The Week That Was

1. Win Your Clunkers: Well, that was the definition of a grinder. Many of us had a feeling that type of  game was coming given how the stars aligned to give Wisconsin a chance to hang in that game. We’ve discussed it at length all week so no need to go super into the weeds, but given the circumstances, I’m impressed with the grit and resilience of the team. As we will discuss below, they clearly were struggling on offense all night, but that’s a game that a lot of Oregon teams in my lifetime lose. Instead, we finally put together a big drive in the late third and early 4th quarter, and our defense held Wisconsin essentially yardless for the entire 4th quarter. Similar to our discussions after the close call against Boise State, that feels like the type of game that will benefit us as the season goes. We’ve played a ton of glorified garbage time in conference this season so with the win now in our pocket, I don’t hate that we went through it. In a year where almost every other top 10 team has played multiple games like this, we certainly deserve one. The obvious parallels for Ducks fans is Cal 2010, a game ironically also known for Ducks DC Tosh Lupoi faking injuries like a madman. Just like 14 years ago, a typically prolific offense held down all night, nothing coming easy and yet grinding out a win. We’ll get into the details below, but I’m optimistic that the scars from Saturday will show down the line.

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2. Offensive Deep Dive: Second straight subpar performance by the offense, this one due to a myriad of factors. We started off solid, moving the ball three times inside the Wisconsin red zone in the first quarter, only to have 6 points to show. After that, it was a disjointed operation most of the game, save our one big TD drive to start the 4th quarter. While I don’t think the OL played badly, Gabriel was definitely a bit jittery in the pocket, often scrambling early rather than hanging in and delivering the ball like we saw him against Ohio State and others.