Dan Lanning Previews Boise State Matchup

On Monday night, Dan Lanning held a presser for Oregon’s upcoming matchup against Boise State. The media got the opportunity to ask Lanning a multitude of questions for how Oregon will prepare.

Lanning started the press conference saying, “I’m excited to get back into Autzen this weekend, (we) get to play a really good opponent.” Lanning continued, “They’re very talented across the board, obviously have had a lot of success over the last several years. (We) had a good work day this morning to start, and (I’m) excited to get to it.”

On what the mindset of the team is going forward:

“I thought our guys had a really good work day today, they certainly attacked things…they handled it the right way.”

On what the film said about the OL issues:

“We didn’t play well enough. There were some miscommunications that we have to clean up. Certainly room for improvement and they know they didn’t play to the standard that we want, and we can be better there.”

On how the pass rush performed:

“I thought it was good at times, although we got hurt on some screen games, so the ability to retrace and recognize that would be improvement and something that we’re really working on. I thought you saw some good pass rush from them from us.”

On penalties on the OL and accountability impacting playing time:

“It does (referring to impacting playing time) when you have players that are better that can perform and have proven they’re accountable as well. You put the best on the field that are accountable, and have proven that they can do it at the right level. When you have that option that’s when you can certainly do that.”

On what the team can learn from the film:

“I think there’s a lot of nuggets. You go back and you look at the overall game and you’re winning in a lot of categories. The categories we didn’t win on were situational football and the way we ran the ball. We had the ball twice before the two minute, before half, we didn’t score. Had an opportunity to kick, didn’t hit the kick. Didn’t score in the middle eight, generally that’s been something we’ve done well. Defensively gave up some explosive plays even on limited possessions, we had 87 snaps, they had 48 snaps. You had the ball a lot more but we weren’t creating the explosives that turn into positives. Finding ways to do that comes with effort to the ball, finishing, proper mechanics. You look at it and you study those pieces, how can we create those things, and then you attack it and build your practice plan around that as well.”

On the in-helmet communication:

“Some good, some bad. I think that’s the way these games have to work, you have to learn from it. Figure out what’s working, what’s not. There was some positive from it, some things where it really helped us. Also there were some times where it wasn’t effective enough and we need to do a better job of utilizing that.”

On facing Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty:

“I think he’s the best runningback I’ve seen since I’ve been here, certainly an NFL guy, he doesn’t go down on first contact ever. He’s one of the best stiff arm guys that we’ve gone against, he runs really physical, and the next guy they brought in ran for 100 yards too. It’s a really powerful rushing attack, their offense does a lot of good things to scheme you up. They make you tackle, they’re going to make DBs tackle, they do a really good job of that.”

On Dillon Gabriel and the lack of explosive plays:

“I would say really none of it was him not making the right read, we took a shot early in the game down the field and then they stopped playing that coverage. We called a lot of shot plays and they played over the top, so I think Dillon made the smart decision with where he took the ball. You don’t go 41 of 48 passing if that’s not the case, so he did a really good job of making decisions of where he could actually go with the ball. I think more of your explosives are going to come when you catch the ball in space, who’s going to break a tackle, who’s going to go cover-up on the block downfield. Those are the things we need to do a better job of, and running the ball more effectively.

On the “Questionable” status of Matthew Bedford and Gary Bryant:

The reporter asked if Dan was optimistic the pair of injured Ducks would be a go. Lanning responded, “I am.”

On the leadership in the locker room:

“I think we’ve got some great leaders on this team. It certainly showed up today the way the guys came out and worked, and these guys have a really high standard.”

On scouting Boise State’s defense:

“It’s one of the most unique, they do a lot of different package personnels and it’s very unique in how they do it. Whether it’s dime and they’re bringing that safety down in the box to play WLB (Will Linebacker), they’ll have fronts at times that have two defensive lineman in. They are sound and there’s some veteran leadership where these guys really attack the ball well. I think their going to pitch a lot of different looks at us, and it’s important to be able to see those looks.”

On what the decision at center is and how Charlie Pickard did:

“His communication was pretty good, but just like everyone on our team some good, some bad. Once we have more people available I think there is always opportunities to look and see what that lineup looks like. Charlie handled a lot of things well, and he certainly wasn’t the guy that didn’t play well on the offensive line.”

My Thoughts:

It would appear that the Ducks had a wake-up call this weekend and cannot take any opponent for granted. It will be extremely beneficial for the offensive line to get Matthew Bedford back, assuming he’s a go on Saturday. Adding a veteran presence back into the fold can only help the offensive line rebound even stronger so I’m looking forward to that. We will certainly be watching for injury updates this week on a few other key players as well. After watching the press conference, I, as I’m sure many others fans do, feel a lot better with how Lanning answered questions pertaining to last weekend’s game.