The Oregon Ducks were justified in wanting to run up the score. They could have gone out to Rich Brooks Field at Autzen Stadium on Saturday night and put up 70 points, and you’d be hard-pressed to find 5 people in your life that shamed them.

After what Stanford did to them last year, and what the Cardinal have repeatedly done to them over the years, no lead should feel safe, and no vengeful act should ever go unnoticed.

The Ducks put it on the Cardinal late on Saturday night. The final score will read 45-27, but this was a game that was far more lopsided than that. Up 31-3 at the half, and then 45-17 in the fourth quarter, it was another game that was never in doubt for Dan Lanning’s young squad. The offense looked great once again — although there were a lot of mistakes to fix — and the defense finally showed up in a fashion that feels commensurate with the unit we envisioned before the year started.

It resulted in a grattifying beatdown that may calm some demons for Oregon fans as they go into Stanford week in years to come.

With the win, the Ducks now sit at 4-1 and are among the best teams in the Pac-12. Here are our biggest takeaways from Saturday’s game.

A Dominant Defense

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We sing the praises of the Ducks an awful lot on this website, but I feel like I’ve been pretty consistent all year in my pleas for the defense to step up and show me something. While the scoreboard will show that they once again gave up more than 25 points, anyone who watched this game knows that it was hands down the best they’ve looked all season.

In the end, Stanford finished with only 332 total yards, picking up 5-of-16 third downs while averaging just 4.6 yards per play and punting 7 times. In the first half alone, the Ducks were at their most dominant, allowing just 30 yards in the first quarter, and 102 in the half.

Oregon’s stars were out to shine, with Brandon Dorlus racking up a pair of sacks with 3 TFL, while Bennett Williams had 7 tackles and a forced fumble, Noah Sewell had 5 tackles and a QB hit, and Christian Gonzalez had a pair of PBUs on the night.

If this defense shows up every week, the Ducks won’t need to rely on their offense to put up 40-plus points to get a win. Of course, we have no problem if they want to anyway.

Those Damn Penalties

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Coming into this game, the Ducks ranked No. 65 in the nation for penalty yards, averaging 56.25 per game.

That number is definitely going to go up after Saturday.

Oregon finished the game with 14 penalties for 135 yards. 14 penalties. 135 yards. That’s pretty bad if you couldn’t tell.

“Extremely alarming, and extremely concerning, and we’re going to work on it,” Lanning said after the game, obviously frustrated with the endless mistakes from his team, particularly in the first half.

It wasn’t just the penalties that were the problem, but the timing of them as well. Last week it was play-calling inside the red zone that killed the Ducks, and this week it looked like it would be unforced errors that would take over the mantle. On Oregon’s first drive of the game, the Ducks got the ball to the Stanford 21. A penalty pushed them back 5 yards. A couple of plays later they made it to the 14, when a false start again pushed them back. Two plays later, another false start stalled the drive.

On the next drive, a holding call on Marcus Harper forced the Ducks’ first punt of the game. In the second quarter, a holding call on Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu stalled a drive. Alex Forsyth was later called for a false start with the ball on the 11-yard line.

There was unsportsmanlike conduct, facemasks, horse collar tackles, and even a fighting penalty that resulted in Seven McGee getting ejected from the game in the first half.

The mistakes were endless, and it saw Oregon racking up their most penalty yardage since 2007.

That needs to get cleaned up in a hurry.

An Unencumbered Offense

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We’re starting to get a big enough sample size to be at the point where I feel confident saying that this Oregon Ducks’ offense is fun. More than that, this offense is electric, as long as it stays out of its own way.

We already touched on the penalties, which arguably kept 14-17 points off of the board for the Ducks on Sunday. Despite all of the negative penalty yardage, Oregon still racked up 515 yards of offense, with 351 of those coming on the ground. The rushing attack was unstoppable, and while Bo Nix at times struggled with his deep ball, the Ducks continually tried to push things down-field through the air and target streaking wide receivers.

Kenny Dillingham is living up to his preseason reputation. He’s attacking open space with his playmakers, throwing out multiple personnel groups, and displaying unique creativity that we haven’t seen in Eugene for years.

If the Ducks can become unencumbered by penalties and mistakes, it’s truly enthralling to think about how dynamic they can be on this side of the ball.

Bo Nix's Expanding Arsenal

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Bo Nix finished the game with 302 total yards and 4 touchdowns. Based on what we’ve seen from him this season, that feels like a pretty normal stat line. Solid, but nothing that is going to make headlines across the nation.

That is until you realize that 141 of those yards and two of those touchdowns came on the ground.

Nix showed a little bit more of his arsenal on Saturday, proving that he doesn’t have to do it all through the air. We knew he could run, but not quite like this.

Early in the game, Nix escaped the pocket to the left side and scampered for 35 yards, a career-long for the fourth-year QB. That, of course, was soon to be outdone after his jaw-dropping 80-yard TD run late in the third quarter, marking the longest run by a QB since Taylor Alie back in 2015. It also made Nix the first Oregon player to rush for more than 100 yards this season.

Don’t go expecting the Ducks’ QB to be like this every game. Stanford ended up giving him running lanes, so he took advantage. That doesn’t mean that he’s going to be the next coming of Michael Vick in Eugene.

It’s good to know, however, that Nix has the speed and elusiveness to get out of the pocket and escape downfield when he needs to. That’s a skill that some of the best quarterbacks — Marcus Mariota, Justin Herbert, Dennis Dixon, Darron Thomas — in Oregon history have been able to do.

Here’s to hoping he can keep it up.

SHOUT

Not to end on a negative note, but something happened near the end of the game on Saturday. It’s possible that the end of an era took place.

While the crowd at Autzen carried on the beloved ritual of singing ‘SHOUT’ during the intermission between 3rd and 4th quarters, the players did not join along. They did not dance, they did not sing, they did not lay on the ground when the music urged them to get “a little bit softer now.”

Instead, they kept their attention tuned to the game and scheming for a fourth quarter with coaches guiding them.

This comes a couple of weeks after Dan Lanning’s comments about having difficulties coaching during ‘SHOUT’ in the BYU game. He didn’t go into detail but said he wanted to figure out a way to get players to have fun, but still be focused on the game. I’ve talked to several players who say no rule has been put into place about a ceratin scoring margin needing to be achieved to partake, and Lanning told me just this last week that “the players know what’s expected of them.”

Apparently, it’s expected that they no longer participate in the joyous tradition.

If it is the end of an era, it’s not the end of the world. It could end up helping the Ducks down the line, giving the coaches more attentive players and a better-prepared team entering the most important quarter of the game. However, it does take away one of the things that make Oregon so great. It takes away the fan interaction and the connection that a lot of players have with the program. It takes away some of the joy inside Autzen Stadium.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about it if this truly is the end. ‘SHOUT’ will go on in the stands, but it will be strange not watching the players as Otis Day and the Knights weave their way through Oregon history on Duck Vision.

If this is the end, then it had a legendary run. It will be missed forever.