The 2024 college football season began three weeks ago. So far, the Oregon Ducks have yet to look the part.
After a disappointing performance in their Week 1 victory against Idaho, the Ducks faced Boise State this weekend. Oregon battled with the Broncos from bell to bell and escaped with a 27-24 win.
Head coach Dan Lanning emphasized that the team still needs to get right. Fox’s Joel Klatt expressed concerns over how they have played this year.
Klatt talked about the Ducks on this week’s episode of The Joel Klatt Show. Klatt praised Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and discussed Oregon’s offensive line struggles.
“I mean, Jeanty was phenomenal, and I thought that Oregon would be better at the line of scrimmage. Both offensively and defensively. The offensive line, clearly, has not gelled trying to break into new starters. We see them now giving up sacks at a rate that is frankly alarming as compared to last year,” Klatt said on the show. “They’ve already given up more sacks in two games than they did all of last season.”
“If I’m checking in on the fan base of Oregon, I’m worried. I think that there is some real concern for Oregon because these are not fluky issues,” he added. “When you have leaky protection, that persists. All of a sudden, you don’t become great in pass protection. That is something that is a standard held prior to the season. It’s not developed.”
The Ducks have high expectations in their first year in the Big Ten. Well before conference play, Oregon had its fair share of issues to fix. Klatt argued that those expectations matter in this discussion.
“Remember, everything has to be through the prism of expectation. That’s why these teams that have played better than we expect; we’re so excited about. That’s why teams like Oregon that have played much worse than we expect, we’re much more worried about,” He said. “We’re worried about Michigan, we’re worried about Oregon. There’s concern for both of those teams. They’ve got to fix some of those issues before they head into the Big Ten slate, or else this is not going to be the year that everyone thought it was going to be in Eugene.”
