I-5 Thoughts: Give Oregon credit for winning on the road, Oregon State is going long and the Vikings are showing some grit

Five thoughts about football along the I-5 Corridor as Week 3 approaches.

(Photo courtesy of Jimmy Devine/Portland State Athletics)

Happy Tuesday, all. Some thoughts about football along The I-5 Corridor:

1. The spotlight is coming

We know the biggest mistake in football is getting out in front of your skis, but don’t fault us a little bit for looking ahead past the upcoming Week 3 of matchups. 

Don’t get us wrong: Hawaii and San Diego State should both make for entertaining games in Eugene and Corvallis, for some at least. But let’s be realistic: Hawaii and California don’t do ball quite like our teams here in the mighty Pacific Northwest, home of the No. 13 Ducks and the No. 16 Beavers. 

Oregon is a 37.5-point favorite, though Hawaii has won the last three in the series.

The Beavers are a 21-point favorite over Brady Hoke’s Aztecs. 

There’s a very real chance both squads enter Pac-12 play undefeated, which means there’s a very good chance that Sept. 23 ends up being one of the most important days of football for this state in recent memory.

The schedules are out: Oregon hosts Deion Sanders’ No. 18 Colorado Buffaloes at noon on ABC. Then, Oregon State travels to the Palouse to face No. 23 Washington State in primetime on Fox. 

There’s eight Pac-12 teams ranked in the top 25, but I’ll dare anyone to match the brilliance of these two games being presented centerstage. In Eugene, we’ll have the glitz and glamor bowl, a matchup featuring two of the Pac-12’s flashiest teams before they depart for their respective super conferences. And in Pullman, we’ll have the two teams that were left behind, that are playing as good of football as anyone, who are doing a pretty fair job of becoming national darlings as they fight the system on field and in the courtroom. 

It’s a shame one of them has to lose this early.

2. The Ducks showed grit on the road

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a moment to appreciate what Oregon pulled off in Lubbock. Looking back, I felt like my gamer was a bit too negative from Saturday night. That’s not to say it was wrong: Oregon looked shaky for much of the game and the Ducks’ inability to finish off drives defensively is increasing in its levels of frustration. However, that’s a game a team without fight loses. And while Dan Lanning’s Ducks certainly have some issues — hello there, penalties — they’ve shown over the 15 games he’s coached that there’s fight in there. Bad teams don’t come back down two scores in an environment like that. 

“A lot of teams would have lost their cool when things weren’t going well and our guys kept their composure throughout the game,” Lanning said. “They were calm and composed, they had a plan for adversity and then went out there and executed when it mattered down the stretch.

“…Our team is excited to go fix issues.” 

3. Going long 

It’s a little tougher to point out Oregon State’s issues, especially after playing FCS UC Davis and treating them like FCS UC Davis. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that any matchup on the Beavers’ schedule was worth a little anxiety. But here the Beavers are, 2-0, with nary a scratch on the paint.

Passing game? Oh, there’s a passing game.

D.J. Uiagalelei has five touchdowns, no interceptions and is completing 74 percent of his passes. More importantly, he and the Beavers are throwing down field. 

A few stats, from PFF:

Throws traveling 10 yards or less:

Ben Gulbranson (2022): 54 percent of attempts
D.J. Uiagalelei (2023): 41 percent of attempts

Throws traveling 20 yards or more:

Ben Gulbranson (2022): 11 percent of attempts (6 of 21, 216 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception on those throws)
D.J. Uiagalelei (2023): 19 percent of attempts (3 of 7, 91 yards, 2 touchdowns on those throws)

Small sample size, of course. But the trend is in the right direction for the Beavers.

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4. The Vikings stay afloat

I get the feeling that despite being outscored 112-24 in two losses to open the season that Bruce Barnum is really starting to like this version of his Portland State squad. Because despite being thumped 81-7 by Oregon in Week 1, Barnum’s squad recouped for a trip to Wyoming to put together a respectable 31-17 loss to another FBS foe. The Vikings played even football with the Cowboys for the final three quarters, and showed some grit during an 18-play touchdown drive in the third quarter that took nine minutes off the clock.

"They were what we thought — tough, strong — they beat Texas Tech last week. But I saw that I have a tough unit too and they really battled," Barnum said postgame. "I'm still not sure who we are because we have played two FBS teams."

This week, Portland State finally gets a breather with its home-opener against North American University of the NAIA.

Big Sky play opens up on Sept. 23 against Cal Poly at Hillsboro Stadium.

5. Director’s cut

I know we used this space last week to highlight some of the best social media content from the weekend, and doing it again would seem lazy.

However, this video Oregon put out from its Texas Tech trip was stellar. The Ducks have really invested in their video production team over the years, and this is an awfully well put together package that is worth the watch from start to finish.

Kudos to Scott Anderson, who Oregon hired from North Dakota State for the work.

Coming up this week for I-5 Corridor subscribers:

• A conversation about Hawaii, Marcus Mariota and sportswriting with Dave Reardon of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser

• A gesture that began in Little League makes its way to national TV for Oregon center Jackson Powers-Johnson and dad, James.
  
  — Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor