Montana State @ Oregon (Aug 30, Sat 1 PM TV: BTN)

[StevensTechU]

FWIW, Hythloday didn't write the article. I haven't been a frequent patron of ATQ since it was just a bunch of funny dudes writing articles in the early 2010s, but it appears someone named Tristan wrote it.

[OregonFan4Life]

Good to know, so it’s the entire ATQ team being stubborn

But I truly believe that the OLine does need to work and improve but they’re not as bad as the guys at ATQ would make them seem.

For me the most concerning play was on a Dante Moore zone read which he read beautifully but Harkey completely whiffed his block on the LB resulting it in being a 5 yard gain, not a long TD. It just made me wonder if Harkey is athletic enough to block downfield at this level of competition.

[StevensTechU]

I didn't realize Bedford wasn't just not on the field with the starters, but he was behind Kawika Rogers in addition to Iuli. He had a hold penalty, but it was for snatching and laying on a guy, not for holding a guy he couldn't handle.

My biggest concerns are whether we have two linebackers who can play, because Jackson is downright bad, and Mothudi and Mixon looked a lot worse than they did in the spring game. In addition to that, I didn't love how much Dowler was able to get loose against our secondary.

[OregonFan4Life]

I’ve heard some criticism of the LB’s. Between the LB recruiting (which appears to be behind every other position group’s recruiting at Oregon, except maybe TE) and LB’s continuing to be out of position, is Tosh’s LB coaching questionable?

[StevensTechU]

I’ve heard some criticism of the LB’s. Between the LB recruiting (which appears to be behind every other position group’s recruiting at Oregon, except maybe TE) and LB’s continuing to be out of position, is Tosh’s LB coaching questionable?

It's Brian Michalowski coaching the position. And I think the verdict is still out. I'm perplexed because you have guys like Boettcher and Bassa that came in as safeties and really grew into good linebackers, yet last year we had both and both will be in the NFL yet our LB play was just adequate. Similarly, Jamal Hill wasn't consistent at Oregon but he's now in his third season in the NFL. If the class of Platt, Mothudi, and Williams doesn't pan out then I'd say we have our answer.

[StevensTechU]

I'm sure hythloday has done or will review comprehensively, but ahead of the Pregnon injury, the left side had zero blown blocks over three drives, and to the eye looked like how you'd expect with Pregnon being a physical freak and World looking really athletic but not necessarily the strongest guy. The right side was fine. Iuli did a good job of moving guys in the run game but had the only blown block in three series, but Limar actually does a fantastic job and bounces it outside and gets a touchdown. Harkey's lack of athleticism is on display and if I'm projecting forward, I think it will be an issue against higher competition, but I don't know opposing personnel well enough to say exactly who. He does his job throughout the first three series, though. I think Bedford and Gernorris will compete for these spots all season long, though.

Finally finished watching. Gernorris wasn't very impressive in this game, so I'm not surprised that Harkey is the starter so far. Gernorris had a really good spring game so I thought he was further along, but in many instances he just looks like he's not sure who to block. As Dan says, go 100% even if it's not the right assignment. I was surprised to see Trent Ferguson as the next tackle off the bench after Wilson, as I would have assumed it would be Fox Crader or even true frosh Zac Stauscasky. He wasn't asked to do much but he performed admirably.

On the guards, it's just a sizable drop off after Pregnon to the next guy. Between Kawika, Dave Iuli, and Matt Bedford, none separate from the pack. I would have it as Bedford 1, Rogers 2, and Iuli 3, but it's splitting hairs somewhat so it's not some big injustice to see Iuli, Rogers, then Bedford on Saturday.

I can't recall if it was this thread or another, but whoever asked about the secondary, I don't have access to the all-22 and you really can't say much without it. That's why all my praise and criticisms are about the guys in the box.

[GrandpaDuck]

I haven't rewatched the game because of a comcast issue with my recording but it appeared to me that MSU was selling out chasing the ball or being pushed inside by the Oregon edge blockers making the bounce out by the Oregon backs so much more effective. The lack of any 10+ yard runs may have been a choice by MSU to over commit to stopping that.

[DuckFreak10]

By the way, where are Jahlil Florence and Theran Johnson?

Just saw Theran was declared out before the game, didn’t realize that.

I think Jahlil played some on kickoff coverage.

Did he just get beat out by everyone else? Or is there more going on?

I honestly think he just got beat out. He was the contain man on first team kickoff units. Na'eem Offord was the second unit's contain man if I recall correctly.

[buckmarkduck]

Davison is the new Cyrus Habibi-Likio as he's got 3 short-yardage TDs today. He's an absolute load once he gets going downhill.

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Except Davison has the talent to be at UO.

Sort of weird to take a swipe at a guy that put in 4 years of work on the team. Just cause he never led the team in yards or carries doesn't mean he didn't have talent.

Seemed like a swipe at Jordan. Cyrus was a thief of TDs. CJ could punch it in himself, but for some reason Mario gave the tds to him instead. In this case, 2 other RBs got stuffed, so they put in Jordan, a rb 30lbs bigger than CHL, to get the job done. He reminds me of Bettis. Keep having Love reshape his body, and he will be a beast next year along with Hill.

[buckmarkduck]

ATQ has been pretty dire about the OL. Their film revew of the meaningful portion of the game showed a 25.7% error rate blocking on the OL, which is below their rates for Oregon OL going back many years, usually around 8%-14% from what I can remember, which is usually praised. Article calls it far below regular FBS averages.

Then PFF comes out and gives Harkley the highest grade of any Oregon offensive player and World a huge pass blocking grade. The only other grade I saw was an excellent run blocking grade by Sadiq.

I doubt PFF all of a sudden decided to be Oregon fans and throw out inflated grades so that appears inconsisent with the "basically very poor" OL grading from ATQ.

Haven't rewatched the game, but the Duck QBs seemed to all have all day to throw the whole game against a Montana State DL that by reputation is supposed to possibly better than 60+ FBS DLs. It also rushed for 253 yards at 6.5 ypc (MSU gave up 121 ypg at 4.1 ypc last year). That's without Pregnon most of the game.

Throwing out the 81-7 Portland State game in 2023, against Oregon's other last 4 FCS opponents it rushed for: 107 yards (Idaho), 263 yards (Eastern Washington), 182 yards (Stony Brook), and 247 yards (Montana). So if 253 yards rushing was done with an OL tripping all over itself all day, that's pretty good.

I think some growing pains by the OL were inevitable for the first few games. I guess it may be a question of seeing it as a solid first outing (PFF); or, possibly either intentionally or unintentionally looking for evidence to use to pounce upon a unit it appears to be betting against (ATQ). Not saying that happened, just interesting. Maybe it's a natural reaction to wanting an unpopular take to be successful? I mean, I think most people understand Oregon isn't returning a bunch of established starters and adding Penei Sewell.

One thing I would agree with ATQ about concerning the first game was noticing Oregon's failure to produce explosive plays in between the tackles running the ball was very uncharacteristic. This quote caught my eye: "What was out-of-line on Saturday compared to pretty much every game since Andy Ludwig was fired was that inside rushing didn't generate any 10+ yard rushing plays at all. The Ducks have consistently generated 10+ yard runs up the middle on a 15% - 23% basis like clockwork for 20 years, even in a down year like 2016." Probably something to be unpacked there?

Hyth has also spent all spring and summer saying how bad transfer OL are. I doubt he’s going to grade them well, when he has been yelling that from the roof tops.

He also suggested Thieneman should RS, then wouldn’t back down from it when he got called out on how crazy that sounded.

[StevensTechU]

Make it TWO straight years that the Oregon Ducks football program have beaten a national champion. It was Ohio State in 2024-2025, and now it's Montana State in 2025-2026. MSU won a thriller in OT over Illinois State, 35-34 (blocked an XP in overtime).