The Oregon Ducks got kicked in the teeth last week by the Oklahoma State Cowboys, losing 39-31 on the road and raising questions about the program’s current state and the culture Dan Lanning has built in Eugene. The season is not lost for the Ducks, but the path forward got a lot more difficult as Oregon has run out of wiggle room when it comes to staying in contention for the College Football Playoff. They fortunately have a short week and a quick turnaround with Portland State coming to Eugene on Friday night, but then the lights get bright once again, with a trip down to Los Angeles to face the USC Trojans looming in Week 4. Before this Week 3 game, we want to look back at what went wrong for the Ducks, and how they can improve this week.To preview the game, we go through our weekly roundtable with the writers from Ducks Wire to offer our opinions and predictions for what’s to come. Here’s our first roundtable of the year.What Just Happened?Question: Oh boy, where do we start…? Let’s make it simple. Looking back at last week’s game against Oklahoma State, what was the single biggest problem, in your opinion?Zachary Neel: Man, how to pick just one. I think that so far this year, it’s been the execution that has lacked the most for Oregon, not the coaching. Of course, it’s on these coaches to get the players prepared to play and execute, but many have pointed to the offensive and defensive coordinators as the problem thus far, and I don’t think that’s entirely to blame. The plays are there, but the players simply aren’t making them. Don Smalley: I was concerned the defensive front wasn’t able to get pressure on the quarterback. That shouldn’t have been a problem against Oklahoma State! He was allowed to sit back and pick the secondary apart. Not good.Bjorn Bergstrom: I’m tempted to say the Ducks were just asleep at the wheel, but they were thoroughly outplayed even after bouncing back in the second half. I’d say it was a massive lack of execution across the board, whether it be from players missing blocks, dropping passes or failing to effectively cover their man to the coaching staff making untimely decisions and wrong playcalls against what Oklahoma State was running. If one guy does his job, another isn’t. This is a perfect example of a football team with immense talent just not meshing together and playing far below their level as a collective.Logan Brown: As painful as it might be to admit, the coaching staff had the Ducks woefully unprepared to play. Little creativity on offense, poor tackling defensively, and the same mistakes that we saw on both sides of the ball against Boise State were made several times again, and Oklahoma State just took advantage. It feels like if Oregon’s primary game plan is met with resistance, or the opponent has a better response, there is very minimal adjustment the coaching staff, and as Dan Lanning noted postgame, they are simply caught off-guard. That’s a bad look, and it really should
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