Island Time

After surviving the nation of Texas, the Ducks seek some R&R.

Background c/o Audrey’s film photography talents.

Alright, so maybe that was Tyler Shough’s revenge game.

I thought my position as his generous NIL benefactor would have softened him up a bit, but it turns out that he still remembered when my cousin Andy talked all that trash and decided to really give us his best shot.

He threw for 282 yards and frustratingly rushed for another 101—including a single rush of 58 yards. He also threw three touchdowns and ran for another.

He was undoubtedly Texas Tech’s shining hope on Saturday night, but his night will ultimately be defined by the enduring image of him on the ground as Jeff Bassa and intercepts his last desperate pass and starts running the other direction.

And that pick-six turned a 1-point win into an 8-point win, which was important to some.

But since this may be my last chance to practice my patented Shough apologetics, I have to honestly give him a ton of credit. He was a man on a Mission™.

When it comes to the Ducks, we were simply lucky to survive all those treacherous tortillas.

Of course, in last week’s blog I jinxed us when I mentioned that the Ducks had played essentially penalty-less football in Week One.

Hand up, I doomed us all to watch that 14-flag laundry fest.

Some of those flags were definitely deserved. Those two bad, bad late hits and dumb pass interferences left the door open for Tech and extended multiple scoring drives. There’s just no excuse for those, especially not for veterans like Dorlus and Khyree.

But then there some were weird coaching penalties like the delay of game before the game-leading FG—which King Camden said that was NOT planned—and then the multiple illegal formation calls.

In terms of the procedural problems, that’s definitely on Lanning. Helf was on the TV call and he mentioned that one of those illegal formation calls was bogus, but Dan still has to have those kinds of things under control. He’s the CEO.

I think he’s still our guy, don’t get me wrong, but I’m also patiently waiting for the return of the version of Dan Lanning that out-coached Chip Kelly last season in the UCLA game.

That coach was equal parts eager, buttoned-up, and one step ahead of you. I hope to see him on our sideline again very soon.

In terms of actual play, Bo Nix was the hero once again.

Colonel Comeback himself threw for 359 yds and 2 touchdowns which included a 72-yard bomb to Troy early.

He used his clutch legs on a crucial 3rd & 11, and he also completed 72% of his passes. That completion percentage stat might be a little padded by all the check-downs he threw to Noah, but fear not, this isn’t warping into a Marcus Arroyo screen offense.

Most of those outlet passes came after Bo had already gone through all of his progressions, and then he decided to dump it off and gain 4-8 yards instead of chance anything that wasn’t actually open downfield.

I’ve heard some fans online say the dreaded “play-calling” word after last week’s stalled offensive performance, and I just have to slow our roll with that one.

First, we were definitely ineffective with our run game for most of Saturday—especially in the interior. And that surprised me because I thought we’d surely push TTU around.

Part of that failure was Tech beating our interior lineman, and the other part of that feels like we just should feed Bucky, specifically, way more.

I love Noah, but I think we have a true RB1 on this roster, and I think it’s okay for us to play Bucky accordingly.

But when we weren’t winning inside, OC Will Stein then looked for the deep ball—which I seem to remember everyone begging for—and while he tested the waters in the long passing game, he was simultaneously allowing his QB to decide which chances he was willing to take.

Whenever the deep ball wasn’t there, Bo took the easy yards and dropped it off to a RB on the outside for what essentially became outside runs that were recorded in the stat book as “passes”.

That’s okay, Bo will happily take the stats.

The Ducks stalled out at times for sure, on both sides of the ball, but I think the false start penalties were the primary culprit for the struggles and ugliness—not the play-calling.

As we look toward Hawaii tomorrow, the Ducks hope to have themselves a week to relax and reset after all that craziness.

The Rainbow Warriors and their new Head Coach Timmy Chang have returned to their traditional run-and-shoot offense. Which means they’re going to pass the ball A LOT.

To give you an idea of just how much they’re going to throw the ball, their QB Brayden Schager is the NCAA’s statistical passing leader with 80 completions on 128 attempts.

USC’s Caleb Williams has also played 3 games, just like Schager, and he sits at 3rd in all of college football with just 55 completions and 70 attempts.

Who sits between them in second place, you ask? Colorado’s Shaduer Sanders.

But we’ll deal with him next week. I wouldn’t want to say anything here to make it too personal for him.

Anyway, it’s safe to say that our cornerbacks are going to get some much-needed live reps. They have a lot to prove to us here at Ditch Rich because as of this week I am temporarily rescinding the title of CB1 from Khyree.

He’s probably going to win it back, but both him and Tysheem will get to split nearly 50 passes worth of opportunities to work their way into a functioning/semi-reliable unit.

Also, I’m starting to wonder if Dontae Manning got leapfrogged in the depth chart by Jahlil Florence. I’m mildly concerned. We’ll keep an eye on this development.

In some good news, we actually got after the quarterback last week.

Four sacks, five tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles summed up a pretty inspiring effort by our front seven.

Dorlus was obviously a beast all night, Jordan Burch was a little quiet for my taste, and Matayo Uiagalelei got A LOT more play than I thought he would have in such a big, close game.

But he looked fast, strong, and almost got home so many times. I’m excited to see #10 come off the edge for the next three years.

Also, Taki Taimani probably won us the game when he stopped Shough on that 4th down attempt on Tech’s own 33-yard line. He played out of his mind last week.

LB Jestin Jacobs was out again last week, but he is apparently/actually back at practice this week. But I think I said that last week too?

Look, I’m really not more plugged in than any of you. I see a Crepea tweet and I run with it. So if Jestin isn’t finally back tomorrow for real and all our linebacker problems aren’t immediately fixed, then you have a different James to blame.

Tomorrow is an interesting scheme matchup with all of Hawaii’s passing, but ultimately you can rest pretty assured that we’ll overpower them early and spend plenty of quality time with Ty Thompson.

Oregon 68, Hawaii 17.

Go Ducks.