Cold and breezy does not typically precede commentary about the first football game of the season; but 2020 will be unlike any season in college football history. Each game will have a potential asterisk as players are ruled out for games based on not just their own health, but that of others. Such was the pregame news for Oregon’s first game of 2020 as Stanford lost three key players including starting quarterback Davis Mills, standout wide receiver Connor Weddington and linebacker Trey LaBounty.
The sounds, smells, and spirit of football were missing. There were no hot dogs or burgers on grills; there were no tailgates; there was no din of fan noise ahead of the game. There were scattered fans – mostly students – around the footbridge that leads to Autzen Stadium from the Oregon campus; but the normal activity was absent. There was an eerie calmness to the stadium. Music played, but with no other noise, the voices of players were abnormally easy to discern.
The pre-game featured no video highlights, no Harley, no rising roar of fans as the 2020 season kicked off. But still, football was back. Oregon entered the season with questions about their ability to protect the quarterback and whether Tyler Shough had the same kind of magic shown by Justin Herbert. He would show several flashes of brilliance which showed the potential was there.
The start gave the Ducks the opportunity to showcase their reloaded defense as Stanford won the toss and elected to receive. The start was sluggish for the Ducks on defense as they gave up 40 yards on 6 carries including a couple of big gains, but a nice third-down play forced a field goal attempt which was missed.
The offense for Oregon stalled on their first drive as Shough missed his first pass attempt as a starter low and outside. CJ Verdell, who led Oregon in rushing with 105 yards on 20 carries showed another small improvement on a second down run early – he has improved balance this season and that could be valuable down the line for Oregon.
The defense was slow to react, outmuscled at the line and slow to the edge for most of the first quarter. Despite the first stop, the Cardinal dominated the first quarter with over 9:00 time of possession and 125 yards; but turned that into just 7 points with a 9-play, 80-yard drive extended with two big third down passes from backup Jack West.
The Ducks answered with a big 44-yard completion from Shough to sophomore sensation Mycah Pittman to open their second drive, marching 87 yards in just 2:31 to tie the game up. Missing Steven Jones, though, Oregon’s rebuilt offensive line struggled to open up running lanes for Verdell as Oregon averaged just 2.6 yards per carry on designed runs in the first half.
Noah Sewell made his debut for Oregon at linebacker and his early play lived up to the hype. Un fact, the Oregon defense looked markedly better when he was on the field. Without Sewell, Stanford continued to catch defenders out of position and gash a run defense that was the second best in the Pac-12 a year ago; with him on the field early, the Cardinal were average less than three yards per carry. For the game, Oregon allowed Stanford 197 yards on 31 carries which is far worse than their efforts a season ago.
The game turned sloppy for Oregon in the second quarter; after a near miss on a punt that came close to touching Mykael Wright, Oregon had possessions stymied by a very bad pass from Shough and a subsequent fumble by Cyrus Habibi-Likio after the Ducks worked inside the red zone looking to take a second quarter lead. With all that had seemed to go wrong early in the game, Oregon would get the ball with 5:04 left in the first half and – aided by two personal foul penalties – march 96 yards for the go-ahead score on a Shough to DJ Johnson pass for 5-yards.
The Ducks took that lead and combined it with the first possession of the second half to extend the lead to 21-7 as the Oregon ground game started to pick up a little bit with Travis Dye getting his first three carries of the season with a nice 14-yard run that showed improved strength and just as much slipperiness as last season.
Oregon did catch some breaks defensively as the normally steady Stanford placekicker Jet Toner missed three field goals well within his 52-yard range that would have tightened the game. The Ducks led 21-7 when he missed his third attempt and took possession at their own 20-yard line. With the next possession Oregon cemented their win as the Ducks sliced through the Stanford defense on the ground and through the air with Shough finishing the drive on an athletic QB keeper for the 9-yard touchdown and 28-7 lead with less than a minute left in the third quarter.
With just over 9:00 left, the Oregon defense got caught napping giving up a big 73-yard rune by Nate Peat. Even though Mykael Wright made a nice play to save a touchdown, the Cardinal would punch it in two plays later to close the gap to 28-14 and cause some hand-wringing on the Oregon sideline.
Verdell started slow but started to make plays in the second half as Oregon ran the ball much better as a team. Shough, who finished his first start completing 17 of 26 passes for 227 yards also showed plenty of skill with his legs as the second leading rusher for Oregon carrying the ball 11 times for 85 yards and a touchdown. As a team, Oregon carried the ball 40 times for 269 yards for the game averaging 6.7 yards and scoring four rushing touchdowns.
Defensively, the Ducks were unable to generate pressure most of the night and struggled to stop the run for much of the game. Noah Sewell made his debut and looked as advertised. Even at this level, he was a man among boys at times; in one instance making a full supplex tackle on Austin Jones.
The game had moments of brilliance, moments of sloppiness and penty of offense as the two teams combined for 903 yards of total offense.
Oregon heads to the road next week to take on Washington State. The Ducks will be without Verone McKinley III for the first half following his targeting ejection in the second half of this game.
