The Ducks Are Good At Football
Very good, probably.
There are “get right” games, and then there’s whatever that was.
Other than a kneel down to end a back-and-forth first half, the Ducks scored every single time they touched the ball on Saturday against the Beavs.
Efficiency problems = Solved.
They also had three different rushers go for 60+ yards and scored four touchdowns on the ground.
Sleepy run game = Awakened.
And Dillon Gabriel ran the ball four times—one of which was a 54-yard TD on a speed option play that looked like one I’ve run a zillion times on my PS5—and he threw exactly as many incompletions.
Heisman campaign = Back.
Plus, the defense pitched a shutout in the second half.
That’s Dan and Tosh’s SIXTH scoreless second half since Portland State last season.
Take a minute to let that stat sink in.
It isn’t just their sixth shutout half since Dan arrived in 2022—we had zero that year.
No, it’s their sixth in the last seventeen games, and their fourth over our last six.
They’re becoming elite in-game coaches right in front of our eyes, and you love to see it.
In my game preview, I was supremely focused on our run game.
The Ducks were averaging just about 100 rushing yards heading into the game, and we more than doubled that number with 240 yards on the ground (and that was despite the fact that OSU was the best opposing run defense we’ve seen to-date).
And we obviously couldn’t have run the ball so well if it weren’t for the immaculate rebirth of our offensive line.
The big fellas up front were the hot-button blame magnets through the first two week, but it seems that Dan has officially settled on an o-line lineup he likes (for now).
For what it’s worth, the experts were asking for this new starting five for a quite some time now:
“I do think the “best” rotation is the one with Strother and Harper as guards, and Poncho at center.” - Me, in my Boise review.
Hey, better late than never, but I actually have a theory on this:
I’m sure Dan knew that Poncho was the best center on the team all along, but maybe he was concerned about his lack of a back-up plan.
And instead of waiting until a late-November injury forced walk-on Charlie Pickard to play his first in-game reps at Wisconsin or something, Dan opted to struggle through two lower-level opponents in the hopes that it would build some semblance of depth at the position.
Now, I can’t say I’m thrilled about out our back-up plan after watching those first two games, but at least we can all convince ourselves that Charlie has some experience, rather than none.
But not only did the offensive line clear the way for Jordan, Noah, Dillon, and Jayden Limar in the run game, but they also protected Dillon in the pass game as if they were the Secret Service (back before the Secret Service became bad at their jobs, obviously).
That meant that DG had plenty of time to find open guys downfield, and, as he put it, “if you give me the time, I’ll do the crime.”
At the end of the day, Dillon’s rap sheet read: 20-24, 291 yards, and 2 passing TD—plus another 64 yards and one score on the ground.
Yeah, I’m thinking he’s pretty good at football, too.
I’ll be honest though, the Beavs started the game with a winning formula.
They possessed the heck out of the ball in the first half and kept the ball out of the hands of our newly automatic offense.
Granted, our defense was struggling to tackle and get off the field on third down, but OSU capitalized and entered the half down just eight points.
That kind of gameplan likely would’ve been enough to beat the Idaho and Boise versions of the Ducks, but it turns out that it might be next-to-impossible for a team like the Beavers to beat the real Ducks.
We obviously never looked back, and it was thanks to defensive performances like the one we got out of Bryce Boettcher.
Don’t look now, but Boettcher might be LB1 so far.
I keep anticipating that his role will get smaller and smaller as we play tougher opponents, but he just keeps playing more and playing better.
Whether it’s because Bassa is still very limited, or because Dan is just that good at developing linebackers, this walk-on outfielder from South Eugene continues to win fans’ hearts and crack opponents’ skulls as if he was a five-star the whole time.
And once again, our secondary played a pretty non-exciting quarterback, and once again they broke up a bunch more passes—seven, to be exact.
It’s clear that Dan has built this defense to defeat the pass—which is good because the pass defeated him very badly in both Washington games last year—and hopefully that means we’ll be ready for Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka on October 12th.
Anyone who watched the Fox broadcast on Saturday was treated to former Dawg/Seahawk, Brock Huard, actively coveting all the never-Huskies that were making a ton of big plays for Oregon.
Whether it was Josh Conerly’s lead block that sprung Dillon’s long score, or Jayden Limar’s 65-yard screen pass touchdown, he made sure to remind the folks at home that, essentially: “Those guys grew up in Seattle, but now they’re wearing green and yellow.”
We’ll start conference play at UCLA next, but first we have the bye week—or as Dan likes to call it, “work week.”
The Ducks will use that time to get Bassa and Bedford both healthy, and also figure why the hell they’re the best team in the world all of the sudden.
And just to put a bow on non-conference play, I want to say that we went 3-0 against a schedule of three future conference champs, but I also watched the Apple Cup.
Let’s just say I’m really glad we didn’t lose our Pac-2 rivalry game. It does not look fun.
Go Ducks.