Dan Lanning says Oregon needs to 'start fast' in road games

Oregon has cruised back up the national rankings after taking a giant fall after a season-opening debacle against Georgia, now back up to No. 12 in the AP Top 25. How can the Ducks make sure they continue on the same path, particularly with four of the next seven games on the road?

First-year head coach Dan Lanning provided one simple key.

“We want to start fast, right?” Lanning said. “We talked about being battle-tested this week. We’ve been in some battles so far this season. We want to start fast so we don’t hurt ourselves early on the start.”

According to stats compiled by teamranking.com, Oregon currently ranks 58th in first-quarter scoring against FBS opponents, averaging 5.8 points in the first 15 minutes. That can certainly improve.

The Ducks have done a decent enough job putting points on the board early at home, scoring 14 against Eastern Washington and 10 against BYU and Stanford in the first quarter. Away from home things have been rough, though.

Oregon managed only one field goal in the first quarters of games against Georgia and Washington State.

Starting fast key for Oregon at Arizona

The Ducks are headed back on the road this week, taking on an Arizona squad that can score points in bunches thanks to quarterback Jayden de Laura. De Laura is coming off a 484-yard, six-touchdown passing game.

Oregon needs to be ready to establish the tone early or it could find itself in a shootout late.

The good news is quarterback Bo Nix, the transfer from Auburn, seems to really be settling in after a shaky start to the season against Georgia. He’s putting up some big numbers, and he had a monster rushing performance in last week’s win over Stanford.

“He’s really talented, he’s probably as fast a quarterback as there is out there, the guy runs really well and made some really good decisions there on Saturday to put himself in a position where he can run the ball,” Lanning said. But he’s done that consistently this season, so no surprise for anybody in our building.”

Oregon will be hoping for more of the same Saturday when it kicks off against Arizona at 9 p.m. ET with a broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.