By Ken Woody
A full house crowd of 57,435 showed up at Autzen Stadium to welcome Oregon to their first Big Ten Conference season in a matchup with a supposedly outclassed Idaho Vandal squad that was picked third in the Big Sky Conference. To the surprise of everybody, including this correspondent, the physical visitors from Big Sky Country forced the Ducks to the brink and made the heavily favored (37.5 points), number-three ranked team in the country sweat it out to the very end, 24-14.
The close victory did not go unnoticed by the rest of the football nation. In one ranking, the Ducks slipped from third in the nation to tenth, and there may be more of that in other rankings. For now, who cares? It means nothing, just an embarrassment that may be just the thing to get the attention of Oregon’s five and four-star recruits to get their game in shape. Bringing discipline to all phases of the game will now be the top priority for Coach Dan Lanning and his staff. That should happen in practice this week.
As it turned out, the very loud crowd was more ready for this game than the Ducks were. As the game wore on, there was plenty of frustration, with lots of three-yard runs and penalties (8 for 60 yards). The offensive line had several penalties, seemingly always around the red zone. One tackle had two successive illegal formation flags for not being aligned properly, and another had a holding penalty that negated a touchdown and forced a field goal (minus four potential points). All sins disrupted what appeared briefly to be promising drives by the offense.
Oregon’s offense ran up 31 first downs, but could only eke out 107 yards rushing against a highly under-rated defense that surprised the smug Ducks. For the game, Oregon’s talented running backs were only able to average 2.9 yards per rush and that won’t get you a first down with three straight carries. It’s not often Oregon has to depend on its passing offense to get first downs.
As the game wore on, Coach Lanning seemed subdued and Oregon’s sideline seemed apathetic, showing little enthusiasm and energy, even when the famous “Shout” came on at the end of the third quarter. A look at the field showed that the Vandal defensive players were the ones shucking and jiving while the Duck offense moped around. To generate some excitement, Lanning might want to have the fans do the “Shout” routine at the beginning of the third quarter rather than the end of it.
A few questions were answered in the affirmative: quarterback Dillon Gabriel, high-priced transfer from Oklahoma, is the real deal and will make the passing on of last year’s Heisman vote getter, Bo Nix, be relatively painless. Gabriel threw the ball accurately, completing 41-of-49 throws (84 percent) for 380 yards and two touchdowns. Unfortunately, Gabriel did not have the same quality protection that Nix did (only five sacks in 14 games last season), getting dumped three times by a scrappy pass rush that at times ran over the hapless Ducks trying to protect their quarterback. He has things to work on also: although he spreads the ball around at times it seems he zeroes in on favorite targets; Tez Johnson and Terrance Ferguson. Of all the skill players, Johnson seems to be the only one who protects his legs from tacklers: Ferguson, Noah Whittington, and James Jordan all seem to go down easy by tacklers avoiding the high tackle and going for the ankles.
Oregon’s offensive line has a lot of talent, according to recruiting services, but poor pad level (too high), and terrible footwork on both run and pass blocking limited the Ducks to an incredibly bad 2.9 per rushing attempt. The Vandal front seven outplayed Oregon throughout the game by twisting their defensive linemen and running linebackers through gaps provided by the Ducks getting turned sideways which created lanes defenders could penetrate.
One of the sacks allowed also resulted in their only turnover, a fumble by Gabriel who was blasted by an unblocked rusher coming from the blind side. Going off the field the quarterback was shaking an injured throwing hand. He appeared to be okay during the rest of the game, but a lot of fans, and coaches, were holding their breath when it happened.
Discipline in the game of football is measured by several metrics: penalties, turnovers and missed tackles. The Ducks had eight penalties, six on the offense and every one affecting an offensive drive in the red zone. Oregon lost only two fumbles last season and allowed five sacks. One fumble and three sacks against a lower-level opponent sets a dangerous precedent. Giving up three sacks a game would total 36 for the season and with injuries, likely force backup quarterbacks into play. The color commentator for Fox said Idaho’s edge players owned Oregon’s offensive tackles. Both teams tackled well and the veteran Idaho defense maintained their tenacity until the very end of the game.
Coach Lanning was rather somber at his post-game presser, but he mostly pointed to the need of identifying areas of concern and address them in the practice days ahead for the Boise State contest Saturday. The greatest shock was the lack of explosive, long-yardage gains by the offense. Oregon’s longest run from scrimmage was 16 yards and there were no completions over 24 yards. By comparison, the Vandals’ longest run was 23 yards and they had three receptions over 32 yards. Lanning said, “I thought they did a good job of stopping our interior run game and we struggled at times to get the ball in the perimeter and be able to move it down the field. I think they did a really good job of staying on top defensively as well to stop us from creating explosive plays down the field, and they did a good job generating pressure, so we have to evaluate some of those looks.”
The Broncos will be deeper than Idaho and more experienced: the Vandals did not have a senior starter on their offense and their quarterback Jack Layne, a sophomore from Lake Oswego, took some heavy pressure from a Duck rush that netted four sacks and a handful of hurries and hits, but his leadership kept Idaho in the game until the last four minutes.
After the game, Lanning observed, “It appears there will be plenty to work on in every phase of the game. Great teams are able to learn from tight matches. This was a tight match, and we didn’t create some of the explosive plays I was hoping we could create offensively.” Although the Vandals play at a level a notch below the Ducks, they had numerous veteran defenders who could probably play Division I football. There’s a reason they have gone to the national playoffs the past two years.
Coaches say the greatest spurt of improvement in a team comes from game one to the second. Trust that Lanning and his assistant coaches will make the most of this opportunity: right now, there is no way the team that played Idaho is going to win the Big Ten.
Ken Woody coached college football for 18 years as an assistant at Oregon, Washington, Utah State and Washington State and as a head coach at Whitman College and Washington University-St. Louis. He conducts a coaching clinic, free to all, at the 6th Street Grill every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. during the season. Plays from Oregon games are analyzed, there are scouting reports for opponents, and highlights from referees; all to learn about football and understand why the Ducks win or lose.
Questions and comments welcomed.
Contact Ken at: woody8783@comcast.net
