It may be true that sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together. But after a frustrating, foolish and sloppy performance by the Oregon Ducks on Saturday, that feels like wishful thinking.
So many questions today, but I’ll start with the big one: What did we just watch?
Oregon blew a defensive pass coverage, then it doubled down with a targeting ejection, a bungled kickoff return and a muffed punt return. The offense coughed up the ball. The defense couldn’t get off the field.
Iowa State kept it together just fine in a 34-17 win in the Fiesta Bowl.
No disrespect to the nine-win Cyclones, but they mostly plodded along like one of those old disciplined Stanford-like outfits, making solid plays while watching with delighted eyes as the Ducks helped out with their sloppiest football of the season.
Three fumbles. One interception. Two Ducks’ quarterbacks shuttling in and out of the game with no apparent logic. I was surprised coach Mario Cristobal didn’t pull his mask up over his eyes in the fourth quarter. There was little doubt that Iowa State was the more experienced, more disciplined team, but Oregon just played flat dumb football.
“We obviously didn’t play up to our standard,” Cristobal said. “It’s a game of execution, and in critical situations we didn’t coach well enough or execute well enough. But we take losses as a team; we don’t point fingers.”
The Ducks’ final record: 4-3.
They deserved it, too.
I could list a long line of excuses for the loss, noting the ongoing pandemic and costly preseason opt-outs. I could point out that UO was the least experienced team in America this season. But it’s too late in the season for apologist thinking and it’s 2021 that I’m already focused on.
Cristobal and his staff needed to elicit better, more efficient production on Saturday. If there isn’t a decided off-season course correction, the Ducks are going to walk into next football season and get laughed off the field at Ohio State in Week 2.
There are 245 days until the 2021 season opener vs. Fresno State at Autzen Stadium. A Saturday after that, the Ducks go to Columbus to play a Buckeyes’ team that will enter the season penciled into the College Football Playoff. I hear a lot of talk about Oregon wanting to create a physical, smash-mouth football identity. I see the recruiting rankings. I like the messaging, but on Saturday, I saw nothing on the field that mirrored it.
That has to change this offseason.
Less talk. More action.
Also, the Ducks need to pick a starting quarterback. Offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead shuttled Anthony Brown Jr. and Tyler Shough on and off the field like he’d pulled two sport coats out of the closet and couldn’t decide which to wear. I half expected he’d just throw them out there together at some point. Because the net result was a complete loss of offensive rhythm.
I like Shough. But not while he’s dropping back to pass while looking over his shoulder. Same for Brown, who looks as calm and comfortable as a guy reading a magazine on a park bench when he’s in flow. But both quarterbacks pressed hard in the second half on Saturday, as if they were in fall camp fighting for snaps. It was a horrendous coaching misfire by Oregon’s staff and ended up a terrible distraction.
If you’re like me, you woke up Saturday wondering if Oregon would make a statement about its place in college football. The Fiesta Bowl was the perfect stage. Iowa State looked like the highest ranked team in the country that Oregon could still beat. It was set up nicely for the Ducks.
Then, instead of picking up a trophy, they tripped all over themselves.
Fumbles happen. Interceptions sometimes do, too. I’m more concerned with the general slapdash feel of the performance. It was sort of like watching an old friend show up for coffee meeting, hair mussed up, unshaven, shirt unkept, spilling things all over himself. You sort of wonder what’s going on and then, settle in to hear about it. You know, see if you can help.
The Ducks need to help themselves.
I love Oregon’s talent, but I hate the team’s lack of on-field leadership. It’s on Cristobal and his coaching staff to foster it before next season. The trajectory is there if the Ducks care to meld into the kind of team that wants to seize it and do big things. But it’s going to take an enormous offseason effort by players and coaches to join the contenders in major college football.
After the game, Cristobal pointed out that Iowa State reminded him of his 2019 Ducks’ team. That unit, led by quarterback Justin Herbert and an experienced offensive line, won a Rose Bowl title. He’s right. The Cyclones were poised and experienced. They played smart and did very little to help the Ducks. It was a recognizable advantage.
I am a believer in what Cristobal is building. When he was hired, I predicted he’d mame the playoff in his first five seasons. Next year is No. 4. In the next eight months, Oregon needs to address its football sins and get real with itself about what it will take to make the leap to contender.
Cristobal arrived to Oregon from Alabama, where they tell the football truth to each other and win big all the time. I watched the disjointed performance of the Ducks on Saturday and couldn’t help but think of what Paul “Bear” Bryant used to tell people when they asked how he built his empire.
“I told them my system was based on the ‘ant plan,’” Bryant once said, “that I’d gotten the idea watching a colony of ants during the war.
“A whole bunch of ants working toward a common goal.”
It’s why Cristobal’s post-game quote — “we take losses as a team” — stuck with me. He’s an avid reader, especially coaching biographies and motivational books written by former Navy SEALs. Cristobal is inward focused. He’ll take the loss harder than anyone, but the UO coach has to know that there’s a pile of offseason work and difficult corrections to make.
The second-half fade in the loss to Oregon State was one of few disappointing low points for Oregon this season. Another was the inability to score more than 17 points in the loss to Cal. But Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl flop was a full-blown mental and physical meltdown.
Out of character?
I hope we can say that one day. Oregon getting beat on the field is one thing. What I didn’t like was how scattered and empty-headed the Ducks looked doing it.
—
Email: [email protected]
Subscribe to the John Canzano weekly email newsletter.
Tweet me: @JohnCanzanoBFT and find me on Facebook: BaldFacedTruth and Instagram: @JohnCanzano
