Oregon Football: 3 takeaways from crushing loss at Stanford

1. Oregon has to avoid those slow starts

I’m not sure what it is, but it seems like Oregon has gotten off to a slow start in every single game but one this year and that one strong start happened to lead to the Ducks’ best game.

Oregon got off to a slow start against Fresno State in the opener and needed a fourth-quarter touchdown to take the lead and hold on, the Ducks struggled early against Stony Brook with ha 17-7 lead at halftime before finally turning it on late, and they were sluggish for three quarters against Arizona last week before winning by 22.

On Saturday, the Ducks found themselves down 17-7 at halftime and just couldn’t seem to figure anything out in the first 30 minutes. Playing come-from-behind football can be both tiring and dangerous, especially for teams with massive targets on their backs like the Ducks and it came back to bite them against Stanford.

If Oregon just avoids these sluggish starts, they don’t have to worry about losing games like this to Stanford on the road. This needs to be addressed moving forward.

No more playing down to opponents and no more slow starts.