Brandon Dorlus, Jeffrey Bassa, Christian Gonzalez and Steve Stephens IV talked to reporters after practice on Tuesday afternoon and previewed the upcoming matchup against Stanford.
They also talked about the emphasis on this game with the scars still felt from the heartbreaking loss they suffered against the Cardinal last season.
Oregon won nine of its first 10 games last season with the lone defeat coming in overtime, 31-24, at Stanford in early October.
“That’s seen as motivation for some of the guys that are still on the team this year,” Bassa said. “It shouldn’t have even come down to that.”
Stanford has tried to re-establish the run this season and is indeed improved after reaching a nadir in that department last year -- up to 158.7 rushing yards per game after managing just 86.8 a year ago to finish as one of the bottom five rush offenses in the FBS. But Cardinal coach David Shaw announced Tuesday that leading rusher E.J. Smith will miss the rest of the season with an undisclosed injury. Smith was averaging 6.9 yards per carry through two games.
His backup is Casey Filkins, who has 197 rushing yards and 2 TDs on 4.7 yards per carry.
All the same, the Ducks are expecting a commitment to the run game from Stanford, and it sounds like tackling and gap responsibility have been emphasized in practice this week.
“That's my mentality every time — to stop the run,” Dorlus said. “We know what [Stanford] is going to do. This is the test we’ve been waiting for.”
As for the personal foul penalty on Dorlus that gave Washington State new life after a third-and-long and led to an eventual touchdown, and the two personal foul penalties called on D.J. Johnson ...
“A flag like that for sure messes with my head, but if I take my foot off the pedal I probably wouldn't have the same results,” Dorlus said. “If we tell D.J. to stop being D.J., then he’s not going to give us everything he has.”
Stanford also takes pride in using their tight ends as receivers and creating size mismatches across the board with smaller corners, and with Gonzalez making his case for top corner in the conference week-by-week, the test this game is different from what he’s seen so far.
Stanford's top four receivers -- 6-foot-2 Michael Wilson (13 catches for 288 yards and 4 TDs), 6-foot-5 John Humphreys (7-122-1), 6-foot-3 Elijah Higgins (9-103) and 6-foot-4 Brycen Tremayne (6-76) -- plus 6-foot-4 tight end Benjamin Yurosek (7-62) represent one of tallest groups of pass catchers in the country.
Not to mention a very capable quarterback in Tanner McKee (814 yards, 6 TDs, 4 INTs through four games).
“I love that. It’s different from guarding a normal receiver,” the 6-foot-2 Gonzalez said. “But I feel like I’m a big corner so I like those types of matchups.”
Since the Ducks have used similar sets in weeks past, some wonder if playing against a team that is consistent with bigger lineups might provide an advantage for Oregon.
“Oh for sure, I feel like we have great tight ends,” Stephens said. “I feel like we’re getting great looks when we are doing our ‘good-on-good’ periods to kind of resemble what we’re going to get on Saturday.”
Stanford (1-2) has just one win on the season, but the Ducks aren’t overlooking this matchup because past seasons have proved that the Cardinal's playstyle can confuse teams and cause upsets.
“We don’t want to get comfortable, you want to stay uncomfortable,” Stephens said. “Just taking the same approach week-by-week.”
