The Oregon Ducks are 2-0 going into their Week 3 rivalry game against the Oregon State Beavers, but you’d be hard-pressed to find many fans who feel good about what the Ducks have put on tape thus far.
In two games that were expected to be won easily, Oregon has struggled to put both the Idaho Vandals and Boise State Broncos away, needing a game-winning field goal as time expired last Saturday to get their first win against Boise State.
The Ducks’ struggles aren’t just getting noticed in Eugene. They’re starting to make it into conversations around the nation. This week on “The Pat McAfee Show,” ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit offered incredibly harsh criticism of Dan Lanning and the Ducks so far this year.
“There’s been so much preseason hype with Oregon, and I’m sure Dan Lanning is doing his best to get these guys to lock in and respect the opponent,” Herbstreit said. “But they don’t look like they have the same fight that they had last year.”
“They don’t look like they have the same fight that they had last year.”
—@kirkherbstreit on his concerns for Oregon 👀 pic.twitter.com/OE2w4KEYML
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 12, 2024
While it may be harsh, it’s a criticism that’s hard to argue against after two weeks. The Ducks have allowed seven sacks — two more than they gave up in all of 2023 — and the offense has struggled to find explosive plays downfield, which is usually a calling card for the Ducks.
“It’s only two games, but I think they should stop listening to and reading the press clippings, and get focused on work,” Herbstreit continued. “They look like they’re more about ‘we will turn it on when we get to whoever.’ That will eventually catch up to them unless they get this thing turned around. They have the ability — they can win as many games as they want, but they’ve got to get their mind right.”
The Ducks will have an opportunity to get back on the right track this weekend in the first September Civil War. They go to Corvallis to play the Oregon State Beavers. It’s a game they should be able to win by a comfortable margin if all things are clicking as we expected them to going into the year. After the first two showings, however, it’s a bit up in the air regarding what we will see from Oregon this weekend.
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