Oregon football looked like a different team offensively than they did a week ago, and the Ducks took command in a lopsided rout of the Eastern Washington Eagles.
From the start on Saturday night in a smoky Autzen Stadium, this game felt very different from the opener against Georgia. The Oregon offense put up nine straight touchdowns and the defense stifled and confused Eastern Washington for 60 full minutes.
For Dan Lanning, it was as close to a complete game as you could get for just the second game of his head coaching career and his first win with Oregon. Last week, Bo Nix struggled against Georgia but was a completely different player vs EWU.
On the night Nix was responsible for five touchdowns going 28 for 33 through the air for 277 yards. Nix also had three rushes for 18 yards as the Ducks put up close to 7 yards per play. The Oregon transfer quarterback was able to find 14 different players through the air including Tight End Terrance Ferguson who has two touchdowns and Donte Thornton who led the team in receiving yards with 84 and a touchdown.
Oregon football got off to a fast start scoring the first two touchdowns in the first quarter.
The Duck’s defense was stout. Eastern Washington saw just 18 total yards on offense in their first two drives of the game and it was pretty much downhill from there. They were outmatched and outmanned despite having a talented quarterback in Gunner Talkington. He was hurried and rushed and was rattled early.
Eastern Washington was 5 for 13 on third down and Talkington finished the game 12 for 21 with 87 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions that Oregon was able to cash in for touchdowns. From the start of the game, the Ducks’ offense was just better. They scored touchdowns on nine straight possessions. They had close to 100 yards of offense in just the first quarter of the game.
Christian Gonzalez added an interception before halftime and Byron Cardwell had a touchdown giving Oregon a 34-7 lead at the half.
With the game in hand, Lanning made the crowd happy in the third quarter as backup quarterback Ty Thompson entered the game for Bo Nix. His evening saw 5 of 7 passes completed for 63 yards. On the night, Oregon has 39 first downs to Eastern Washington finishing with 11. Oregon had 89 offensive plays in the game compared to EWU with 51.
Before the game I was asking what the identity was for Oregon this season. We have a partial answer after Saturday. This team and the new coaching staff are starting to figure things out. They found their rhythm against the Eagles and it resulted in a big win.
Oregon football now takes the momentum into another home game next week against a BYU team that had their struggles against a top ten Baylor team Saturday night. BYU missed two key field goals at the end of regulation and in the first period of overtime. They still came away with a 26-20 upset win over the Bears. BYU will come into Autzen as the higher-ranked team this week.
The Ducks will kick things off on Saturday with a national television audience on FOX vs BYU at 12:30 pm Pacific Time.
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