Oregon coach Dan Lanning told his team to bring its own juice when it hit the road for Stanford. It was easy to get up for Colorado a week ago; it probably wasn’t the same going up against a 1-3 team in an environment you knew would be drastically different from Autzen Stadium.

After the first quarter, box score watchers across the country perked up and said, “Stanford is doing what??” On the field inside Stanford Stadium, the Ducks didn’t panic.

They held the ball for 1:23 in the first quarter. They gained 6 yards because they ran 3 plays. Stanford played keepaway but didn’t exactly create distance.

The Cardinal had a 6-0 lead after two drives. Oregon scored the game’s final 42 points to win 42-6.

So much for a trap game.

Here are three takeaways from the evening.

Duck dominance on D

Against Stanford, Oregon’s quickness and physicality in the front seven was really obvious. Oregon flew to the football.

Stanford didn’t have a play longer than 18 yards. It averaged 3.2 yards per play for the game. The Ducks were absolutely everywhere, finishing with five sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Take away the sacks and Stanford still averaged only 3 yards per rushing attempt.

The Cardinal scored on its first two drives, but at no point did it feel like Oregon was in danger. It took the Cardinal 15 plays to go 46 yards on its opening possession, and that drive ended with three points. It took them another 13 plays and 51 yards to get another three points on the next drive.

Stanford’s next seven possessions:

  • Five plays, 5 yards, punt
  • Three plays, 4 yards, punt
  • Three plays, 8 yards, punt
  • Three plays, 6 yards, punt
  • 12 plays, 46 yards, turnover on downs
  • Five plays, 24 yards, turnover on downs
  • 13 plays, 32 yards, turnover on downs

Teams that have to drive more than seven or eight plays to put points on the scoreboard statistically fail. It’s why coaches like Lanning harp on explosives all the time. This game has largely become about which teams can create and limit chunk plays.

Oregon gave Stanford nothing. The Cardinal posted a paltry 7% explosive play rate. Oregon was at 23%, for context.

Evan Williams was awesome, finishing with seven tackles and a sack. Jordan Burch had two tackles for loss. Mase Funa got his first sack of the season. Jamal Hill caught my eye a couple of times.

If you were looking for a defensive performance to inspire as much confidence as possible heading into the extended Washington prep, this was the kind of performance you’d cook up.

Oregon answers the RB rotation question

With Noah Whittington expected to miss some time — unclear how much, but some — there was a question about what the running back rotation would look like. Would Oregon look to keep the three-man rotation going? Would Jayden Limar and Dante Dowdell both get time? Or would the Ducks lean on the two guys left standing from the normal rotation?

Bucky Irving got 13 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown. (He had three receptions for 23 yards as well.)

Jordan James had six carries for 88 yards and a touchdown.

That was it until it was time to bring in the second-team offense and call off the dogs.

James continues to grow in his confidence. Irving is one of the best backs in the conference — if not the best. Oregon doesn’t necessarily need to expand the rotation. Maybe someone has a blistering two weeks of practice and commands more of a role against UW. But, for right now, it looks like this will be a two-man group until Whittington returns.

Those two averaged 9.3 yards a carry. Not much more you can ask for.

Bo Nix keeps it rolling

It took Oregon a long time to get its footing. The Ducks had the ball once in the first quarter, and they went three-and-out. On the first possession of the second quarter, Oregon went three-and-out again.

Just a touch off, but it felt worse than it actually was because Stanford’s first two possessions possessed the football for a combined 13:42 of game time. It felt like Oregon just needed to get that first first down and then things would start rolling downhill.

On a third-and-5 on Oregon’s third possession, offensive coordinator Will Stein called a gimme — a designed quarterback run for Nix, who picked up 8 yards.

A perfect call. OK, now we’re moving.

What happened next? Nix hit Troy Franklin for 13 yards, then James ran for 13 yards, then James broke a 30-yard touchdown run and the floodgates opened. All that work Stanford had done to try and limit the possessions and get Oregon out of sync was immediately undone. Oregon was up 7-6 and it felt like Stanford was teetering.

Nix just makes it look so easy on offense. The senior quarterback completed 27 of his 32 passes for 290 yards and four more touchdowns.

Nix set a school record for completion percentage a year ago and looks like he wants to try and beat it this year. He’s up to 80.4% on the season, with 15 passing touchdowns and just one interception.

He connected with Franklin for 117 yards and two scores. He just narrowly missed Tez Johnson for a huge gainer in the first half.

Between Nix and Stein, the offense is firing as efficiently as any in college football right now.