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 …
“Tough … Physical … Impose our will … Dominate the line of scrimmage … Win the trenches,” etc., etc … All are terms that Mario Cristobal loves to throw out when describing his new identity for the Oregon football team. But there’s a term I’d like to hear more of around the Oregon offense. Smart. Before I dig into my …
A third of the way into the season, there’s plenty to be excited about as an Oregon fan. The Ducks’ defense is playing historically well, Oregon finally kicked its Stanford curse, and it even has one of the best punters in the country. Sitting at 3-1, with a clear path to a Pac-12 title and even an outside shot at …
Funny how things reverse when you least expect it, isn’t it? It wasn’t that long ago the Oregon offense was scoring boatloads of points, and so many people would be screaming at the defensive coordinator for giving up so many points. Now we have the reverse, and while the offensive woes do frustrate us, we do need to enjoy this …
It has been an eventful week for the Oregon Ducks as far as recruiting goes. The Ducks defense continued its momentum on and off the field. Mere hours before the Ducks held Stanford to just six points on the road, Bradyn Swinson of Douglasville, Georgia announced he was taking his talents to Eugene and committing to Oregon, adding depth to …
It is becoming clearer by the week the kind of passing wizard we have in Marcus Arroyo. While some fans have criticized Arroyo for his lack of creativity, my goal today is to remind you that Arroyo is a passing specialist, tasked to bring a physical brand of football to Oregon. Indeed, in back-to-back weeks, Coach Eric Boles introduced more …
Coach Mario Cristobal and Duck fans everywhere enjoyed a measure of revenge for last year’s debacle loss to Stanford with a satisfying 21-6 win over the Cardinal in Palo Alto. Although most would have preferred six or seven touchdowns, three were enough and the defense continued to keep players out of their end zone. The Ducks had problems blocking on …
‘Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore …” Week 3 was largely forgettable. There wasn’t a single matchup between top-25 teams. Nevertheless, the Sunflower State bloomed like it hasn’t bloomed — CFB-wise — in, well, forever. The Mad Hatter took his crew to Boston with the CFB world expecting Kansas to be no more than a crumpet …
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 …
Most of the pundits see Oregon rolling against the Cardinal, while I do not. I believe it will be a close, hard-fought game that the Ducks can prevail in, but it will not come easy at all. Part of my reasoning comes from the match-ups, but I also take into account which strategy will be used by the Mario Cristobal …
After another commanding win last weekend, Oregon’s defense has proven to the rest of the nation that it’s legit. However, due to the constant rotation of players in college football, in order to maintain strong defensive continuity, the coaching staff needs to plan ahead to replace their current superstars whenever they depart. With former number-one overall recruit Kayvon Thibodeaux a …
Perhaps Marcus Arroyo’s biggest challenge when he took over as lone offensive coordinator and play-caller for the Oregon Ducks was building an offense that would marry his own experience with the kind of physicality that head coach Mario Cristobal was looking for in the run game. I believe that his answer has been to infuse a heavy dosage of RPOs (run-pass options) …