Trav's Ten Takeaways from the BYU Win
Via Travis Rooke-ley
Fun day at Autzen Saturday, as impressive a performance as we’ve seen from the Ducks in a while. It was nice to see us actually put away a team early, allowing for really valuable reps for our younger players. Mario’s teams always struggled to put teams away so it was nice to see us come out after halftime and put the game out of reach within 20 minutes.
Speaking of Mario, I had a fun time watching the media narratives after that game at Texas A&M questioning if their QB Tyler Van Dyke has regressed. Justin Herbert says hello! I’ll just say that I don’t miss the early 3rd quarter timeout.
Onto the takeaways from BYU…
- Time Management: Had to start here because it was just so refreshing to see the way we managed the clock at the end of the first half. We took over with the ball with 5:57 left in the half up 17-7, and proceeded to score a TD with :24 seconds left in the half. We were multiple in our tempo and formations, displaying a clear understanding of time and place. For a new, and largely inexperienced coaching staff, this was honestly my biggest takeaway from Saturday. Really impressive job from Lanning, Dillingham and Nix in that moment, and resulted in us scoring back-to-back TDs because we got the ball to start the half. Those middle eight minutes are the foundation of a well-coached team.
2. FG Delay: Along the same lines, I love that we tried to hard count and draw the DL offsides during our first quarter FG attempt. For reference, we had 4th and goal just inside the 5, and gave two hard counts, eventually just taking a delay of game. The difference between a 22 and 27 yarder is negligible, and the fact that Coach Lorig and others are looking for opportunities like this has me really optimistic about our Special Teams.
3. The Bad ST: On a less exciting note, we need a punter. That was hard to watch Saturday, and our offense will have some games this year where we actually have to punt the ball before the 4th quarter. I hope that was just a bad day.
4. RBs: Man, Irving and Whittington run really hard. I was very impressed with both on Saturday and our OL continues to play at an elite level. Even Jordan James came in on some 3rd and 4th downs and got the job done. I still am a big fan of Cardwell, who was dinged up this week, which gives us a really dynamic set of options. You see the value of depth three games in as we easily handled Cardwell’s absence Saturday.
5. CB2: It is clear that teams have gotten the message on how well Christian Gonzalez is playing. Bridges got beat twice Saturday on back shoulder balls that were really impressive hits, and needs to continue working to get his head around on balls. I like what I have seen from Jahlil Florence, and Manning held up really well in coverage in the 2nd half. I would expect that teams will stay further and further away from CG as the year goes, so it would be ideal if one of Manning, Bridges or Florence could take that next step at CB2.
6. Ty Thompson: I left the game feeling pretty bad for the kid after those two series. He clearly needs to work on throwing a more catchable ball no doubt, and I’m sure some struggles can be explained by the fact that he’s not used to running with the 1’s. Overall, it was clear that the entire team didn’t execute at the same level when he came in, from the OL to the WRs. The only solution at this point is to continue to get him game reps when we can, and see if some of his inconsistencies can get ironed out. Dante’s coming…
7. Nix: Speaking of QB’s, Nix has been high-level the last two weeks. He had five incompletions Saturday, four of them being smart throwaways. His reads within the run-game have been very good, and his command of the offense and game situations are that of an experienced QB. I’m feeling more and more confident that Nix can lead us to a PAC-12 Title and Rose bowl this year.
8. Crowd: I know I got some heat for giving Oregon fans a hard time pregame for the turnout. Yes, BYU travels well and yes Autzen mostly filled in. Still, we had a Top-25 matchup at 12:30 with perfect weather and couldn’t sell the place out. That’s with BYU fans buying a ton of tickets. I know that 2009-2015 completely changed expectations for fans, and acknowledge that the fan experience needs some big-time upgrades. Hell, ticket prices for fans probably need to be more accessible. Long story short, we’re going to need old Autzen come Washington and Utah in November and hope we can bring it.
9. Wazzu: Scary game, always is in Pullman. This isn’t your typical WSU team, as the Cougs have been great on defense this year, while struggling to get footing on offense. They have an undersized but attacking defense, giving us a clear advantage on the OL and in the run game. I expect a game plan similar to BYU. On offense, they still run the air raid but brought in a FCS transfer QB and haven’t quite clicked on that side of the ball yet. I think it is paramount that we score early Saturday, which has been our demise in big road games the last couple years. Score early, make them one-dimensional, and we should be able to control the ball and leave Pullman with a big victory.
10. Ducks 31 Cougs 17
