We all knew that Oregon was going to put a pretty good beating on New Mexico, but I don't think anyone expected that.
Oregon made few mistakes on the day, made a few big plays, and dominated New Mexico in every possible way. Oregon was up 59-0 at the half, en route to a 72-0 victory. They had 720, eclipsing the 694 yards accumulated during 65-38 (that's kinda bittersweet, I enjoyed that one being in the recordbooks).
The two individual stars were Kenjon Barner, who had 225 all purpose yards and 5 touchdowns, and Cliff Harris, who returned two punts for touchdowns in the second quarter.
The defense was as advertised, forcing 5 turnovers and holding the Lobos to 107 yards and 8 first downs. New Mexico was totally unaccustomed to playing against a team of Oregon's speed and strength, and could barely hold onto the ball, fumbling on seemingly every other play. One of my favorite defensive plays was by Casey Matthews, who showed his increased speed by sticking with a slot receiver and moving on the ball during the first quarter.
While the Ducks were dominant, there were luckily a few teachable moments. Darron Thomas started Oregon's first drive with an absolutely horrendous interception on a screen. He apparently didn't even look to see where the defense was before dumping it off, a situation I'm sure will be rectified (It now seems like there was a blown assignment on the play, but still, Thomas can't throw that). While Thomas was good overall, and showed some flashes of greatness (including a great pass downfield to David Paulsen for the Ducks third touchdown), he also was a bit erratic with his accuracy. He had a lot of opportunities to hit open receivers, but was throwing high quite a bit. I'm hopeful this was just first game jitters. Overall, Thomas has a solid debut, with enough good and bad to be optimistic about his production this season.
The only other glaring issue with the offense was the penalty problems that the backup offensive linemen had. But getting some game experience against an FBS school will hopefully help straighten that issue out.
Defensively, the Ducks probably should have given up a few points. New Mexico had a few chances to get the ball downfield, but missed some wide open receivers. After New Mexico missed those opportunities, the Ducks would not give them another shot. New mexico was 3/13 on 3rd down conversions and 0/4 on 4th down conversions.
It was a great day to be a Duck, as Oregon did exactly what they needed to, and were the most dominant team in the country this week. Football season is back! And this was a great way to start it.