By Travis Rooke-Ley, Wednesday October 16th
Ducks Rising: The Inside Look
The Week That Was
1. Gabriel and the OL: This was the Gabriel that we envisioned since December, using his experience to move within the pocket and dial in some deep shots. Against one of the best defensive lines in the country, Oregon’s much maligned offensive line played its best game yet, opening running lanes for Jordan James and giving Gabriel enough time all day. He’s always thrown a beautiful deep ball, and we finally saw that on display. Beyond the big chunks to Stewart and Tez, he also was money over the middle of the field hitting Stewart, Ferguson and Holden at different times. It is clear there was some element of hiding our best stuff in preparation for this game, but I loved seeing us unleash the entire playbook. Although Michigan has some top-end talent on their defense, we won’t see another unit this regular season anywhere near the talent Ohio State brings. 500 yards is a credit to our entire offensive group. If we play even 90% of the standard we did Saturday, we should be in the 40s and 50s every game moving forward.
2. Points Left on the Field: As awesome as the victory was, we were lucky to escape given the amount of points we left on the field. We’ve now had three failed XPs this year which is completely unacceptable. A TD needs to be 7 points minimum. I didn’t like chasing the two-point conversation that early, after cutting it to 14-12 which is another point on the board. We missed a 42 yard FG, continuing the common theme of Oregon somehow not being able to find a consistent kicker for what feels like the 100th straight year. Lastly, we went for it and 4th and Goal from the 2, which lost us an easy 3 points. I don’t hate the call, Tez was wide open, but if you are going to go on 4th, I’d prefer a run on 3rd down from the 2. We’ve got to clean things up in this sense, but it's also encouraging knowing we could have easily been in the 40s against what many consider the best defense in the nation.
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