Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: Expectations

Oregon looks to regroup on a short week against an in-state FCS opponent.

I'll be honest. I didn't actually watch last week's debacle at Oklahoma State. A team that the Ducks clobbered by 66 points a year previous was more than enough to take them down this time. The early start time combined with the game not being available on TV at my place (I refuse to give ESPN money, which also might mean my days of watching the MLB package are numbered) made it difficult to see, so I followed along with the radio broadcast through nearly every wince and groan.

The thing is that the warning signs were already there. It's become a disturbing trend in the Dan Lanning era where there are lapses... sometimes game-long lapses. They sounded bad, and this time certainly looked bad for a good chunk of the game against Boise State as well as at times during the last two seasons. The other thing is that in today's sport, you really cannot carry with you any kind of expectations from year to year. Last year's OK State team did not play anything like this year's team, but they also have a new QB, new coaches... new just about everything, I'm sure. And the same thing goes for Oregon. You can stack up all the talent in the world, but coaches are going to come and go and so will the players. 

The Ducks will have a chance to work on some things tonight as they go up against a Portland State Vikings team that aren't in the same class. As with any FCS squad, I'm sure the Viks (the preferred spelling of their shortened nickname for some reason) will be all kinds of fired up to succeed against these guys with all of their fancy facilities and NIL money. Unfortunately, it may be that they are facing Oregon at the worst time, with the whole team hopefully angry at last week's results and ready to take it out on whoever is in front of them. I don't think we can typically take a lot away from a game like this, but it's certainly possible that the Ducks coaches will try out some different plays and player combinations that they might not have otherwise gone with had last week turned out differently.

Notes:

• Scratch what I said about Dante Moore last week. He's got some glaring issues that have been exposed early this season that probably have him and others wondering what he might have passed on by not entering the draft after last season. He's got a reputation for not liking to get hit, and with the struggles of this year's offensive line, he's going to need to figure out how to adapt and soon. Indiana was really the only team that was able to put consistent pressure on him last year, and we all saw how that turned out.
• There's probably a case to be made for paying your top coordinators a lot more and maybe taking a chunk of that money out of the head coaching salary. Is there something else that could be done to keep these people around year after year? It doesn't seem that the coaching turnover this year is working out well at all.
• Opponent fun fact: PSU's campus is only a few miles away from where I live, but it's always been more of a commuter school with a significant population of older students. It is interesting that they continue to field a football team to compete at the FCS level, likely owing more to their past successes (former Cardinals QB Neil Lomax is one of their most famous alums) than interest in the current teams. They don't even play their home games in Portland anymore as they were forced out to Hillsboro Stadium which is more than 13 miles from campus.
• Opponent history: The Ducks are 6-0 all-time, with an 81-7 victory in the most recent game (2023).
• Game time is 7:30 PM PDT on the Big Ten Network in Eugene. Go Ducks!