It seems odd to win by more than the point spread, to take a 28 point lead in the fourth quarter, to see Oregon rush for over 350 yards – and wonder what was wrong yesterday?

There were some strange things happening – yes, it is Pac-12 After Dark – but it sort of felt like Halloween Pac-12 After Dark without enough sweet treats left for the right people.

I rarely criticize refereeing in columns because, for the most part, despite all evidence to the contrary, a lot of the things we see are sensible within the context of the conference approach to penalties. But there was a sort of one-sidedness that felt almost retaliatory Saturday night.

But I think there were issues much more compelling to discuss than the penalties. There were flaws in many parts of this game that deserve some attention.

Stanford came into this game reeling, and much of its production came after the lights of the game started to dim and the outcome seemed all but certain. The Cardinal's fourth quarter was not the near comeback Washington put on against UCLA; it was window-dressing in a sea of futility.

Despite the flaws, Oregon came away with a dominant win that saw plenty of action for the reserves and provided (too) many learning opportunities for the Ducks.

Continuing our post game tradition, we look back at the win over Stanford with our Fifth Quarter analysis.

OFFENSE:

Oregon had over 500 yards of offense. The offense rushed for 351 yards on an incredible 9.5 yards per carry. I say incredible because this was not a 5 carry or 10 carry game for that average – Oregon ran the ball 37 times on the night (including giving up its first sack of the season) against Stanford. To average 9.5 yards per carry on that many carries makes it obvious that the Ducks dominated.

But the passing game that had begun to separate this Oregon team from the last several seasons was missing something last night. Bo Nix completed just 16 of 29 attempts for 161 yards. He did throw two touchdown passes. The pass to Troy Franklin was a good play; Nix escaped pressure and threw the ball where it was either going to be a touchdown or an incompletion. In that situation, that throw was the right throw and he did it well. But too often he tried to go for the big play when there were better intermediate options that would have been just as successful.

Overall, the offense had its second worst performance of the season with pass blocking really a problem. While the Ducks gave up just one sack, Nix was under pressure for much of the evening. So much so that there were a lot more designed rollouts -- rollouts where there were precious few opportunities for Nix to plant his feet and make a throw.

Some of the ‘disappointment’ in the performance of the offensive line in pass protection is comparative dissonance to some degree. Seven different offensive linemen had PFF pass-blocking grades better than 70.0 on the night. But when you come with a pass-blocking grade 3 points higher than the second-best team and nearly ten points better than the third-best team in the nation, almost anything will seem like a letdown.

Mar’Keise Irving and Noah Whittington had very good games in the rushing department and the team’s overall rushing grade is elevated by Nix’s 6-carry, 141-yard performance that included 2 touchdowns. But Irving still averaged 9.7 yards per carry tying his season high with 97 yards while Whittington was solid as well carrying the ball 11 times for 66 yards. It went sort of unnoticed, but Sean Dollars scored the first touchdown of his career with his fourth-quarter 2-yard run. Dollars carried the ball 5 times for 27 yards. When a running back averages over 5 yards per carry and that is the third best among running backs – that is a sign of a pretty good rushing performance.

The tight ends, though, struggled. There were 3 catches for 20 yards between Terrance Ferguson and Cam McCormick, but they were not getting much separation and there were some struggles in pass blocking for the group. Moliki Matavao was outstanding in run blocking and Ferguson had a nice downfield block on the Nix 80-yard touchdown run, but overall this was a somewhat sluggish performance. The team had four drops – two of them from tight ends.

I am not sure how much of that was Oregon’s offensive game plan and how much of it was Stanford’s scheme, but it was noticeable. Of the 31 passes Oregon attempted, only four were targeted to tight ends while 21 were thrown to wide receivers. I thought Nix missed some opportunities in that area which he will see on film.

After converting 17 of 29 third down attempts in the first two games this season, Oregon has converted just 13 of 37 (35.1%) attempts in the last three games. Overall, the Ducks are ranked No. 28 in the nation in third-down conversions, but if we look at just the last three games, they would be around No. 95 in the nation. This is an area that has floundered for three consecutive games. Oregon is going to start facing some really good teams and converting third downs will become crucial down the stretch.