Oregon Football: With Playoff Hopes Lost, Ducks Refocus on Beavers

Oregon football may have lost out on their hopes of making the 2020 College Football Playoff, but they must refocus quickly if they’re going to handle their vastly improved ‘little brothers’.

Despite losing against Arizona State last week in heartbreaking fashion, Oregon football still has a ton to play for in 2019-20. They still have a berth in the Pac-12 Title Game, and a chance to play for a Rose Bowl if they can win that. But their sights should be set on finishing the regular season out against their surprisingly daunting in-state rivals, Oregon State.

The Proud Beavers of Oregon State have been one of the most surprising storylines in the Pac-12 this year. They’re 5-6 on the year under second-year Head Coach Jonathan Smith, and they are averaging an astonishing 33+ points per game. Their offense put up a bonkers 53 points last week against Wazzu in a losing effort, and they even beat Arizona State the week before (something that is apparently harder than it looks). That offense deserves the Ducks’ respect.

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Jonathan Smith played QB at OSU, and was the Offensive Coordinator at Washington before he returned to become HC in Corvallis. He even became something of a Scapegoat in Seattle near the end of his time there, but his progress at Oregon State is already proving that he clearly wasn’t the reason the Huskies never became elite. Smith deserves the Ducks’ respect.

The Corvallis faithful have a lot to be excited about. The once-middling Beavers have proven to be legitimately competitive in ways that they haven’t been over the last three years, and many other points across the last decade. Johnny Smith even has them knocking on the door of bowl eligibility. The improvement OSU has seen in just a short time absolutely deserves the Ducks’ respect.

The Beavs’ offense greatly relies on the success of their solid passing attack. If they watch the tape of Oregon’s game against Arizona State, they just might be revving up their chainsaws at the weaknesses they might see in Oregon’s secondary.

Ducks allowed 408 yards through the air, and explosive passing plays that they hadn’t been giving up this year. The Sun Devils utilized their insanely quick receivers and Jayden Daniels’ cannon-of-on-arm to expose Oregon cornerbacks who have been highly rated all season.

Deommodore Lenoir and Thomas Graham Jr.—two veteran corners—were beat on double moves and game breaking speed on multiple occasions. Those types of things are executional issues. Mistakes made by talented players who will surely spend all week working to make sure that never happens again. It’s safe to assume they’ll both play lockdown defense this Saturday in response to those lapses.

Defensive coordinator Andy Avalos also took a bit of the blame for the failings in pass defense. “[Deommodore] is one of our best players…” Avalos said, “we can do a better job at helping him with the coverage, and with the post safety.”

This quote feels like a bit of ‘coach speak’, but on there were multiple occasions—ASU’s touchdown bomb on third and thirteen—where the safety collapsed to defend the expected screen pass, rather than providing deep help. It wasn’t an awful coverage call. It made sense. But Avalos pretty much ignored the idea that Arizona State could beat them deep, and they proved him otherwise.

“You get taste in your mouth that you haven’t had for a while,” Avalos added, “It’s always about maintaining confidence.” It’s safe to expect that the entire Oregon football team will be obsessing over the game film and focusing on correcting the mistakes they made against ASU, but the secondary will probably be working double time.

The Ducks can’t let themselves play like that again because the Proud Beavers of Oregon State won’t let them get away with it.

OSU QB Jake Luton is fourth in the conference in passing attempts and yards, third in passing touchdowns and has thrown just three interceptions all year. Only Tyler Huntley and Jayden Daniels have throw fewer, with just two each. Jonathan Smith has helped Luton go from embattled signal caller to a Jake Browning-level passer in just a short period of time.

Luton has also spent all year throwing to the best receiver in the country, Isaiah Hodgins. He stands at the top of the Pac-12 in receiving touchdowns (13), second in receptions, and is third in receiving yards. Hodgins was named a semi-finalist for the Biletnikoff Award (best receiver in FBS), but was snubbed from being invited as a finalist because the people who vote on these sorts of things don’t actually pay attention to schools like Oregon State.

There is no doubt that Smith and Oregon State have the offensive prowess, and weapons to attack the Ducks’ secondary like ASU did, but we’ll just have to see if they’ll be able to execute against an angry Oregon football squad that’ll surely be motivated to avenge the upset.

If the Beavs do end up scoring a handful of points, they’ll eventually end up having to play defense—which has proved difficult for them this year. They’ve given up 30+ points in seven different games this year, including 50+ on two different occasions. I definitely don’t think the Ducks want to get into a shootout with OSU’s offense, but I also don’t think Herbie & Co. will have much trouble scoring however many points they’ll end up needing to win.

This Oregon football team may have lost out on their College Football Playoff dreams, but I know that this team still has a whole heck of a lot to play for. It all starts with being able to make the right adjustments and focus on beating the Beavers.

Let’s go to [Civil] War.

45-21, Webfoots.

Go Ducks.

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