By almost all metrics, Oregon shouldn’t have walked out of Pasadena with a victory. They had 118 fewer yards, 21 fewer plays and almost 17 fewer minutes of possession time than Wisconsin. The Badgers ran for 70 yards more than the Ducks. But metrics don’t really tell the story of a football game, and the Ducks didn’t lose. Turnovers Justin …
Christmas is around the corner, but Mario Cristobal already gave Duck fans the biggest gift of all by surprising many and winning the Pac-12 in just his second season. Cristobal has gotten off to a fast start, building a roster capable of competing at the highest level in just a couple of years. But a Pac-12 title hasn’t been the …
The Oregon defense has, at times, been dominant in 2019. They’ve held seven opponents, including five conference teams, to 10 or fewer points. They have given up only 21 touchdowns on the season, good for ninth nationally. That level of dominance is unheard-of in Eugene, as the last decade has been the Era of Offense. But next year the Ducks …
Utah had no answer for Oregon on Friday night. The Ducks got out in front early thanks to some inspired defensive play and phenomenal play calling and execution on offense, and they never looked back. Oregon went in to the half up 20-0, and when Utah got the score to 23-15 with 1:13 to play in the game, the entire …
In the three games leading up to the showdown with Arizona State, Oregon committed 26 penalties for 320 yards. Against the Sun Devils, the Ducks committed only three penalties for 21 yards. Typically, that sort of improvement would be associated with a win. Not giving the opposing team extra yards and opportunities is usually a sign that a team is …
The Arizona Wildcats have a bad defense. They came in to this past Saturday giving up an average of over 37 points per game, good for 126th out of 130 FBS teams. The Oregon offense had two weeks to prepare for Arizona and was averaging over 38 points per game coming in to their match-up with the Wildcats. The Ducks …
Oregon football is back. There is no debating it. The last time Oregon won eight straight games, the Ducks were playing in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. That team sported a nine-game winning streak headed in to the Ohio State match-up. Since then, the longest Duck winning streak is six games. Until now. Oregon had Auburn on the …
Oregon won big at USC on Saturday. They won so big that USC might end up searching for a new head coach. That was the basis of almost every question posed to Clay Helton after a massive home loss to the surging Ducks. One reporter asked Helton if he went in to the game thinking that he was coaching for his …
Oregon fixed its biggest flaw against Washington on Saturday — a flaw that goes back to 2015 as the Mark Helfrich era was beginning to crumble. A flaw that lost somewhere in the vicinity of 10 games over the last four seasons. Oregon made major coaching adjustments at halftime. There was no collapse or letting the game slip away, as …
Oregon beat Stanford on Saturday, and the result was never really in doubt … Well, to everyone except Stanford Head Coach David Shaw, apparently. Shaw didn’t think that his team was far from pulling off the upset, opening his press conference by saying: “The game boils down to five or six plays, and the score will look like we’re not …
It has been eight quarters and nine seconds since the Oregon Ducks gave up a touchdown. In the last two games, Oregon has allowed a total of nine points. Through three total games, Oregon is allowing only 272.3 yards per game. The Oregon defense has absolutely dominated the early season. Here are some reasons why. The Ferocious Front Seven Through …
It took 243 days of preparation to score 21 points. Twenty-one points would be unsatisfactory even if Oregon had had just one week to prepare for the Auburn Tigers. And Oregon had 34 weeks. Thirty-four weeks to leave last season’s abysmal offensive performances in the past. Rushing Woes CJ Verdell had a respectable 14 carries for 76 yards and a …