The Oregon Ducks football team came into Saturday's game with Boise State as the No. 2 team in the country and although the Ducks came out victorious 34-27, there is a ton of work to be done as the season moves forward.
The Broncos, of the Pac-12, came into Autzen Stadium not afraid of much of anything, as they battled the Ducks for a full 60 minutes. They jumped out to a 17-7 lead before Oregon scored on five straight possessions. Even then, the Ducks had to hold on for dear life in the end.
As it turns out, though, a win is a win, and this game gave the Oregon coaching staff lots to crew on as they move forward. Before today, the Ducks didn't have any game film on this Oregon team to analyze.
Now they do and they have a lot to look at and fix.
Quarterback Dante Moore was good, per usual, along with the receivers. But there's plenty of work to be done with the running game, as the Ducks gained just 119 yards on the ground.
Jeremiah McClellan had a banner day with 150 yards receiving and a touchdown. Moore threw for 378 yards and had three touchdowns to his name. Dakorien Moore added 93 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown that was the game-winner in the fourth quarter.
Here's everything head coach Dan Lanning had to say following his team's season-opening win over Boise State.
Opening Statement
Dan Lanning: First off, want to thank our crowd for being dynamic as always. You know, another sellout here. You know, Autzen, they made a difference again today, and we didn't do enough ultimately to be able to make them proud consistently. There's a lot that we can do a lot better. It's almost just kind of a flip side of the last time that we played Boise, where you know, in a lot of ways, we won the game with total yards and some situations, but we didn't really win the critical situations. They won some of those critical situations. They played better in special teams than us today. They did better on fourth down. We kind of gave them an opportunity, a chance to hang around. Was proud of the way we were able to tack right before half and put in that touchdown.
I thought our quarterback operated really well. Want to go back and evaluate the film, but thought he did some really good things. But to be able to win the middle eight and kind of gain some momentum back on defense. We were just off schedule too much tonight. It was too many second-and-fours, too many second-and-fours, especially in situations where they're going to have a go-for-it mentality. And then again, too many penalties. You have 10 penalties for 90 yards. That's not winning football.
So some things we have to clean up. I was happy with our prep going into this performance. I felt like the guys worked hard. We just didn't execute some fundamental things that we have to be much better at. And ultimately, we got to win. And Boise State's always tough to play. You know, Spencer does a great job with his team. They had some good scheme and some good elements that they executed well. I think playing that quarterback tonight, that guy's going to win a lot of games for their team this year. That team's gonna win a lot of games this year. You know, he played really, really well, in my opinion, for them. But ultimately, did enough to come away with a win. Didn't play or start the way that we wanted to start this game.
Disjointed offense
Question: You guys had almost 500 yards of total offense. Despite that, I felt a little bit disjointed in the first half. How much of that is kind of first-game nerves, a little bit, maybe a new coordinator, and how do you feel like you pulled out of it?
DL: I thought Drew called a really good game. I don't think there was any disjointedness when it comes to that. I think there's execution. All right, there are a couple plays we talk about. Okay, that was good process, bad result. Right, third guy comes off the guy and man-to-man. We're gonna have a conversion on third down, and in reality, it's unsound in what played out. So they won that result, but the process we were right in what we were calling the penalties is what we have to eliminate. And again, we talk about starting fast. We didn't start fast tonight, so that didn't show up for us. We kind of had our backs against the wall there early, and I thought the guys responded to that. We wanted to see how we handle adversity, but as far as communication, I thought that was really clean throughout the day on offense and really on defense as well, the performance and the execution have to be better.
Penalties and more penalties
Q: What was your evaluation of the mental mistakes and the penalties that you mentioned, and how that impacted the game overall?
DL: Some mistakes happen, and they're going to happen. Some of them are discipline penalties. To have multiple post-snap penalties. Those are the things that can't happen, right? Bear (Alexander) had one, right? Peyton Woodyard had one. That's where you're giving free opportunities. They're kicking off from the 50-yard line and have a chance to flip the field, right? We give them a first down to move the ball into the red area, you know, when we have an opportunity for a stop. So those are the things that absolutely have to be eliminated, and then you saw some different faces in there. Some guys never got to experience a game in Autzen, but they have to be prepared for that. And I thought they handled that on their side better than we did. So there's going to be some cleanup there.
Pass rush
Q: Just want to get your assessment of the pass rush, especially in some big moments late in the game there, and how that impacted things.
DL: Yeah, I thought one. In the first half, we didn't do as good a job really handling their quarterback on the move. He scrambled and was able to gain some yards. I'm guessing he was close to, you know, one of their leading rushers at least in the first half. Right, we did a much better job caging the quarterback in the second half. I thought we rushed with power, but also some awareness there in the second half. And I thought Coach Hampton did a good job of dialing up some pressures too, to give those guys some opportunities. They, in some ways, refused to participate in the pass rush game by having chippers and some guys that were really aware of it, and then they hit a really timely screen. They hit the right call on the right play by us, but there's really poor effort across the board, which is the things we can't see. But our pass rush should be a strength for us. We've got to get better at stopping the run and doing a better job on first down to give us the opportunity to rush the passer because when we can, we'll be dynamic.
Slow start
Q: In the first half, as you guys are trying to execute, it's a little sluggish at times. Is it tougher as a coach in that first game to have patience, just because things do have to gel a little bit? Is it more difficult this early in the season to kind of let things happen as they will?
DL: I don't know if it's difficult. I think the measure for me is you've got to figure out what button you're going to push, right? Is this one where you need to go ahead and ramp it up and change the energy and the juice, or is this one where you need to have patience? And you know, ultimately for me, I felt like that was one where we had to you know, click it into high gear, and the player-led leadership that we talked about off-season has to show up. There has to be some accountability, and again, we'll have that throughout the next week.
Halftime atmosphere
Q: Can you describe what your locker room was like at halftime? And along those lines, how critical was it to go in coming off that score?
DL This was a situation where we were able to flip the middle eight and score a touchdown there right at the end of the half. I think guys had an awareness of what they had to attack. We ran the ball more effectively in the second half offensively at times and certainly controlled momentum a lot better. I don't know how many drives we had in the second half, excluding the last drive. I think we either had a field goal or a touchdown on almost every drive in the second half, which was necessary because we weren't getting great stops. But the locker room itself, the guys had good energy. They understood what they had to attack, and they were able to perform a little bit better as a unit. But again, just not good enough.
Jeremiah McClellan
Q: We obviously saw the emergence of J-Mac a little bit last season. We heard all camp just how good this kid was going to be this season, and he obviously balled out in Game 1. How important was his play today, and the level of effort he brought to the offense?
DL: I thought he had the juice, energy, and consistency that I see every single day in practice, and that's something I want to keep challenging him to bring. But he brought that consistently throughout the day today. I didn't say it, but I thought our field goal kicker performed really well in situations and made the ones that he needed to make. Gage did a good job in some critical situations, and we were able to get points in moments where it was tough.
Situational football
Q: You mentioned that two-minute situation at the end of the first half. We've seen Dante be pretty good in those situations in the past. How much of that is you guys hammering away at situational football, and how much is just something he's got between the ears to handle that?
DL: It's a combination of both. We certainly work those situations a ton throughout fall camp and throughout spring ball. He's been a part of them now here at Oregon multiple times. But I thought he did a great job of understanding what we were going to get from a coverage standpoint, where the ball needed to go, and giving us an opportunity.
O-line performance
Q: I know you haven't watched the film yet, but can you give us your assessment of the offensive line? You had a lot of youngsters starting out there today.
DL: "Good at times, bad at times. Overall, they did a good job of protecting the quarterback. I think they had some exotic pressures that they were able to dial up on some run downs. I think there are some things we've got to look at there from a schematic standpoint for us. But it seemed like the effort was there. I don't know that we had the push that we needed consistently. So we'll go back and watch it and get a better evaluation.
Sold out Autzen
Q: A lot of programs around the country are struggling to get fans to attend non-conference games. What's it mean to you to see Autzen sold out today?
DL: That's one thing you always count on about this place: Our fans are unbelievable. When we have a game here, they're going to be here. They're going to bring energy, and they're going to fill the stadium. That's something that I love about this place. Football matters here, and that's one thing that our fans have created and made this place really special.
3-headed monster at receiver
Q: Can you speak to the explosiveness of your offense with the three receivers? It's hard to double all three of them. What opportunities do they create for each other outside of themselves?
DL: One, I think credit is deserved. I thought Drew (Mehringer), again, called a really good game from a standpoint of finding opportunities to either create a double move or work crossing routes on certain coverage looks. I thought guys were in sync. They played unselfish ball. It seemed like the ball was distributed pretty evenly, and guys took advantage of those opportunities. But yeah, I think it makes it hard when you have multiple guys that can be explosive.
Evan Stewart's return
Q: What are your overall impressions of Evan Stewart's return, specifically at punt returner? He had some good moments, but also some tough reps.
DL: That's the part of his game that — I just caught him before we went in the locker room — I have all the belief in the world in Evan and the trust. I think any of us, if we struggle with one, it's going to be hard to go get the next one. Sometimes you've just got to fight through that and work through it. Obviously, the one didn't come clean, and then later on we saw one that wasn't clean. But if you look outside of that, I thought Evan played a good game. Again, I'll watch it and evaluate what that looks like.
But I've got the most trust in Evan because of how hard he's worked. That means we've got to create some more of those moments for him in practice where it's a challenge and where it's tough. He's been very consistent throughout practice in being able to field those balls. That's just something he's going to have to be able to work through, and then we'll continue to challenge ourselves to find other guys that can also do those things.
Lessons from Boise
Q: You've seen Boise State a couple of times during your time at Oregon, and both times they gave you an early-season challenge. The last time, it was the beginning of you guys having a perfect regular season. What can you learn from seeing a team like Boise State at the beginning of a season?
DL: "You love having a challenge early. Again, I think a lot of what we did today was self-inflicted, but I think this is — at times, you want to get a win in every situation — this can be a win that we can learn from in a lot of ways. You don't want to have to fall on the other end of that to be able to figure out what you have to improve. There's going to be a wake-up call for some of our guys in there of things that we can attack and improve. Coaches as well. I think that's what will show up. Again, I would bet a lot of money that team wins a lot of games this year. I've got a feeling that's a really good Boise State team. They were well-prepared, they're well-coached, and they executed really well. I wouldn't be surprised to see that team have a lot of success before the season is over.
Dante's career game
Q: Dante had a career high in passing yards on a day where he sort of had to keep the ship steady on offense. How did you see that from him?
DL: I thought Dante, from my seat, played extremely well. He got us into the right checks. Again, I thought they had some good answers. But some of the plays that we will celebrate in our program are the decisions to throw the ball away. The decisions not to put the ball at risk. I thought he operated really clean. I thought there was a clean plan for him to be able to execute, and I thought that showed up consistently for him.
We don't have to win because of our quarterback. We want to make sure our quarterback doesn't cost us. He played well enough to put us in position to win. In a lot of ways, he played to where we could win today because of him. He had some great plays. Yet somebody's on the other end of that every time. Somebody's catching that ball when he has a great play. Somebody's protecting him up front, and he'll be the first one to tell you that. But to know that we can throw to win is certainly a positive. And he threw to win today.
Handling adversity
Q: You said you wanted to see how your team handled adversity. What was your assessment of that on the sideline, especially with some of those younger guys?
DL: Some was really good. Some was not good enough. I didn't see anything that was disturbing, but you can't look like a deer in the headlights when things don't look right. I thought ultimately our players, as a group, attacked that. There were moments in this game where it didn't look good. You're down 10 points. How are you going to react? I thought they handled that well. But we'll get an assessment of it and continue to attack it.
Emergence of Dylan Williams
Q: A lot of snaps for Dylan Williams today. He appeared to play really well in the run game, especially. Before looking at the film, what's your assessment of him and what has he done in fall camp to earn that big of a role?
Lanning: He certainly earned it in fall camp. He's worked extremely hard and put himself in position. He's made a lot of plays in fall camp. There were certainly moments today where, as you're watching as a coach, you're like, 'Let's continue to figure out how to get that guy on the field and utilize his skill set.' I'm proud of Dylan's growth. He's a guy who stuck through it and has had limited opportunities up until this year. But I'm anticipating Dylan having a big year for us and growing from the moments that he had today.
Freshman Devon Benjamin
Q: I'm not going to ask you to evaluate Devon Benjamin's play today, but I think he was maybe one of the only freshmen to play a bunch for you. What did you see in fall camp to make him old enough to play?
DL: Same thing we always say: There's no such thing as old enough. It's good enough.
"He's got a skill set. He's really instinctual as a player, and I think there were moments where that really showed up today. He can be tight in coverage. He's played a variety of positions in high school. That's really carried over and helped him be able to be a guy that can impact us here. But I'm looking for him to continue to grow. Whatever he did today, there are going to be some moments that I know he can do better.
On the same note, I think he had an energy and a focus on what he had to attack and improve, and there are going to be some moments growing from that. But if he can play winning football for us, he's going to be out there on the field. We'll definitely take a hard look at today and see what we can attack and improve. Devon's earned those opportunities because of what he's done throughout fall camp.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Everything Dan Lanning said after Oregon's 34-27 win over Boise State
