Utah vs. Oregon: Game Grades, Analysis for the Ducks

If you look at the final score from the game, 62-20 in favor of Utah, it speaks for itself. Never in the long history of Oregon football has an opponent walked into Eugene and put up 62 points on the scoreboard.   You also have to go back at least a decade to find a loss as lopsided as this one for the Ducks.

But, since we're in the business of discussing football, this seems like an excellent game deserving discussion.

Ducks, we're going to need a parent's signature on this report card by Monday.

Here is the box score from Saturday's game, per NCAA.com.

Position	First Half Grade	Final Grade
Pass Offense	D+	D
Run Offense	C-	D+
Pass Defense	C	F
Run Defense	D	F
Special Teams	C	C
Coaching	C+	C-

Oregon Pass Offense

When was the last time we berated an Oregon pass attack for being wholly ineffective?

Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports

Combined, Oregon quarterbacks finished the night 14 of 30 for just 178 yards.  The Ducks also committed two interceptions (both from quarterback Jeff Lockie) to go along with the combined two touchdowns (one each from Vernon Adams Jr. and Lockie).

No receiver had more than 46 yards, and no receiver had more than three catches on the night.

Adams and Lockie were under constant pressure as the offensive line provided only token protection for most of the evening, and the Ducks really were never able to get off of the ground Saturday night.

Just plain awful—and just this side of failing.

Oregon Run Offense

The running stats aren't actually all that horrible, but considering a big chunk of yards came late in the game and the ball-carriers gave up a costly second-half fumble on their own 6-yard line, we're not going to be overly kind to the Oregon run offense.

Royce Freeman never really managed to find a lot of running room against a feisty Utah defense, and his 77 rushing yards (which led Oregon) came on 14 carries—while 20 of those yards came on a single carry.  If you average out the other 13 carries, that's fewer than 4.4 yards per carry.  And that was, by far, the high point for the Oregon ground game.

All told, Oregon had 222 rushing yards but just a single score on the ground.

Oregon Pass Defense

We already knew the Ducks struggled defending the pass.  What we didn't know was just how gullible the secondary can be at times.

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

Utah came into Autzen with a game plan designed to throw Oregon off of what few strengths it had in the secondary, and it worked to perfection.  Trick plays, halfback passes and even some pesky but run-of-the-mill play-action passes caught the Ducks' defenders completely out of position.

Utah exploited those mistakes for 257 passing yards and—get this—five passing touchdowns.

No wonder Oregon lost.

Oregon Run Defense

There's no solace to be given here as the Oregon run defense wasn't any better.

All night long, the Ducks looked like the smaller, weaker team against Utah's front and even against the running backs themselves.

The Ducks were run over, through and around to the tune of 273 yards and two touchdowns.  On more than just a few occasions, more than a small handful of Ducks were required to bring a Utah ball-carrier down—at one point requiring eight defenders.

Utah averaged better than 12.8 yards per carry all night long, and no defense is going to be on the winning side with those kind of numbers.

If defense truly wins championships, I'm afraid these Ducks are cooked and glazed in 2015.

Oregon Special Teams

I guess you can call being two of two on extra-point kicks "good news."  But the Ducks also failed on their lone two-point conversion attempt.

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

Byron Marshall had a 77-yard kick return in the second half (before leaving the game with what appeared to be a pretty serious leg injury).  He had a total of 178 return yards, which sounds great—until you realize that was on seven kick returns.

If you're returning that many kickoffs, it means you're probably giving up a lot of points.

Oregon Coaching

Mark Helfrich did all he could to try to apply a tourniquet to the bleeding, but this wasn't a paper cut or even a small gash he was treating.  Oregon was hemorrhaging, and not even Knute Rockne, Fielding Yost, Bear Bryant and Fritz Crisler all coming back from the dead at once could have healed this patient tonight.

We're not giving Helfrich a pass, however.  This debacle happened on his watch, and if things aren't solved soon, this won't be the last blowout loss suffered by Oregon in 2015.

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

Oregon relies so heavily on it's run-and-gun, spread-on-overdrive offense that when things don't quite go the Ducks' way, they have a hard time keeping the car between the ditches.  While it's not Oregon's strength, it might benefit Helfrich to come up with a set of more traditional plays—if only to give his own defense time to catch its breath between 3-and-outs.

There's no easy answer for the Ducks here.

Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.

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