Dan Lanning didn’t spend much time sugarcoating Oregon’s opening-night showing against Boise State. The Ducks came out sluggish, and Lanning made it clear the issue wasn’t simply the new voice calling the offense.
He pushed back on the idea that Drew Mehringer’s first game as play-caller was the problem.
"I thought Drew called a really good game," Lanning said. "I don't think there was any disjointedness when it comes to that.
I think there's execution. There are a couple of plays we could talk about: 'OK, that was good process, bad result.'
Lanning said those kinds of snaps can look right on the chalkboard and still fail on game night. From his view, Oregon’s offense just wasn’t sharp enough early, and the first half didn’t feel like the Ducks at their best. Dante "lacked conviction on a lot of throws," and several players, as the report noted, seemed stuck in first gear before a late second-quarter touchdown drive helped the unit finally find a little more rhythm.
"That's totally fair. I'm not in the meeting room, and I have no hand to play in the process of drawing up a game plan.
Those plays may work 98% of the time in practice, and every call made tonight could have been completely sound. I believe that.
I also believe my eyes, and in the first half, Oregon's offense looked very un-Oregon. Dante lacked conviction on a lot of throws, and it appeared that many players were stuck in first gear.
A late touchdown drive in the second quarter appeared to kick things up into second, but this unit has the firepower to get into rhythm quicker than that.
Lanning said the Ducks did show some response after getting put behind the eight ball early.
"We didn't start fast tonight, so that didn't show up for us," Lanning said. "We kind of had our backs against the wall there early, and I thought the guys responded to that.
We wanted to see how we handle adversity, but as far as communication, I thought that was really clean throughout the day on offense, and really on defense as well. The performance and the execution have to be better."
Oregon’s next big test is coming fast. The Ducks will face USC in less than three weeks, with both teams needing to clean things up before September 26.
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