A ton of great information to give us updated perspective. I love one of the comments..."Oregon out-Iowa'ed Iowa." So true, and it is another rite-of-B1G-passage for Our Beloved Ducks.

Oregon had three offensive linemen with good grades:

Emmanuel Pregnon 82.2

Isaiah World 73.0

Poncho 71.2

Going into the week--Iowa had the best run-blocking grade in the nation, and as PFF said, "Iowa is the best, by far, offensive line in the nation and likely to win the Joe Moore Award." Three best offensive linemen averaged better grades than the Ducks:

OG Bean Stevens 90.8

C Logan Jones 80.0

OT Trevor Lauck 77.7

Yet Iowa only averaged 3.5 yards per rushing play, while Oregon averaged a mind-bending 7.2 yards per rushing play. Insane! In the freezing rain, at Iowa, and against a Hawkeye defense?

To put this in even better perspective, Iowa was No. 1 in the nation going into this game for the lowest amount per carry given up, only 3.3 yards per carry, yet Oregon averaged 7.2? Whew!

The Oregon offensive line averaged 2.9 yards per rush before contact, and 4.4 yards after contact.

The Iowa offensive line averaged only .8 yards per rush before contact, and 2.7 yards after contact.

Perhaps our offensive line is better than we fans have felt? They reported that Oregon had the most efficient offense in the nation in terms of EPA per play going into this game.

On Defense:

Brandon Finney Jr. has the highest overall grade for the season of any freshman corner in the nation, and he created the crucial fumble that stopped a Hawkeye drive.

Oregon only had four missed tackles the entire game and continues to lead the nation in fewest missed tackles. The job that the Duck defensive line did to stop the offensive line of the Iowa was....amazing. A low yards-after-contact number (2.7) points to superb linebacker and secondary response, and tackling.

Perhaps our defense is better than fans are giving credit for? Lots to ponder...

7 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

Perhaps our defense is better than fans are giving credit for? Lots to ponder...

I think it really is better.

The problems for the defense have often come when the offense has failed to set them up for success.

Just think if two more of Oregon's drives ended in touchdowns? They certainly has a couple drives that felt like they should have resulted in points if not for a penalty followed by a third down drop and that third down play that resulted in Dante falling down.

Those two drives score touchdowns... And the defense looks even better.

That final drive by Iowa should have been stopped for sure. But holding an opponent to 16 points is darn good.

More Fun Facts about Our Beloved Ducks...

Never mind...we have a tech issue going on that I have to work on...

1 hour ago, David Marsh said:

The problems for the defense have often come when the offense has failed to set them up for success.

Great observation here.

If the Ducks go up by two TDs at any point, then Iowa is forced to start passing. Iowa’s passing attack looked downright dreadful; the Ducks would have blown them out.

I really like this O line when all starters are in. They are beasts at run blocking. At RB, Noah, Hill and Davison are above in ability than the rest on the roster. And all that running success sets up play action passes too.

"The problems for the defense have often come when the offense has failed to set them up for success."

The problems for the defense are that they don't have it together on every play. With all the option based offenses, the opposing offenses are looking for a weak spot. Ducks need 3 good defensive plays in a row and they get off the field on 4th down. Consistency is not always there for them.

"The Iowa offensive line averaged only .8 yards per rush before contact, and 2.7 yards after contact."

Yes. On many plays, the Iowa runner was pushed back. But on other plays, he would plow for extra yards. Those extra yards shorten their 3rd down plays. Gang tackling is how they can shut down the YAC. Indiana's RBs are good at pushing for extra yards also.

I loved that great play by Noah Sewell vs Ohio St on that 4th down play where he stood up the RB and got the turnover on downs. Those kinds of plays shut down drives.

I like our defense, but they do have a tendency to have a mind-numbing brain fart when it is 3rd and 7 or more, and the secondary will be inexplicably out of place quite often on such plays.

If OBD puts a spy out on 4th and goal, he needs to be disciplined enough to actually wait for the play to progress out of the quarterbacks hands... not always easy to do.