On Wednesday, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning met with members of the media to provide some updates on how his team is responding from a season-opening loss to Georgia.

The focus on Wednesday was third down and red zone — two areas Oregon particularly struggled in during Saturday’s game. Georgia scored touchdowns on all seven of its drives. Every drive reached the red zone; every drive scored. Conversely, the Ducks got inside the 20 just twice. They settled for a field goal on the first trip and turned it over on downs on the final possession of the game. Georgia also went 9-for-10 on third down.

Details. Lanning talked a ton about tackling on Wednesday.

You can read everything he said below, with the full video at the bottom.

Opening statement

“Had a third-down, red area focus today at practice. Wasn’t as sharp as I wanted. I think we have higher expectations for ourselves than how we performed today, certainly (higher) than how we performed last week. Like I said before, our biggest opponent right now is Oregon.

“We’ve got to perform better as our team before we start worrying about other teams. That being said, Eastern Washington certainly presents a lot of challenges. They have a really good passing attack. On offense, they challenge your eyes with double moves. They do a lot of good things. And then, obviously, they can run the ball and use a variety of personnel groups. Getting ready for them. We’re not there yet. Still need these extra days of prep.”

On the tackling

“We’re not where we want to be yet, but we’ve done a lot of tackling. I think that’s where it starts. We tackle, you practice that and you practice with a purpose, maybe (you do) some of the same things you did before but you do with a level of intensity that’s required. I still think we have room for growth there. We have to be willing tacklers. You have to be contact-tough, and that happens by practicing that in practice.”

On whether the tackling issue was form or willingness

“It’s not an unwillingness. It’s executing the technique properly. Every one of our players wants to perform well. They want to do a good job. There’s a difference in wanting to do it and doing it. You have to take your weaknesses that you’re not good at and work on (them) harder. Everybody wants to do what they’re good at. I want to go to practice and practice catching the ball if I’m the wideout, throwing touchdowns if I’m a QB. What they don’t want to do is practice things they’re not good at, and that’s what we have to do — practice what we’re not good at. Until we get good at winning on the perimeter from a blocking standpoint and a block destruction standpoint, tackling in practice and breaking tackles in practice, then we’re not going to do it in the game the way we want to do it.”

On what he wants to see improve beyond tackling

“Down and distance awareness — understanding where the sticks are and how we finish there. When you play man-to-man and you get put in a situation where you have to play the deny-the-ball defense, we’ve got to count on somebody to cover their man. If they can’t cover their man, we’ve got to put somebody else in that can or we’ve got to ask ourselves if maybe there’s another defense that we need to be able to play. We have to do a better job in that. We got a great look from our look offense today. They did a really good job on third down. That’s not where I want it to be. We’re gonna get better there.”

On if he wants to see Ty Thompson on the field Saturday

“All I’m worried about right now is playing the game. The only thing I’m worried about is winning the game. I want every one of our players to get an opportunity to go out there and perform, but it starts with just us going to play the game. I’m not worried about which guy gets in. What gives Oregon the best opportunity to win? Period.”

On WR Caleb Chapman

“He’s been dinged up. He’s dealing with some hamstring and hip flexor injuries. I’m certainly hopeful that we can get him back. He continues to stay working treatment.”

On special teams in the opener

“I don’t think it was what I wanted. I mean, it’s not where we want to be yet. Our kickoffs didn’t get the depth and the hangtime that we want. Again, the amount of opportunities was somewhat limited for those guys, but the one thing about special teams is it’s one-play focused. You get one play and you have to have an opportunity to do it right in that one play. I think those guys will tell you it’s an area of improvement. At the end of every game, we grade ourselves. Did we win this area of the ball? Did we win our punt versus their PBR, our PBR versus their punt, our kickoff versus their kickoff return? We didn’t win in that category. Special teams is gonna be something that changes the game for us with the amount of time and effort we put into it. That didn’t happen last Saturday.”

On using the home opener as a way to motivate the team, or any other messages he’s given

“I think I’ve mentioned it once that we’re playing at home. I am excited personally to see our fans show up. Everybody talks about the experience at Autzen Stadium, I want to see that firsthand on Saturday. I want to see our fans out here because they can certainly impact our game. That being said, I haven’t put any of the focus on that for our players. Wherever this field is put, that’s where we’re gonna go play the game. It doesn’t matter if there’s 100,000 people watching or just us watching, we want to go perform when we play Eastern.”

On Kenny Dillingham’s play-calling in the opener

“There’s certainly some positives at times, but when you don’t capitalize and get points, that’s the ultimate goal on offense. When you turn the ball over, when you don’t finish a drive — we got in the red area twice and didn’t finish with touchdowns, those have to be touchdown opportunities for us. There’s some good to take away. There are certainly a lot of areas of growth, and I think Kenny and everybody else on offense will tell you there’s something they want to do better than what we did this past week.”

On how they use practice mistakes to grow

“We put it up there on the film, we grade it and coach it in front of the entire team. When you walk out of the room, you know exactly where you sit and exactly what you have to do better. There shouldn’t be any confusion in scheme, any confusion about what we’re trying to accomplish on the field. The only thing that needs to be assessed is our performance within that call.”

On the College Football Playoff expansion

“I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into it just because it doesn’t affect us right now. I’m trying to live in the right now. But, I think it’s great to have opportunities to go compete at the end of the year and it makes things important.”

On the importance of NIL operations on recruiting

“I’m excited for opportunities for our players to go earn the most they can possibly earn. Right now, I will tell you that my complete focus is on our performance on the field. Does that affect recruiting? Absolutely. Does that affect our ability to get great players here? Absolutely. Does it allow our players to have an opportunity to be successful? Yes. And (for) our fans to be involved. I’m excited about all those things. But, really, that’s not at the forefront for me, and none of that stuff will probably be in the forefront until we get to February.”

On Marcus Harper II

“Just work. This guy brings a great level of focus and energy every single day to practice. He always has a smile on his face. He’s always excited to compete. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him complain, not once, about his situation, about where he’s at on the depth chart, about what he has to battle or go through. I’ve never heard him say one thing. All I’ve ever seen him do is get up here and work, and when he’s given his opportunity, taken advantage of it. But he’ll be the first one to tell you he has a lot that he can still improve on.”

On the benefit of his positional versatility

“I love having Marcus on this team. He’s a big part of what we’re doing.”

On if he’s using the 49-3 score as any kind of motivating tool

“No. No, we haven’t done anything. We’ve gone back and evaluated the film. I’m not really a big slogan guy. I’m not a big punch code guy. That’s not me. It’s about true assessment (of) exactly where we’re at. Use it (the loss) as an opportunity to see where we’re at and then grow from it.”

On if he wants one running back to emerge from the group

“I want to see us execute at the highest level at (running) back. If we have five guys who can do that, that’s certainly better than having one guy that can do that. You get in a rhythm, you get in a focus within the game. If we have that, that’s fine, but I want to see all our guys eat. I think I’ve said it here several times, ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough.’ I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care. What do you do in the game? That’s what it’s about. What you do in practice equates to what you do in the game. If you do it in practice, it’s going to carry over to the field.”