My feelings heading into the season and as it progressed was that I didn't think that there was a team in the Pac 12 let alone the entire country that would be able to beat the Oregon Ducks.

Mark me down as one of those guys in the pre-season who wasn't impressed at all with Lane Kiffin and USC. I knew the best team in the conference lived in Eugene and that nobody was going to beat them unless they beat themselves.

The reasoning for all this was simple. The Ducks had way too much speed and precision for anyone outside of the SEC to challenge let alone handle. Nobody in the conference has the top to bottom blend of depth, talent, and experience that the Ducks have.

What made this edition of the Ducks really special was going to be the defense. You may be able to slow down the Duck offense a bit but were you going to be able to slow them down enough to outscore them? Until last night nobody even came close.

What Stanford did last night was amazing. They knocked off the best team in the country on the road and they did it all with defense and coaching. Tree coach David Shaw cockily suggested in a post game interview that if the Cardinal had executed better on offense that the game would not have been as close as it was.

The real reason Oregon lost last night was because they had already purchased and punched their tickets for a post-season show down for all the marbles in Miami. Stanford came to play a hard nosed football game and Oregon dressed up to be celebrated during a Brent Musburger led coronation on national TV.

All the elements needed for a trap game and upset were present. Stanford executed and Oregon didn't. Now all those marbles Oregon was going to play for have shifted back to Tuscaloosa and South Bend where they historically belong.

It isn't easy going undefeated no matter how good you are. Let your guard down for a second and in a blink of an eye you lose and the tears of your fan base becomes a five-minute photo opportunity for the masses to enjoy.

I don't think there was a Husky fan worth his salt last night who didn't truly enjoy the spectacle of the Oregon fan-base lamenting the loss of what would have been a probable national championship. I personally kept rewinding the recording so I could continue to enjoy the replay of shocked and saddened Duck faces at the end of the game.

Yesterday was my 54th birthday...I couldn't have received a better present.