Five Takeaways From Oregon's Win Over Stanford

The Ducks won comfortably over the Cardinal thanks to more than 500 yards of total offense.

Author:
Graham Metzker
Publish date:
Oct 2, 2022 4:47 PM EDT

In this story:

Head Coach Dan Lanning and his Oregon Ducks thrived in their first Pac-12 after dark appearance with a decisive 45-27 win over the Stanford Cardinal.

It's an important win for Oregon, who overcame a Stanford team that has been a thorn in their side for years. There was plenty for Duck fans to be happy about after Saturday night's win. But it was far from a perfect performance at home.

Here are my five takeaways from Oregon's fourth straight win.

1. Penalties galore for Oregon

Lanning couldn't even wait until after the game to sound off on his team's poor discipline in the penalty department. Instead, he voiced his disappointment during during halftime raider.

"Where we’re at in penalties is an embarrassment," Lanning said. "We have to coach it better ... The only team to beat us is us."

The head coach's criticism was more than warranted. The Ducks finished the game with a jaw-dropping 14 penalties for a total of 135 yards. A majority of the penalties came when Oregon was on offense, mostly being called against the offensive line for false starts.

It's easy enough to ignore this flaw, as the greater storyline is a multi-score win for the Ducks, but Lanning wants this Oregon team to be great, not good. And good teams don't have 14 penalties a game.

2. Bucky Irving is RB1

The Ducks have a number of qualified rushers, and they like to spread the ball around in the backfield. Seven different Ducks had a carry against Stanford. But Minnesota-transfer Bucky Irving solidified himself as the best running back on the team on Saturday.

Irving already looked like one of the better backs in the group ahead of Saturday's game. But he started the game on fire, picking up four first downs in the first quarter alone. Irving would end with 10 carries for 97 yards, making it an excellent 9.7 yards per carry on the day.

Irving didn't have the most touches or yards, and didn't have a touchdown, but his ability to reverse fields and run through defenders, along with the team's confidence to trot him out with the first-team offense, proves Irving is at the top of Oregon's running back depth chart.

3. Ducks reliant on secondary stars

Heading into Saturday's game Oregon had the worst pass defense in the Pac-12, ceding 301.5 yards through the air each game. But Oregon does have two superb defensive backs on their side in Bennett Williams and Christian Gonzalez.

Williams had the second-most tackles on the team with seven, along with two pass breakups and forced a fumble for Stanford's lone turnover of the game.

Gonzalez was a lockdown corner throughout the game, adding two pass breakups of his own and only allowing two pass completions in coverage throughout the game.

Oregon's secondary stays in tact thanks to Williams and Gonzalez.

4. Oregon's front seven does it all

Oregon's top pass rusher DJ Johnson missed the first half of Saturday's contest thanks to a targeting suspension that stemmed from the Washington State game. In response, Lanning's defense switched up the status quo and send Noah Sewell on numerous blitzes to ramp up the pass rush.

Sewell has always been excellent at getting after the quarterback, but the Ducks showed confidence in their depth by relying on Jeffrey Bassa, Jackson LaDuke and Keith Brown as middle linebackers.

On the defensive line, Brandon Dorlus had yet another excellent game. Dorlus had two sacks and three tackles for loss, constantly wrecking Stanford plays before they began. Nebraska transfer Casey Rogers had his best game as a Duck with five tackles and a hit on the quarterback.

Oregon's front seven was a complete unit on Saturday night.

5. Time for a new backup QB conversation?

After a season of Ducks fans clamoring for former five-star recruit Ty Thompson to hit the field, the wish has somewhat been granted.

Thompson has gotten a chance to run the offense in three games this year, each time in an Oregon blowout. And each time, Thompson has looked less than impressive. Last night Thompson completed just one of his five passes for three yards along with an interception.

To be fair, Thompson has always been put in with the second-team offense against first-team defenses that are trying to get back in the game. Even so, the offense has just looked a bit out of sync with the redshirt freshman at the helm.

With Nix's plans for next year undetermined, it may be time to give former four-star recruit Jay Butterfield a chance to run the offense.