Just in case Duck fans had any questions about the current day and age we’re living in, the final score from Berkeley Saturday night confirmed it: 2020 is the pits.
After being handed their first loss in over a calendar year to Oregon State on Black Friday, the Ducks have now lost back-to-back games for the first time since 2018 and Mario Cristobal’s first year as Ducks head coach. Despite being winless entering Saturday’s game, the Cal Golden Bears scored their first victory of the season, holding on to beat Oregon 21-17.
The 17 points scored by the Oregon offense marked their lowest output of the season, as Tyler Shough and company struggled to get out of their own way en route to being shut out by Cal in the second half. Defensively, the Ducks certainly endured their fair share of struggles, but for the first time this season, those who watched Saturday’s game can confidently say that the Oregon defense wasn’t the primary reason the Ducks faltered.
Before Cristobal and the Ducks fully turn the page to next week’s rivalry matchup vs. Washington in Eugene, they’ll be taking the time to examine everything that went wrong for them in the Bay Area.
Below, WFOD gets a head start by offering up its biggest takeaways from the Ducks’ second loss of the season.
1. Oregon’s offense fails to launch in the second half
For all the on-field struggles the Ducks have endured in 2020, at least you could say that the offense has largely done its part to keep Oregon in games this season. That truism, however, dramatically fell by the wayside Saturday night at Cal, as the Oregon offense utterly failed to hold up their end of the bargain – particularly in the second half.
The first half was more or less an exhibition in what we’ve seen from the Oregon offense through the first four weeks of the season: some inefficient moments that are largely overshadowed by explosive plays and points on the scoreboard. The Ducks gained 236 yards of total offense, averaged just over nine yards per play (9.1), and were buoyed by big plays through the air from Shough to Johnny Johnson and Travis Dye that gave the Ducks a 17-14 lead they probably didn’t deserve heading into the break.
And then things proceeded to fall apart.
Any momentum the Oregon offense had going into halftime almost immediately evaporated in the second half, as the Ducks’ second half possessions ended with four punts, two fumbles, and one turnover on downs. Of those seven second half possessions, three were three-and-outs, and only one drive ever threatened Cal deep in their own territory. That particular drive ended when the Ducks were stuffed on a 4th and 1 attempt at the Cal 19-yard line. In total, the Ducks gained just 132 yards of total offense in the second half.
Shough’s overall performance was the worst of his young career, as his struggles to read the Cal defense and efficiently deliver the ball to playmakers did the offense no favors. More boldly, Shough’s inability to take care of the football continues to be a theme for this team, as his costly fumble in the fourth quarter was nearly outdone by at least two passes that should have been intercepted by Cal defenders. If that weren’t enough, the regression of Oregon’s offensive line continued as well, as the Ducks rushed for just 137 yards against a Cal defense that was surrendering 181.3 yards per game entering Saturday’s contest.
Call it road woes, the accumulation of a trying season, or simply youth and experience catching up with the Ducks on that side of the ball, but it’s clear that the Oregon offense is trending in the wrong direction with the regular season winding down.
2. Giveaways and takeaways continue to haunt this team
While Oregon’s shortcomings on offense feel like a relatively new development in 2020, the disparity as it relates to turnover margin for the Ducks is anything but novel.
For the fourth time in five games, the Oregon defense failed to produce a single turnover, enabling the Cal offense – which entered the day as one of the Pac-12’s most turnover-prone teams (five giveaways) – to piece together drives that not only ended in touchdowns, but perhaps more significantly, ate up precious minutes on the game clock. In fact, one could argue that Cal’s 13-minute and six-second advantage in time of possession was more relevant to the game’s outcome than any other statistic.
Conversely, the Oregon offense once again struggled mightily to take care of the football. Shough’s fumble with 8:47 left in the game was certainly costly, but Johnny Johnson’s fumble on a potential game-winning drive for the Ducks effectively ended Oregon’s comeback bid. Had Shough been intercepted on two woefully errant passes earlier in the game, the turnover margin would have been even worse. In the end, it’s all a matter of semantics, as the Ducks will head into next week with unofficially the worst turnover margin in the Pac-12 (minus-7).
BEARS BALL!!
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) December 6, 2020
📺 https://t.co/02tCqpzfnQ pic.twitter.com/XgTUfOpvhW
3. Oregon’s defense wasn’t great, but played well enough to win
The Oregon defense has been raked over the coals this season, and for good reason. But against the Golden Bears in Berkeley, it’s hard to argue they didn’t play well enough to at least give the Ducks a chance to win.
As mentioned, the defense’s inability to create turnovers is something that continues to haunt the Ducks the season. However, credit the Oregon defense for holding an improving Cal rushing attack in check, as they limited the Golden Bears to just 88 yards on the ground and 271 yards overall. It marks the first time the Oregon defense has held an opposing offense to less than 300 yards of total offense this season. Even more encouraging was the fact that the Ducks also were much better in creating negative plays behind the line of scrimmage, as their four sacks and seven tackles for loss were team highs this season.
4. Penalties were a killer
For the most part this season, the Ducks have done well to avoid incurring rashes of penalties that severely compromise the outcome of games. Entering Saturday, the Ducks ranked sixth in the Pac-12 in penalty yardage (49.0 yards/game) and tied for seventh in penalties per game (6.0). However, those numbers will be going in the wrong direction following Oregon’s performance at Cal.
In fairness, it wasn’t necessarily the types of penalties that hurt Oregon, but rather the timing. The Ducks finished the game with a season-high nine penalties, but it was a stretch in the second quarter that really put Oregon behind the eight-ball. Cal’s 19-play, 80-yard scoring drive not only put the Golden Bears up 14-3 in the second frame, but ate up nine minutes and 51 seconds of game time thanks in large part to an illegal substitution penalty, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and a questionable pass interference call that mercilessly kept Oregon’s defense on the field. Turnovers and inefficient play on offense were certainly major problems, but Oregon’s penalty issues were a quiet killer.
5. Ducks face a must win situation next Saturday vs. Washington
In truth, nothing has changed too drastically for the Ducks as they enter the final week of their known Pac-12 schedule. Washington’s loss to Stanford, coupled with Oregon State’s loss at Utah, keeps the Ducks in the hunt and in control of their own destiny as it relates to the Pac-12 North title and a subsequent berth in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
Whether or not the Ducks are truly deserving of this opportunity is another debate entirely, but as it stands, next Saturday’s showdown with the Huskies inside Autzen Stadium will fittingly decide the representative from the Pac-12 North division and offer an offseason’s worth of rich bragging rights for the victors.
Top Photo: Cal RB Bradrick Shaw (Cal Football/Twitter)