Mailbag: Washington's unforced errors offer cautionary tale for Ducks

On avoiding mistakes, Christine Sinclair's legacy and that sneaky Illinois game on the schedule.

It’s noon on a college football Saturday and the Oregon Ducks are still eight hours away from kickoff against UCLA at the Rose Bowl.

Welcome to the Big Ten, right? 

This is, admittedly, a bit of a subdued entrance into this new era for the Ducks. They’re playing a familiar opponent in a familiar location with a familiar storyline to many of the meetings between these two former Pac-12 rivals. 

No. 8 Oregon has a lot on the line. UCLA does not. 

Coming off a bye, I like the Ducks’ chances of winning favorably against a UCLA team that’s a last-minute field goal against Hawaii away from an 0-3 start. In their first year post-Chip Kelly, the Bruins are averaging 15.4 points per game and have the 102nd-ranked defense in the country. And while Oregon’s offensive line still isn’t entirely healthy — Matthew Bedford was limited again this week at practice — I don’t think it should take much to deflate the Rose Bowl after the 8 p.m. kick. 

We didn’t get those in the Pac-12.

However, what we saw happen in New Jersey last night gave a pretty strong reminder of the errors the Ducks need to avoid. In Washington’s 21-18 loss to Rutgers, the Huskies looked a whole lot like the Ducks did during Oregon’s first two games of the season. UW had a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard receiver, a 100-yard rusher and a defense that largely kept the Scarlet Knights in check, yet the game remained close because Washington couldn’t get out of its own way. 

From Christian Caple over at On Montlake: 

They committed six penalties for 69 yards on Friday. That’s not an egregious number, but each was more costly than the average infraction. Two personal fouls against offensive linemen killed drives. A low block penalty against Cam Davis wiped out a first-down completion inside Rutgers’ 20-yard line on a drive that ended with a missed field goal. A false start with a first down at Rutgers’ 11-yard line put UW behind the sticks and led to the Huskies settling for a field goal. A facemask penalty — albeit a dubious one — wiped out a big TFL on a second-down play in the fourth quarter on a possession that yielded the Scarlet Knights’ final touchdown.

In their first loss, to Washington State, the Huskies committed 16 penalties. It’s a problem.

“That’s the saddest part of the night,” Fisch said.

Sound familiar?

The Ducks had 17 penalties for 134 yards in their first two games, with eight being called on the offensive line alone. 

“It’s painful to see because you can’t build momentum, you can’t build any rhythm, you just can’t do anything moving forward when you’re shooting yourself in the foot,” Oregon guard Marcus Harper said before the Oregon State game. “We can’t be the offense that we want to be if we aren’t even gaining any momentum because we’re shooting ourselves in the foot from the first drive.”

In Oregon’s following 49-14 win over the Beavers, the Ducks cleaned things up with only three penalties. And while the Ducks have left the state for the first time this season, Dan Lanning will be quick to remind one that they’ve already played a road game.

It was probably in front of a better crowd, too.

OK, onto the mailbag.

How will we win another Big Ten special teams player of the week if the voters in Piscataway, NJ are fast asleep by kickoff time? — James Voss 

Here’s how, James: The Ducks and Bruins are going to play late into the night. I’m thinking of long replay reviews, a delay for a scoreboard malfunction and hell, maybe even a thunderstorm. The typical college football game lasts about four hours. They’ll stretch this one out to six, allowing those viewers on the wrong coast to wake up to Ross James’ 99-yard fake punt touchdown run to punctuate Oregon’s win late in the fourth quarter.

So Boise State is a likely playoff team and Idaho is currently top 5 in the FCS. Did I give myself an ulcer over nothing and football in Idaho is just having a moment, or is this just cope? Alec E.

Let’s get down to the spuds: