There’s been a ton of talk about the Oregon Ducks offensive line and their struggles through the first two games of the season, where they allowed seven combined sacks. In Week 3 against Oregon State, the guys up front slammed the door shut on any negative talk about the unit, putting together a resounding performance that kept quarterback Dillon Gabriel’ s jersey clean – no hits, no sacks. It was an unbelievable turnaround.
Marcus Harper II, who has moved around on the interior of the line as head coach Dan Lanning has been shaking things up , knew what this unit was capable of.
“I just told everybody across the line, in the facility, listen, these first couple games, they’re not going how we’re going. There’s no reason for us to lose confidence, like there’s no reason for us to sit up here and question ourselves. We are who we say we are,” Harper told me following Week 3. “I look at it like we were getting the kinks out early. I’d rather it happen early in the season than late in the season. For me, I was like ‘bro, we’re gonna be fine.’ We knew we were waiting for a game like that.”
One of the biggest takeaways from Saturday’s performance from this offensive line was seeing a consistent group up front. From left to right, the line combination was Josh Conerly Jr., Nishad Strother, Iapani laloulu, Harper, and Ajani Cornelius. A week after the offensive line saw a continuous rotating door up front while Lanning was searching for answers, Saturday’s unit locked it down and played every snap until the game was well in hand. The message wasn’t lost on the team.