5 Things To Watch: Oregon-Boise State

The No. 7 Oregon football team returns to action Saturday when the Ducks host Boise State in Autzen Stadium at 7 p.m.

The UO football team opened its season with a 24-14 win at home over Idaho. The Broncos also are 1-0, having won 56-45 at Georgia Southern last week.

Boise State leads the all-time series between the two, 3-0, sweeping a home-and-home series in 2008 and 2009 and beating the Ducks in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl.

Saturday's game will be streamed by Peacock, with Andrew Siciliano on play by play, Michael Robinson providing analysis and Laura Britt reporting from the sidelines.

Some storylines to watch once the game kicks off …

1. The opposing player to watch this week is Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty. The 5-foot-9, 215-pound junior set school records with 267 rushing yards and six touchdowns last week, and he has the Ducks' full attention.

"I think he's the best running back I've seen since I've been here," UO coach Dan Lanning said. "He's certainly an NFL guy, and he doesn't go down on first contact ever. He's one of the best stiff-arm guys that we've gone against. He runs really, really physical."

A year ago Oregon had one of the better run defenses in the country, and the UO defense allowed just 49 rushing yards a week ago. The Ducks' ability to corral Jeanty would be helped by the presence of linebacker Jeffrey Bassa, who was limited for portions of the Idaho game.

2. The final box score last week showed Oregon with nearly 500 yards of offense, led by a couple of prolific individual performances. Quarterback Dillon Gabriel tied the UO single-game record with 41 completions, and Tez Johnson tied his career high with 12 receptions.

But all of that only resulted in 24 points, as the Ducks had some untimely breakdowns that kept them from turning yards into points. The UO offense will look to cut down on penalties this week, and to run the ball more effectively.

"I felt like at times on offense we didn't execute well," Gabriel said. "We didn't give ourselves a chance to do that. It starts with me, for sure. I'm the guy who snaps it and gets us in the right looks, and pushes the tempo or controls it. At times we didn't do that."

3. A more effective running game would help keep the defense honest, after Idaho was able to focus on limiting explosive plays a week ago.

With the Ducks struggling to execute their rushing offense, the Vandals were able to let their secondary focus on eliminating big plays in the passing game. Oregon didn't have a single pass play of 25 yards or longer against Idaho, after having 35 receptions of 30 yards or more a year ago.

"They just eliminated some of those opportunities to take those shots," Lanning said. "I think more of your explosives are going to come whenever you do catch the ball in space, (and then) who's going to break a tackle, who's going to go cover up on the block downfield? Those are the things that we've got to do a better job taking care of."

4. Confidence and momentum are key in any game, and the Ducks can build some of both with a fast start to Saturday's game.

Boise State has never lost to Oregon, and the Broncos will be looking to protect that record Saturday night. If the Ducks can click earlier and more often than they did a week ago, they can keep the visitors from grabbing the confidence and momentum.

5. Last week's win over Idaho was Oregon's 33rd consecutive nonconference home victory, the longest active streak in the nation. The last time the Ducks lost a nonconference game at Auzten? Sept. 20, 2008, against … Boise State.

Fans can do their part to help lift the Ducks to another home win. Don't be afraid to get loud Saturday night — even though Oregon is at home this week, the Ducks piped in artificial crowd noise for portions of practice to prepare for a raucous environment.

"We try to create crowd noise and some chaos at practice, so whenever it does show up we're prepared for it," Lanning said. "We'll get that on offense when we're on the road, and obviously on defense we get it here at home. So we have to be able to practice it."