Oregon Ducks Look To Fix Penalty Problems Against Hawaii

By STEVEN VAUGHAN, 750 THE GAME

Even though the Ducks beat Texas Tech on Saturday, head coach Dan Lanning felt like there were a lot of missed opportunities down in Lubbock. Penalties and mistakes kept the Red Raiders in the game, but ultimately the Ducks won 38-30.

Oregon is a program that doesn’t look back, they look forward. Lanning made that clear, but he also wants the team to learn from their mistakes. Lanning talked at his press conference and said that there were a ton of little mistakes that cost the team points and eventually could cost the team a win.

“First thing we put up in front of our players today is a penalty and then acknowledging how that drive finished when we had a penalty within that drive. False start. Punt. False start. Punt. False start. Punt. Pass interference. Touchdown. Pass interference. Touchdown.”

The Ducks are now looking ahead to a game against Hawaii at Autzen Stadium. Lanning says if they can address those problems it will make a huge difference.

“If we eliminate some really careless errors and figure out ways to drill those things in practice it’s going to make us a completely different team,” he said.

The Rainbow Warriors will be Oregon’s next test. Timmy Chang was a record setting quarterback in his time at Hawaii. Chang is second all time in the NCAA in passing yards, and is now the head coach for the Warriors. Lanning knows that Hawaii is going to try and take advantage of the Ducks defensive pass interference mistakes by throwing the ball down the field.

“They (Hawaii) air it out,” he said. “Their quarterback has probably the strongest arm, as far as getting it down the field, that we’ve seen so far this year. They connect on deep shots. I think they throw for over 350 yards a game.”

The Ducks are big time favorites in this game. As of Tuesday, Oregon is a 38-point favorite over Hawaii. But this matchup against Hawaii is a different type of game for the Ducks as Hawaii has played three games this season and is a team that wants to air it out. A test for the Ducks secondary on Saturday.

Check out Lanning’s full press conference below as Oregon hosts Hawaii at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday on Pac-12 Network.

@steven_von