Four weeks into the season, Oregon will get its first chance to breathe.
The Ducks enter the bye week with a 3-1 record, but despite three dominant wins, Oregon still has some things to clean up.
“Lots of stuff that we put into the bye week to make it very productive,” head coach Mario Cristobal said. “It’s good to come back home after a conference road win; it’s been a little while since we’ve been able to do that. I feel like we’re getting better in a lot of areas and a lot of areas that we are focused on improving as well.”
One area that has become a major concern for Oregon is its slew of injuries. Last week against Stanford, Oregon was without center Jake Hanson, running back Cyrus Habibi-Likio and wide receivers Mycah Pittman, Brenden Schooler and Juwan Johnson.
Cristobal announced to the media on Wednesday that Hanson is a full-go, Habibi-Likio is almost cleared and Pittman, who was wearing a non-contact jersey, practiced with the team. Schooler is expected to be back at practice on Thursday. Johnson, who did not travel to Stanford, is still listed as day-to-day as he is dealing with a soft tissue injury in his right calf.
With Pittman and Schooler coming back in the next few weeks, and eventually Johnson, Justin Herbert will have a more diverse arsenal of receivers, which could make Oregon’s passing game more dynamic.
“We certainly look forward to having those guys back,” Cristobal said. “The guys that we lost were legitimate, not only intermediate threats but quick game threats and guys that can stretch the field. When you have guys like that back, you feel like you can enhance a lot of the things that you do.”
Oregon will not only need to try and enhance the receiver group, but its running back group as well.
The Ducks rushing attack hasn’t been to the standard of years past. Oregon rushing attack this season, against Power 5 schools, ranks 97th. Running back CJ Verdell carried the ball 24 of the teams 30 attempts and amassed 86 yards. Only one of the 24 carries went for more than 10 yards. Oregon, if they want to have a successful season, will need to better its run game and Cristobal is aware.
“We’re off. We’re out of sync a little bit,” Cristobal said. “It really falls on all of us. Schematically we have some good things — We’re also working on some different things to create some wrinkles and eye wash that help us achieve what we want to get to.
We know it’s not good enough, and we take a lot of pride in that. That’s what we’re working on in the bye week, and we expect to have better results going forward.”
It was a relatively calm night for Oregon as they opened Pac-12 play against Stanford, but that was not the case for some of the other schools. Three (Utah, Arizona State and Washington State) Pac-12 schools that were all ranked in the AP Top 25 suffered losses to unranked Pac-12 opponents. Oregon, seemingly, has been the steadiest school in the Pac-12, but the constant flux and parody amongst other schools makes Oregon a target.
“Every single game is a tight game, everything is a back-and-forth,” Cristobal said. “It speaks highly for the level of parody and competition inside the Pac-12, and it’s only going to get better.”
Follow Gabriel on Twitter @gabe_ornelas
