Even After Historic Win, a Great Challenge Lies Ahead for Oregon
Entering week 3, Oregon is coming off of a massive win. Some would say a program-defining win.
As 14.5 point underdogs down two defensive stars, with one being a projected top-five draft pick in Kayvon Thibodeaux---the Ducks marched into Columbus and stunned Ohio State by taking home a 35-28 win in front of 100,482 fans that hadn't witnessed a Buckeye loss at home since 2018.
The win serves as an arrival of sorts. Mario Cristobal took the helm in Eugene four years ago with this very goal in mind: to build Oregon into a program that was capable of matching up with the very best teams the country had to offer, and 2021 national runner up Ohio State certainly fits that description.
Now back in Eugene having had time to digest the program's first win in ten games against the Buckeyes, Cristobal faces a great challenge: holding on to the momentum he captured in the heart of Big Ten country and building off of it throughout the rest of the season.
The head man in Eugene understands the magnitude of the win, but remains focused on the bigger picture.
"We get it. Tough place to play, been a huge goal---I know everyone was looking forward to that game for a long time, our fanbase and everybody else," Cristobal said of the win. "When we watch tape, there's a lot of stuff to correct. It's all over the place. The bottom line, what's not good enough in defeat, certainly cannot be good enough in victory as well. There's a ton."
That being said, last week's win is a mere snapshot of what this team can achieve. This week the Ducks return to Autzen to face Stony Brook, an FCS team that will travel across the country from New York and serve as the final warm up before conference play begins.
While this may look like a toss up on paper, Cristobal views it as anything but that.
"The way we approach this week will really determine if our trajectory points to us being a great football team or just being a good football team," he said. "Because it's real early in the season and there's a lot of stuff that needs to be corrected and a lot of things that we gotta get better at."
Oregon's week 2 win is but a small reward for the countless hours of tireless effort the program has put in thus far. Calling recruits, hosting recruits on visits, signing an elite class, getting the players' bodies right in the weight room, installing schemes---it's all been a grind to get the team to where it is now.
"The way we do things in our process, there's more than enough validation there to say that hey this thing works and we do things a certain way, and now we gotta get right back to work."
The Pac-12 has teams capable of rocking the boat in any given week. We saw this when UCLA knocked off LSU, and most recently when Stanford upset USC in LA in what would become the final straw of Clay Helton's tenure. The Ducks play both of those schools on the road this year, and players will be called upon to step up in the coming weeks after multiple key players got dinged up in Columbus.
Cristobal is pushing for more investment, higher levels of execution, and perhaps above all, that his team not get complacent.
"There's just no going back to any other way. We run a very tight, regimented process and we believe in it and it works for us," he said. "There's no reason to stray from it. We have exceptional team leadership. It has shown early, and those guys are ready to crank it up."
The head coach has continually preached the 1-0 mentality, and says he's already heard it from his players in practice since returning to Eugene, talking back and forth about how the team needs to get back to work and stay focused on the task at hand. With that in mind, this week will serve as a test.
Can the Ducks come out and dominate for four quarters? Can they play at a high level consistently?
"Now we've gotta show it. We've got a chance to be in front of our fans again. Last time we were hot and cold in our opener. We want to play well in front of our people," Cristobal said of this week's game. "We know it's important to our community, we know it's important to our fan base. It sure as heck is important to us to play good football and to keep improving because there's no in between."
Standing eye-to-eye with his next challenge, Cristobal finds himself turning to the championship pedigree that was ingrained in him when he last strapped on the pads himself, playing for national championships in Miami.
"Coach [Jimmy] Johnson used to tell us all the time when I was a player, 'You're gonna get better or you're gonna get worse. There is no staying the same,' " Cristobal said. "So the choice is---well there is no choice. We've gotta go get better."
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