1. Overall Malaise and Clunkiness: Saturday was simply a weird vibe from the time I arrived at Autzen. The crowd was the worst of the season, despite good weather and a 4pm kickoff. With 5 minutes until kick off, good portions of the student section and club section were empty. I’m never one to question the team’s focus or desire to win, but the vibe simply seemed a hair off. Which, for the record, is completely understandable. This was Oregon’s 7th conference game in 7 weeks, coming off a big road win at Michigan. Just as seeing Maryland on the schedule didn’t excite many fans, and I’m sure some of the same sentiments were felt by the players. With 18-22 year-old kids, consistency is one of the hardest things to instill and expect. That was easily the worst game we’ve played since Boise State, and yet the game was never in doubt and we beat a conference opponent by 21 points. Furthermore, in a season that’s had many games over by halftime, I bet the lessons and coaching points coming out of the victory will be welcomed and harped on all week. Thankfully, there is no staff I trust more in the country to get a team ready to go on the road at night at Camp Randall.

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2. Offense at a Glance: I thought the offense struggled to gain a rhythm all game, and looked more like the unit we saw against Idaho and Boise State. Although Iuli and Rogers seemed to hold up fine at RG, I’m inclined to believe that some of the lack of continuity contributed to the clunkiness. Another big factor was the inconsistency snapping the ball from Poncho, an issue I hadn’t really noticed all season. During the rewatch, I noticed at least five snaps that really threw off the timing of Gabriel, resulting in incomplete passes that he normally hits with ease.  If you remember back to last season, Bama lost their season because their C suddenly couldn’t consistently snap the ball so I’m hoping this was a one week issue that gets cleaned up. Beyond those two issues on the OL, Gabriel also wasn’t super sharp. On the rewatch, he missed a lot of open receivers down the field, often opting to check the ball down to a RB or TE underneath.