The A-Bomb: Nix’s protection against Red Raiders was downright “offensive”

A well-known fact among Duck fans, or any college football fans in general, is that Oregon quarterback Bo Nix is fast.

Maybe not quite Dennis Dixon or Marcus Mariota fast, but the boy’s got wheels.

And thank God for that!

Oregon came from behind on another clutch performance by Bo to win 38-30 in a battle in Lubbock.

Nix was 32-of-44 for 359 yards and two touchdowns, earning himself Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week. Further impressive stats by the underrated and underappreciated (at least in the national media) signal caller.

But what won’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet was the number of times Nix was flushed from the pocket, the number of times he had a man on his heels, the number of times he had to use that impressive speed of his for an escape act.

Namely, Bo was running for his life Saturday night down in the Lone Star State.

Now, Texas Tech has some absolute bulls on their defensive line, and their defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter (‘memba him?) was dialing up a ton of pressure. But one thing was for certain; the inexperience of the 2023 Offensive Line showed.

This is to be expected. As we’ve alluded to many times on our podcasts, the O-Line is not an area you can just fish for transfers and plug people into spots. It functions as a cohesive unit. The most effective ones are battle-tested and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

We could use an Alex Forsyth right about now, couldn’t we?

Nix doesn’t have the same luxury he did last season. The Offensive Line has a lot of growing up to do. Better believe Pac-12 coaches will pull up tape of Texas Tech and see how effective its blitz scheme was.

Oregon has one more tune-up game this weekend before Coach prime brings his rejuvenated Buffs to town, and things will only get tougher from there.

Nix is one of the most efficient passers in the country, and Will Stein’s scheme doesn’t appear to have caused him to miss a beat.

But like cell phones in the modern day, he could do with some more pocket time.