Following a season-opening loss to Auburn, the Oregon bounce back was in full effect Saturday. With Nevada visiting Autzen Stadium, fans wanted to see a dominant performance from start to finish. That is exactly what they got.
Things started slow, but the final score was as dominant as a team can be. Did this ease concerns fans have around this team though?
The Oregon Bounce Back
As mentioned, things started a little slow. Oregon was unable to put points on the board the first few possessions, and Nevada actually got on the board first. That field goal was set up by a punt hitting the back of an Oregon player attempting to block.
However, late in the first quarter, Justin Herbert hit Jacob Breeland for a 66-yard touchdown, and Oregon never looked back. Including that long touchdown pass, Oregon scored on its next eight possessions and wasn’t forced to punt until 2:11 left in the third quarter.
All-in-all, Oregon scored 11 touchdowns Saturday. Of those 11 touchdowns, 11 players scored them.
Those touchdowns included the first career touchdowns for Bryan Addison, Daewood Davis, Brady Breeze (scoop and score) and Brady Aiello (offensive lineman turned tight end).
Not only the volume of touchdowns but who they were going to and the wealth that was being spread made it a fun night at Autzen Stadium.
Not much more needs to be broken down about the game.
Oregon Bounce Back: Positives
A Ton of Players Got to Play
The NCAA changing the rule and allowing players to play in four games and preserve a redshirt season was a rare good decision by the NCAA. On Saturday Oregon took advantage of that.
A number of true freshmen that didn’t play against Auburn were able to see action this week. This was also the first look at a lot of the players that made up the first consensus top-ten recruiting class in school history.
Sean Dollars was able to get in and have a couple of strong runs near the end of the game. Mase Funa had two sacks. Andrew Faoliu, brother of upperclassmen Austin, had a sack. Keyon Ware-Hudson had a sack.
That’s a lot of production out of true freshmen who aren’t starters.
On top of that, D.J. Johnson was wildly productive. Since coming to Oregon, Johnson has been a bit of an enigma. He is as athletic as anyone on the team. On top of that, he has great size to go with his speed. However, there have been questions surrounding his attitude and effort. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t get in the game against Auburn. Mario Cristobal did say he wanted to get him in more, and his impact was noticed.
Johnson had seven tackles, three tackles for loss and a sack. On top of that, he forced a fumble, which Brady Breeze picked up and ran in for a touchdown. Obviously not that level of production should be expected from Johnson every week, but if he’s going to play like that, he’ll be impossible to keep off the field and will become a critical part of Andy Avalos’s defense.
Offense
The other huge positive was the offensive consistency throughout the game.
Since Mario Cristobal took over and Marcus Arroyo has been calling plays, the offense has yet to put together a real complete game. Of course, this was only Nevada, but the point spread was generally around Oregon being favored by 24.
One would have to assume that didn’t factor in Oregon scoring 77. The fact that they came out after halftime with a big lead and continued to score is a positive sign. Again, it is Nevada so fans shouldn’t start expecting Oregon to score 45 points per game, but this was a very complete performance against a team coming off of a win against Purdue.
