Oregon takes on No. 23 Stanford on Saturday, but the Ducks are still discussing their loss to No. 8 Washington State and how to improve from it.
For one, a theme touched on after the game and at Taggart’s Monday press conference, the Ducks want to improve offensive line play. Washington State held Oregon to 132 rushing yards, a small number in Oregon standards. Offensive line coach Mario Cristobal said it “didn’t look like us out there.”
The offensive linemen have been ironmen this season. The same five guys have taken almost all of the snaps, which is somewhere around 480. Cristobal has always been a big proponent of rotating guys, but that hasn’t been the case so far.
“I would love too,” he said. “You know, we’re getting close to that spot but don’t feel quite comfortable to put in multiple, or have multiple rotations quite yet. But there is progress. Those guys have played a lot
“You want to play a lot of guys, but at the same time you’re used to playing, you know, five guys for long periods of time, extensively throughout the season, so it’s part of being a lineman. We’ve got to embrace that; take it on and continue to push forward.”
Washington State’s pre-snap movement caused Oregon’s offensive line come issues. Luckily, Stanford’s defense doesn’t so as much movement.
“Stanford, even though they don’t do it as much, they do have that as part of their package,” Cristobal said. “I’d say we’ll see loaded boxes, we’ll see movement and we’ll see pressure.”
Oregon will see loaded boxes because it is breaking in a new quarterback in either Braxton Burmeister or Taylor Alie. Burmeister started last week against Washington State and had many freshman moments.
“Liked his first game,” quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo said. “I mean, there were hickups, a ton of things we went back and critiqued. … There’s a lot you want back usually. Some things you didn’t even anticipate. Some things like not being able to, you know, communicate loud enough at certain times.”
So, what can improve for Burmeister?
“As you progress at this position, you’ve got to go through a lot of things still,” Arroyo said. ‘You’ve still got to go on the road. You’ve still got to go through the adjustments of having a successful game, a bad game and working through the ups-and-downs of that psychologically and go out and learn how to go through it every week the same way. But with that come growth.”
Follow Jack Butler on Twitter @Butler917