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Yesterday was completely expected and completely unexpected at the same time. Boise State has our number, and their isn't a high enough ceiling in the world for us to blow them out. But here are my takeaways. At a high level: Despite our returning production there is still a world where we are this year's Penn State. Not that I expect a complete implosion, but that sometimes returning production isn't enough to overcome a few key losses and a different slate of competitors. But the most likely scenario is we just played the G6 representative for this years playoff, and will probably experience the most improvement from game 1 to the end of the regular season than any other top 15 team. Positive takeaways from the game: The OL has a higher ceiling than last year's team Davon Benjamin is a stud only a half notch down from Finney who will give us an all American DB for years that can play nickel and any other position in the secondary Dante Moore will be improved in being an on-field OC. There was one audible he made that game us a 50 yard play. Expect more of that. Mathew Johnson may be better than Amauri Washington on the DL before the end of the season. Kicking was excellent. Kickoffs never resulted in anything past the 25, punts were effective despite lack of hang time, and field goal kicking was good, every PAT split the uprights and contact on the field goal was solid even if the direction wasn't perfect. Negative takeaways from the game: The most annoying traits of our offense and defense are Dan Lanning's not the coordinators and they aren't going away- A DL that plays containment over disruption, with an overall defense that bends through 3rd downs and breaks in the red zone, and an offense that prefers high completion ratio passes to players in space, even thoough Bo Nix and Tez Johnson are long gone. 7 passes behind the line of scrimmage for a loss and Dan Lanning said after the game, the okay calling was good, it was just a player execution issue. Making Hill RB1 when Davison is our most effective runner is not an improvement. We seriously are going to miss Bryce Boetcher -Jerry Mixon just doesn't have the hyper aggressive physical mindset needed to dominate between the tackles. If the RBs aren't stuffed by the DL or a nickel in run support it's 4-10 yards before they are brought down. Things I Don't Think are long term issues: Run blocking wasn't good but will get cleaned up. Stupid penalties will get cleaned up. Muffed punts will get cleaned up How we compare against fellow National Championship hopeful Peers: Having watched USC, Miami, Indiana and even some other not top 10 teams play, I can say We aren't going to win a natty. Why? Our QB is not an instinctual baller, our strategic coaching philosophy DNA on offense is not aligned to the players on our roster, and is destined to fail against elite experienced (ie smart and disciplined) teams and our LBs aren't able to keep a strong rushing attack off schedule consistently. Let's just enjoy the wins this season, but an NC or bust mentality is a guaranteed recipe for disappointment.

Charles, thank you for giving us your observations of the Oline combinations and which positions the players played. The CBS announcing crew rarely, if ever mentioned the names of the Oline. I have rewatched the game twice and have not seen an early game listing of either teams starters. Poor effort by the CBS team. The Oline was pretty soft on opening holes for the running game. I look to see a big improvement against OSU. More playing time will bring improvements. Did the Oline have any holding penalties? Pass protection was good. They gave Dante time in the pocket to go thru the progressions and make some great throws. Dante had a few throw aways and he was sacked just once. You dont get 380 yards passing without the time needed to hit the open receiver. The Oline play should and will improve each week. Boise State put on a clinic in clean, precise open field tackling or the Ducks would have racked up more passing yards and points. I read a number of Duck fans complaints about too many passes behind the line of scrimmage. Those type of plays set up those crossing patterns and slants that produced chunk plays and touchdowns later in the game. On the one 4th and short play, in the first half, if the BSU player had not made a great open field tackle, Dak would have taken it to the house. The formation and play call took the linebackers and DB's away from the play. What coach would not want Dak Moore isolated in space? Glad for the win! So much upside and room for growth. No Ducks on offense played to their ceiling, except maybe Dante. The future looks great. Go Ducks! Get after OSU.

Great breakdown Charles. I always love your OL observations. I think before we panic too much we need to better grasp what Boise St really is. I think for the last twenty years or so, BSU has been a place that 2/3 stars rated guys with 3/4 star talent gather together to unleash collective vengeance on the football world that snubbed them. I think BSU also can acquire the highest level coaching staff at the G5 level because they can bring in the highest level of talent in the G5. In short they are consistently under rated and deadly team year after year. They will rarely make mistakes that beat themselves and any victory against them has to be earned. Penn St found that out in the playoffs a couple years ago. With that said, playing so many young and inexperienced OL players against such a formidable first game opponent was bound to expose a steep on the fly learning curve. They were shaky but solid enough to put up 34 points and out score a legit team. As usual, I expect to see dramatic improvement game to game until they reach their elite potential.

I have a different take on the OL. If you were to be asked who are the highest ceiling guys we have on the roster outside the true freshmen, it would probably be Douglas Utu and Zaire Addison. The fact both improved enough to start and contribute in the 1st game is a fantastic development. Further that Addison beat out Rogers for LT is huge, because we know Rogers is a fantastic tackle. Also Ferguson was a high ceiling project guy, who I think mostly played Lacrosse in HS. That he is developing enough to get some playing time as an above the line player is great. With regards to how the OL played, we need to know that Boise State has a top 20 pass rush attack. Dante Moore was sacked only once, and had a really clean pocket for himself on those successful intermediate and deeper passes. I think it's a bigger indictment on our OL of how few inside running plays were called, although having Hill as the starter played into that strategy some. Certainly there were missed assignments in the run game and not a lot of push at times. Much of that can be resolved with chemistry and being confident enough to play fast and hard. So ultimately if we are going to still have problems by the end of this year I don't think it wilo be the OL. I was encouraged by the way they played yesterday.

Didn't know you could do that, neither did Kenny . . . agree to shorten a game. Arizona State, Morgan State agree to 10-minute 4th quarter in Sun Devils' season opener - Arizona Sports I wonder how that affects betting?

New power rankings. Big Ten football power rankings after Week 1: Oregon moves to No. 3

Report card. High of A- for QB play and WR/TE, and low of C- OLine play. Oregon football: Report card features low grades after shaky win

24/7 Post game What went right — and wrong — for Oregon in its win over Boise State

D Moore update? JJ ready from the get-go. Post game prayer meeting of both teams. Oregon Ducks On SIThree Things You Didn’t See on TV During Oregon’s Win Ove...EUGENE - The No. 2 Oregon Ducks survived a tense season opener, beating the Boise State Broncos 34-27 at Autzen Stadium. Oregon's defense was better than the s

Defense held Boise to under 3 yards per carry that's pretty good. BSU didn't rush for 100 yards (but some sacks in there influenced these numbers as well). It just wasn't consistent and Boise scored on drives we helped with penalties.

Official explanation FINALLY given. "Sure enough, just before midnight Central Time, the Big Ten released video that not only justified the decision but included audio of its replay team calmly going through the process that put a second back on the clock. Had that video and audio discussion been broadcast in real time, the entire viewing experience would have been different." CFB Week 1 takeaways: Michigan gets a gift, LSU looks title-ready and UMass wins! - ESPN

I know I said this in the game thread, but throwing the ball short of the line to gain on 4th and short should be a fireable offense. The crazy thing is they did it twice! On the first one, a receiver looked to be running wide open behind Hill. Moore never looked at anyone else on either play, so I am going to assume that was a play calling issue and not Moore screwing up. NEVER EVER THROW THE BALL SHORT OF THE STICKS ON 4th DOWN!! I not even going to mention the play where they had 3 NFL receivers in man-to-man coverage and they chose to throw a backwards pass to Stewart and let him throw it to the end zone. JMac almost made the play, but why even go there?? I could go on and on. If I had to grade the offense play calling, I would give it a D.

Dan Lanning’s best fourth down decisions yesterday was to bring Ettridge in to punt the ball. On two of his three punts, he buried the ball inside the 10 yard line. Both times Boise went three and out and punted the ball back giving Oregon great field position (50 and BSU 44 yard lines). Oregon scored TD’s on the subsequent drives. I believe the win may have been a lot less nerve wracking if DL had made the safe call and made Boise try to drive the length of the field on his defense. We probably would have seen a 14+ point win.

Dante Moore is enjoying the game of football with a smile on his face. “And I just reminded myself last night when I take this field that there’s going to be some great plays, there’s going to be some bad plays. But I’m just a young kid from Detroit, and I just have a smile on my face when I go out there and play football.” The maturity Dante displays is so positive. Coaching up an excellent receiver who makes a mistake in practice, and seeing that player execute that play correctly in the game is a huge positive! Oregon Ducks On SIDante Moore Makes Clear Jeremiah McClellan’s Big Game Was...EUGENE - The No. 2 Oregon Ducks avoided what could have been one of the biggest upsets of the Dan Lanning era Saturday, defeating Boise State 34-27 to open a hi

As coach says, "it's never as bad or as good as it seems". Another favorite, "most improvement comes between week 1 and 2". I'll say this, a win is a win is a win. We played with more mistakes than I have seen in a long time. And yet had almost 500 yards of offense. We were 0-fer on 4th down, had many terribly timed needless penalties, but held on for a gutsy win against a well coached team that could win the Pac (8)nt and be ranked. I'm taking the dub, licking my chops for the Okie Cowboys and glad Duck football is finally here. This is gonna be a great year! Go Ducks! 🦆❤️🦆

Indeed

I saw the clock run out on the previous play and quickly switched to the other game I was monitoring. WMU got hosed, plain and simple!!!

We were so close to grabbing all the momentum and shutting this game down at multiple points throughout the game. We just couldn't manage to do it on both sides of the ball until the fourth quarter.

Turn those machines back on! Lookin' good, Bryce, feelin' good, Whit! 😁

They survived the hype. All summer long we knew it could be a trap game, which it was. And the Bleu Donks almost pulled it off. MM played his butt off. Probably helps both teams resumes in the end.

The O-line iterations were curious but had their moments. It took some guts (and maybe frustration) on Lanning's and Mehringer's part to play so many inexperienced OL players and combinations in a tight game. I saw them give Dante more time to go thru progressions as the game went on. Blocking for the run game still needs work. Settling on the best starting five may take a week or two. This isn't Terry's first rodeo putting a line together and I believe it will gel by the time Oregon invades La La Land

P.S. I don't have FishDuck.com anymore, and don't have an official platform to write articles on, but as you see above....I can't stay away from a keyboard for long. So glad I have this forum to share thoughts, and learn from so many of you. Great to have you all back!

We have a mess on the offensive line that will take three or four games to get figured out--I believe. Yet even with upcoming observations and concerns...this offense scored 34 points, which is two TDs less than I predicted going into this game. Have a flea-flicker with a pass thrown a little higher, (TD) and a punt-return "Bubble" penalty that should have been called, and it could have come close to what I hoped for on offense. Which is a miracle considering the offensive line combinations I saw. Why was OC Mehringer throwing so many short passes? Because he had NO confidence in this group holding off the pass rush for a longer drop-back pass, IMHO. People around me at the game were blustering about the short passes, and I reminded them that this is not only an inexperienced group working together....they are FLAT-OUT INEXPERIENCED as players. When I saw the starting offensive line....I turned into a muttering-mass-of-protoplasm, as I could not believe my eyes. At left tackle was not Fox Crader, but Ziyare Addison? After Crader looked so good against USC last year at LT? Addison has hardly played at all, and HE has Dante's blind side? Next to him at left guard was another sophomore who has barely played at all in Douglas Utu. So our left side starters were barely a notch above freshmen in terms of game experience? I was moaning to myself..."we're doomed!" Until I looked at the right side. Over at right guard was Yale transfer Michael Bennett who had played three years at offensive TACKLE, not guard. What? Then at right tackle was Fox Crader...when I never saw him play that side before? WTH? This starting group was not what I expected at all, and three starters had either no experience, or almost no experience playing for Oregon in real games. I admit to not watching much of the game for a while as I was trying to process what I just saw, and trying to figure WHY they were doing it? Because they were throwing mud on the wall to see what stuck, and perhaps that combo in practice worked the best recently? All the talk about Nacho, Tofi, and Gernorris was wasted as I did not notice them in the game for any length of time. I am assuming that Addison and Crader competed for LT, and whoever lost that battle was automatically at RT? In the second half....I was sputtering at a Duck fan about how they just brought in little-played junior Trent Ferguson, who is 6-5 and 322 from West Salem. He has been groomed as a tackle his entire career, and came in to play left GUARD! I was spit-sputtering to the fan about this and then the long play for 50 yards was run by Davison...right behind Trent Ferguson. I then awkwardly admitted to the fan that, "well, that shows what I know!" So bizarre, but it worked. He played quite a bit in the second half, and again--how we scored as much as we did with these Rubix-Cube movements on the offense line might be the greatest example of how much better Drew Mehringer might be than many give him credit for. In the crunch drive to get the lead, and to run out the clock...who was in at right guard? NOW they brought in the veteran Dave Iuli at the end? He must have been more banged-up than they wanted to admit in the coaches offices. We got ground yards when needed most... I swear the most under-appreciated entertainment in that game was watching for who is playing on the offensive line, where they were playing, and when. I was in my Duck-Heaven sitting on the 34 yard line and nearly halfway up behind the team. So great after six years, but I noted some real "vibe" differences from prior years of watching Our Beloved Ducks in person. There was no air of anticipation like when Chip was here, and frankly was kind of a flat air about them. In some respects it might resemble the 2001 team that won a bunch of close games....but won them and went on to be No. 2 in the nation. In the end....I think that considering they were playing offensive line-Scrabble and scored 34 points, while our defense was healthy and loaded and gave up 27? By comparison we got a lot more over-achievement from the offense, while the defense under-achieved quite a bit. While we are fortunate to survive this game, I like how we did not win it on a fluke, or miracle, or bonehead mistake by our opponent. We won it at crunch-time, and yet have MILES of upside left that will be developed over the season. So fun to be back in Autzen, and it reminded me again of how I am truly a crazed Duck fan....who fortunately has similar company in this forum! Charles Pretty good passing game--even with the short passes....

Hail to the Victors! Never a doubt! 🤪 Week 1 overreaction: The SEC is deeper than the B1G. With Oklahoma coming to town next Saturday, the Wolverines' best get their sierra together.

It seemed very inconsistent to me, at times it was great other times very poor.