When head coach Mario Cristobal and offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo decided to go for it on 4th down and 14, it showed they had the upmost confidence in Justin Herbert. When the passing play was completed for a 33 yard touchdown to Jaylon Redd, it showed why. These days, Herbert’s ability isn’t much of a secret anymore.

“To me, that’s as good as a throw you’re going to see,” Arroyo said to the media after Tuesday’s practice. “He did an awesome job. Threaded the needle. We’ve all seen him. His accuracy is above average.

“Great read. Great ball. Great catch.”

That’s the trifecta Oregon’s offense is seeking more consistently — specifically the ‘catching’ part. There were two critical drops on Oregon’s first drive of the season. If either Jaylon Redd of Johnny Johnson would’ve caught the ball, they’d have walked into the end zone.

Both Redd and Johnson redeemed themselves with big scoring plays later in the day. They know, as does Cristobal, that those big plays don’t come very often though. He pointed out during his Monday press conference, you typically don’t get a second chance at a long passing play — but luckily for the Ducks, Bowling Green gave up multiple.

Oregon’s continued attempts to throw the ball deep downfield gave a perfect glimpse into what their offense will look like this season — keeping in mind that we probably weren’t shown much of the playbook though.

Let’s break down Herbert’s stats as they give a clear indication of the passing offense’s identity. He threw for five touchdowns on 10 completions for 281 yards against the Falcons. In game order, here are the passing scoring plays.

33 yard touchdown pass from Herbert to Redd

Nine yard touchdown pass from Herbert to Dillon Mitchell

40 yard touchdown pass from Herbert to Johnson

83 yard touchdown pass from Herbert to Taj Griffin

48 touchdown pass from Herbert to Redd

The average touchdown pass went for 42.6 yards. Out Herbert’s 281 passing yards, 213 of those yards came on his touchdown throws. Another way to look at it is 75.8% of Herbert’s passing yards came on scoring plays.

Throughout Herbert’s career, he has thrown for 39 touchdown passes (including his five passing touchdowns against Bowling Green). Here’s the distance breakdown of those passing touchdowns. In parentheses shows the amount of touchdowns Herbert threw at that distance against the Falcons.

0-9 Yards ………………………….12 (1)

10-19 Yards ………………………11

20-29 Yards ……………………...4

30-39 Yards ………………………8 (1)

40-49 Yards ………………………3 (2)

50+ Yards ………………………….1 (1)

Out of Herbert’s four touchdown passes he has thrown for over 40 yards throughout his career, three of them came in the first game of the 2018 season. That’s a huge indication of how much the Ducks’ offense plans to attack using the deep ball. Of course, they have the perfect quarterback for it.

That scheme relies upon receivers making difficult catches. Dropped passes are currently a huge concern, but Herbert expressed to the media on Tuesday that he trusts they'll make the next ones.

Well, the Ducks’ offense has two non-conference games to get those mistakes out of the way before one of their biggest games of the season against Stanford. As seen in the past two seasons, mistakes, especially when made early, could put a quick end to a hopeful upset win.

A chance to improve though starts this Saturday against in-state foe Portland State. The Vikings gave up 72 points to Nevada last Saturday in a loss. Oregon will win this game, and will move the ball in any way they please — but the Ducks need to walk away from this game having accomplished two things: no injuries and no dropped passes.

Will the receivers hold up their end of the bargain?