You have to classify the 2018 season as a success. The Ducks won nine games, beat both rivals and snapped a three-year bowl victory drought.

The month of December in particular has been a triumph. During the past 31 days Oregon has landed its best recruiting class ever (led by its best recruit ever in Kayvon Thibodeaux), secured the services of Justin Herbert (along with three junior starting offensive lineman) for 2019 despite pressure from the NFL and seemingly have Mario Cristobal locked in for the duration. Cristobal even shot down the possibility of becoming head man at his alma mater on Sunday to stick with Oregon, and his interview with Fox concluded with his players chanting his last name.

Yeah, it's been a good month. And frankly, the trajectory of the program feels headed skyward. With its star quarterback back for another year leading an offense which should be reinvigorated with the additions of numerous talented skill position recruits, the Ducks will be considered Pac-12 favorites and possibly even national title dark horses. That's especially the case when you couple that with a defense which kept the Spartans out of the end zone in Santa Clara and clamped down numerous MSU drives when they needed to most.

But all of what I just wrote might not matter if they can't shore up a few things offensively. Oregon built a ton in 2018, but the one thing they must fix during this offseason is the offense.

I'll be blunt. The 2018 Redbox Bowl was a bore. I guess if a 60-minute game featuring one touchdown is your sort of thing, then you experienced euphoria for roughly three-and-a-half hours on Monday afternoon. But as that's not the case for really anyone outside of Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt and Michigan State defensive coordinator Mike Tressel, then you'll agree with me that the Ducks need to find solutions offensively.

The Ducks basically pieced together one quality drive out of 15 on the day. That went for seven points, and was shockingly enough to win the game. Through three quarters they had more three-and-outs (six) than they did first downs (five) — a stat that basically tells you everything you need to know. During that span, the Ducks rarely threatened, as the furthest they got was the Michigan Stat 42 yard line.

For the day, Oregon gained just 203 yards and had just 11 first downs.

Michigan State deserves a ton of credit. That defense is considered among the best nationally for a reason. They showed it on 14 of 15 drives on Monday. So, struggling like that for 60 minutes isn't exactly a surprise, although this sports writer admitted expected they'd find the end zone more frequently.

But the struggles on Monday haven't been an isolated incident. They were just most evident when playing an elite unit. And those are exactly the types of units the Ducks will face if they want to reach the ultimate prize. Oregon also looked less than stellar in losses to Washington State, Arizona and Utahl. Those games featured slow starts synonymous to today.

To me, the issues are two-fold.

First off, Oregon's receivers need to help their quarterback. If you've read my work you know that I don't believe just Herbert is infallible. I don't think he was perfect on Monday either. But, what I do know is that he had at least half a dozen passes dropped, including several by star Dillon Mitchell who caught the game's only touchdown and won offensive MVP. Herbert can't do this all alone, and when he's facing a defense which simply won't let you run, dropping passes isn't really an option.

Secondly, something just doesn't seem to click with this offense. The blowout in Reser may have quelled some concerns, but what we saw on Monday was more similar to what this group has looked all season than what it did back on Nov. 23 when it nearly ran for 400 yards. I think making a change at offensive coordinator would be fool's gold. Frankly, I'm not sure he's the guy to point a finger at (I'll admit he's probably one of them). But, do you really want Herbert to enter his fourth season with a different man calling plays? I don't.

But, the pistol has been stale at best this season and some of the calls have been head-scratchers. On Monday, Oregon had a chance to really put its foot on the Spartans throat with seven minutes to play. Instead, the Ducks ran Herbert on some bizarre designed run that went nowhere, and then dialed up one of the strangest fake kick calls you'll see this decade. Neither worked, and if not for more great defense, could've cost them the lead.

At the end of the day, something has to be changed, altered or re-worked for this offense to work in 2019. It's possible that surrounding Herbert with better players will do the trick. It's also possible that a second year in Arroyo's offense will too. But my hunch is that changes are required.

I say that because, as I established earlier, the trajectory of this program is headed north. I really think the Ducks are closing in on a second golden period. But, they'll need to be better than that offensively, because continuing that forward trajectory depends upon it.