Oregon coach Mario Cristobal had his greatest victory as a head coach and by the most satisfying means possible — a tough, resilient defense and a powerful offense that mixed creativity with hammer and tong to knock off Washington 35-31 after playing much of the game behind on the scoreboard. There were many surprised by the creative use of screen …
After Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert was 10-of-15 in the first quarter against Colorado, passing aficionados were giddy at the prospect of their Beloved Duck having the opportunity of throwing 50 or 60 times in one game. Unfortunately, Herbert cooled, hitting only 8-of-17 in the final three quarters, but that was plenty because the defense absolutely ate the Buffaloes up, defending …
A bye week gives Oregon players time to heal and coaches time to fix problems that may have reared their heads in the first third of the season, which finds the Ducks at three wins and one loss. They should, however, be 4-0, as they gave away the opener against Auburn in the last minutes after leading most of the …
Head coach Mario Cristobal savored two Thanksgiving treats: dinner with his team and family, and the next day, for dessert, a 55-15 win over rival Oregon State in a Civil War game that was never as close as the final score indicated. The outcome revealed that Oregon could dominate the line of scrimmage and run roughshod over the worst Pac-12 …
Writing this article came about by way of a strange coincidence. The morning of the Oregon v. Washington game, I received a text message from a coaching friend in Oklahoma. His question was simple: “You think GT Counter Read works from Pistol?” Neither of us had seen anyone do it before, so we weren’t sure of how the timing and exchange …
Coach Mario Cristobal had to be thankful that UCLA made a ton of mistakes in Chip Kelly’s return trip to Autzen Stadium. The Bruins are very young, with fewer senior starters than Oregon: one on offense and two on defense — which might account for the five turnovers and 11 penalties, not to mention a flurry of dropped passes. Cristobal …
The question on everyone’s mind is “what happened to the Oregon Ducks?” after they were pasted by a mediocre Arizona team in Tucson. The Duck offense was somnolent and quarterback Justin Herbert sank into a fog, without getting any help from his offensive line, receivers or coaches. For the second week in a row, coach Mario Cristobal‘s physical running offense …
The Duck defense couldn’t tackle or put pressure on the quarterback, and the offense had an Alamo Bowl half where it couldn’t get the snap count right or protect its own quarterback. The end result was a perfect storm for Washington State as the Cougars had their best day ever in knocking off a no-longer cocky flock of Ducks. Oregon …
Our Beloved Ducks are “mental yearlings”? A few of my Greybeard Duck-Buddies wanted to understand the label I gave to the current Oregon football team and why I would come to that conclusion? It comes down to my judgment of the mental component, the game maturity, if-you-will, of this team compared to the past. We have a ways to go in …
“I feel a lot better — don’t you?” That sounds ludicrous to most, but it is my honest feeling the morning after, as my perspective is a little different than most. (Some would say quite flawed at times, but I can live with that). You see, I honestly thought Oregon was going to be clobbered by Stanford due to the …
It was bound to happen: just as everyone was satisfied their Ducks were looking sharp and coordinated, everything went bonkers with Oregon staggering against San Jose State 35-22. The offensive line committed its first false start and the Ducks committed three major penalties — one of which was a 10-yard holding penalty which negated a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown …
The only things that marred the Ducks’ decisive win over Portland State last Saturday were a blocked extra point, a roughing the kicker penalty, a face mask penalty, a roughing the passer penalty and for the second straight game, a substitution penalty which was blamed on the coaching staff. Otherwise, it was a country whupping and the Vikings were never …
