The Ducks concluded their spring camp on Saturday with the annual Spring Scrimmage. In a offense vs defense format, the offense won the modified scrimmage by a score of 59 to 34.

Oregon saw a majority of their roster play in the scrimmage with a handful of players out due to injuries. The Ducks used all three scholarship quarterbacks, with Justin herbert taking the starting reps followed by sophomore Braxton Burmeister and freshman Tyler Shough.

With 133 days until the Ducks open the season against Bowling Green fans and the media got a luck at what they can expect from the Ducks in the 2018 season. Mario Cristobal stayed on the field for the entirety of the scrimmage, running the practice and monitoring both teams.





Here’s Duck Territory’s five instant takeaways from the Oregon Spring Game:

The Pistol

Based on what we saw during the spring game, the pistol will become a big part of Oregon’s offense in 2018. In the first half of the scrimmage, over 70% of the Ducks plays were run out of a pistol set. With the addition of running backs coach Jim Mastro in the offseason, we expected the Piston to become part of the playbook. Mastro had a big part in the development of the Pistol at Nevada and is bringing that knowledge to Cristobal’s offense.

CJ Verdell

Tony Brook-James was the presumed starting running back but he may have a challenger in CJ Verdell. The redshirt freshman opened the scrimmage with a 20 yard run then added two touchdowns, both on 5 yard runs. Overall, Verdell finished the day with 44 yards on eight attempts.

What made Verdell impressive on his eight carries was his explosiveness off the ball and his push through first contact. The defense had a hard time stopping Verdell on the line as the 5-foot-9, 202 pound back pushed for extra yards. We’d expect Verdell to play a big part in the 2018 offense.

Quarterbacks

Oregon won’t have a QB controversy in 2018. Although Justin Herbert looked average on Saturday, he had command of the offense. Herbert finished his day 12-21 with 126 yards, one touchdown and one interception, due to a missed catch by a wide receiver. The line isn’t impressive but Herbert had multiple drops where the receiver couldn’t hang onto the pass, including two potential touchdowns.

Behind Herbert, Braxton Burmeister took second team reps and ended the day 7-12 with 64 yards and one touchdown. The true freshman Tyler Shough followed Burmerister with a more impressive line of 5-8 with 103 yards and two touchdowns. Saturday didn’t provide a ton of clarity as to who will be the backup in 2018 but Duck fans should feel more confident about their backups than in 2017.

Receivers and Daewood Davis

Oregon will have issues at wide receiver in 2018. Quarterbacks had to deal with numerous drops off the receivers hands. With only two new wide receivers, JJ Tucker and Isaah Crocker coming in this summer, Oregon’s receivers will have work to do this summer to keep the offense moving next season.

One bright spot of the receivers was Daewood Davis. The redshirt frosh caught a 36-yard touchdown from Shough in the first half that showed the speed Davis can bring to the receiving corps. Davis used his speed and agility to break off the corners and created good separation catching all three of his targets for 75 yards on the day.

Penalties

One of the weakest spots of the Ducks 2017 team was penalties. Oregon was last in FBS for total penalties and Cristobal has made that a point of focus this spring. The Ducks were penalized as a team 9 times on saturday for a total of 57 yards.

That just isn’t good. While Thomas Graham had one pass interference call that could be argued as a “good penalty”, the rest were the result of mental mistakes. Oregon will need to work on reducing penalties on the lines, the Ducks had multiple false start and offsides calls and Cristobal will need to stop the self inflicted wounds that Taggart couldn’t.

Bonus: Recruiting

The Ducks are in the midst of one of their biggest recruiting weekend’s ever. Oregon has already landed 3 commits on the day and more could be coming.

Ducks Territory has interviews with all three of Oregon’s commits today right here:

Mase Funa

Jayvaun Wilson

Cameron Williams

For news on the rest of the recruiting weekend, you can FOLLOW ALONG HERE.