Oregon’s O-line is the engine of the offense. It isn’t the flashiest part, but it makes it move.
Oregon’s offense is stalling with freshman Braxton Burmeister at quarterback. His inability to make plays with his arm makes it easy for the opposing defense to game plan against the Ducks. They stack the line of scrimmage and stop the run, making the offensive linemen’s jobs difficult.
All season, they’ve been the consistent force of the offense, but now they face a new challenge with a new quarterback and injuries plaguing the O-line.
After leading the country in scoring with Justin Herbert as quarterback, the Ducks have scored 17 points over two games.
The offense and the O-line need to learn how to adapt.
“I think I’ve been home once in the past 14 days, you know, trying to sleep in the office, trying to find that stuff, and there are a lot of things,” offensive line coach Mario Cristobal said.
Oregon’s quarterback problems peaked against Stanford. The Ducks threw the ball only 13 times, and at one point called 25 consecutive running plays.
Even without a passing game, Oregon ran the ball well throughout the game. The Ducks ran for 279 yards even with a number of long runs negated by penalties. With all the pressure on them to move the offense, the O-line performed.
“The offensive line – they played their asses off,” running back Royce Freeman said. “Those guys make me look good. … We were able to make a lot of things happen in the run game today.”
The offensive line was good against Stanford, but left tackle Tyrell Crosby and right guard Jake Pisarcik both suffered concussions and are considered day-to-day.
Redshirt sophomore Brady Aiello and redshirt freshman Jacob Capra filled in – another twist for the offense. The same five offensive linemen have played all season, accounting for 480 snaps through six weeks, so Aiello and Capra will need to adjust.
“This week, it’s just going to be coming together as a unit and finding that cohesiveness and improving all around,” right tackle Calvin Throckmorton said.
Finding cohesiveness is important for a unit that is filled with inconsistencies. The quarterback position has struggled since Herbert went down, and the wide receivers who haven’t gone down with injuries have made little impact without a consistent quarterback.
“The O-line as a whole – we kind of feel like we want to lead the offense,” Throckmorton said. “We want to guide the team and the offense on where it wants to go. We definitely take on that role.”
Crosby and Pisarcik were the two lone seniors on the O-line. Now it’s mostly redshirt sophomores and one redshirt freshman.
“A lot of young guys are playing and they naturally make mistakes,” Throckmorton said. “So it’s just all about having that much higher of a focus this week. It’s a lot of just cutting down on little mistakes. Penalties are always true. We can cut those down by a lot.”

Despite lacking overall offense throughout the two games without Herbert, some Ducks feel like they’re close to finding a groove, even with the little mistakes throughout the game.
“It’s a shame because the effort is high,” Cristobal said. “And you see some plays that are about an inch away for busting for big gains and being a positive thing.”
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