Nick Saban circles the biggest issue for Oregon, Dan Lanning after sluggish start

After receiving plenty of preseason hype as potential national championship contenders, the Oregon Ducks have dropped from the No. 3 ranked team in the country to No. 9 heading into Week 3. Winning their first two games of the season in narrow fashion against FBS Idaho and Group of Five Boise State to start the year.

The Ducks face rival Oregon State on Saturday in their first road game of the season, a matchup they’ll surely want to show some improvement in ahead of their Big Ten schedule. And during a Friday appearance on This Pat McAfee Show, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban broke down where he feels things have gone wrong for Oregon early in the season.

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“I think they’ll continue to get better, but I do think they have some issues on their team,” Saban said. “Their offensive line is not that great and that’s a problem. It’s a problem for the quarterback, who is a really good player, and they have really good skill guys. They made enough good plays in games to be a dominant team, they just have too many bad plays.”

Saban knows the importance of elite play in the trenches to properly complement elite skill players. Something the Ducks had last year on both sides of the so far this season and have lacked after being out-rushed by Boise State last weekend and allowing seven sacks and 13 tackles for loss following two games.

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“I’m talking about tackle for loss, penalty, get behind the sticks on offense, now you’re playing not the way you want to play, but the way the other team wants you to play. And I think that’s been their issue, and they haven’t been able to play the kind of defense I think you need to play,” Saban explained.

Boise State is not a run-of-the-mill Group of Five program, taking home the Mountain West title last season and one of the favorites to make the College Football Playoff this season led by star running back Ashton Jeanty. But a team with national title aspirations must do a better job of taking control of games according to Saban.

“Now Boise can run the ball and they got a really, really good back and they had trouble stopping the run. And when you can’t stop the run, that’s demoralizing,” Saban said. “It’s demoralizing to your team because you’re always behind in the sticks. It’s 2nd and 4, it’s 3rd and 1, they get a first down, and then it happens all over [again]. So that really is an issue and controlling the tempo of a game when you play a team that you cannot stop the run effectively and that’s what happened to them in the Boise game.”

All eyes will be on the Ducks to see if they can get back on track and prove they’re one of the best teams in the nation. Which they’ll look to start this weekend in Corvallis for the 128th edition of the Civil War rivalry.