Oregon Ducks Identity Needs To Be Found Before 2015 Season Is Lost

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Saturday night at Autzen Stadium, the Oregon Ducks had an opportunity. An opportunity to find their identity, and opportunity to turn around a rough 2-2 start, a chance to use their Offensive strength on 2015, the run game to seal away a win over the Washington State Cougars, but Cougars Head Coach Mike Leach and Quarterback Luke Falk played poised football in the final six minutes of regulation and turned Oregon’s usual fast paced game plan against them and walked out of Eugene snatching a 10 plus point comeback and a double overtime victory leaving more questions than answers once again for Oregon.

In the final seven minutes, there was not much originality for the Oregon Offense, when getting a simple first down would have likely sealed the win. The Oregon Ducks ran the ball three times and on fourth down Kani Benoit lost yards giving Washington State an opportunity. They took it and brought the score to within seven with a field goal. With just under four minutes left, Oregon would again get the ball. Three more runs, three more failures to execute. What happened to running the clock? Begin original of offense? Attempting even one pass? This scenerio could be asked about a good part of the season. Oregon has Bralon Addison, who seems to be their go to Wide Receiver, but where is everyone else? What is going on with Dwayne Stanford? He seems to have gone from a top Wide Receiving threat to the lead blocker for his teammates. Devon Allen had one catch last night, I believe.

For a team that is bent on being fast, Oregon appeared sluggish as the fourth quarter wound down. Over the last three seasons the word punt was not in the Oregon Ducks Playbook, it appears that it is now the new word of the season. While the Ducks Defense did play better on Saturday night, the Offense is more to blame. The originality and spunk this team had in the last three years cannot be pinned to one man. This is a team. We all realize how special a player Marcus Mariota was. We also realize that he was able to cover up a lot. When your putting up points like gang busters you force the Defense to change their game plan. When your Offense is struggling and punting the ball away, your identity becomes human and without putting up points, clearly beatable. (See Utah 2015, and now Washington State 2015) Oregon fell in double overtime as Jeff Lockie threw an interception into the end zone on 4th and 2.

Freeman: "You have two choices: You can go downhill from now and give up or you can refocus. We’ll see what this team has Monday." #GoDucks
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) October 11, 2015

The identity of this team as Coach Helfrich said on Saturday night and their character will be tested. Will be? I would say has been and it has failed miserably. How can you not beat a team that lost to Portland State, in Pullman no less. If you have this issue now with a team you should beat, how do you expect to compete for the rest of the year? As we put the Cougars loss behind us, we now focus on another game on the road, at Washington. If Oregon wants to keep their streak against the Huskies alive, as a team they will have to find their identity. I was hopeful Mark Helfrich and Company would be able to right the ship and build some momentum heading into November. Now I’m not sure this team, who last season competed for a National Championship, will even have the opportunity to get bowl eligible.

Next: Titans And Marcus Mariota Look To Have Their Way With Buffalo Bills

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