Bombs were dropped on Autzen Stadium Saturday evening.
If there was ever a perfect metaphor then you would have likened Autzen Stadium to Pearl Harbor.
The sold-out crowd of more than 56,000 and their No. 6 Oregon Ducks were under attack Saturday evening and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it.
The University of Washington and their soon-to-be NFL quarterback completely shell-shocked the Ducks defense on their way to a 37-34 upset win.
Michael Penix Jr blew the roof off of the Oregon secondary torching the Ducks for 408 passing yards and 2 explosive touchdowns that changed the momentum of the game at each juncture.
Dan Lanning and his defensive coaching aptitude absolutely knew Penix could sling the rock, but there’s no way he expected what took place on the home turf.
With Penix’s masterful play along with several self-inflicted wounds, it was no wonder Washington was seen stomping on the Oregon ‘O’ after the game.
The Oregon offense and coordinator Kenny Dillingham have certainly been on a roll scoring more than 40 points per game for eight consecutive games, however, sometimes there’s something to be said for simply playing it straight when you have the strength and momentum of a solid offensive line.
At the 10:10 mark of the second quarter and after a masterful drive of their own, Bo Nix and the Ducks offense found themselves on the UW 3-yard line poised for an easy score.
Rather than playing it straight, Dillingham and Nix called for a unique wide-open spread set to see how the defense would react. With the play clock quickly winding down, Nix called for the offense to return to their normal set but then fumbled the snap because he was hurried and trying to beat the clock.
In those situations, you simply can’t beat yourself by trying to be cute.
The Oregon offensive line had been blowing holes through the Husky defense through the entire game, yet they give a touchdown away by trying to show their offensive innovation.
It was a huge and costly mistake.
Then in the second quarter and after a game-tying touchdown by the Ducks where the score was 10-10, Lanning called for an on-side kick which the Huskies recovered at midfield.
On a shortened field it took just four plays for UW to put points on the board, a 27-yard field goal allowing the Huskies to retake the lead at 13-10.
“We’ve sat in this room and talked about when they worked out and now we’re sitting in this room talking about when they didn’t,” said Lanning after the game.
“The onside (kick), that was my decision. The guy moved a little bit and it wasn’t there, we thought it was there earlier in prep,” he said.
Easy to understand – of course! But again, there’s something to be said for playing it straight and getting into the halftime break with a tie game.
You simply can’t give a team like Washington a short field.
“It was pretty frustrating” said Oregon safety Bennett Williams after the game.
“We came out of the half and thought we were in a really good position. Obviously, we scored first. It felt like the defense could hold them and then we’d have that momentum. And they were marching down the field.
“They (UW) did a good job. I’m not going to take away from that but there’s so much stuff that we didn’t execute and it showed. Today our offense wasn’t able to carry us all the way. Our defense has to step up at some point and I don’t think that’s on the coaches and I don’t think it’s on anyone but us, especially on the backend.”
There are always going to be mistakes made in a football game.
That’s part of football. But where this game was lost was in the secondary. The Ducks simply couldn’t put a top on the passing game. They were either a step short or not in the right position to make plays.
And they certainly didn’t put enough pressure on Penix in the pocket.
The Ducks gave up more than 570 yards to Georgia to begin the season. and on Saturday evening they gave up more than 520 yards of offense to the Huskies.
That’s not exactly winning football and the Ducks know it.
“We missed some layups early, you know I think we had a free runner on the very first third down; he scrambled, you have to make that play when you have the opportunity,” explained Lanning regarding the defensive breakdowns.
“It was a bang-bang play there at the end on the long touchdown. We had a guy that looked like he was right there, didn’t make a play on the ball. We’ve got to get better at playing the ball in that situation. I don’t think it’s one thing here or there, just some moments we have to go and evaluate.”
By most game metrics, Oregon should have won the football game.
The Ducks outrushed the Huskies 312 to 114. They had a total of 32 first downs – nine more than UW. They were 3-of-4 on 4th downs and ran a total of 79 plays while the Huskies ran just 57.
But yet, the Ducks gave up several explosive plays and made some extremely questionable calls that lie squarely on Lanning.
“Our guys played the entire game, they certainly didn’t quit, they didn’t throw in the towel. You have to give Washington credit; they played a complete game and we made more mistakes at the end of the game that hurt us,” said Lanning.
“This game 100% falls on me. Our players gave a phenomenal effort and I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a few times in the first half and were able to move the ball much better in the second half. That being said, we weren’t able to get a stop defensively. Things we have to attack going forward.”
The winning blueprint was certainly exposed by Washington on how to beat this Oregon team.
The Ducks’ pass defense has been suspect for most of the season and it’s something they’ll need to shore up over the last two games of the season if they have any hope of reaching the conference title game.
“We have to understand that a lot of our goals are still right in front of us,” said Williams.
“Yeah, maybe the playoff is out of the picture but the Pac-12 championship is still in the picture and a big bowl game. But we have to take it one game at a time and look at what happened in this game and just ramp it up another step. I think we got a little comfortable all the way around. So that’s something we’re eager to take that opportunity next week.”
As for Lanning, the loss against UW is one he’ll learn from. He’s one of the brightest and most energetic young coaches in the game today.
These are mistakes he won’t make again.
Sometimes, there’s something to be said for simply playing it straight and letting the talent take over.
(POST-GAME) OREGON SAFETY BENNETT WILLIAMS DISCUSSES LOSS