Boise State @ #6 Oregon (Sat 7 PM, Peacock)

[greenyellow]

[wepto]

Offense was shaky again, despite 'good stats'. 2 special teams TDs saved the game. Oregon had 10 offensive possessions (not counting the 2 special teams TDs, and the kneel at the end of the 1st half) and came away with 23 points. 2.3 points per possession is anemic (and so is 2.4 if you don't want to hold the missed xp against the offsense). Good offenses average 4+. How often do the TE screens actually work? 1 in 3 plays? 1 in 4? Can anybody point out a team that successfully throws the ball to their TE behind the LOS on the outside of the formation? Throwing it to Sadiq at least has some upside. But they tried to throw it to Herbert and it was an immediate fumble.

Gabriel was a little shaky, he ran right into sacks, twice. The two missed throws at the end of the game weren't the end of the world--that kind of thing happens and he did hit a couple earlier in the game. But the lack of awareness in the pocket is concerning.

Boise is solid, but definitely not elite. They might make the playoff as the best of the G5, but they are little-to-no threat to win a game.

Ducks looked out of sync and a little disorganized. Jeanty is the real deal, so maybe giving up 34 points is understandable. But I have a hard time seeing Boise scoring more than like 10 to 17 against Georgia or Ohio St. The biggest positive is it looks like a lot of the issues are fixable and the team could come together to make a run. But any more injuries on the OL will completely derail the season.

Thing is, Oregon is definitely top 3 in NIL funding, so it's hard to see these first two weeks as anything other than disappointing.

[OfaFeather]

Jayden Limar hopefully makes a game saving play for us with that one.

FYI I went back and rewatched it, it was Limar that picked up the ball in the endzone after Whittington dropped it too early on the kickoff return. Nice call!

Limar saved Oregon from a Kailin Klay sized mistake. And the game ball goes to…

[UofDuck]

I wonder if anyone noticed that the offense kind of opened up after Boise's safety got booted for targeting? Looked like a pretty big loss for their side.

I was thinking the same thing.

Also, BSU weakness so far this years has been their DBs deep cover chops. We had a hard time exploiting that because our weakness is our OLine and Gabe didn’t have time to let plays develop. Their front 7 was stout.

[nogerO]

O line was slightly better than last week. Lots of busted assignments/missed blocks. How does their stud D end come untouched to sack our quarterback? Real head scratcher there. Penalties, where to start? Muhammad had a rough game. Our tackling needs a lot of work. We had hands on their stud running back many times and didn't finish. Some good stuff, some bad stuff on special teams. Just a lot more of last week if you ask me. I actually went to bed at halftime and didn't finish watching a Duck game for the first time in a looooooooooong time. Of course it was after midnight here on the east coast. Beavers are going to give us a game next week. They have a chip on their shoulder and always play well at Halloween High stadium. We've been lucky to win the first two games. The coaching staff had better pull a rabbit out of the hat and fix our O-line, which IMHO is our achilles heal right now. Have to give our QB time to throw. Anybody else hear the BSU fans (they were loud and a lot of them at the game) chanting "Over Rated? Deserved at this point.

Go DUCKS!!!

[nogerO]

Utterly perplexed by the 3rd down play calling tonight. Run on 3rd and long after getting stuffed the past two downs? Sure, why not!

Rich Brooks calling the plays?

[nogerO]

My gosh Herbert, how dude?

But that’s on Stein, I can tell you throwing on the flats to Herbert is not a winning play.

Stein didn't throw the ball spanky.

[droop10]

At the end of the day, they’re winning these games. Yes, it’s not as convincing as one would hope, but you’d obviously rather win through the growing pains than lose. There are numerous teams that have struggled out of the gate and then improved significantly as they gelled. Heck, Bama just last year is an example of one that made the playoffs.

Gabriel will be fine. I recall a number of people calling for Nix to get benched after a couple of games when he didn’t come out strong out of the gate, and now he’s revered by fans. He’s a guy in a new system with new receivers, and on top of that is working with a patchwork line. There are bound to be some kinks to work out. I think he’s handled himself well given the circumstances.

[nogerO]

I wonder if anyone noticed that the offense kind of opened up after Boise's safety got booted for targeting? Looked like a pretty big loss for their side.

Shades of Masoli getting a cheap shot target call. Do they teach that or is it just a coinkidink?

[Duck07]

I saw Crepea tweet that we had 11 different OL combinations last night with all the switching inside.

I remember two weeks ago when we were having the Pickard/Poncho conversation at Starting Center, my big point was that I expected us to start C1 regardless of anything at the Guard positions.

Now it's Civil War week so I'm hopeful we see the aggressive play continue.

[lmduck]

O line was slightly better than last week. Lots of busted assignments/missed blocks. How does their stud D end come untouched to sack our quarterback? Real head scratcher there. Penalties, where to start? Muhammad had a rough game. Our tackling needs a lot of work. We had hands on their stud running back many times and didn't finish. Some good stuff, some bad stuff on special teams. Just a lot more of last week if you ask me. I actually went to bed at halftime and didn't finish watching a Duck game for the first time in a looooooooooong time. Of course it was after midnight here on the east coast. Beavers are going to give us a game next week. They have a chip on their shoulder and always play well at Halloween High stadium. We've been lucky to win the first two games. The coaching staff had better pull a rabbit out of the hat and fix our O-line, which IMHO is our achilles heal right now. Have to give our QB time to throw. Anybody else hear the BSU fans (they were loud and a lot of them at the game) chanting "Over Rated? Deserved at this point.

Go DUCKS!!!

Always a bad move when you start chanting overrated and then lose the game. Maybe they are the overrated team????


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[lmduck]

That was a super frustrating game but I saw a lot of positives in the second half. We were opening holes and protecting the QB finally*. You see the talent at WR. The linebackers actually made plays and our defenders overall make plays on the ball, which I haven't seen in eons. Now it's time to gel.

Totally agree Stevens. Two other things I noticed- some good half-time adjustments (yes the fumbles were ugly) and Dan is certainly better at clock management and half time adjustments unlike his predecessor.

Just thinking out loud here but wonder if Bedford sits another week (against OS) , then there is the bye week and they bring him back after that.


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[pezsez1]

Wow, a lot to unpack from... whatever that was! Fun and stressful game. I felt better about last night than I did the Idaho fiasco, but that was still way closer (and more flukey) than it needed to be. Glad we finally got that Boise State monkey off our backs, but damn.

I'm struggling to remember an Oregon offense that had such a massive dropoff for no apparent reason. Yes, we lost Nix, but DG is an established top-tier QB. We lost Franklin, but overall it seems like the WR room is better. We kept most of our line. (Three starters, right?) RBs are back. OC is unchanged. This dropoff in production is just WEIRD.

The O-line is clearly broken right now, and that's obviously the #1 problem (and maybe the only real problem) with this team. And while I definitely think DG is a stud & the best QB on our roster, I also think he's a bit Penixy in that he seems to panic when dudes are bearing down on him. (Like that time last night when he basically ran into the unblocked blitz for a big loss.) Sadly that's a bad weakness to have with a line that's struggling like ours. There were times yesterday when I wondered if we might be better off with Moore, who's probably less talented in every other facet of the game but might make better decisions with guys coming after him. Definitely not calling for a QB change -- the coaches still have time to figure this out -- but my big worry is that Gabriel's weakness will be amplified in conference games if the O-line doesn't get its s*** together quickly.

Defense looked great and it's wild that BSU ended up with 30+ points, but that's what happens when your offense regularly coughs up the ball or fails to get first downs. Can't leave your defense on the field for so long and expect points to stay off the board.

All that aside...

All the ingredients to be special are there. The explosiveness is undeniable. The D is legit. Special teams are legit. And also this team is definitely resilient. Others have pointed out teams that have looked sloppy at the start and managed to put it all together. Oregon could still do that, but it had better hurry. At this point I can't say I'm wildly confident that we're going to play our best game of the season in Corvallis next weekend, and yet the Ducks don't really have the time to take steps backward at this point. Hopefully dudes figure things out and this team can be what it's capable of being.

Also, one more thing... I totally saw in real-time that Whittington dropped the ball before the goal line and was yelling at the TV for someone to pick up that ball. It's wild to me that players keep doing that! Like do these guys even watch football?

[droop10]

There were times yesterday when I wondered if we might be better off with Moore, who's probably less talented in every other facet of the game but might make better decisions with guys coming after him.

I believe it’s the exact opposite. Moore has more talent, but his biggest weakness last year was his decision making. He only played significant snaps in 7 games last year, and threw 9 picks and was sacked 25 times. Anyone thinking Moore is going to be a better decision maker than Gabriel at this point in their careers is sorely mistaken. Moore has a bright future, but there’s a reason he was happy to transfer to backup. He admitted he needed more time to develop due to the college game being a little too fast for him last year.

[lmduck]

There were times yesterday when I wondered if we might be better off with Moore, who's probably less talented in every other facet of the game but might make better decisions with guys coming after him.

I believe it’s the exact opposite. Moore has more talent, but his biggest weakness last year was his decision making. He only played significant snaps in 7 games last year, and threw 9 picks and was sacked 25 times. Anyone thinking Moore is going to be a better decision maker than Gabriel at this point in their careers is sorely mistaken. Moore has a bright future, but there’s a reason he was happy to transfer to backup. He admitted he needed more time to develop due to the college game being a little too fast for him last year.

Spot on Droop- totally agree


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