Tag: Jeffrey Bassa

Report Card: Ducks receive passing grades, but without much room to spare

The Ducks received largely passing grades in a win over Texas Tech, but it wasn’t an honor roll worthy performance, by any means.

It’s a stat Oregon football usually doesn’t have to worry about all that often, but in last night’s 38-30 win over Texas Tech, penalties were almost as much of an opponent for the Ducks as the Red Raiders were.

The Pac-12 refs that were officiating the game threw a flag on Oregon 14 times, with most of them being either false starts or defensive pass interference. Perhaps it was the combination of some growing pains that come with a new offensive line and new secondary playing their first road game, but Texas Tech will hardly be the most hostile crowd Oregon will face this season. If Dan Lanning and his staff don’t find a way to clean this up, the Ducks won’t be as lucky to come out with a win the next time.

When Oregon wasn’t getting flagged, it was able to move the ball on a fairly consistent basis, but the defense had some problems keeping containment. Tyler Shough led all rushers with 103 yards. Again, Shough won’t be the most mobile signal caller this defense is going to face.

Fortunately for the Ducks, not all wins are going to be the Mona Lisa and a prestigious work of art. At the end of the day, they got the win.

Here are the ups and downs of the Week 2 report card.

Stock Report: Dorlus, Bassa shine while miscues nearly destroy Ducks

Brandon Dorlus and Jeffrey Bassa had standout games on Saturday. The Oregon O-line and rushing attack was a shell of itself, though.

We knew after the Oregon Ducks’ season-opening game against the Portland State Vikings that there was still a lot to be uncovered for this team. With over half of the roster coming in as new faces, a new offensive coordinator, and a set of high expectations, there was a desire among fans, media members, and likely coaches to see how good Dan Lanning’s squad could be in his second year in Eugene.

I think we got an answer to a lot of those questions on Saturday night in Lubbock. The Ducks squeaked out a 38-30 victory in dramatic fashion, using a 45-yard pick-six from LB Jeffrey Bassa to seal the deal late in the game. It gave Oregon a 2-0 record and now allows fans to largely look past the miscues that put them in a tough place against the Red Raiders.

And boy, were there a lot of miscues.

Following the Portland State victory, in our weekly “stock report” where we identify players who either played well or played poorly, there was nothing but upward movement for the Ducks. Of course, in an 81-7 victory, you aren’t going to easily identify players who didn’t perform up to par.

Following Week 2, though, we have a few guys who saw their stock drop a bit. as well as a handful of others who are starting to reach their ceiling as Ducks.

Here is our weekly stock report after Oregon’s win over Texas Tech:

Column: Oregon’s offense is elite, but Ducks’ championship dreams hinge on defensive excellence

Oregon’s offense was never going to be a problem in 2023. Can the defense play at an elite level? They took care of business in Week 1.

The Oregon Ducks broke the program record for scoring on Saturday afternoon against the Portland State Vikings, putting up 50 points in the first half of an eventual 81-7 win.

They tallied 729 yards of total offense, converted 38 first downs, saw eight different players score a TD, and watched just five passes fall incomplete between three different quarterbacks.

Is anyone surprised?

Personally, I wouldn’t say so. With QB Bo Nix returning for one final year, we knew that the ceiling would be high for this offense, despite the fact that OC Kenny Dillingham was being replaced by Will Stein. When you put returning weapons like Bucky Irving, Troy Franklin, and Terrance Ferguson around Nix, and throw in transfers Tez Johnson Traeshon Holden, and Gary Bryant, then you’ve got the makings of a deep and talented unit that could easily compete on a championship stage.

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The offense was never the question coming into this season — we always knew that the Ducks would be able to put up points at will.

Whether or not the defense could keep points off of the board, though, is what Oregon’s championship dreams hinged on.

After the first game of the season, I think that Duck fans should feel relatively confident that the answer to that question will end up being a yes. Personally, I left Autzen Stadium on Saturday evening feeling pretty good about the outlook for Tosh Lupoi’s unit. There was one unfortunate drive near the start of the game — PSU went 75 yards in 8 plays and scored a TD on their second possession — but other than that, the Ducks’ D was stout.

“We had two critical errors in that drive, made a really bad execution in the red area on that touchdown,” Dan Lanning said after the game. “Ultimately, I think what you saw is when you don’t do your job, bad things can happen. We had a couple of guys not do their job early in that series. It led to a long drive and I think we all settled down after that and realized, ‘Hey, all I gotta do is my part, my 1/11th and the rest will take care of itself.’”

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The rest certainly took care of itself after that. If you were to take away that single drive for the Vikings, then Oregon held Portland State to just 125 yards of total offense and zero points. The Ducks forced nine punts on the day, and only allowed four third-down conversions.

Yes, the opponent was Portland State, an FCS school that went 4-7 a year ago in the Big Sky Conference. I understand that all of this should be taken with a relatively large grain of salt. Oregon is supposed to put a beatdown on the Vikings. In the end, you can only take care of the task at hand, and the Ducks did what they needed to do in order to shut down their opponent on Saturday.

“I don’t know if they really got tested today,” Lanning said. “That’s still set to come, right? We’re not interested in reading the press clippings of this game, it’s about the future and we have some good players out there but we have to be able to execute at a high level moving forward. And again, we’re gonna play some really good teams moving forward.”

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The Ducks weren’t going to show us on Saturday that they had a defense capable of slowing down Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans, or shutting down Michael Penix and the Washington Huskies. They weren’t even going to convince fans that they could limit Tyler Shough and the Texas Tech Red Raiders a week from now.

Even pitching a shutout against Portland State wouldn’t prove that this defense is where it needs to be in order for Oregon to reach its ceiling in 2023.

But they did enough to show that it’s still possible.

We know that throughout the season, Bo Nix and the Oregon offense will put up numbers at an impressive clip, and they will likely rank among the nation’s top offenses yet again. When the year ends, there’s a good chance that Will Stein’s unit is good enough to score on even the best teams in the nation.

Will the defense be able to hold up its end of the bargain and carry the Ducks to heights not seen since 2019?

We can’t know that answer just yet — it’s too early. But I’m more open to the possibility now than I was a day ago, and that’s a good start.

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The most important linebackers to know in the 2023 Pac-12 season

From Mason Cobb to Jestin Jacobs, the Pac-12 boasts some really talented transfer linebackers in 2023. Here are some names you need to know.

As we continue our preview of the 2023 college football season in the Pac-12 conference, we are going to shift our focus from individual teams to individual positions. The last several weeks have been spent picking apart each school out west, finding where they improved the most over the offseason, and identifying what realistic expectations should be for them going forward.

You can see them all here: Arizona Wildcats — Arizona State Sun Devils — California Golden Bears — Colorado Buffaloes — Oregon State Beavers — Stanford Cardinal — UCLA Bruins — USC Trojans — Utah Utes — Washington Huskies — Washington State Cougars

Now, we’re going to look at position groups as a whole in the conference. Whether it’s a quarterback or a linebacker, a punter or a safety, there are dozens of highly talented players out west. We want to go through them all, position group by position group, and highlight some of the most important names that fans should know at each spot.

Quarterbacks — Wide Receivers — Running Backs — Tight Ends — Offensive Line — Defensive Line

The Pac-12 may be widely regarded as an offensive league where quarterback play is king, but that has brought an increased need for strong defenses that will set a team apart from the rest.

At the middle of a strong defense is a linebacking corp that can navigate the many schemes needed to keep things running in the right direction.

While Pac-12 linebackers may not get the shine that their counterparts do in the SEC or the Big Ten, they are just as important to success out west. With the needed ability to cover in space and drive downhill to stop the run, a newer mold of LB has started to pop up in our game as of late, and a more versatile player is taking the stage.

Going into the 2023 season, there are a number of defenders at this position who are worth watching, because they could ultimately have the ability to turn a game, or a season, for their respective teams.

Here are some of the most important linebacker names that we think you need to know going into the fall.

Instant reaction: Defense dominated the offense in Spring Game

There wasn’t as much of an offensive explosion for fans to enjoy as last year, with the Oregon defense dominating the day.

After quite a slow start from both offenses in the first half, both the Green and Yellow teams managed to find their way into the end zone in a spring game that was dominated by both defensive units.

Green was ahead 10-0 at the halftime break and went on to take it 23-20.

Bo Nix found Troy Franklin for a 32-yard touchdown with just under a minute remaining before the half ran out. The senior quarterback took several shots down the field to his favorite receiver and it wasn’t until the touchdown that Nix finally hit Franklin in stride.

That was nice to see, but unfortunately, most of the talk after the game was the ineffectiveness of backup Ty Thompson. He threw eight incompletions to start out his day before finding Patrick Herbert for a five-yard gain.

Oregon’s backup did have a better second half, however, as he threw for a couple of touchdowns.

Thompson did drive the Yellow team down to the 7-yard line, but his fourth-down attempt fell to the turf in the end zone, and the half ended with that thud.

While the offenses had a hard time finding their way, the defenses both dominated. There is a reason why Nix couldn’t find Franklin open until late in the first half and why Thompson struggled.

Transfer Tez Johnson made the play of the day as he turned a short crossing route into a 63-yard touchdown thanks to his speed and maneuverability. He

Ducks searching for self-improvement in scrimmage before turning focus to Georgia

“When it gets closer to game week we will start ramping up as far as opponent preparation,” DC Tosh Lupoi said about scheming for Georiga.

When the Oregon Ducks line up inside Autzen Stadium for their second scrimmage of the fall season on Saturday afternoon, there will be exactly two weeks until they face off against the Georgia Bulldogs.

Before they can even start to think about that, though, the Ducks need to focus more on how they can get better. Forget about trying to scheme up a defense that will slow down a sure-fire All-American tight end in Brock Bowers, or an offense that can find holes in one of the best defenses in the nation. At this point, the Ducks are thinking about the Ducks, and little else.

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“We’ve got so much more to go just with our own team,” defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi said on Thursday. “That’s really where the focus is, you know, is improving every day on ourselves. So not a lot of talk about (Georgia) at all. More so just addressing our internal issues out on the field, what we need to improve. And, you know, when it gets closer to game week, we’ll start ramping it up as far as opponent preparation.”

With the second scrimmage coming on Saturday, it will give the Ducks an opportunity to run through several game scenarios that they need to lock down. Lupoi said that Lanning is doing a great job of putting the team into situations in practice that they will undoubtedly run into on Saturdays, be it the defense working to stop an offense backed up near the goal line, or the offense trying to protect a lead with 4 minutes left on the clock.

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There are also a lot of logistical things that the team needs to drill down as well, according to linebacker Jeffrey Bassa.

“Mostly I would have to say like really transitions just on and off the field,” Bassa said. “You know kind of getting like into the game mindset, you know what transitions and stuff like that. You know offensively and defensively I feel like the coaches have done a very good job of you know, like installing all the plays and stuff like that.”

With just two weeks left before the season starts, time is running out for both coaches to assess the talent, and players to prove that they deserve a spot in the starting lineup. We’ve also seen several guys step up into leadership roles and use actions and words to get the team into the right spots to be successful.

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“We’ve got a bunch of guys that are committing to be mentally and physically tough,” Lupoi said. “And what I’m starting to see over here after a few weeks now is the leadership start to rise and that’s awesome because we need that. You know, we see it through individuals and specific units where leadership starts to arise and people are really reacting to that.”

With a roster that is full of talent on both sides of the ball, you can feel comfortable that the Ducks will be able to hold their own against the defending national champions. If they can drill down on the logistics and turn every stone over in the next couple of scrimmages, this team might enter that first week with enough confidence to make a statement in the college football world.

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Linebacker Adrian Jackson announces he is in the transfer portal

Linebacker Adrian Jackson has announced via Twitter that he is indeed transferring from Oregon.

Just a day before fall practices begin, Oregon Ducks linebacker Adrian Jackson has announced that he is in the transfer portal.

It was discovered earlier this summer that Jackson was no longer with the program, but now it’s official.

Jackson spent three years in Eugene and racked up 33 tackles, 4.5 for loss, and a sack. The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder from Denver was once a four-star recruit and the top recruit to come out of Colorado in 2017.

But now the depth chart at the linebacker position is stacked with the likes of Noah Sewell, Justin Flowe, and Jefffrey Bassa, Jackson mostly likely would have had a difficult time getting on the field on a consistent basis.

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