Oregon focuses on run defense ahead of rivalry game with Oregon State

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EUGENE -- Stopping the run was the primary area Oregon's defense focused on all offseason after it proved to be an Achilles heel in postseason play a year ago. The Ducks have had mixed results thus far though, stymieing a Montana State team renowned for its run game and faring less successful in routs of Oklahoma State and Northwestern.

Against Oregon State, which enters Saturday's rivalry matchup with one of the worst rushing attacks in the country, No. 6 Oregon is again honing in on improving a facet of its defense that will be critical in far more competitive games this season.

Dan Lanning did not like how the Ducks performed in the trenches on first down last week, when Northwestern ran for 178 yards on 37 carries with two touchdowns. Even when accounting for a late 79-yard score, two sacks and a kneel down, the Wildcats averaged 3.32 yards and were able to sustain three drives over 5:00 and two with 12 plays.

"We got to do a better job of stopping them on first down so they have to make an adjustment and throw the ball on second and third-and-long," linebacker Bryce Boettcher said.

Oregon (3-0) countered last week by taking one of its defensive backs off the field for another linebacker for a more traditional assortment of players to stop the run. It got better results in some of those instances, with Lanning saying there was "some positive" from that adjustment, which could be utilized again this week against an Oregon State team that likes to use multiple tight ends.

"There's a way that we want to go out and win and play football regardless who's on the field," cornerback Theran Johnson said. "We come back and we attack everything we felt that we did poorly as a unit: tackling and the little things, the basics."

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Oregon ranks 55th in yards per carry allowed (3.47) so far this season, but that figure is skewed by opponents gaining more than half of their rushing yards during the fourth quarter of blowouts.

Oregon State is 131st in yards per carry (2.57) and was held to just eight rushing yards in its loss at Texas Tech. Yet Anthony Hankerson has been effective at times, including in three prior meetings with Oregon, and is the best back the Ducks will have seen to date. Hankerson ran for 57 yards and both of OSU's touchdowns against UO last season.

Lanning said Hankerson is an extremely hard runner who "doesn't go down easy on contact."

No matter how lopsided Saturday's game is expected to be, the rivalry has proven to be an annual display of physicality and that's the kind of test of Oregon badly needs before heading to Penn State.