Oregon Football: 3 takeaways from huge win at UCLA in Week 8

1. Oregon has to learn to close the door

Before this game, I said that Oregon needed to start fast because the Ducks play from behind far too often and that leads to constant upset alerts. On Saturday, they started slow and I was left groaning because a 14-0 deficit early was the exact opposite of what I’ve been wanting to see from this team.

Oregon has had a habit of falling behind early or letting teams hang around too long and that is going to come back to bite the Ducks — like it did at Stanford for their lone loss.

Well, Oregon bounced back and took a 34-17 lead, scoring 34-of-37 points and really taking control of the game. The Ducks looked like they were going to cruise to an easy win, but UCLA had other ideas. The Bruins picked off Anthony Brown twice in the fourth quarter and turned one into a touchdown to make things interesting.

The Ducks let the Bruins get back into the game, pulling within three at 34-31. And they also dropped a couple of interceptions that may have sealed the deal.

Oregon eventually got the game-winning pick on backup quarterback Chase Garbers, but things were much closer than they needed to be after Oregon built a huge lead.

Mario Cristobal needs to put his foot on the gas instead of calling a game to not lose.