With penalties early and a passing game that just looked a touch off in the game’s opening quarter, Oregon lagged out of the gates against Stanford Saturday night. But when the Ducks took off, they really took off. Oregon built up a 31-3 halftime lead on the Cardinal and ran away with the game to move to 4-1 on the season.

Here’s everything coach Dan Lanning said after the game, with video of the press conference at the bottom.

Opening statement

“It was a fun game for our team, there’s so much for us to grow on. I think we operated well early, and really throughout the game, on both sides of the ball, and special teams had some difference-maker plays. Obviously we’ve got to eliminate shooting ourselves in the foot. It showed up in the past and it showed up again this game. We’ve got to do a better job of coaching that. The penalties can’t happen, it has to be something that we improve on. We’re going to take it serious and we’re going to do a good job of it, I can promise that. It’s something that we’re looking to grow from. There’s a lot of positives we can take away from this game, but also a lot of moments of growth. We’re trying to be the best version of us and we’re not quite there yet.”

On how they handle penalties during the week

“We keep track of them all through practice and have a standard operation, but I think we need to improve that and figure out a different way that we can do it.”

On offensive positives from the game

“There are certainly some positives we can take away from tonight. We ran the ball really well and were able to do some things really successfully, but for us to be the team that we want to be, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t hurt ourselves.”

On what the conversation was on the sideline with Bo Nix after a shaky start

“There wasn’t a lot (of discussion) other than, ‘Hey let’s operate and do what we’ve done’, do what the play is intended to do. There were a couple of plays that he extended that didn’t work out the way that it needed to work out. I think just lean back into what your job is and what the system is, and if the opportunity is there, we’ll take advantage of it.”

On the run game

“We want to lean on our strengths, I think our o-line has been a strength all year. Our backs are running really hard. We were obviously able to involve the quarterback in the run game, and wide receivers too, that was part of our plan coming in. If they didn’t take it away, we wanted to continue to lean on it.”

On Bennett Williams and Noah Sewell

“Ultimately I’ll have to go back and watch the film, but that takeaway was a huge play in the game and then having the opportunity to pick that up and move it back down into the red area was really, really big for our team. That was a momentum play that we needed. We preach takeaways a lot, and it’s good to start to see them show up in games.”

On Brandon Dorlus stepping up without DJ Johnson in the first half

“We have good players. I think our guys had a good understanding of what they were going to get tonight from our opponent. Being able to execute — knowing what you’re going to get and then executing the technique required to create some success, that showed up there for Brandon.”

On Christian Gonzalez

“My early impression of Christian is that he did a really good job. I told him it was great to see us get some good work to him tonight so he can go defend some passes, and I thought he did a good job of doing that. I know he had the one penalty, just wanna go back and evaluate his overall performance, but when the ball came his way, I thought he did a good job.”

On the fumble and scoring twice in quick succession

“There have been a couple times this year where we have been able to end the half with a score and turn around and come back and have a great opportunity to start the second half. Just in general, being able to put the ball in the endzone is critical and it creates momentum for your team, and our guys have been able to do that at a high rate. We want to be consistent and continue to do that throughout the rest of the season and right now it’s hard to say that anybody stopped us other than ourselves, right? So, if we can remove some of those self-inflicted wounds, we can continue to move the ball and be successful once we get down there in the red area.”

On the Nix touchdown run

“I gave him a really hard time last week. We threw the throwback to Bo at Washington State and I told him ‘I didn’t expect you to go down like that,’ so I’ve been kind of jabbing him for a long time here. ‘I didn’t realize you were the sliding quarterback type or jump on the ground guy.’ That run was fun. When he got over there after he was sucking wind on the sideline. So he was running hard. He let up a little bit at the end and their defender came in there aggressive at the end with an opportunity to punch it out. But I’m proud of the way he finished there. He might have to do just a little bit of extra conditioning for 80-yard runs.”

On going deep in the depth chart

“It is certainly a challenge but this is a program that’s about development, right? We want to develop players and you develop players through experience. So, having the opportunity to put some guys in there at the end of the game and create some experience for them to grow from, that’s something we want to be able to do.”

On having family at the game

“It’s great to have great support. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the people that supported me, so I’m certainly glad my parents were able to be here to be here. That was fun.”

On the atmosphere inside Autzen Stadium

“Thought it was impressive. It was impressive. At eight o’clock, that’s usually time to tuck it in and they came out strong. I mean, Autzen and the student section. I think one of our administrators came up to me before the game and said, ‘Forty-five minutes before kick-off and the student section is packed.’ That’s what makes Oregon so special. That environment here really makes us elite. So it was a great atmosphere here tonight.”

On Justin Flowe’s status and if they came out of the game healthy

“I’ll have to get with our trainer and catch up and see where things are at. I don’t know what injuries we had.

“He (Flowe) was unavailable right before the game.”

On if the early penalties were alarming or concerning being that they were new problems popping up

“Extremely alarming and extremely concerning and we’re going to work on it. It’s certainly a negative way to end, right? But it’s something we have to get better at and we’re not going to sit here and ignore it. It’s something we’ve got to a lot to improve on.”

On Bucky Irving

“The same things that show up in practice. The guy works really hard, runs really hard, does a good job, and I’m consistently proud of his performance in games. It’s the same thing that shows up in his work ethic and everything else he does.”