I believe these facts are telling and deserve their own post.

The new myth circulating in the CFB world is that the Oregon O-line (OL) hasn't been the same since Mario went MIA. Six members of the OL who played for Mario were in the NFL before Dan arrived in Eugene.

Inconvenient Fact: In 2024 and 2025, the Oregon OL was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award for the best OL in the nation.

Three members of the 2025 OL, World, Pregnon, and Harkey, are on NFL rosters.

These statistics from Tru-Media, as reported by The Athletic's Stewart Mandel today, tell the story to date in 2026.

87th in run Yards Before Contact (YBC): 1.63. 2025: 14th, 2.5.

YBC was under 1.0 against USC and UCLA.

Oregon ranks 95th in run-play contact behind the LOS: 44.6%. (The 2025 number was not provided, and I do not have access to Tru-Media statistics.)

RT Fox Crader has allowed the most pressures in the Big Ten: 18

LT Ziyarre Addison is 4th in the B1G: 13 pressures allowed.

Every statistic on offense is inflated from the scrimmage against Portland State. Without the PSU stats, the overall play of the team on both sides of the ball has been mediocre or worse.

The PFF grades for OL run-blocking against UCLA were not good, especially for the two tackles.

Oregon's OL is not the only group underperforming in 2026. Among the underachievers are Michigan, Washington, and Texas.

Should Dan have added more OL players from the Portal? Possibly, but at what cost? Returning DL starters and Dante Moore are well paid, and even Mighty Oregon does not have an unlimited football budget.

As Urban Meyer and many other commentators have pointed out, in today's CFB world, OL is the toughest position to recruit out of high school and from the portal.

Against UCLA, Dylan Raiola's play was worse than the play around him. Pro Football Focus asks why the Oregon coaching staff waited so long to take Raiola out of the game. A reasonable question.

Coaching concerns are understood and warranted. However, Crader and Fox are inexperienced, and it shows. Could any coach be doing a better job with the material at hand?

Regarding Mario compared to Dan in 2026, if Oregon's first six games had been against the dreck Miami has played to date, the Ducks would be undefeated.

Miami's win over No. 21 Wake Forest? It took the Demon Deacons two OTs to defeat Purdue.

An inexperienced OL and games against four AP-ranked teams? And with the starting QB knocked out in LA and the backup returning to his mean?

If a team cannot run the ball, it will not win many games against worthy opposition. Especially when the lack of the run game is made worse by seven turnovers.

With this roster, and a future NFL QB hurt, 2-2 against the Top-25 is discouraging for the fans, but not a surprising result.

The PFF stats below confirm that the defense played very well against UCLA.

Suck it up, ball out, and don't give up; a spot in the 2026 playoff is still in sight.

On3

Stats, Snaps, and PFF Grades for Oregon & UCLA

The Oregon loss to UCLA was a shocker to watch. Who got snaps in this game? How did they grade on PFF? Let's dig into it.

I hear you. The QB play has been rank; no Oregon QB is ranked in the B1G's top 8.

CFB-HQ On SI

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On the Sunday morning radio sports show he shares, Geoff Schwartz was bemoaning the O-line play vs UCLA. It was his contention that Oregon did not run a single play on offense without at least one screwup in assignment by an O-lineman. He said it was apparent the coaching staff was getting frustrated and were trying in-game substitutions of players who screwed up, but as soon as something was "fixed" then there would be a screwup elsewhere with a different player. Then, a player pulled out would be rotated back in and screwup again.

Should they have pursued more OL talent from the portal? Absolutely!

We all believed that they must have liked the pieces they had and they would be good enough ... That turned out to be wrong.

And I'll happily eat my crow and admit I was one of those people saying the offensive line should be fine because in Dan we trust and if he was good with it it must be good.