By nature, Oregon quarterback Tyler Shough is as confident a player as anyone on this Duck football team.
But over the last several weeks that confidence may have waned a little which has resulted in Shough making errant throws and poor decisions while trying to decipher coverages and schemes.
For Shough it hasn’t always been pretty.
Strictly by the numbers, Shough has had a good season. Through six games, Shough is completing nearly 63 percent of his passes ( 99 of 158 ) and has thrown for 1,480 yards while notching 13 touchdowns.
In the grand scheme of things, numbers aren’t always the metric by which a quarterback is, or should be measured.
It’s wins and losses.
Shough has led the Ducks to another Pac-12 crown and an invitation into a New Years Six bowl. By any standard, that’s a successful season.
Some might argue Shough’s glaring weakness is his decision making and gunslinger mentality which often times has him delivering the ball into a crowded space. Those plays have resulted in five interceptions – two of which were against Oregon State and caused game-changing momentum swings.
As Shough goes, so does the Oregon offense.
When he’s playing at his best in all phases, Oregon is a tough offense to contain and stop. When Shough is not, the Ducks are pedestrian and seem lackluster in their execution.
As the Ducks prepare to take on a very tough Iowa State team from the Big XII, Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead is working diligently with Shough to recapture some of that early-season magic he was so apt at showing.
“That’s life … that happens,” said Moorhead when asked about some of the criticism Shough has faced over the last month.
“When you choose to play the position you willingly accept the responsibility of playing the most scrutinized position of all organized sports. Players and coaches are gonna be under that microscope and that’s just part of the job description.”
One of Shoughs most commendable attributes according to Moorhead is his ability to remain focused on the task at hand and ignore the outside noise.
“His approach hasn’t changed whether it’s been a success or some bumps in the road,” said Moorhead. “He’s been very consistent in his approach. Now it’s the application of things he’s been doing in practice for four straight quarters and kind of eliminate some of those hiccups that have occurred in the last few games.
“We need to get him playing with confidence and being confident in his decision making and just kind of getting some of that juice and that swagger back that he had at the beginning of the year … which he has in him. Success breeds confidence and we just need to get him back on the bike again and get him rolling.”
One item that’s often lost in the discussion about Shough is his ability to step in and run the new Oregon offense brought in by Moorhead. After two seasons as the understudy to Justin Herbert and running a completely different offense, Shough accepted the challenge head-on and has shown snippets of brilliance.
“I think Tyler has developed nicely throughout the season,” explained Moorhead.
“The past couple of games there’s some things we need to clean up and get better. You don’t want to get lost in the shuffle. He’s a first-year starting quarterback in a Power Five school in a brand-new offense. The AP writers were kind enough to recognize him as an All-League selection, so that was nice for him.
“He had a very solid statistical year. I’m an optimist. I’m a glass-half-full guy. I’m happy with Tyler’s progress. There are some things we’ve got to clean up. He needs to improve, absolutely. All of us do, across the board, at all positions. I think he’s very adamant and has a great work ethic in his preparation. His practice habits are good. There are just some things that during the course of the game we’ve got to clean up a little bit. But I think Tyler has played well.”
FIESTA BOWL; OREGON OC JOE MOORHEAD MEDIA DAY BREIFING