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After a flat performance at Arizona, Oregon coach Mark Helfrich says he needs to do a better job studying his players to figure out what makes them tick.

(Bruce Ely/The Oregonian)

On the eve of an oh-so-important game at Arizona, Oregon coach Mark Helfrich didn’t like the body language of his team. The first-year coach described his players as “lax.”

“I thought we addressed it,’’ Helfrich said, before immediately catching himself. “Well, I don’t think; I addressed it at the time.’’

When he observed his team Friday night, he said the attitude was better. And in Saturday morning’s meetings, he said he felt the mindset had shifted.

“It wasn’t a big ‘We can just show up and blow these guys out’ type of mentality at all,’’ Helfrich said.

But by Saturday afternoon, it was clear to everybody that the Ducks were unprepared, undisciplined and uninspired during their 42-16 loss to Arizona.

“They kicked our (behind),’’ senior receiver Josh Huff said. “They just came out and played harder than us.’’

It’s one thing to lose a game like the Ducks did at Stanford. Fans can more easily accept when mistakes, like fumbles inside the five yard line, or missed opportunities, like fourth-down misfires, are the reason for a loss.

But effort? Nobody wants to hear that.

“We just came out flat,’’ Huff said, before adding later, “We had no energy. Arizona played with a lot of emotion - it was their last home game. They didn’t have anything to lose and that’s how they played. They went out there and left it out on the field.’’

The Ducks, on the other hand, never brought anything to the field. When the Ducks were trailing 28-9 and were stopped on fourth down at the Arizona 6 -- the same not-even-close fade route that failed at Stanford -- Huff said he could see the what little life the Ducks had start to flicker.

“After they stopped us on four downs ... running off the field and seeing guys facial expressions,’’ Huff said. “It was just like ... ‘Wow.’ But you know, we kept fighting. It just wasn’t enough.’’

To his credit, Helfrich owned the Ducks’ performance. He said it was “100 percent” on him. The effort, the attention, the preparation ... all of it was on him.

For the Oregon football program, it was a painful, and costly, time for their first-year coach to learn a lesson.

This is one of - if not the - best rosters ever assembled by the Ducks. A cupcake schedule, and a weak bottom-end of the Pac-12, helped mask some attention-to-detail deficiencies throughout the year. In the season’s second game, at Virginia, the Ducks had 11 penalties for 119 yards, including six 15-yard infractions. At Colorado, the Ducks were lethargic and slow to react before a halftime tongue-lashing from the coaching staff woke them up. And in the last four games, the Ducks have had slow starts (re: not ready to play).

If there is a bright spot to all this, it is this: Part of what makes a great leader is admitting fault, and Helfrich has identified where he needs to grow. After Saturday’s defeat, he said he needs to start developing a deeper understanding of his roster.

“Get to know the ins-and-outs of some of these guys’ motivation ... how guys react to success, how they react to failure,’’ Helfrich said.

On Friday, in the 117th Civil War, we will find out how Helfrich reacts to the biggest failure of his short career. The loss at Arizona cost him a chance at more than $250,000 in bonuses this year, plus a chance to activate a clause that would add another year to his five-year contract. Whether it will cost him potential recruits remains to be seen.

By all accounts, Helfrich is a bright and charismatic coach, with a great future ahead of him. But this was the price the Ducks paid in handing over the keys of a championship-caliber team to a coach who has never had to be THE leader, THE tone-setter, THE man.

It’s one thing to know x’s and o’s. But it’s an entirely different thing knowing how to motivate, how to inspire, how to discipline. Chip Kelly, his predecessor, was a master at both the tactics and psychology of coaching. Helfrich may very well be good at both as well ... some day. After all, Helfrich looked like a pretty darn good coach when the Ducks were 8-0 and routing the likes of Washington and UCLA.

But as this weekend showed, there is room for growth.

It’s just a bad time for that to be revealed.