Oregon Ducks Defensive Players of the Game vs. Eastern Washington

Oregon's defense turned in a dominant effort only allowing 14 points to Eastern Washington.

Max Torres | Sep 12, 2022

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Oregon's defense looked like an improved unit on Saturday.

They got after Gunner Talkington and never allowed him and the Eagles to find any sort of rhythm at Autzen Stadium.

With such a dominant win, a lot of young players were able to get important snaps including Keith Brown, Jalil Tucker, Ben Roberts and Sir Mells among others.

Here are our defensive players of the game.

#0 Christian Gonzalez-Cornerback

After a rough showing in week one against Georgia, Gonzalez had something to prove in this game. As Oregon's top cornerback, it was an encouraging sign to see him come away with an interception, make a play after the catch, and shut down the Eastern Washington aerial threat.

#11 Trikweze Bridges-Cornerback

In the same vein as Gonzalez, I wanted to see a solid game out of Bridges. He showed why he developed a reputation as a ball hawk in high school with a great interception and almost had a pick-six before fumbling the ball at the two-yard line.

Dan Lanning and Tosh Lupoi will need guys like Bridges and Dontae Manning to continue to step up on a weekly basis if they want to develop into the top defense in the conference.

#2 DJ Johnson-Outside linebacker

Johnson is arguably Oregon's most athletic defender and he'll be called upon in the team's biggest games this season.

He got his first sack of the year against Eastern Washington and recorded three total tackles on the day. Overall I'd say he's moving better than he did last year and he looks much closer to 270 than a season ago and he'll continue to make strides with each week as the season goes on.

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Published Sep 12, 2022

MAX TORRES

Max Torres is the publisher and lead editor of Ducks Digest. He's covered the Oregon football and recruiting beats for four years. He's based out of Long Beach, CA and travels around Southern California and the country covering top high school football prospects.