Like everyone else I've enjoyed Oregon's 4-1 start and first place standing in the North, 2-0 with a significant lead over the other contenders. It makes writing about and following college football more interesting, having a team in contention for great things. Been five years since the Ducks made a Rose Bowl. Getting back would be a heady accomplishment.
Objectively, there's still a lot of work to do.
The Oregon defense has been lights out, but to date they've caught everyone at just the right time with some serious limitations:
Auburn with a freshman quarterback in his first start
Nevada (now 3-2, just lost to Hawaii 54-3) with a freshman quarterback and inferior personnel
Montana from the Big Sky
Stanford with K.J. Costello coming off a concussion, injuring his thumb early in the game
Cal with the starting quarterback out and a suspect offense
They've played terrific, aggressive and relentless.. But you can't say they've taken anyone's best shot.
The Oregon offense has scored 21, 21 and 17 points in three games against Power 5 opponents. They've shown a maddening tendency to get in their own way and keep points off the board. It took them 5 games to make a field goal. Too many drives have ended with a turnover, a turnover on downs or a dropped pass.
I bleed Green and Yellow, far more than someone who is supposed to be writing about the team should. But with Colorado coming into town on a Friday night, a trip to Seattle 8 days later, it's time for this team to gel and find its identity offensively. Even CMC says they need to start generating some explosion plays.
With Miles Slusher and some notable recruits coming into town for the weekend, it'd be a great time for a confidence-boosting performance, on point and effective in all phases.
