Just a few final thoughts on the Ducks’ season-opening win over the Huskies before we all turn the page.
1. Oregon was justifiably a heavy favorite going into the game. My biggest hope for the Ducks in the game (because I was all but sure that they would out-man the woefully depleted Huskies) was that they would get ahead far enough early on that it would allow backup quarterbacks Jeremiah Masoli and Chris Harper to get some valuable live reps.
But the way it turned out was better than anyone could have hoped or imagined. I obviously never like to see a player get hurt, especially a Duck quarterback, but Justin Roper’s concussion had a serious silver lining.
Because you see, there is a big difference between Masoli and Harper getting the necessary live reps in garbage time and getting them in a situation where the outcome of the game could hinge on their performances. Instead of a mere trial run of the young backups, Duck fans got a chance to see them tested under fire right out of the gate.
The situation was certainly a tenuous one when the young quarterbacks made their appearances. Oregon led just 14-10 at that point and the offense had been sputtering for much of the second quarter.
Oregon proceeded to take control of the game – much credit to the defense as well – with Masoli and Harper leading the offense to 30 second-half points.
If this was a trial by fire for them, they came through unscathed.
2. Jeremiah Johnson looked like he was back to his old self. We didn’t see the stiff arm of MySpace fame, but his moves were as crisp as ever and his speed was there as well. I would have liked to see a little more of LeGarrette Blount – and I think many Duck fans share that sentiment – but it was a good sign for Oregon that Johnson shouldered most of the load comfortably.
3. In the passing game, the emergence of Terence Scott as a weapon could pay huge dividends for the offense as a whole. With his speed, if he can have a few more solid performances like he did against Washington it will open things up even more, freeing Jaison Williams from double teams and making safeties play more cautiously, lest Scott burn by them if they are biting too aggressively on the run-pass option. My main complaint with the aerial attack Saturday is the lack of action for Ed Dickson. I don’t think this will last though, as it seemed every other pass in practice this week was going his way. The coaches have said they need to get Dickson the ball more, and evidently they have told their quarterbacks to focus in on him.
4. Finally, the defense was nasty. Shutting out any team, especially a Pacific-10 Conference team, for an entire half is a huge feather in any defense’s cap. I know the Huskies don’t have much going for them outside of Jake Locker, but even he looked woefully inadequate to the task of dissecting the Duck defense. The three areas in question – not out of concern but inexperience – for Oregon coming into the game were T.J. Ward at free safety, Spencer Paysinger at weakside linebacker, and Cole Linehan and Sonny Harris on the interior defensive line. All proved to be up to the task last weekend, and the defense as a whole was, to quote head coach Mike Bellotti, “as advertised.”
There isn’t a whole lot you can glean from beating up on the fallen Huskies, and I’m not ready to anoint the Ducks conference champs just yet, but Duck fans have to like what they saw last week: an offense that showed depth and flashes of greatness, and a defense that showed it may well be a force to be reckoned with this season in the Pac-10.
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