OregonDucks

Line up 9 wide and draw plays in the dirt, since our OL is absolutely terrible? Have our defensive line play both ways at the line of scrimmage? Punt on 1st down and hope the defense can score or get the offense the ball within the 5 yard line?

If true…Yikes! On3Report: UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava expected to miss....

I enjoy hearing the perspective of former Oregon football players and coaches, and I find George Wrightster is knowledgeable and fair when it come down to evaluating the team. The below video includes his instant reactions from the Oregon-UCLA game. Some of the highlights: • The Oregon defense finally showed up. The Oregon offense gave UCLA great field position all game and Oregon’s defense held their own. After the first drive, UCLA got the ball in Oregon territory on the next four possessions and Oregon’s defense held UCLA to zero points. UCLA also averaged ~3 yards per play. It was good enough to win most games. • Oregon’s offensive line was terrible. If Oregon had a decent showing, up front, we would have just run the ball and won the game. • George Wrighster was not a huge fan of the Dylan Raiola signing and this game was what he was concerned about. If Dante Moore played, even with the bad offensive line play, Oregon would have won the game. He thought that Brock Thomas should have started the second half and maybe even then Oregon would have won the game. • While he didn’t like some of the play calls (e.g., the decision to run the ball up the middle on the last 2 point attempt, when we haven’t been able to run the ball between the tackles all year, the option play with Oregon’s RBs was “too cute”), he doesn’t believe that this is all on the OC and is not sure someone else could do better with the offensive line playing this bad and the poor QB play. He claims that there were receivers open and Dylan did not see them. • The loud but few people who are calling for Coach Lanning’s head are crazy. With the exception of a few programs (e.g., Georgia, Indiana, Miami), most programs would fire their head coach to hire Lanning in a heart beat. A University of Texas fan posted on his thread, please fire Coach Lanning so they can replace Sark. LOL. • Oregon now needs to run the table and beat Ohio State at the Shoe. Thoughts?

Deservedly so. Nebraska looked better than UCLA.

Maybe the USC game was an aberration? USC’s defense is not good and perhaps coming off the bench reduced the expectations/pressure on him. The entire team was fired up after the cheap shot on DM. Word out of spring ball was Dylan Riola was not good. He reportedly improved in the fall. I’m not sure which Riola is the real one. It’s most likely somewhere between the USC and UCLA performances but I’ve seen enough to know that I would not feel comfortable with Oregon’s chances next year to make the playoffs, if he is the presumptive starter.

I believe it was George Wrighster who suggested, before the USC game, that if Oregon struggled offensively, Coach Lanning should bring in an experienced offensive “analyst” (prior OC/HC) to help Coach Meh’ this year. Norvell would certainly be a top choice, if he is interested in working this year (vs. taking some time off to reset). I think he’ll get an offer to coach somewhere next season.

Not to mention…opposing coaches seem to know what’s coming anyway so what do you have to lose?

Coach Lanning said in his post game that they saw something in how UCLA lined up (numbers advantage) but the ref stood over the ball longer than normal. He said he’d have to go back and watch the tape to see what went wrong. I agree with you about going for 2 early in game. Why?

Oregon’s player and coaches did not handle the offseason hype well. From the outside, it doesn’t look like they put in the work in the offseason to improve and they believed that the team’s talent would win them the games. Both the offense and defense came out of the gate flat.

I can’t believe that he called out that the difference in the game was the long UCLA pass and subsequent field goal and not the failed 2 point conversion. At least he admitted that nothing was working on offense. Hope he is willing to make major changes to that side of the ball.

Coach Lanning says that the game is won or lost at the line of scrimmage. How in the heck did Oregon end up with this bad of an offensive line?

At least I don’t have to wait until the playoffs to have my hopes destroyed again…

Watching the USC-Penn State game. Maybe Oregon’s offense and Riola just aren’t very good and a bad USC defense just made them look better and gave us false hope? They were basically shut down at Oklahoma State (the defense essentially had 2 TDs in that game) and you can’t take anything away from Portland State.

I love the optimism but we must have been watching different games. I saw a QB who couldn’t hit the side of a barn. I saw an offensive line that couldn’t block anyone. I saw wide receivers who couldn’t get separation. I saw no creativity from the offensive coordinator until late in the second half. And, finally, I saw a head coach wait too long to make a switch at QB.

There is a college football advanced statistician who said that Mehringer was a terrible hire before the season started. He is one of the worst offensive coordinators in college football. If I’m not mistaken, Rutgers was one of the worst offenses in all of college football under Mehringer and they got better after he left. Coordinators usually don’t get better with time - they show you exactly who they are early in their careers. You either have it or you don’t. (And if you go back to the announcement on this board, I questioned the hire at the time. I always thought it was a bad hire and Oregon could have don’t much better.)

And looking back now was that a good decision?

I wouldn’t be surprised if they do now. I expect a Penn State finish to the season. It’s all about preparing for the NFL now and not getting injured.

Bring in a great OC and let him build out his own staff.

This season’s failure is on Coach Lanning. He decided to go with 2 in house coordinators instead of doing a national search for the best, most proven coordinators available. He decided not to go get top offensive linemen and linebackers in the transfer portal.

And then you kick the ball out of bounds on the kickoff, again? This team is so poorly coached and that is on Lanning.

And Lanning’s decision to go for 2 earlier in the game, prevented Oregon from forcing OT. I hope he’s asked about it.

Oregon’s offensive player of the game = UCLA personal fouls on D.

If Lanning hadn’t gone for 2 on the first and only TD, we’d be down by a TD and extra point.

Hahahaha. And it’s getting worse.

I would say Oregon vs. UCLA in the Rose Bowl when Oregon was down to their 5th string QB.