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Oregon Struggles Again, Survives vs. Boise State on Late FG
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Oregon Struggles Again, Survives vs. Boise State on Late FG

EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon’s records may still be perfect two weeks into the American football season, but you don’t need a magnifying glass to see that the team that started the year ranked third in the country has some flaws.

After struggling to beat an unranked opponent for the second straight week, the Ducks picked up another win on Saturday, beating a strong Boise State team 37-34 thanks to a game-clinching Atticus Sappington field goal in the last second.

The result left head coach Dan Lanning emotionally confused.

“We like to sweat here,” Lanning said. “I feel relieved about the outcome, but there are definitely a lot of things that need to be fixed.”

Sappington’s 25-yard field goal may have sent the Autzen Stadium crowd into a frenzy as the clock reached zero, but their jubilation wasn’t all that different from the boos that showered the Ducks’ offense with goals in the second half. They scored three straight runs, the last on 3rd-and-13, for their sixth of seven points on the night.

“I hate to say it, but FEBU (f— everybody but us) was just focused on themselves at that point,” Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel said of the boos. “We dug our own hole. We had to get ourselves out of it.”

For the second straight week, Oregon’s offense looked disjointed at times. That didn’t mean it couldn’t show its potential, as Gabriel threw two touchdown passes that traveled 59 and 34 yards, but the offense never seemed to find a rhythm that matched the talent they have and the talent they acquired during the offseason.

“It’s a team finding our identity together,” Gabriel said. “I think you see a group of guys bonding together as the weeks go by through practices, games, and then you go through adversity like that and you find a way to win. … I think you look at the things you can clean up and see how good you can be.”

The big plays saved Oregon from an upset on Saturday, especially the special teams play. In the second half, with a back-and-forth game, Tez Johnson returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown, while Noah Whittington ran a kickoff 84 yards to the end zone before dropping the ball just short of crossing. To Lanning’s relief, running back Jayden Lima instinctively scooped up the loose ball in the end zone, averting disaster.

Besides Gabriel’s two long touchdown throws, the only other touchdown the Ducks offense scored was a 1-yard run by Gabriel. As a unit, Oregon’s offense had just two drives of more than five plays and finished with just 109 yards on the ground, more than 100 fewer than the Broncos.

“I don’t think it’s anything that’s going to stop (the offense) from being successful,” Johnson said. “We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot: offsides, false starts, illegal formation, illegal movement — those little things we can’t have.”

With an offensive line that has rotated extensively through two games, Oregon committed nine penalties — the most by that position group — and allowed four sacks. The Ducks also had three fumbles and lost two of them.

Lanning, however, stood by his position that he believes in the strategy of rotating the offensive line frequently. He did say that Oregon will look at the footage to see which “five, six or seven guys can play winning football for us.”

Saturday’s last-second win came a week after Oregon struggled offensively in a 24-14 victory over Idaho. The win dropped the Ducks four spots to seventh in the AP Top 25.

For the second Saturday in a row, Oregon emerged unscathed, but they also knew they were headed for disaster. After the game, they tried to cling to positivity and tout their resilience, but they couldn’t ignore the reality of their problems.

Lanning said this: This is football that has led to victories, but it is not winning football, especially when you consider that a team not only wants to make the College Football Playoff, but also wants a shot at a title.

“We won, nothing more than a W. Now I’m thinking about what we can fix,” Lanning said. “We put ourselves in some tough situations and we got out of it.”