easily, easily see us going 0-5 in the next five games. Even though it looks like Cal is imploding, they have a bye week before coming to the Rose Bowl. After that, UCLA is @ Arizona and @ Oregon State, then hosting UW. The Bruins’ mettle will be tested big time.

But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.

by tasser10 on Oct 5, 2009 4:01 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

We will not go 0-5 in the next 5 games.

But, I agree it is a tough stretch that lays ahead.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Oct 5, 2009 9:32 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

A little dramatic perhaps?

Not that there’s anything wrong with a fan being dramatic. Let me try to talk you down from the ledge.

Using Sagarin’s Predictor rating through Saturday and giving 3 points to the home team (as instructed on his ratings page, we will only be an underdog in 3 of the next 5 games (Oregon +6.5, Arizona +2.5 and Oregon State +1) and favored in 2 games (Cal -1, Washington -6.5).

I wanted to convert point spreads to probability of winning. Because I didn’t get a Ph.D in statistics (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express), I looked for point spread converters on the Internet, and you know what, they actually exist!! (Good to know for the next time I go to Vegas.) Using the projected point spreads, we have the following probabilities of losing each game:

Oregon: 0.6875
Cal: 0.47
Arizona: 0.5745
Oregon State: 0.53
Washington: 0.3125

Odds of us losing all five games: 3.07%.
Odds of us winning all five games: 2.23%

So even though we could easily lose any of the 5 games, losing all 5 is far from easy. We could nearly as easily win all 5 (about 70% as likely as losing all 5). We certainly could win any of the 5 (even in the Oregon game we have a 31% chance).

Even if we take the Washington game out of the picture, we’d still have just a 9% chance of losing each of the next 4 games. So while I agree with you that this is a tough stretch and that our mettle will be tested, it would be truly surprising—highly unlikely (as opposed to easy)—that the Bruins go 0-5. The most likely result is 2-3, the second most likely result (and very close to the first) is that we would go 3-2.

Since I am an optimist, I’ll take it one game at a time and predict that the Oregon team we play is not the juggernaut they appeared to be in beating a listless Cal team and a terrible WSU team and that we take the 0-5 out of the realm of possibility this Saturday. Go Bruins!

by BruinsRule on Oct 5, 2009 9:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not dramatic at all

All I am saying is that it’s plausible for us to lose the next five games, and that I would not be surprised if it happened. The statistics you show, though impressive, are meaningless in predicting the games. I look at the matchups and where we are playing. Oregon will be tough to beat because of their mobile QB. We have not played well at Arizona and Oregon State is getting better. UW has a good offense and we’ll have to see if ours can keep up. Cal, well I have no idea what to expect from that team anymore. It’s really not a stretch, in my opinion, for UCLA to lose its next 5 games.

But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.

by tasser10 on Oct 8, 2009 7:31 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

We've been absolutely horrible at containing a mobile QB

for as long as i can remember. Those Andrew Luck scrambles are a sobering reminder — and he’s your classic pocket man.

Not getting fooled on the spread-option play will be our biggest battle, so it doesn’t matter who’s behind center (assuming that Costa is also mobile).

by bluebland on Oct 5, 2009 5:19 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Could this mean

That the classic Oregon QB Injury thing? Costa is not entirely mobile

There's no one in the world that wants to beat UCLA more than _______.

by ucla13_usc9 on Oct 5, 2009 5:34 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I doubt it

Probably some gamesmanship going on here.

by Nestor on Oct 5, 2009 6:08 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

From what I'm hearing

This isn’t really gamesmanship or anything along those lines. Masoli took a good shot and his knee has some swelling in it. The brace is a precaution to ensure he doesn’t make it worse, but the limp and ice are real. That said, I’m hearing it’s a beginning of the week injury that will hurt on Saturday, but won’t be physically limiting so he’ll be a go.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Oct 5, 2009 6:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hmm

Guess it will be interesting to hear jt’s thoughts on it. They didn’t seem all that concerned last time I checked.

by Nestor on Oct 5, 2009 6:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I wouldn’t be concerned if I were them. This is one of those injuries football players get and it hurts, but they play through it with little to no ill effects. Because he is the quarterback, they are taking more precautions and there i more media coverage of it.

Players play hurt alllll the time. I was told by a player once that by November, 3/4 of a team is playing hurt. Masoli will be playing hurt, but it’s not a serious enough injury that it should be noticeable on the field Saturday.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Oct 5, 2009 6:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Blowin' Smoke

Masoli will be in there Saturday looking 100%, making a “miracle” recovery.

Can anyone say Willis Reed?

by bru79 on Oct 6, 2009 9:58 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's looking lilke Nate Costa will be the starter for tomorrow

Despite being the backup, Costa is one of the key team leaders would probably start for over half of the pac-10. He was the heir apparent to Dixon even after blowing out his knee in the 2007 Season. The problem was that he blew he knee again right before last season started, which created a giant QB scramble that ended up with Masoli as the QB.

Costa may not be Masoli mobile, but he is fast enough to keep the defense honest and is a much better pure passer than Masoli. There is a good chance that Oregon’s offense will look slightly different as Kelly will try to utilize Costa’s strengths

by ppilot on Oct 9, 2009 11:16 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs