Eagles vs. Ducks: Social Media Recap

Dan Lanning recorded his first career victory in an expected but team-focused 70-14 effort against Eastern Washington on Saturday. While a victory over a FCS team shouldn’t be over-celebrated, there were many positive improvements on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Putting up 63 points on offense, while scoring touchdowns on their first nine possessions, was just the confidence boost the offense needed after being held out of the end zone the first weekend. A fundamentally improved defense that didn't allow EWU to break 100 yards until late in the third quarter has to enjoy the film session this upcoming week quite a bit more than the prior one.

There will still be plenty to work on and improve, and the Ducks will be facing a much stouter test this weekend as No. 12 BYU comes to town. The Cougars are fresh off a home win against then-No. 9 Baylor and will provide a better litmus test for the Ducks' improvements.

Oregon will benefit a bit this week from the film review of Baylor’s defensive efforts, as it can study some of the similarities brought over by former Baylor defensive back coach Matt Powledge.

We’ll circle back to BYU later this week, but for now, a recap of the social media action from this weekend.

Purely a marketing effort from Oregon to get fans fired up (and hopefully sell some tickets), but if you haven’t had enough coffee yet this Monday morning, this might help wake you up.

A couple game day posts to just get the blood flowing for fans, the video/graphics department looks like they are having fun with green screens, and the foreshadowing for the game may have been almost too accurate.

A close up of the helmets from Saturday, they look even sharper in person. As we were walking to the HDC for the post-game media interviews, the helmets were lined up on racks outside, and some of us jokingly asked if we could take home a sample.

Capturing a few of those moments of the pre-game walk, Oregon fans were there hours before the game and even had people lingering around over an hour after the game, hoping to see their favorite players up close.

Oregon has marked the 4-yard hashes across the field yellow in memory of Spencer Webb. Eastern Washington took the opportunity pre-game to lay a bouquet of yellow and white flowers as a tribute to him. Oregon also responded with a thank you and close up shot of the class move by EWU.

The pre-game hype video, for those at home, and in this case, for those that didn’t get to really see it. Oregon was having some video issues during the game with their big video board, so the images were getting stuck quite a bit.

Cam McCormick wore the No. 18 for Spencer Webb during the game. When asked if this change would be permanent, he essentially said after the game that this was a special thing, and that he didn’t want to overuse it. A special moment came later in the game and we’ll see that below.

Oregon took very little time to get things going. Following a three-and-out by the defense, the offense went 45-yards, then finished their first drive to the end zone thanks to a great block by Sean Dollars and a rumbling effort by Terrance Ferguson the crossing route. If I recall correctly, this was Dollars' first snap of the game and he made the most of it. (7-0, Ducks)

Following another three-and-out, Oregon sustained a longer drive of 72 yards, including a 26-yard pickup by Bucky Irving. Noah Whittington finished off the drive with a nice off tackle run, aided by some solid blocking to the right. Troy Franklin can be seen getting in there and clipping the outside backer to keep him from making a play. (14-0, Ducks)

Once again assisted by a defensive three-and-out, the offense was back at it near the end of the first. This one probably should have been picked off, but thanks to a crazy effort by Terrance Ferguson, Oregon found the end zone for the third time in three tries, capping off an 83-yard drive. Ferguson ended up at No. 8 in the SportsCenter top 10. (21-0, Ducks)

As if things weren’t going poorly enough for Eastern Washington, on the next play, Christian Gonzalez picked up his first interception as a Duck on a bad ball by the Eagles QB. This was only EWU’s 10th play from scrimmage during the game, while Oregon had 28 with one less possession. This also set up great field position for the offense, and they were able to finish off another drive with a one-yard Irving run. (28-0, Ducks)

Before Oregon could find the end zone for the fifth time in five tries, a special teams break down led to a huge return by Eastern Washington, further helped by a targeting penalty on the play. Starting off from the Oregon 38, the Eagles earned their only touchdown against the first defense on the day. The offense popped right back out there and went 72 yards, without ever seeing third down, finished off by a catch and free-run to the end zone by Byron Cardwell. (35-7, Ducks)

Oregon’s defense snapped back to it, and forced another three-and-out and punt. Over the course of the first half, Oregon only allowed 66 yards total, and forced five of six drives into three or less plays. Unfortunately for Eastern Washington, even the time clock couldn’t help stop Oregon, as the Ducks found the end zone for the sixth straight drive thanks to Franklin’s refusal to go down. (42-7, Ducks)

As alluded to above, Cam McCormick got his special moment in the No. 18 jersey. Although the play had to be reviewed, the call on the field stood, and McCormick mentioned after the game that he had tears running down his face as he was able to honor Spencer. This was also Oregon’s seventh touchdown in seven drives. (49-7, Ducks)

One play later and the defense was back at it again. Bridges was pretty frustrated with himself for fumbling the ball and not making the end zone, but is also happy that teammate Casey Rogers was in the right place to finish the interception, turned fumble, turned touchdown. This also marked the sixth (of seven) drives that went three or less plays. (56-7, Ducks)

Couldn’t find a video for this one, but Oregon finished their eighth drive in a row off with their 8th TD, following another solid effort by the defense. The defense allowed five plays on the previous drive, but only gave up 10 yards on that drive. At this point of the third quarter, the defense had only allowed 76 yards total. (63-7, Ducks)

Oregon started to get the second string in and surrendered their second TD of the day to Eastern Washington, with the Eagles nearly doubling their yardage on the day (adding 73 yards in 10 plays). The offense once again responded, adding a career first touchdown for Kilohana Haasenritter. (70-14, Ducks)

A collection of the big plays, relive the big Duck win one more time.

It was a special day for Bo Nix and Troy Franklin as they put up numbers not seen by Ducks in a few years. Troy Franklin had a career high 10 catches for 86 yards in just 2 and a half quarters of play, and Bo Nix dropped five TDs in a similar length of time on a nearly 85% completion rate.

A couple other crazy stats to finish off the game, Oregon will have their home and home non-conference winning streak put on the line next week against a very good BYU squad. Also, forty (yes, four-zero) first downs were gained, something not done by any Chip Kelly coached team (although, if pressed, they probably could have).

One last stat, the Duck put up 288 pushups on Saturday, but was getting a bit of help from the guys under the board towards the end there.

First a shout out from Oregon football to the former Ducks serving as NFL team captains.

MM8 with the keeper to put the Falcons up 23-10. Unfortunately, Atlanta blew a lead in the fourth quarter and suffered their first loss of the season, 26-27.

Justin Herbert had many great throws on the day, and helped lead his team to a 24-19 season opening victory on 26 of 34 passing for 279 yards and three touchdowns.

Jevon Holland aided the defensive effort against the Patriots that only saw them score a single touchdown in a 20-7 win. Holland was in the right place at the right time for this tip, getting his third career interception and a nice return to boot.

On the other side of that Falcons matchup, Juwan Johnson is finding his place in the Saints offense, registering two catches for 43 yards, including this hurdling gain of 26.