Solar

After reviewing the game film Lanning basically said in his interview Monday that Stein should have adjusted the running plays called after TT adjusted to defeat them, and didn't. Personally I think Stein needs to get his butt up in the box and let Bo run things on the sidelines and field. Stein is a full notch down from Dilly at this point. Bland route trees, less ways for Nix to change play calls at the line, and inability to adjust in game quickly enough to the defense. I'm not saying he is bad, but being merely good isn't going to be good enough in the shootouts coming up. He needs to improve quickly and it's on Dan Lanning to make sure it happens.

With regards to the OL play, I thought they were dominant early in the game on a physical level, but the environment combined with the DL stemming and cadence got our OL flustered which quickly caused havoc making the OL indecisive when the ball is snapped. Lanning mentioned this post game as an area they would work on going forward. This may be the biggest opportunity to improve coming out of the game for any position group. Lastly, I'm not sure Bo's poor footwork when on the road with tight DB coverage is solvable after 5 years of playing. If Stein is a true QB whisperer maybe he can get through to Bo's subconscious state and fix it. He did settle down in the 4th quarter finally.

Same in the spring game. Also mentioned as an issue by Lanning in Fall camp. Our WR position coach can recruit like nobody's business, but is he failing at helping his WRs to catch the ball? Are some actually getting worse at catching? Hope not.

I thought TT did a way better job of containment of the edges. The only time we held contain was when a Nickel read the play and came downhill fast enough to tackle for a loss. It's almost like we have no DEs. No position consistently has the responsibility to contain. Certainly it is a complex defense but I am baffled by a scheme that de-prioritizes the edge in the era of spread Os. If I had the time and brains I'd like to compare Avalos' 2019 multiple defense vs. Lupoi's multiple defense. Both are complex. And between the 2020 legacy recruits and the learning curve for transfers, we still aren't out of the woods with having personnel that can run a complex defense reliably. Definitely hoping for improvement as the season goes on.

This is notable.I'll be REALLY upset when Ranked PAC12 teams beat Ranked PAC12 teams and don't move up, because they just beat a mid tier PAC12 team. Said another way, if our out of conference dominance is discounted without explanation there needs to be a strong uproar about the bias against the PAC12. I do hope the playoff committee does enough due diligence to avoid this. If this happens it would create very different ranking between polls and the cfp committee rankings.

I agree Charles. There were many plays I was envious of TT. I'd like Stein to pick some of them up. I think our secondary played pretty good in coverage. Shough had nowhere to go many times that resulted in throwaways or the times our defense got to him. It seemed like there was always somebody open every play last year.

I thought TT front 7 would be bad because they sent so many to the NFL last year. Based on what I saw last night I think they have reloaded. I would agree we were out coached at times. I think Stein needs to change his mindset and guidance to Nix to consistently take what the defense gives you for 4 quarters. We are good enough to win that way every week because our offense is so complete.

We've got Hampton on deck. If Wilcox is fired from Cal, it could be a reasonable move for Ducks and Wilcox. Many failed HCs go back to being coordinators. We don't know what Lanning really thinks of Wilcox.

Charles nailed the difference in this game was the havoc our defense created when Shough held the ball for more than 2.5 second. Lanning needs to check up on his sports psychology. Confidence can overcome much of the "adversity" and our response to it in the first half. I still question Steins route trees that don't get rubs or overstress numbers very well to scheme people open. As others pointed out our run O was predictable, and there were very few audibles by Nix, and too many low percentage sideline deep balls. This O seems more like Taggarts Gulf coast spread than what we saw from Dilly. Not good if this becomes a pattern.

Our O-Line is dominant!

Can TT and Shough keep up this energy for 4 quarters? A lot of times that underdog energy drains you by the second half. I would really like to see Oregon keep pounding the ball on the ground, and play to win the second half.

The betting line reduced to 5.5 and Kirk Herbstreit picked Texas Texas. Smart money still doesn't believe in our D and Bo Nix on the road. I'm hoping they are wrong. We find out soon.

A weak front 7 for Texas Tech just got weaker. I'm pretty confident our offensive strategy will be to establish the run and then pass. It will wear down the TT defense in the heat and second half which is easy to do given our depth and what we saw against Wyoming.

Looks nice. We will be the guinea pigs is my concern. It'll probably be fine, but We'll see.

This is actually what the rumor mill is saying. Vote to keep all money and assets, and vote the entire Mountain West in. I don't think it will keep them as a P5 conference, but they will get assets and will get a little more prestige from the name and the legacy even if it is just a shell of it's former self. Not sure how the network fits into it. There probably aren't enough eyeballs to keep it going

The game is afoot. If they get all the voting rights they can vote to fire Kliavkoff and any other dead weight and vote to give themselves every last dime and asset remaining or owed to the conference. Haha.

Every offense in this league is capable of running an effective offense with passes delivered in 2.5 seconds or less consistently. The one photo you included shows two linebackers guarding grass while a PSU person is wide open in the flat with the safety moving down from center field to pick him up. Saban let Tosh go mid year. I really hope we don't have to lose a bunch of game for Lanning to do the same. Lanning took over the D for the Utah game after Washington beat us. He also brought in former DC Hampton and made him Co-DC. Both Dilly and Stein adapt the offense to the players they have, not the ones they wish they had. Apparently Tosh was/is incapable of doing the same. Why should he get a pass for that? Tuioti has the best DL players in our league yet they grab and dance with the OLs regardless of size. Not getting off blocks was the hallmark of the 2016 ducks. Is Dorlus any better than he was in 2021? These are developmental issues that fall on the position coach. Yeah it's just the first game of 2023, but I won't change my opinion until we hold a power 5 air raid team to a small amount of 1st downs and yards.

Better than being a lame duck!

Like a few on here I think the reason is Lanning understands the difference between being the most deserving and being the best. He started those that were most deserving to make a point to the team that earning something carries just as much weight as being born with something. The goal is to get everyone to buy in to competing to be the most deserving, even those that are already the best. That keeps the true starters humble and working to be their absolute best. I'd be really surprised if he does it again, as there had been a full fall camp of earning playing time and an easy opponent, this week is just 1 week and presumably a much better opponent.

I would like to see the Ducks outcoach TT. I think that is a key to this game. Better scheme, better adjustments, better decision making and time management than TT coaches. If we do that, it will nullify the home field advantage for TT.

Not only does TT have Tyler Shough, they also have Tim DeRuyter for their DC. At best their defense is as mediocre as ours has been, but our offense is way better than theirs. I'll take 45-24 Ducks over TT. Somehow I think the O/U should be higher, but that's my guess. 45-24 3 TOs 340 Passing yards.

Our locker rooms will be temp trailers?! Anybody want to start a betting pool on the odds the AC "breaks" in one or more of them?

One of the knocks on Nix at Auburn was poor play in away games. I certainly hope he is past that issue, but it could raise it's ugly head. Against OSU at the end of the game, Bo really missed a wide open TE on 3rd down that resulted a punt that was muffed for 7 points and got OSU back in the game. Does Bo make that throw at home? I don't know.

Fun to ponder. I'm also pondering how well the air raid will work in late November. Wisconsin just switched to it. I recall that UW WSU game in Pullman where WSU was the better team that year, but the snow just took out their offense and they lost.

The only thing about Stein that I'm still a little nervous about is the route trees. I don't get the sense they stress the secondaries as much as Dillys' did. Maybe not as many rubs or something. It just seems harder for multiple receivers to get separation or find soft spots in the zone like we saw last year and we see with USC. It's still a small sample size though. Hopefully it turns out to not be a thing.