Oregon Football: 3 takeaways from crushing loss at Stanford

Everyone kind of felt like Saturday’s game would be close, but no one had expected a 10-point first-half deficit for Oregon football against Stanford.

The Cardinal were looking like the better team in the first half as they raced out to a 17-7 lead and the Oregon offense couldn’t seem to get anything going. Anthony Brown was struggling through the air and threw an interception finally, but the Ducks are just too good to be held down for too long.

Oregon had a chance to score and pull within three at halftime, but a head-scratching play-call held the Ducks out of the end zone at the 1-yard-line.

A big touchdown to open the second half as well as a nice punt return after a defensive stop in the middle of the third quarter set up a nice drive for the Ducks to potentially take a lead after trailing by 10. The momentum in the game had completely shifted in Oregon’s favor.

The Ducks ended up taking a lead in the fourth before Stanford scored on the last play of the game to send it to overtime. Stanford held on to win after scoring first.

What did we learn from this one?

3. The defense really bounced back

After a horrid start to the game, the defense really settled in and shut the door on Stanford in the second half.

The Ducks found themselves down 17-7 in the first half before clawing back into it thanks to some big defensive stands. The defense really allowed for the Ducks to get back into it and it deserves some major props for its second-half effort.

In the first half, Oregon surrendered 221 yards of total offense and in the final 30 minutes and overtime, the Ducks gave up just over 130. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough as the offense stalled in overtime and the defense missed some key tackles.