David Marsh

Compared to our stats after game 2 last year.... a LOT less. Jeanty was hot or cold against Oregon but still put up a lot of yards. Oregon held him under 2 yards per carry for a majority of the game but he still ripped off a couple long runs to change that overall average. We haven't had a real test against the run just yet but keeping lesser opponents contained on the run game is a good start.

Probably a mixture of Lanning wanting to change the scheme a little bit and having Thieneman who was able to accomplish this as well. Perhaps this is what they recruited Thieneman for from the portal was to do just this.

Oregon 56-7 3 TO 2 Sacks 297

Cool look. Is this changing how the Ducks use the "star" position? It was my understanding that they were using a safety as a hybrid safety and linebacker.

One of the things I think is most telling isn't just that Oregon will go anywhere to get guys, which they will. The State of Oregon doesn't have much talent but the Ducks do put their own fence up around the state and do take whatever top talent the state produces though often as walk-ons now (Which is crazy!). Washington and California both have bigger talent pools and Oregon happily raids both now but between the three west coast states there isn't enough talent to win a national championship. So going elsewhere is required. And this little chart is telling because the last two National Champions, Ohio State and Michigan, are both exceeding 700 miles. Both are far more centrally located within the country, as Oregon is on the far left coast, but Ohio State and Michigan know there isn't enough talent in their backyards to win it all and have to go elsewhere. Oregon is frequently competing with both of those schools for recruits and the fact that we are winning on the recruiting trail means Lanning is doing it right.

Not sure North Western fans are that die hard....

I think the ducks would definitely want some color contrast. Penn State fans do a great job with their whiteout and I could see it being a bit disorienting to try and pick out receivers running down the field on a deep route wearing all white with a white crown screaming and waving white pom pom. I wouldn't be surprised if Oregon does a color combo like this one or white and brings on the black pants and black helmets.

Assuming we are using the same uniforms form last year (so far we are more or less a helmet) I suspect the bright yellow will be back at some point this season. We have a retro jersey set Green (top, pants and helmet), Retro Yellow (helmet, pants) and a white retro (top and pants). The other set we have is a more modern color pallet in Black, Lightning Yellow, and White. My biggest criticism of the uniforms from last year (and probably this year) is that we have two distinct color pallets and they don't mix and match really.

Last year I think Stein wanted to do more but Gabriel and the offensive line didn't have the ability to do so for whatever reason. He was also limited in terms of running backs as James was THE back for the majority of the season. The offensive line wasn't settled in a rotation until week 3 which limited what they could do in terms of a run game and pass protection.

The blocking this year on the whole so far has been insane! Dakorian Moore's block in week one just pancaked a guy in the end zone. Granted that wasn't the guy he was supposed to be blocking... but if you're going to block the wrong guy might as well pancake him. I know it's only been two games and we haven't played a real contender yet... but this team is giving me a lot of hope. Penn State isn't looking quite so scary at the moment. Especially seeing their offense stalled out a bit against Florida Atlantic for a drive or two.

Being as these games get drafted before the season starts by all the networks that carry B1G games what probably happened was this... Fox (who has the most picks) either took this game because Oregon-Northwestern is the most interesting B1G conference game. USC-Purdue is the only other conference game. I suppose it's a toss up as to which would be more interesting but CBS has USC-Purdue. the only other interesting games are on ESPN/ABC which means Fox wasn't able to carry them probably based on the home team. Minn at Cal could be interesting but that's on ESPN. Ohio State gets a late afternoon game but they are playing Ohio and that game shouldn't be all that interesting. Michigan plays Central Michigan at the same time... So that leaves Oregon-Northwestern as the only B1G conference game or only Power 4 match-up worth watching in that time slot.

I wouldn't cross Mad Man Dan... He'll set lose a bunch of rabid Ducks.

I don't think we saw this level of complexity out of it last year because it's a two year install for many players and especially the quarterback. Last year's offense felt a bit vanilla compared to the 2023 offense with 2nd year Nix. Yes Stein was in year one but by the sound of it Lanning had an offense that he wants to run and made Stein adapt to the terminology of the Ducks and not the other way around. Lanning knows what he wants in the offense for sure. And this offense is going to continue to develop and be freaking scary. Last year's was acceptable but I think we may look back at that team and seem that a down year.

Thanks for the link... Yeah this would have been helpful for writing the article. Jayden Limar had the MOST snaps of all runningbacks at 23! Makhi Hughes second at 15. Limar didn't have has many carries as Hughes (9) but he was in on more plays. It shows how much this staff thinks of Limar and his development that he is in the game as much as he is. He made some fantastic blocks. On the plays where there were 2 backs lined up along side Moore, Limar was always one of them and he never got the ball on those plays but he was a blocker for the runner. Incredible development and I am thrilled for Limar. Biggest surprise of the year so far I think. And anyone who says they saw this for Limar (that isn't on the team or a coach) is outright lying!

There's a third option... Reveal to Mess with Opponents. Oregon put some stuff on tape that now opponents have to use some of their limited time to practice against. Oregon put Sadiq in the wild-cast (or maybe QB, it kinda looked like he had the option to throw it). Now teams have to prep for that scinario. Oregon did a 2 point look... now teams have to prep for that, even if it failed against Ok State. All those runningbacks... opponents have to prepare for.