The Oregon football program dominated much of its Week 2 contest against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, ending with a 42-35 win.
The Oregon Ducks are proving that they’re a much different team than we saw one season ago. Former South Florida head coach Willie Taggart has put new life into this football program. Much of the game was dominated by Oregon.
However, Nebraska made a good run in the second half to try and come back against the Ducks. At one point, Oregon led 42-14 at the half. The Ducks did not score a single point in the second half. Nebraska went on a 21-0 run in the final two quarters.
This game was also a tail of two quarterbacks. Sophomore Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert had himself a phenomenal game. Herbert threw for 365 yards and three touchdowns with only one interception. His production did tail off in the second half, though.
Nebraska quarterback Tanner Lee did throw for more than 250 yards and three touchdowns. However, Lee threw four interceptions as well. The turnovers ended up costing the Huskers too much for them to pull out the victory.
The spread for this game favored the Ducks by 10.5 points. Beating a good Nebraska team is still an impressive victory. Especially since the Huskers barely defeated the Ducks last year in Lincoln. Getting revenge should have been one of the biggest motivating factors for Oregon. They had a thoroughly convincing Week 1 win, putting up 77 points on an FCS opponent.
Next week, Oregon takes on their last non-conference opponent in quarterback Josh Allen and the Wyoming Cowboys. Meanwhile, Nebraska gets the Northern Illinois Huskies in Week 3.
Now, let’s take a look at three takeaways from the Oregon Ducks’ win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
3. Justin Herbert makes the Ducks a Pac-12 contender
The Pac-12 is a conference that was supposed to be chalked full of talented quarterbacks in 2017. USC’s Sam Darnold had a rough start to the season against the Western Michigan Broncos when he was held to zero passing touchdowns.
Even Washington’s Jake Browning, Washington State’s Luke Falk, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are great quarterbacks. Next up could be Justin Herbert. He has the potential to easily be the best Oregon quarterback since Marcus Mariota.
Nebraska head coach Mike Riley made his return to the state he coached in for a while with the Oregon State Beavers. Herbert spoiled his return completely. Taggart seems to have found his secret weapon on the offense.
Herbert added another 31 yards on the ground. He is not the best dual-threat quarterback in the country but he can definitely beat you with his feet if need be. Yet, if teams like Washington continue to slip in the Pac-12 North, the Ducks are a team to watch out for.
2. Royce Freeman is more than a great compliment
This is the second straight week that star running back Royce Freeman notched more than 150 rushing yards and at least two touchdowns. Freeman got 29 carries this week after getting 23 the week before.
As long as Freeman’s workload does not get out of hand this year, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the Pac-12. While many think the Pac-12 is a conference filled with talented quarterbacks, we should start acknowledging the running backs.
The combination of Herbert and Freeman in the Oregon backfield is a lethal one. Both players have the ability to break a game open at any point. The ability of Herbert to run makes Freeman just that much more dangerous.
Nebraska’s defense had a hard time containing Freeman to less than five yards per carry, especially in the first half. However, when Freeman was out of the game, Oregon was not able to do much on the ground.
1. Tanner Lee still has some questions to answer
Tulane transfer quarterback Tanner Lee turned the ball over too much against Oregon. He put up enough passing yards to notch the victory but throwing four interceptions gave the Ducks too much momentum in the end.
Nebraska seemed to have a victory looked up early in Week 1 when they faced the Arkansas State Red Wolves. It took Nebraska until the end of the fourth quarter to lock up the victory over Arkansas State.
Next: 3 takeaways from TCU's win over Arkansas
This is a Nebraska team that just will not be as good as they were last year. Former quarterback Tommy Armstrong just gave the Husker offense more options than Lee. However, it is a familiar problem for Nebraska to deal with a turnover prone quarterback.