After watching the film of the Texas Tech game, there was plenty head coach Dan Lanning could be proud of. But on the other side of the coin, there was a lot problems that need to be addressed.
The Ducks were able to leave Lubbock, Texas with a 38-30 win over the Red Raiders, but it was far from a pretty sight. Oregon was flagged 14 times for 126 yards, many of which stopped potential scoring drives in their tracks.
According to Lanning, Monday’s practice was used to fix some of those penalties.
“We created some out of phase drill work so we can figure out where the ball might be underthrown,” he said concerning some pass interference calls that went against the Ducks. “You have to go play the ball and play through without making drastic contact. That’s obviously a really frustrating one (Tysheem Johnson’s PI). You had an opportunity to get off the field, ball gets launched down the field. We lost, where we’re adding our third in the bank, and that’s one that you’d love to have back. But all of those can be coached and there are drills that we can do to make those better.”
Fortunately for Oregon, most of the penalties they were called for are very correctable in practice and hopefully shouldn’t be much of an issue moving forward.
Unfortunately, however, Hawaii is the next opponent. They’re a team that likes to throw and then throw some more. The Rainbow Warriors will test the Duck secondary and see how much they’ve learned in playing the ball and avoiding needless pass interference calls.
Hawaii head coach, Timmy Chang, was a prolific passer for Hawaii and now his offense is on full display.
“He was a phenomenal player. I think second, overall, all-time passing yards and that’s the flavor that they are right now. They air it out,” Lanning said. “Their quarterback has probably the strongest arm as far as getting the ball down the field that we’ve seen so far this year and they connect on deep shots. I think they throw for over 350 yards a game.
“I know that he’s looking for more balance, but they create explosive plays with those throws down the field and they have some guys that can really stretch the field and it’s very different.”
What wasn’t all that different was the Texas Tech road win this year compared to last season’s road win at Washington State. Both were close victories on the road that seemingly got the Ducks on a roll.
“I think both those games are games where we felt like we hurt ourselves and we were still able to overcome that but there’s gonna be a time where we play a team that we can’t do that,” Lanning said. “I’m glad our players were really resilient. You know, each game, each team, each situation has a life of itself. And that game was certainly different. But there are some similarities.”
The schedule says the Ducks could very well get on a roll with two home games with Hawaii and Colorado before a road game against the worst team in the conference in Stanford.
( MONDAY PRESSER ) DAN LANNING TALKS PENALTIES & TEXAS TECH