The Ducks headed to the desert for a matchup with an overmatched Arizona State Sun Devil team favored by 25 points. It is difficult to live up to that kind of spread, but given just how good the Oregon offense has played for almost the entire season it was not an inconceivable spread.
The Ducks did as expected and dominated the Sun Devils Saturday afternoon – but this one was different. I think had this been any other team, coached by someone who was no just like a brother to Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, that the Ducks could have easily scored 60-plus points in this game. The offense clearly went into a different mode after the first drive of the second half.
Defensively, despite the kitchen sink and every possible trick play known to man, the Sun Devils had very little chance of scoring enough points against the Ducks to make this game even resemble something competitive. The thorough dominance was just what Oregon needed here – not because it will affect voters (it won’t) – but because it helped Oregon get some guys some rest ahead of a massive showdown in the annual in-state rivalry game next week.
Continuing our post-game tradition, we look back at the win over Arizona State with our Fifth Quarter analysis.
OFFENSE:
The Good: Was there anything bad in this game offensively? I guess there were some sloppy moments in the second half when Oregon was trying to basically get out of Arizona with no major injuries and an easy win, but this was perhaps the best I have seen the Oregon offense play all season.
Bo Nix had a nearly flawless performance. He threw 29 passes in the game and I only saw one that was even slightly off target. Coming into this game with a completion percentage above 77 percent, and watching him complete 1 of his first three, it is just ridiculous that he completed 83 percent of his passes in this game for 404 yards – and that was with Nix leaving after the first drive of the second half and getting jobbed on a questionable call which would have given him his 7th touchdown pass of the game.
Troy Franklin proved he is an elite wide receiver with his performance. If I told you he had 8 catches for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns, you would be impressed. But when I tell you he did not have his first catch until the 5:22 mark of the 1st quarter and had his last catch at the 1:06 mark of the first half, then you might get an idea of just how dominant he was against an ASU pass defense that came into this game giving up the third fewest passing yards in the conference. Franklin had 68% of the total passing yards the Sun Devils had allowed per game coming into this matchup – in that first half.
What was important to see was the backup tight ends get some really impressive work. There is no doubt Terrance Ferguson is the best tight end on the team. He came into the game with 33 catches, 347 yards, and 3 touchdowns. Patrick Herbert and Casey Kelly had a combined 13 receptions, 108 yards, and 5 touchdowns. Yesterday the duo combined for 4 catches, 97 yards and 3 touchdowns. It was good to see that the Ducks could get some impressive work from the backups; they will be needed in the next two weeks as well as a potential playoff run.
If you look at the total rushing stats, the Ducks carried the ball 33 times for 140 yards – a somewhat pedestrian 4.2 yards per carry. But dig deeper and you will see that the four running backs who saw action had 25 carries for 140 yards – a very good 5.6 yards per carry.
This was the best performance I have seen by the offensive line all season. They simply did not make mistakes. There were two accepted false start penalties – both on backups. The play that exemplified what the offensive line looked like today was Herbert’s second touchdown with Iapani Laloulu and Jackson Powers-Johnson both being 40 yards downfield making blocks. They were creating holes for the running backs and keeping Bo Nix clean.
The Bad: There really were not much negatives in this game offensively. Would it have been nice if the reserves had done a better job in the fourth quarter? Sure. But this one was different because it really looked like Dan Lanning called off the dogs on the third quarter in a way he might not otherwise have done against other teams.
The other bad was third down offense. The Ducks came into the game fourth in the nation in third down conversion rate converting over 54% of their third downs. Against ASU, the Ducks converted just 3 of 9 due in large part to their average of 9.9ds to go on third down – but that is sort of skewed by a 3rd and 20+ situation. What is more worrisome is their 0 for 2 on third and short situations. If the Ducks want to get to Las Vegas to avenge their only loss of the season, they are going to need to do better in third and short situations.
DEFENSE:
The Good: I thought that the coverage was very good for the Ducks – especially Dontae Manning who had a very good game with three pass breakups and Cole Martin who lead the team with 5 total tackles and had a great interception.
It was good to see Khyree Jackson play on his own terms and make some good plays. He did get beat on one of the many trick plays thrown at the defense by Kenny Dillingham, but he showed why the Oregon secondary has been better this season. At the end of this game, Oregon held ASU to 25 of 47 attempts for 205 passing yards and an interception.
The first unit on the defensive line did a solid job of getting penetration and were solid with their technique and tackling. Against an overmatched opponent this defense did what they were supposed to do.
The Bad: If we are going to pick nits – which is often what we have to do when critiquing a performance, the biggest flaw I saw in this game was run defense. The fits were not great; linebackers were out of position far too often and were caught with bad angles and missed tackles too many times in this game.
In a closer game, some of these mistakes could have been far more costly. Sure, you can call the mistakes a result of the playground feel of the offense by the Sun Devils, but the fundamentals of fits, reads, reacts, angles, and solid tackling don’t change just because the offense puts a tight end at quarterback. After a solid first quarter in which the defense held ASU to 2 carries for 4 yards, the next three quarters saw the Ducks give up 16 carries for 107 yards – that is a 6.7 yards per carry average and would be devastating against a better team.
Oregon State will definitely see some things on tape and try to duplicate much of what the Sun Devils did. DJ Uiagalelei has shown he can be a force on the run and the Beavers have two outstanding running backs that will make Cam Skattebo look like a high schooler. The Ducks will need to clean up their performance against the run if they want to ensure a return to the Pac-12 Championship Game.
SPECIAL TEAMS : There is literally nothing to talk about. Oregon did not punt in this game. They did not return a kick and did not attempt a field goal. Cam Lewis did a good job on kickoffs – I guess this gets a no grade.
COACHING: This was one of the finest coaching jobs I have seen by this staff this season. The team was focused, disciplined, prepared, and executed the game plan to near perfection. The Ducks had five penalties for 45 yards – one of which was highly questionable (okay, not just questionable, the pass interference against Ferguson was just a plain bad call).
There were no egregious clock management or timeout issues and the team was on a different level for most of this game.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: I could easily say Bo Nix. I could just as easily say troy Franklin. But I want to recognize a player who just keeps working hard and getting better and showed what he is capable of and give the player of the game award to Patrick Herbert. Herbert had 3 catches for 78 yards and 2 early touchdowns. He has been the consummate team player and one of the hardest workers on the team and showed impressive speed on his second touchdown catch of the day. For his perseverance, he is my player of the game against Arizona State.
STAT OF THE GAME:
3 of 11 for 43 yards; 3 of 14: While the Ducks struggled on early downs defensively, they were able to dial up the pressure on third downs. Oregon allowed the Sun Devils to complete just 3 of 11 third down pass attempts for 43 yards while holding Arizona State fo 3 of 14 third down conversion attempts. The Ducks sometimes gave the Sun Devils hop on first and second down only to destroy that hope on third down.
