Comfortable. That is the best word to express the atmosphere and play at Oregon’s spring game. With weather in the high 60s and sunny, T-shirt clad spectators were quite comfortable in the limited seating of Autzen Stadium. The first units on both the offensive and defensive sides looked comfortable, as Marcus Mariota chucked the ball around with ease and the defense did as well as a mix of primarily reserves would typically fair against the vaunted UO attack.
The game (if we can even call it that) was essentially another spring practice, just with snazzy, military-themed garb.
“More or less, it is one of 15 (spring) practices,” head coach Mark Helfrich said. “It was like a weighted final type of situation.”
The scoring format and composition of teams made for a peculiar rendition of the usually more fan-friendly spring game, but it was evident to see the Ducks looked like they knew what they were doing.
Mariota was dazzling early on, hitting his targets on 12-of-14 tries, for 154 yards and a score in the first quarter alone (he played every other offensive series). He started the second quarter off with another touchdown connection to Josh Huff. Mariota was pulled following that, finishing before noon with 169 yards and two touchdowns, having linked with Huff four times on just four series.
De’Anthony Thomas was held out of the game with a slight injury, meaning Byron Marshall debuted on the top of the depth chart. He handled the rock for 60 yards on six carries in the first quarter, including a touchdown run and a dash of 26. On one play, he rumbled over a defender while going down, with a bit more heat than coaches may want to see in this setting.
The defense that faced the number one offense early was comprised of the first line of backups. The reserves didn’t fair well against the aforementioned play of Mariota, which was to be expected. On the flipside, the top defenders against the offensive backups looked better, forcing the quarterback combination of Jeff Lockie and Jake Rodrigues to unsuccessful drives in the earlier going.
As the game progressed, the teams became muddled, but by game’s end some Duck defenders had made names for themselves. Christian French, a defensive end, wearing No. 96 (Dion Jordan’s old number) had five tackles and a sack in the first quarter, finishing with nine tackles. Dior Mathis, Oshay Dunmore and Rahim Cassell all logged seven stops apiece.
While appearances in the receiving corps ranged from top-flight Huff to little-known Jeff Bedbury, Bralon Addison had a standout performance with seven grabs for 117 yards and touchdown by halftime.