1. Offense: Hard to complain about anything offensively when you score five first half TDs. Similarly to UCLA, MSU and Purdue, I think it's important that we separate the offensive performance into competitive time versus garbage time to assess the unit. For the 4th conference game out of five, the game was in hand at halftime and we saw a very limited  and toned back offense come the second half. Good problem to have. As far as the first half goes, Gabriel was his usual self; 16 for 20 with 3 TDs and the offensive line completely controlled the game. We ran the ball efficiently, and again gave Jordan James a light work day. I’ve given Noah Whittington a hard time this season, but this was his best game since 2022. He looked strong, fast and decisive and his continued health back from injury is a big development as the season progresses. As Justius Lowe and Kenyon Saqiq grow into bigger roles, the weaponry at Gabriel’s disposal is as good as any team out there. It’s crazy to score 5 TDs in the first half against a good team with your starting TE out, 2nd WR only catching one ball, and 3rd WR mostly benched. Our offensive versatility and balance is going to be a problem as the season goes, and I loved the way in which Stein constantly kept the Illini on their toes. We saw new run game wrinkles and misdirection, TE bubble screens and sweeps to Sadiq, misdirection screen to Herbert, throwback to Tez, just to name a few. As long as we continue to play clean when it comes to turnovers and penalties, few teams will slow us down.

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2. Defense: This unit is moving towards becoming the best Oregon defense I’ve seen in my lifetime as a fan. We broke into the top ten of scoring defense nationally this week, and as I touch on below, this could easily have been a second straight shutout. There are just a ton of players playing at a great to dominant level right now. Beyond the talent, the experience of our entire defense is leading to the best assignment football of the last 15 years. Specifically within our secondary, we are glued to receivers and I can barely count the number of truly open completions over the last month.