The Oregon Ducks’ self-inflicted wounds were a large reason why they lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils 37-35 on Saturday. The Ducks amassed 14 penalties for 99 yards, and they went 1-for-11 on third down.
Those two stats are correlated, and as Oregon heads into its game against California, the impact of the penalties lingers.
“I think the most important thing is eliminating the penalties,” offensive line coach Mario Cristobal said. “With that, a little bit is communication, a little bit out of sync, and, you know, we’ve got to fix it. There is no other way to it.”
Oregon needs to clean up the offense if it wishes to be competitive in the Pac-12. The defense, although improved from a season ago, was not able to shut down ASU when Oregon’s offense was sputtering.
Oregon was officially flagged for 17 penalties, but ASU declined some for various reasons.
“It has its domino effect,” Cristobal said of the penalties. “It’s key to staying on course as an offense — staying on schedule — and that’s the way we operate.”
Additionally, the running game was not as impactful as it usually is. The Ducks finished with only 120 yards rushing, a mark well below their average.
“You know we’ve been rushing for about 300 (yards) a game. That’s kind of the standard for what we have,” Cristobal said. “[Last game was] certainly not up to par to what we want. … We got in a hole as an offense, so it changed the way we had to approach the rest of the way. So that affects it even more.”
As for a reason why Oregon’s running game was less effective:
“I see a safety down, pressure and movement,” Cristobal said. “I see a lot of different things that contribute to a 20-yard gain. Now it’s three or four yards.”
Some say football and sports in general have no moral victories, but the Ducks do have a silver lining from the loss against ASU.
“To think about all the things that we did do and still have a chance to win is, I think, an awesome thing to go out today and work towards, but we can’t have those things happen,” quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo said.
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