Sean Meagher | The Oregonian/OregonLive

By Andrew Greif, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oregon Ducks practice report, Oct. 11

Inside the Moshofsky Center

Players in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts

20 minutes of individual drills open to media

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EUGENE - Royce Freeman returned to practice Wednesday at Oregon and for Ducks fans, few sights are more welcome.

But on on a dreary, rainy morning that pushed UO’s workout inside its Mofshofsky Center, the senior running back wasn’t the only notable presence.

Not when Oregon is the most-penalized team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, anyway.

UO brought in three local officials in its latest attempt to crack down on the flags that have followed UO since preseason camp’s scrimmages.

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The Ducks haven’t ignored the issue this season — far from it. It’s one of the most talked-about topics each week and has been reinforced time and again internally. When an underclassman offensive guard false-started Wednesday morning, he was immediately pulled and sent to jog a lap around UO’s indoor practice center.

But the progress that appeared to be made after UO was called for just four penalties Sept. 16 against Wyoming — this after UO was called for 12 apiece in its first two victories — hasn’t continued. Oregon was flagged 10 times apiece in its last two games. UO’s 62 flags overall this season lead the country by six, and its 562 yards from penalties also stands as the FBS leader.

While thousands of booing fans in Autzen Stadium during the past two weeks have voiced their displeasure with judgment-call penalties such as targeting and pass interference, the Ducks have also done themselves no favors. Five of their 10 penalties against Washington State stemmed from false starts.

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“I think when you have double-digit penalties it’s always a concern and you work on it,” Taggart said Monday. “We can’t continue to get false starts. “Those are things that we can control and we can’t continue to get those. I think some of those calls are judgmental and that’s just the way it goes. Some of them are the right calls, so those are the things we deal with.

“We’re working on them, we’re working to get better with the ones that really get at you are the ones that we can control and that’s on us to make sure we work on that every single day.”

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Practice quick hits

— Taggart didn’t bite when asked about where things stand with the quarterback competition between Braxton Burmeister and Taylor Alie, but it appeared Burmeister took reps with starters at a few points.

“Both guys had a good practice yesterday,” Taggart said, “and looking forward to them having an even better practice today.”

Alie, who was unavailable to play last week, will be available against Stanford, Taggart said.

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— Receivers Charles Nelson and Dillon Mitchell and safety Nick Pickett practiced again Wednesday and Taggart said all are back and ready to play Saturday. Center Jake Hanson, however, was held out of several drills during a 20-minute portion of Wednesday’s practice that was open to media. Jake Pisarcik, the starting right guard, shifted over to handle snaps. True freshmen Alex Forsyth and Ryan Walk, who have thus far redshirted the season, are other options further down the depth chart.

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How do you stop Bryce Love?

For the most part, Utah did a good job containing Stanford’s Bryce Love, the country’s leading rusher, last Saturday. On his first 15 carries Love, who is averaging 10.5 yards per carry this season, rushed for just 79 yards combined.

And then he busted a 68-yard touchdown run, marking his eighth consecutive game with a touchdown of at least 50 yards.

Stopping Love is a four-quarter task requiring constant vigilence. And no one’s been able to pull it off so far.

“Man, I would love to hate the guy,” said Taggart, the Stanford running backs coach from 2007-09, “but he’s so good.”

Defensive line coach Joe Salave’a was asked if he’d seen running backs like Love before. He promptly fired back a one-liner: “Yeah, they play on Sundays.”

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Love gets yards in bunches, with an FBS-leading 20 runs of 20 yards or longer, and 30 runs of 10-plus yards. Taken together, 42 percent of his rushing attempts this season have gained at least 10 yards.

Oregon’s tackling issues against Washington State — two misses allowed a short dump-off to turn into a 41-yard first-quarter touchdown — will be in focus Saturday, to say the least.

“It’s crazy,” coordinator Jim Leavitt said. “He’s very, very good.

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“We got to get better. We did some good things, we did some not-so-good things. we’ve just got to get better. They’re trying, they really are, great group of guys.”

Utah did the best job of bottling up Love of any Stanford opponent. Fifteen of his 20 carries went for 4 yards or fewer in Salt Lake City. The Utes’ defensive front is annually renowned as one of the country’s toughest, yet Oregon’s has been better than expected this season. Just five teams have allowed fewer yards per rush this season than UO’s 2.7.

The Ducks were working with a four-down front at times in practice Wednesday, likely part of the latest “heavy” package that UO has unveiled over the years to blunt Stanford’s formations with multiple linemen and tight ends.

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Spoiler: Bryce Love won't be this easy to tackle Saturday. pic.twitter.com/pBYLPnm02F — Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) October 11, 2017

Can UO pick up where Utah left off, and finish the job?

“They’re probably going to try to run it right at us,” corner Arrion Springs said. “We’ve stopped the right thus far this year but this will be our biggest test.

“Stack the box. It’s not just going to be the front seven. the corners have to get involved, as well.”

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George Frey

Chryst is completing 51.6 percent of his passes this season for 615 yars and four touchdowns, with two interceptions. He returned this season despite injuring ligaments in his knee during last season’s Sun Bowl.

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Rotating quarterbacks

Stanford rotated Keller Chryst, the starting quarterback, and backup K.J. Costello against Utah, but UO defenders said there’s not much of a discernible difference between the two.

“They’re both big, tall guys who can run or throw,” Leavitt said.

“Chryst is that big-body type of guy,” Springs said. “He’s more of that traditional Stanford quarterback. They both can throw it. You’ve got to be aware of both of them. For me, it’s not like one’s fast and one’s not fast. They’re both kind of the same guy. It’s basically the same for us (corners). we’ve just got to be on our receivers.”

— Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif