Vibes have been pretty low in Eugene over the past few days.
After the Oregon Ducks‘ 17-15 loss to the UCLA Bruins on Saturday afternoon, Dan Lanning has faced some tough questions. What are we to make of the offense, and in particular, the offensive line? Where is the vaunted rushing attack, and where do you go from here at quarterback? Is it a play-caller issue, or is it something bigger?
While all of those queries are warranted, one thing that hasn’t been under the microscope is the defense. In fact, it’s a shame that the offense has taken up such a big part of the discourse, because the Ducks‘ defense truly deserves credit for how good it’s been recently and how dominant it was against the Bruins, accounting for 7 TFLs, two sacks, and a pair of turnovers.
While Oregon fans may not be interested in giving flowers to that unit, Nebraska Cornhuskers offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen was happy to offer some praise to his upcoming opponent on Tuesday afternoon.
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“(Oregon has) a lot of guys back from last year,” Holgorsen said. “That front four is as good of a front four as I’ve ever seen. Active. Athletic. They were put in a lot of bad situations last week and responded. You get that many turnovers and you hold your opponent to 17 points is saying you’re playing really, really good defense.”
For the Ducks to even have a chance to win that game vs. UCLA, despite having seven turnovers offensively, is a credit to the defense. They limited the Bruins’ dominant rushing attack to just 140 yards, and held UCLA to a 3rd-down conversion rate of just 25% (4-for-16). Often, they were put in tough situations on short fields, but came away with stops.
Going forward, while the offense continues to try and find its way out of a massive rut, it will be on the defense to keep the team afloat. Fortunately, there should be some confidence that they can do so based on what we’ve seen lately.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Nebraska OC gives high praise to Oregon Ducks’ defensive line