Oregon narrowly defeats Boise State in season opener despite talent advantage

Perhaps Oregon can look to its recent history to find relief. It was only two years ago that the Ducks followed up a pedestrian 24-14 win over Idaho in their season-opener with a terrifyingly close call against Boise State a week later, squeaking by with a 37-34 win.

Plenty of concerns were shared then. Maybe Dillon Gabriel wasn't good enough to replace Bo Nix? Maybe this program wasn't ready for life in the Big Ten, and it would regret leaving the "soft Pac-12."

Well, those close calls were quickly forgotten, as Oregon would finish the regular season 12-0, and then beat Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game to win the conference in its very first season as a member.

So maybe Oregon coach Dan Lanning will look back at that season and take solace after yet another scary season opener, or maybe he'll chew his team out in the locker room until the paint begins peeling off the walls, letting them know that preseason predictions and hype don't mean a damn thing once the ball is spotted and pads pop in anger.

I'd bet on it being the latter.

The good news is that disaster was averted. While things were far closer than nearly everybody expected, Oregon did beat Boise State 34-27 on Saturday. The winning touchdown came on a 62-yard throw to Dakorien Moore, who reminded us all of the talent advantage the Ducks have on most teams by juking two Boise defenders off the face of the Earth en route to the end zone.

That flash of brilliance also served as a warning for the Ducks in this game, though. While they may have been the more talented team, and they may have won the game, they weren't the obviously better football team on Saturday. The Ducks came in at No. 2 in the AP Top 25 and as a 24.5-point favorite. They played like something much different.

Perhaps we should've seen this coming. There was plenty of attention given to the return of Dante Moore, who surprised most of the country, including his head coach, when he decided to bypass the NFL Draft for another season at Oregon. That attention, and the national title hype surrounding it, overshadowed the fact that Oregon was replacing both its offensive and defensive coordinator this offseason. The Ducks also had to replace three starters on the offensive line, including both tackles, and those changes were evident at times.

Oregon finished with nearly 500 yards of offense and averaged 7.9 yards per play, but the explosives covered a lot of other mistakes. One Jordon Davison 40-yard rush helped cover up the fact that the Ducks averaged only 3.3 yards on their other 24 carries.

They also struggled on key downs, going 4-for-12 on third downs and 0-for-3 on fourth.

Defensively, the Ducks were touted all offseason for having one of the best defensive lines in the country. It's a proclamation that may still prove true over the course of the season, but it wasn't nearly as evident here. The Ducks finished with only five tackles for loss and three sacks, and the truth is the pass rush didn't really look exceptional until the fourth quarter, when it pinned its ears back knowing Boise State had to drop back and throw.

The lack of disruption in the run game is what kept Boise State alive. While the Broncos averaged only 2.6 yards per carry and didn't have a carry of more than 9 yards, they didn't lose ground often. The ability to continually pick up 3 yards at a time allowed the offense to stay on schedule and hit enough plays in the passing game to make things extremely uncomfortable.

None of this means Oregon is doomed, of course. That's the luxury of having this much talent. Your bad days can still end with everybody singing the fight song, but there are obvious kinks that need to be ironed out if Oregon wants to meet its national championship goals.