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For much of the Oregon football season, we’ve rolled out a “stock report” each week where we note which players showed the most improvement, and which players needed some work going forward.
As time went on, that exercise became harder and harder to do as the Ducks continued to play better football.
Take this past week, for instance. Which players would you say had their stock go down? Do you want to tell Noah Sewell he needs to work harder simply because he didn’t record a tackle for seemingly the first time in his career? No, I don’t want to either. The Pac-12 officials need work, and the ESPN camera crew is in desperate desire for new equipment, but outside of that, it’s tough to pinpoint 3-4 areas where we could say the Ducks’ “stock” was down this week.
So instead, we are introducing a new exercise, called the “biggest winners of the week.” Here, we will isolate a handful of players who saw their stock rise in the previous game and deserve some real kudos.
Here are the 5 biggest winners of the week from Oregon’s 38-24 win over Washington State:
Brandon Dorlus
Brandon Dorlus might be the most underrated player on the Oregon defense. Week in and week out, he has a huge impact on the game without having a major presence on the stat sheet. Just last week, against Washington State, Dorlus finished the game with 0 tackles, one pass break-up and one QB hit, but it was among the best games of his season. Check out his pressure on this play that led to a Kayvon Thibodeaux sack:
3rd & 3: Kayvon Thibodeaux vs Liam Ryan, Brandon Dorlus vs. Abe Lucas, Popo Aumavae gets quadruple-teamed! pic.twitter.com/7RPF5ZCJlU
— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) November 15, 2021
While the box score may not show his value, it’s hard to ignore it when watching the games.
“Brandon’s a guy that, he’s athletic enough you can put them on the edge and so you got him on one side and KT on the other in some of our packages,” said defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter. “And you know, they’re gonna slide the protection one way one of those guys is going to get a one on one most of time. So he’s somebody that, you know, gives us as a play-caller more options and we’re going to continue to try and take advantage of his ability because he’s shown that he can handle it and he’s very productive.”
On the season, Dorlus has tallied only 17 total tackles and 2.5 sacks, but it’s clear watching that game that he is so much more than numbers in a box score. He may be one of the most valuable players on Oregon’s defense, and it showed on Saturday night.
Up Next: Byron Cardwell