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Terrific observations, Solar, but the team will improve; the O-line, in particular, will improve. Dante was poised and efficient, and his 378 passing yards and 3 TDs, with no interceptions, would have been better if 5* WRs, other than for the last TD by Dak, when two Boise DBs collided, had put up more RAC yards. The kicking game? Thanks for pointing out one of the highlights of the game. But the return game? I thought Perich would bring his return skills with him. I'm particularly interested in seeing Perich's PFF grades. I believe we will see an improved team next Saturday in Stillwater, even with a 9 AM body-time KO.

I project 11-1…some traditions with Duck fans seem to live on 😆 I think I can’t take this format anymore, was a good run y’all!

Thank you, Charles, for dropping a line (and a dime) on the Oh-Oh line. Two things about this great article that I loved: You were there! Even if you looked like "a muttering-mass-of-protoplasm!" 😁😎😍 Brilliant! Thank goodness for this detailed analysis. CBS never revealed the starting lineups for the Ducks or the Broncos. And nary a word about Oregon's musical chairs O-line. Oregon ran for 119 net yards. You mentioned Chip, so I note that yesterday Northwestern ran for 224 yards against a worthy FCS opponent, South Dakota State. Oline was the biggest question mark out of Fall camp, and it remains so. The defense was less than stellar, with missed assignments and missed tackles, but the D did hold Boise State to 99 net rushing yards. I also note that Tosh is now 0-2 at stopping Bob Chesney's offenses. In the one B1G Power 4 matchup of the Labor Day weekend to date, UCLA's O put up 277 rushing yards and shut out ACC conference member Cal 21 to 0 in the 4th quarter to seal the 45 to 24 victory. Chip and Bob both visit Autzen this season. 🤔 We can only hope the adage that a team improves the most between its first and second game rings true. At least Oregon defeated its Northwest nemesis yesterday. Oregon scheduling Boise State is akin to Superman scheduling Kryptonite. The players who came West with Chesney from JMU balled out yesterday. The No. Texas team that transferred to Oklahoma State lost at Tulsa, 10 to 24. Thanks again, Charles, for a terrific article. Lasso the Cowboys!

Agreed. That is why at first I was flustered, but after seeing the performance....I wrote about the high upside. They have talent, and with more games and coaching--will be great by the end of the season.

“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.” This is what I keep coming back to on my end. McLaughlin pointed out on his podcast the difference between Oregon and Indiana when they run RPOs. Most of the time, when Indiana pulls the ball, that throw goes out in front of a receiver that is running downfield. Frequently, a quick slant. They put their talented skill position players in a much better position to make a big play because their back is not to the defense when they catch the ball. When Oregon runs an RPO, frequently the ball this thrown sideways into the flat to a receiver or running back that has his back to the defense. This requires that player to try to turn first before attempting to make a defensive player miss that is running downhill towards the play. As you might guess, this has a low success rate of significant yards after the catch. The end result, as the poster above noted, is 7 negative yard pass plays and two failed 4th down conversions against an G6 school. Why is Oregon so scared of the middle of the field? And how do you not take a deep shot almost every time when you have 1:1 man coverage with these receivers? And more importantly, does anyone think this kind of playcalling will work against USC? Oregon needed complete mismanagement of the clock by Boise at the end of the first half and an incredible play by D. Moore to win that game. Honestly, I’ll go 9-3 as my prediction for this year. I don’t have confidence that Oregon can call winning, aggressive plays on offense. I do think the defense will get cleaned up, so I am not focusing as much on that.

Whether W Mich got hosed or not with the 0:00.0 vs 0:00.2 decision is one thing but letting the biggest target on the field stand at the goal line unguarded is inexcusable. One defensive breakdown in an otherwise spectacular overall defensive performance is a tough way to go down.

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 play calling was good, it was just a player execution issue. News flash, bubble screens, reverses and passes to the flat to RBs don't work against experienced and determined DBs which Boise State's portal DBs showed. 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! 😁