The 2016 Valero Alamo Bowl was a gut-wrenching tale of two polar-opposite halves. The Oregon Ducks had racked up 376 yards of offense and led the TCU Horned Frogs 31-0 at halftime. In the second half, they gave up 31 points, scored none and amassed just 19 yards on 18 offensive plays.
At the end of triple-overtime, the Ducks lost 47-41.
“A lot of guys got comfortable, and just put it in cruise control,” defensive back Charles Nelson said. “You just can’t do that in a game like this.”
The Ducks looked like a completely different team in the second half, in large part because quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. — whose presence on the field has been directly correlated with their success — was in street clothes on the sidelines. Adams, who sustained a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit just before the end of the second quarter, was escorted to the locker room and did not return to action.
Back-up quarterback Jeff Lockie replaced him, and couldn’t get a thing going offensively. The last time Lockie saw significant playing time was against Washington State on Oct. 10, when Adams was out with a broken finger and the Ducks blew a fourth quarter lead and fell 45-38, also in triple-overtime.
Lockie received numerous low snaps from center Doug Brenner, who replaced starting center Matt Hegarty after Hegarty also sustained a game-ending injury. The low-snaps weren’t the result of a miscommunication on his or Lockie’s part — they were “just low,” Brenner said.
Several of the snaps Lockie received hit the ground, including one that initially appeared to have resulted in a long touchdown to wide receiver Darren Carrington on a slant route. But as Lockie bent down to pick up the ball, his knee touched the ground, and the play was ruled dead, wiping the touchdown off the board.
Lockie also dropped a crucial snap on third down in the third overtime period — the ball was low, but it went through his hands and hit him in the stomach — and he took a sack. The next play he threw an incomplete pass that ended the game and sealed TCU’s miraculous comeback.
“It’s my responsibility to catch the ball,” Lockie said. “Sometimes that happens, and I just need to do a better job.”
Adams and Hegarty were both graduate transfers for the Ducks this season, and the utter incompetence of their back-ups is a frightening look ahead to next season. Oregon has another graduate transfer quarterback, Dakota Prukop from Montana State, committed to play his final year of eligibilty for Oregon in 2016, but the fact that depth was so thin this season is troubling.
“We need to improve our depth,” defensive coordinator Don Pellum said. “We need to be able to go longer and deeper.”
Despite Lockie’s blatant struggles, head coach Mark Helfrich didn’t consider a quarterback change in the second half.
“There weren’t a ton of options there available,” Helfrich said. “Certainly you want quality depth, and [the quarterback] position is absolutely at a premium.”
Including Prukop, the Ducks could potentially have many quarterbacks competing for the starting job next year. Lockie, walk-on Taylor Alie, former four-star recruit Morgan Mahalak and redshirt freshman Travis Jonsen are all expected to return to the roster. Additionally, high school recruits Terry Wilson, Justin Herbert and Tristen Wallace could enter the competition.
Oregon has not had much luck developing its recent quarterback recruits, however, so a broader competition does not necessarily imply future success. During the three and a half regular season games Adams sat out due to injury this year, the Ducks played downright poor football. They got trounced by Utah and stunned by Washington State at home, and barely threw the ball against Georgia State and Colorado — the games they won.
Helfrich said he has confidence in all his quarterbacks, but he may be the only one.
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby