David Marsh

Or... You count the interception. And Oregon wins by 8. Or count a field goal... And Oregon wins by 5.

It also explains why Gabriel had so many roll outs. Rolling out of the pocket is great to extend plays but it does in turn cut off portions of the field open to passing. The other side of things here too is that Oregon's linemen are BIG now. So if you take a slightly shorter quarterback in Gabriel he may have difficulties seeing down field because of his own linemen. He did have some good sized linemen at Oklahoma but in turn he wasn't going against other big bodied defensive lineman as often as the majority of the Big 12 before the departure of Texas and Oklahoma.

For revenue sharing I can absolutely see how title IX comes in for that. But the very essence of NIL is that it is NOT connected to a school. Sure, these NIL collectives have a school focus but they aren't connected to a school as an institution. If these collectives were directly connected to a school then I can see how title IX comes into play and can be upheld but the whole point of NIL is that athletes sell their name, image and likeness to third parties that use it.

Certainly part of it. I was tempted to make that another article but I've been on the fence. The biggest problem is that with offensive line play is that there aren't too many stats to really use to read into how well an offensive line played. But what is clear is that the offensive line played worse than they did in 2023 with effectively an entirely new interior. In terms of running styles... James has always been tripped up and then fell forward before he could break free in the open field. So that isn't such a new thing with this offensive line and Whittington has either breaks free for a solid to big gain or gets stopped in a wall of humans. That was the case in 2022 and 2023 before he was injured as much as it was in 2024. Gabriel also had a tendency to hang in the pocket longer than Nix which was certainly the cause of some sacks in the first few games. His height probably played a role in some of his vision or lack thereof. But at the end of the day Tez Johnson's average yards were down and he is one of the major constants in the offense between 23 and 24. I'm looking at average and not total yards because in 23 he wasn't injured. I probably need to do a look into yards after catch and compare those... but those are usually more advanced stats and are not as easily accessible to the general public. What is evident was the passing game was shorter passes for smaller chunks of yards.

Linebacker has been baffling why they have continued to struggle but keep in mind with linebackers in this defense their role is different than in more "traditional" defenses. Middle linebackers aren't strictly run stoppers and pass rushers but they need to cover. I feel we have some line backers that are good at one aspect of this or another but none are masters at all three. However, I feel Lanning is feeling confident about who he has on the roster because we haven't seen Lanning go aggressively after any linebackers in the portal.

That was last week's article... Rebuilding Oregon’s Offense for 2025: Running Back | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Oregon’s run game in 2024 was good. At 13-1 with a B1G Championship under their belt, the Ducks were a very good team this year. However, the run game… James was thunder but Oregon didn't have a true lightning to go with that. Whittington was hot or cold. James was pretty good at getting consistent chunk yardage and running against the B1G is going to be harder than running against the Pac-12 as the B1G meta is centered more on power run game so teams prepare for the power run game. With that said, I think Stein did a good job getting James chunk yards even against stout defenses. Against Penn State the Oregon run game did a good job marching down the field. But explosive run plays were few and far between. Getting a more explosive run game would help open things up. Getting a more vertical passing game would in turn help open up the run game. Stopping Oregon was tough but where teams found success it all came from slowing the run game stopping the dink and dunk passing game.

The stats were for all 14 games and both seasons the Ducks played the same amount of games. But you brought up a ton of good points. I forgot about how games were shorter this year with the new rules which would suppress offensive output across the board.

It feels a little silly for me to be writing about all the things that went down offensively this season, when the Ducks still went 12-0 in the regular season and 13-0 if you include the conference championship. But it's that one loss in the Rose Bowl that made all of Oregon's faults come to light and highlight Oregon's on going weaknesses that they could cover up somewhat because the B1G only has a few exceptional teams. Gotta stop those sleepy third quarters which are effectively the difference in the stats between 2023 and 2024! Probably should have put that in the article but in truth it only hit me a little while later because the stat difference between the two seasons isn't that massive if you were to add touchdown in the third quarter. Over the course of a season that would increase the scoring average to about the same as 2024 to around 41ish points per game. It would also up the rushing yards and make up that 372 yard difference and the passing yards would get closer to making up that nearly 700 yard difference. It really comes down to that third quarter.... and having a couple more absolute blow out games. That Portland State beat down did pad the stats a lot in 2023.

Especially because he really seemed to WANT to come to Oregon. His social media was all about going to Oregon but the offer never came.

I'd put that lack of preparedness on Lanning more than any of the assistant coaches. That was a coaching oversight and a failure to prepare. By the sound of it too they took the foot off the gas a bit when it came to practice to help players rest. They probably let players rest too much. This is the next learning curve.

I think so many of Oregon's problems are personnel related. Even in game one against Ohio State the Ducks struggled to cover Ohio State's receivers who were tall and have incredible hands. Nikko Reed put up a hell of a fight against Smith in game one but he's shorter and not as fast. The secondary has continued to be the biggest problem for the Ducks defense. The front seven have been good but still need to improve as well but the back end has been more vulnerable. Getting those linebackers sorted out will be critical going forward. Bassa has been a leader and a solid contributor but he's also a bit undersized for the position.

The reality is that DeBoer got a few incredibly good key pieces from the portal, in particular Penix. But he also made massive use of the 5th and 6th year players on his roster. The 2020 Covid shirt played a big role in Washington's success under DeBoer. It also played a major role in Michigan getting their National Championship. Washington was riding high on talent brought in by CHRIS PETERSEN! That seems crazy because it feels like he has been gone for forever but the reality is that DeBoer's success was built on a backbone of Petersen recruits.

Who designed that schedule? That feels like a really really bad design for everyone.

Big haul in offensive linemen this portal cycle. I think we will see a few of the traditional recruits step up as well and take a spot but Lanning is NOT messing around with the offensive line next year. He wants depth and he wants these players to compete for the job. The offensive line this year was shaky... then stabilized... got a bit wobbly again. And overall wasn't as good a unit as it should have been this last year.

Too bad that the NFL MVP is a player on a winning team.