Coming into this non-conference game with Hawaii, Oregon was favored by nearly 40 points.
The Ducks did what was expected of them, but very few probably expected them to play this well on both sides of the ball.
Oregon played a complete 60-minute game and easily dispatched the Rainbow Warriors 55-10 in front of a sold-out Autzen Stadium Saturday night.
With the win, the Ducks are 3-0 and now enter conference play riding sky-high.
They’ll need that confidence because the upcoming opponent, Colorado, isn’t short of confidence themselves.
Hawaii entered the game thinking that its pass-happy offensive attack would be able to move the ball down the field and score its share of points. But early on, the Duck secondary was up to the task and it remained that way all night.
Quarterback Brayden Schager came up empty in his first five throws and for Oregon, it took just one throw, a 49-yard bomb to Tez Johnson, to get on the scoreboard.
That would be far from the only time the Ducks would dent the scoreboard.
Oregon put points on the board in its first six possessions to take a 34-3 halftime lead. Just like in the first quarter, Bo Nix found Johnson for the first score of the second half to make it 41-3.
For the night, Nix was an efficient 21-of-27 passing for 247 yards and three touchdowns. Johnson had two touchdowns as did receiver Traeshon Holden. Running back Jordan James scored twice on just three carries and Noah Whittington added another touchdown.
While the offense was doing its thing, the Oregon defense was spectacular against Hawaii’s run-and-shoot offensive attack. They came in averaging 324 yards in the air, but the Ducks held Hawaii to just 124 yards passing and 201 total yards.
Oregon’s secondary was more than up to the task as they vastly improved from a week ago when Texas Tech had its share of success. In just six days, the Ducks’ fundamentals of tackling and playing the ball and not being flagged for pass interference was there and it’s a good sign moving forward.
Another point of emphasis from last week’s win was penalties and while Oregon was flagged nine times, many of those weren’t of any consequence and just two of those penalties were pass interference. Nine is still too much for Dan Lanning and his coaching staff, but it’s a better result than the 14 flags in Lubbock.
The Ducks will now prepare for the circus that is Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes, which will come to Autzen next week for the Pac-12 opener, the last Pac-12 opener for both schools.
Kickoff is scheduled for 12:30 pm PT on ABC.