The entire week leading up to Saturday’s contest with Washington State, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning preached to his defense that they had to do a consistent job of containing Cougar quarterback Cam Ward if they were going to come away with a win.
And while the Ducks did win the game 38-22, you can be certain Lanning will look back at this game and see the inconsistent play from his D’line in the way they tried to contain Ward in the pocket.
“Fatigue showed up and that’s where strength in numbers really matter” explained Lanning after the game when asked about Ward’s ability to evade the pass rush.
“At times we executed really well so there’s some good and some bad. I think we can go evaluate ourselves too from a scheme standpoint of how do you handle a quarterback like that. He’s a tough one to handle.”
And while the Ducks defense did log six sacks against Ward, he was still able to scramble out of key passing situations to move the chains.
“At times we made an impact and at times we didn’t” said Lanning.
I don’t know how many sacks or TFL’s we ended up with but I know he had some successful plays that are gonna eat at me a little bit that I want to make sure we attack.”
( POSTGAME ) DAN LANNING DISCUSSES WIN OVER WASHINGTON STATE