Soak It All In

We made nuggets out of the Eagles, and now the Cougars are coming.

The Ducks haven’t beat Brigham Young University in football since the days of Detmer, but after a much-needed 70-14 get-right victory over Eastern Washington, the twelfth-ranked Cougs have once again come West in search of something to conquer.

But Autzen is not The Place.

But where do you even start with a win like that? I guess you start at the box score because, oh man, it’s a fun read.

Quarter-by-quarter, the Ducks scored: 14, 28, 21, and 7 points. That monster second quarter was precisely the reason I thought the Autzen jumbotron was actually going to need a third digit (or any digits, since our big fancy new TV kind of crapped out right before halftime and never really came back into service until right at the end of the game).

But let’s start by talking about that offense.

Dillingham has laid out a very dynamic, spread out system that feels like it’s constantly forming around the defense like water. Consistently finding open space both on the ground and through the air. Sure, it’s Eastern Washington, but with an opponent like that, all you really look for is execution, and holy cow did we have that in droves.

To start the game (read: until 4 minutes left in the 4Q) the Ducks scored nine touchdowns on nine possessions. That’s exactly the kind of perfection we saw from Georgia just 13 days ago in Atlanta, and we got a little taste of that for ourselves.

What more could you ask for?

Wait, please don’t answer that. The greatest benefit of a 70-14 win is that we are promised at least one week of peace and prosperity across the kingdom.

604 total yards, 40 first downs, 5.5 yards per rush, and 8.3 yards per pass. Zero turnovers, nearly 40 minutes of possession, 2 for 2 on fourth down—I could go on and on.

Those are the exact kind of video game numbers that we expected this Oregon team to be able to put up against even an okay FCS team like EWU, and it was also nice to just have the game very much in the bag from the start.

Bo Nix was fantastic, too. Completing 28 of 33 for 277 yards and 5 TD passes (even if the second one to Terrance Ferguson was maybe sort of supposed to be a pick, but we’ll excuse it because the circus catch made it to number eight on Sportscenter’s Top Ten).

Nix did his job to basic perfection. He had full command of the offense from beginning to end, spread the ball around, and made all the right decisions.

He clearly likes Troy Franklin (10 receptions for 84 yards) and the aforementioned Ferguson (3 recs, 2 TDs), but 11 different guys caught a pass when Bo was slinging it, and it was clear that Troy had just found the soft spot in the Eagles’ defense with that 11-15 yard boundary pass. We exposed that spot over and over again as if we were Mario Cristobal running it up UDub’s gut.

We found our play. We dared them to stop it. They could not.

Our defense bounced back impressively, too.

Two sacks, five tackles for loss, three pass deflections, two interceptions, and a defensive touchdown to boot.

But beyond all of the fun stats that came out of it, you could just sense a deeper commitment to tackling, staying disciplined with assignments, and playing as a unit.

This team was embarrassed in Atlanta, and I’m sure their coaches let them know that all week in film study. To bounce back like they did against EWU really shows what they’re made of, and it reassures me that the reports of our defensive “overrated-ness” were premature, to say the least.

And so now, with renewed spirits, the Ducks will take on yet another marquee non-conference matchup as they welcome #12 BYU to Eugene.

The Cougars dominated South Florida in Week 1, and then squeaked out a home overtime upset over Baylor late Saturday night—I guess Liberty missed their invite to the Wonderfully Run Institutions Party. I’m sure they were watching, though. Liberty loves to watch.

The Ducks will certainly benefit by having some home field advantage this weekend, whereas I’d be way more scared to death if this game was being played in Provo, at altitude, with 64,000 Utahns all hopped-up on their sodies and yelling “frick you.”

But I also just think that this is one of those games that Oregon needs to win if they’re going to honestly compete for the conference.

BYU only rushed for 83 total yards last week, and that fear of one-dimensionality seems to be one of their biggest concerns heading into this game, per Cougar Twitter (don’t even get me started).

But those fears have been made even greater with some key injuries to their two top wide receivers: former Husky Puka Nacua (who is 0-1 against Oregon) and Gunner Romney (whose family is 0-1 in national presidential elections).

Nacua’s absence might be the more serious one, as he was observed last week in a boot and has been described as “day-to-day” with an “ankle injury.”

BYU coaches have stated that Romney did not have “a football injury”—whatever that means, maybe a hangnail? Or maybe he was caught with a hot cocoa?—but that they are just “waiting for clearance.”

I personally interpret all that cryptic gamesmanship to mean that we should probably just expect Romney to be out there, but that we will maybe/probably not see Nacua.

Either way, Cougar quarterback Jaren Hall is going to throw the ball a lot, probably 40+ times, and he’s got an endless supply of 30 year-old receivers at his disposal, so our defense is going to have to once again buckle down and play with supreme discipline both during and in between plays.*

*Except for Justin Flowe, who I have decided is fully allowed to keep going batshit crazy every time he’s even remotely involved with a play—and regardless of the result of the play, too. Let him flex.

In short, the Ducks gave us exactly what we wanted to see after that sad, sad trip to Atlanta, and now they have a nearly immediate opportunity to place themselves right back into the thick of the national college football conversation.

If they keep up the fun, free, wide-open offense—maybe we can also settle on a top two or three at running back? Not super important to me at this point, though–and continue to refocus on defense, then I think a convincing win over these Cougs is certainly in store for these Ducks.

38-24, good guys.

Go Ducks.