kirklandduck

Nice article David and pretty much exactly what I remember of that year. I speculate that had Bedford and Iuli not been injured the OL still would have struggled but not anywhere near as bad as it is right now. It would have been adequate but suffering from growing pains at the center position...hopefully we see some growth this weekend.

Memphis and UTSA could be expansion targets. MSN WWW.MSN.COM

If I recall correctly, they lost to Arizona because the OL was decimated by injuries which impacted the offense heavily. By the time the Pac12 championship came a couple of the starters were back and Oregon destroyed Arizona in that rematch.

I'll be watching 3rd down conversions very closely. Seeing a 50+ percent conversion rate will tell me that the run and pass protection efforts are better and with fewer penalties. I don't expect perfection just incremental progress from the OL and that'll be enough to win in Corvallis.

That makes sense since Nishad primarily played LG at East Carolina. Even if Marcus Harper's productivity is diminished at RG, increased productivity from both Nishad and Pancho at their respective positions is a net positive.

I think the article points out pretty much everything we're aware of already. The real question is what is DL and company doing this week about it? Latest practice report seems to hint at what we might be looking at this weekend: Centers split reps, receiver still absent: What we saw at Oregon football practice on Wednesday WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM Iapani Laloulu and Charlie Pickard each took snaps at center and guard Wednesday morning at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, same as Tuesday. So it sounds like Nishad at LG, Pancho at C, and Harper at RG which makes sense as we saw hints of stability with that lineup against BSU. My guess is that's the interior lineup we'll see start against the Beavos and afterward until Bedford is healthy, then he goes back in at RG and Harper slides back to LG. Pickard should have as many practice reps as possible since he's the only other center.

I think most of us are at the position of "just win" right now, whatever it takes. Scrape by with a FG or TD, it doesn't matter. Maintain as good of a record as possible until the OL situation gets sorted out.

Right now my gut tells me they're somewhere in the low teens. If the OL can get incremental improvement each of the next 3 weeks they can sneak back into being a top 10 team.

True, DG is from Hawaii after all so his personality could lend more towards that direction. However in both his post game interviews with the press he seemed to be much more of a straight talking, cut the crap type of person. He wasn't afraid of saying out loud the things that were going on and what needed to be worked on (though he's savvy enough not to directly call out players and/or position groups directly).

One other thing I realized about DG's style while watching highlights: he might be passive but when he does throw a pass he's aggressive. Those TD throws to Treshon Holden and Evan Stewart weren't easy floaters but darts with significant zip on them (and very accurate as he hit both WRs in stride). I think we're going to see a lot of fireworks from the passing game once the OL situation calms down and stabilizes.

Bo was also playing behind a Remington award winner at center, not a walk-on/redshirt freshman combo. I think DG would probably be tearing things up if the OL were performing like last year.

I'm going to give DG the benefit of the doubt and say he's passive due to the chaotic nature of the OL right now and is trying not to make it worse by playing hero ball. Of course he could lean too far in that direction when he could be strategically pulling the ball a bit more often but I'm not on the field and can't see what he sees. I also saw on an instant takeaways article after the game that DL tried 11(!) different OL combinations throughout the game. No wonder things looked so disjointed up front.

Instant Takeaways from Oregon's come-from-behind win over Boise State 247SPORTS.COM The instant takeaways from Oregon's come-from-behind win against Boise State. Per the instant takeaways article:

They'll go into the video room to analyze everything and probably come to that conclusion if that's really the case. Nishad Strother is likely 3rd string behind Bedford and Iuli but it's probably better to have him as the weakest link instead of Pickard and Pancho struggling in tandem. No excuses for Josh Connerly and Ajani Cornelius though, they should be threatened with benching if they don't wake up.

I saw that right away and was yelling at the TV for a teammate to pick the ball up! Thankfully one did.

I certainly can't! I'm literally walking on my treadmill right now to work off all the nervous energy 😬

I think they were trying to figure out the best combination and balancing that against situation (maybe). I'm really pulling for Pickard since he's a hometown kid and I'm sure he's worked his butt off but I don't think he has it. It's a slightly better situation with Pancho center and whoever else they can find for the right guard spot.

My own post game thoughts: Positives - Return game! TWO returns for TDs? I can't remember the last time that happened for OBD. - Defense! Despite being constantly put on the spot they put up a heck of a performance both at the line of scrimmage and in the secondary. - Kickers! Seems like we finally have a confident FG kicker that can perform with the game on the line consistently. Negatives - Offensive line. I don't know what the heck is going on in that group but I'm starting to believe that the issues are deeper than just Bedford and Iuli being out. - Play calling. There were some puzzling plays called by Will Stein that really made me scratch my head. I firmly believe that Oregon has a defense, WRs, RBs, and QB that can compete with respective position groups on any other team in the country. For that I have no doubt. But the team will ultimately be held back by an offensive line group that struggles against even FCS teams. Until there is a remedy provided by Coach Alique, Will Stein, or DL the season will not come anywhere close to what any of us expected. Maybe things would improve slightly if Bedford and Iuli were back but I doubt it would be significant enough with stand up to teams like Penn State or Iowa. Until that problem is fixed, I feel like this is an 8 win team right now.

DG is now getting rid of the ball faster. 5-7 yard gains are perfectly fine to me as long as they execute consistently.

What a wasted opportunity.

That really wasn’t the time for a trick play Will Stein.

It’s the reason why the refs let the 100 yard score stand.

Jeez Noah don’t be Kaelin Clay and just give the ball to the ref!

Like I said, the skill players are doing everything possible to win while anyone associated with the OL is crippling the effort.

The OL is losing the game for Oregon. The low level of play is insane.