Dan Lanning didn’t dodge the question Monday: if Oregon’s offense is giving away too much, the Ducks know they have work to do.
At his weekly press conference, the Oregon coach responded for the first time to the chatter that followed the No. 21 Ducks’ stunning defeat, saying the staff has already discussed the issue.
“We have to do a better job, policing that, for sure,” Lanning said. “That’s something we have to be better at, right?
Really simple. You know, on the same note, there’s gonna be times based on looks that you have more tells than others, and sometimes you can take advantage and use those. ...
But I’d say that’s something we can be better at. One of the things we definitely addressed after the game.”
The criticism traces back to an Oklahoma State locker room report, where Cowboys senior linebacker Tate Romney said Oregon showed “tendencies” and “stance indicators” up front that helped the defense anticipate run or pass.
That seemed to show up on the field. Oklahoma State was quick to react to what Oregon put in front of it, and the Ducks spent most of Saturday searching for any kind of offensive flow. Oregon finished with just 281 yards, including 90 on the ground.
Dante Moore never really found a clean rhythm, and even the snaps that appeared designed to work were undone by mental mistakes and drops from Oregon’s playmakers.
The idea that Oregon can be read may not be limited to one game, either. An excerpt from an upcoming book on Indiana football, shared Sunday, described the same kind of feeling when the Hoosiers studied the Ducks before last year’s Peach Bowl.
“We were hitting on all of them,” former Indiana linebacker Aiden Fisher said in the book. “We were like, ‘Dude, we have these guys on everything they want to do.’”
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