The Ducks (Nearly) Get Vandalized

This one called for a review, I suppose.

Okay, we get it Dan, you can do a great Cristobal impression.

Now never do it again.

Before I dive into a combination of cope and criticism about Saturday’s game, I am obligated to give massive credit to Idaho.

They played their tater-lovin’ butts off and took advantage of so many big moments in pursuit of the upset.

This Vandal team is going to be an even tougher out in the FCS playoffs this year than I originally thought.

But with all due respect to our militia-curious neighbors to the east, this game was a mess and a half.

Oregon earned 31 first downs, gained 487 yards of total offense, and basically doubled Idaho in time of possession, yet they improbably only won by 10 measly points.

When it came to Dillon Gabriel’s performance, my cousin Andy called it the ugliest 41 for 49, 380 yard, 2 TD, 0 INT performance he’s even seen.

And he isn’t wrong.

But I think the bulk of the blame belongs with the bulk of this team.

Our re-jumbled offensive line failed to get any real push all day long. They gave up three sacks—including a strip sack—and were all sorts of out of sorts.

The Ducks clearly missed Matthew Bedford in his right guard position.

Jesuit walk-on, Charlie Pickard, was the “new guy” that stepped in and pushed Poncho over into Bedford’s spot, but I think the o-line’s failure on Saturday was so widespread that it belongs to collective disfunction, rather than on any one player.

Ajani Cornelius, our usually-reliable veteran, was penalized twice in key moments for nonsensical illegal formations (he was literally just standing a step or two too far backwards).

Whether it was penalties, blocking schemes, or overall unit chemistry, the big fellas just seemed so off all day.

You never want to see your o-line bullied like that, but you definitely never want to see your fullback trip your most important lead blocker on 4th & inches.

Simply put, Oregon got eaten alive by Idaho’s d-line, and they won’t survive another week if they don’t: a) get healthy and/or b) start gelling with the group they’ve got.

The schedule literally doesn’t get any easier than Idaho.

Another aspect of Saturday’s game that really sticks in my craw is just the absolute lack of mid-game adjustment by the coaching staff.

When the offensive line couldn’t get a push or give Dillon any time to throw, they never tried to do anything different.

What’s that saying about the definition of insanity?

Throw a slip screen or two—it seemed to work for Idaho a couple times.

Or roll Dillon out wide into open space (and give him the option to run so the defense has to respect that part of his game).

In the words of Willie Taggart, do something!

The Ducks just let Idaho play two high safeties and absolutely hold a lid over their passing game all night. They didn’t take control and use their immense talent advantage to split those safeties with spread vertical routes, or freeze the safeties by throwing a genuinely deep post corner route to the outside receiver (yes, the NCAA ‘25 video game has made me an expert in ball all of the sudden).

Oregon simply “took what the defense gave them” and threw little slants, curls, and RB wheel routes—which is generally totally fine, we just lacked any semblance of boom plays to compliment those dinks and dunks.

We just sat in the corner and watched as Idaho dictated the terms of the game.

Look, I don’t have THE answer, but it felt like all day long Will Stein didn’t have AN answer.

This is supposed to be a natty-caliber coaching staff, and if they can’t make mid-game adjustments against Idaho, then they’re not a natty-caliber coaching staff.

Speaking of not being able to make improvements, Oregon is still a bad penalty team.

In all of the success of last season—and in all the hype heading into this year—it would be easy to forget that Oregon lost 60.6 yards per game and were ranked 109th in penalties in 2023.

That means there were only 24 FBS teams out of 133 that were penalized more than the Ducks, and they kept it up on Saturday.

The Ducks committed 8 penalties for 60 yards—exactly on pace to match last year’s number.

Whether it was an offsides on the kickoff, a P.I. where Brandon Johnson simply didn’t turn to find the ball, a block in the back on a punt return, or the aforementioned o-line penalties—we couldn’t help but do our best Plaxico Burress impression and shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again.

I’d beg for it to stop, or at least slow down, but Oregon has been doing the same thing for the last two years, so I’ll just shut up about penalties and hope that everything else gets better so we can win games despite being undisciplined.

All that said, there were totally some bright spots for that team out west on Saturday.

Matayo Uiagalelei had two sacks, a forced fumble, and tons of hurries. He caused havoc all day long and lived in the backfield on money downs—precisely when Oregon needed him most.

He’s growing into KT before our very eyes, and I can’t wait to watch him get there soon.

But Duke transfer Brandon Johnson might have just been the biggest pleasant surprise of the day.

Here I was, consumed with a made up debate in my head that pitted Muhammad and Alexander against each other for the title of CB1, and I had no idea that BJ was capable of circus catches, tackles for loss, and just generally being everywhere on the field at once.

I’ll try to resist such distractions in the future.

Not counting the insane flea flicker, the defense as a whole played great.

They put up a first half shut out and came up big in almost every bad position the offense placed them in.

If you asked me: “James, why the hell should I believe this team can actually still compete for a Big Ten title?”

Defense, defense, and more defense. That’ll be the thing that pulls us along until our offense figures it out.

Which I hope is literally in the next five days.

The Ducks played flatter than the globe in Kyrie Irving’s office, and there’s absolutely no excuse for it.

I’m just going to tell myself that this version of the Ducks is going to disappear off the face of the Earth this week, and we’re going to see an unrecognizably good team against Boise next Saturday night.

Go Ducks.