We all saw what took place on Saturday night. There’s no more hiding from it. The stats say it all.
Dan Lanning came out and said it loud and clear for everyone to hear at his press conference on Monday night, if you wanted to be completely certain about what you were witnessing from the Oregon Ducks.
“What’s the hard truth? We’re not playing well on defense right now,” Lanning said. “I don’t think it takes a lot of people to look at that and see it.”
The Ducks gave up over 500 yards of total offense to Washington, including 408 passing yards to Husky quarterback Michael Penix Jr. They allowed the rival Huskies to convert 5 of their 9 third-down attempts, and forced just a single punt, giving up scores on 7-of-9 offensive drives for Washington.
We knew that Oregon’s defense was struggling this season, but that’s about as bad as it gets.
It all resulted in an upset loss for the Ducks, ending their hopes of making the College Football Playoff and making the path to the Pac-12 Championship that much harder. Each and every week, Lanning talks about needing to go to the doctor and take some medicine in order to get better and improve as a team.
This week, we’re taking some medicine by looking at where Oregon’s defense ranks nationally in some key statistics. Let’s get this over with.