Oregon Football: 6 Things for the Ducks To Work on During Their Bye Week

Through four games, the Ducks are 3-1 and are coming off a very impressive victory over Arizona on the road. This week, Oregon gets some extra time off during a bye week and gets to prepare for a home game on Thursday night against Cal.

During their bye week, Oregon has a lot to be happy about but plenty to work on. If the Ducks are hoping to have a chance to defend their conference championship, they must work on improving in these areas.

Offensive Line

While the offensive line has done a great job since the LSU game, the level of talent has been nowhere near what they dealt with when playing the Tigers.

In the past couple of weeks, Oregon has suffered some dings and injuries to their offensive line and will need to use this time off to continue to gel together as a unit and be ready for Cal, a team who shut down the run last year.

Cliff Harris Back with the Starters

After the LSU game, Cliff Harris got some garbage time action against Nevada and Missouri State. He was plugged back into the starting role for the most part against Arizona.

Oregon goes up against Cal on Thursday night and it is time for Harris to fully takeover his spot with the starters because his skill will be needed both on special teams and at corner.

Darron Thomas Going Deep

Cal was able to do the best job against Oregon last year as they shutdown the running game and took the game down to the wire.

This year, Cal will likely come in and play a Cover 0 which means that they are going to force Oregon to pass the ball and this will put the game squarely on Darron Thomas and his wide receiver group.

Pass Coverage

Oregon fans will continue to bang their heads against the wall as they watch how the Oregon defense defends a big lead.

For years now, Oregon has been a bend but don't break defense. Against Arizona, Nick Foles put up a ton of yards, but with a huge lead, Oregon went into a prevent defense from the start of the second half.

Against the rest of the Pac-12, Oregon and its pass coverage must be ready for quarterbacks like Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley or they will pick them apart.

More DeAnthony Thomas

The one downside to getting a healthy Kenjon Barner back this past week is it cut into the number of touches given to true freshmen DeAnthony Thomas.

Since the start of the season, Duck fans have been given a glimpse into the future as Thomas has been impressive in every game that he has suited up for. If he is able to work on his ball protection skills, Thomas will be a star for the Ducks.

Getting Healthy

The good part of a bye week is that the Ducks can use it to rest up and prepare for Cal. Bye weeks are always helpful to give players extra time to recover from nagging injuries and the physical play that they have gone through.

The bad news for Oregon is the bye week has come only four weeks into the season and besides the couple extra days the Ducks will get after the Cal game, they have no additional time off the rest of the way.