Joel Klatt has 'major concerns' about Oregon after Week 1
Oregon was a 49.5-point favorite entering its season opener against FCS Idaho last weekend. The Ducks won by only 10 points, 24-14, and have since dropped four spots in the AP Top 25 to No. 7.
Former UCF and Oklahoma star quarterback Dillon Gabriel dinked and dunked Oregon to victory, completing 41-of-49 passes for 380 yards and two scores. But the Ducks had just three plays of 20-plus yards from scrimmage while giving up four to Idaho.
FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt has “major concerns” about head coach Dan Lanning’s team after Week 1. He made that clear Wednesday on his show.
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“Oregon was a 49.5 favorite and won by 10 and averaged under three yards per carry against FCS Idaho, who sacked them three times when last year they gave up five total sacks on the season,” Klatt said emphatically. “That is alarming. This has got to get better. And it’s got to get better in a big way.
“And fast, fast.”
The biggest question mark surrounding the Ducks lies on their offensive line, which had to replace center Jackson Powers-Johnson, who won the Rimington Trophy in 2023 and went on to become a second-round pick of the Las Vegas Raiders in this year’s NFL Draft.
But the Ducks brought back three starters on their offensive front. They were expected to be just fine in the trenches. That wasn’t the case against Idaho.
The Vandals limited Oregon to 107 rushing yards on 37 attempts. In other words, the Ducks averaged a meager 2.9 yards per carry in their opener against an FCS opponent. For reference, last season, Oregon ranked 30th nationally with 184.50 rushing yards per game and third in the country with 5.91 yards per carry.
Plus, as Klatt mentioned, Oregon allowed only five sacks during the entire 2023 campaign, at least four fewer than every FBS team. The Ducks gave up three sacks to Idaho in Week 1 of the 2024 season.
“Dillon Gabriel is a quick release, get the ball out of his hands [quarterback]. He is,” Klatt said. “He’s not sitting there holding the ball, taking a lot of sacks. This is not a difference between Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel. This is, all of a sudden, this offensive line getting beat up front. … So, yes, alarm bells should be going off heavily around Oregon and their offensive line specifically.
“This is not something that’s all that sustainable, if you’re talking about the expectations that Oregon is bringing to the table.”
Oregon was a trendy pick to win the Big Ten and even contend for a national championship this season. The Ducks flirted with both a Pac-12 title and a College Football Playoff bid last year. The only thing standing in their way was Washington.
But before Oregon can worry about winning its new league, it has to sort out its own offensive line.
“They have to face Michigan’s defensive line. They’ve got to face Ohio State’s defensive line,” Klatt said. “They have to play better than this up front. We thought that this was going to be a team that was going to be able to go out there and handle their business at the line of scrimmage, certainly against an FCS opponent.
“So Oregon is concerning. There’s no other way to to put it other than that. That offensive line has got to get better.”