Oregon football entered 2024 with monster expectations in their first season in the Big Ten, and the season opener against Idaho was supposed to be a chance for Dan Lanning and company to show off why they’re one of the best teams in the nation. It ended up being anything but that.
Oregon had to squeak by Idaho 24-14 at Autzen Stadium on Saturday evening, a jarringly lethargic performance that saw them in serious danger of losing deep into the fourth quarter. The Ducks were able to escape after Dillon Gabriel found Tez Johnson for a fourth-down touchdown to put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter. After the game, a surprised Lanning looked at his team’s showing in a positive light.
“Different than we thought it would look like,” Lanning said after the game, per ESPN. “Great teams are able to to learn from tight matches. This was a tight match, and we didn’t create some of the explosive plays I was hoping we could create offesively. Gave up a couple of critical plays on defense. So certainly some things to attack.”
A loss by the Ducks would’ve shocked the college football world after they entered 2024 as one of the national title favorites. In the survive and advance landscape of the regular season, they’ll now be able to put this one behind them and move forward.
Why not to worry about Oregon football after narrow win over Idaho
Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK
On the surface, Oregon’s sluggish start to the season against Idaho represents cause for concern. When the standard is a team like Georgia, who the country watched blow the doors off of Clemson earlier on Saturday in Atlanta, it’s easy to get worked up over the “eye test” of the Ducks.
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The reality is it’s just one game, and that game had a lot of weird circumstances. In the end, the stats bear out that the Ducks dominated from start to finish, but struggled converting drives into points. In the first half, Oregon missed a field goal and fumbled deep in enemy territory as two drives that could’ve been scores came up empty. After halftime, they turned the ball over on downs twice to halt promising drives.
Overall, Lanning’s group outgained the Vandals by 270 yards on Saturday. Oregon picked up 31 first downs to Idaho’s 10. Dillon Gabriel proved that he can be the efficient point guard-style of quarterback that Bo Nix was in this offense last year, finishing 41-for-49 with 380 yards passing. The defense was stout for most of the night despite losing star linebacker Jeffrey Bassa to injury in the first half.
So while Saturday night was more stressful than it needed to be, the signs show that there are greener days ahead if you’re a Ducks fan.
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Publish date : 2024-09-01 04:00:00
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