regon’s first-year coach Willie Taggart broke up his football team Saturday into two squads that provided a relatively competitive spring game with the grey (Team Free) defeating the black (Team Brave) 34-11.

Duck fans traditionally support their spring game in greater numbers than any other Pac-12 team and on this day 36,824 basked in sunshine at Autzen Stadium. Although many probably still had symptoms of post-traumatic stress from last year’s dismal season, there was evidence fans might see better times coming this fall.

The two teams were established by a draft conducted by the coaching staff, so there was bound to be some fall off in execution as position groups were split up in a mixture of first- and second-line players. This can have a more serious effect on the execution of the offensive line and defensive secondary and so it was not unusual to see breakdowns in those areas Saturday that, hopefully, will be ironed out before the Ducks take on Southern Utah in their home opener Sept. 2.

Team Free had the experienced quarterback, with Justin Herbert completing 12-of-20 passes for 189 yards, two scores and no interceptions on his way to a 14-3 halftime lead. On the other side the two inexperienced quarterbacks, Travis Jonsen and Braxton Burmeister, each threw an interception. Jonsen was 5-of-12 for 86 yards, the longest a 44-yarder to Dillon Mitchell, and Burmeister was 1-of-4 for 24 yards.

Jonsen missed a couple of reads on passes and Burmeister finished strong, driving Team Brave 65 yards in 16 plays for a touchdown and two-point conversion to cut the score to 28-11 in the fourth quarter. Herbert threw a 25-yard scoring pass to Darren Carrington on the last play of the game on a trick play as the substitutes on the sideline jumped up and down in a commotion as the ball was snapped that allowed Carrington to sneak down to the corner of the end zone unnoticed until too late by the defense.

For the contest, Herbert completed 16-of-26 throws to eight different receivers for 327 yards and three scores. Protected by several backup offensive linemen, he was sacked four times, which should be unacceptable by September. Carrington finished a strong spring with four catches for three touchdowns and 116 yards, 48 of which were gained when he outjumped and outfought two defenders on a deep route down the sideline.

Although Team Brave had skill stars Charles Nelson, Tony Brooks-James, Dillon Mitchell and Jacob Breeland, it was able to scratch out only 149 total yards through the air. Jonsen was 5-of-15 for 86 yards and Burmeister 3-of-7 for 63 yards.

From my perspective, Burmeister showed the most poise and some quickness avoiding the rush and running the ball up field. He also looks to be more physical than Jonsen.

Team Free’s Kani Benoit was the top rusher with 109 yards, most of it coming on a 95-yard touchdown run, and Royce Freeman added 43 yards on 12 carries. For the Brave team, Brooks-James gained 84 yards on 24 carries, and Burmeister 32 more. The number of sacks (nine) the relative low rushing totals (Free 139, Brave 128), and poor third-down conversion rates (Free 3-of-9, Brave 6-of-19) were most likely products of the split squads. Those totals will need to get better in the fall.

The kicking game is hard to judge in a spring game because it doesn’t receive the same emphasis that it will have in the fall. The punting duties were performed by Team Free’s Blake Maimone, who averaged 45.2 yards per punt, and Team Brave’s Adam Stack, with 42.5 per attempt. Compared to last year’s excellent punting by Ian Wheeler, today’s candidates will need a lot of work to reach Wheeler’s level by the fall as the punt averages were better than the actual punts.

Not much to say about the defense other than the players ran harder and faster than anytime last season and looked to be better drilled. It’s hard to judge a defense in the spring because they aren’t going to have all the weapons they will need for the fall, especially because it’s a new coaching staff and a new concept.

It appears defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt has the experience, spark and enthusiasm to lead the resurrection of a defense that was the laughing stock of the Pac-12 last year. There definitely needs to be more athletic talent to make this defense good enough for the Ducks to be a contender in the future.

The defenses for both teams had 123 plays, which is a big number for a spring game. Linebacker Blake Rugraff had 11 solo tackles for the Brave, reinforced by Duck I (nickel back) defender Fotu Leiato, who had five, and Mattrell McGraw, Tyree Robinson and Henry Mondeaux, who had three each. The Free’s defense was led by linebacker A.J. Hotchkins’ seven tackles, Troy Dye’s six, freshman safety Brady Breeze’s five, and four each by Hunter Kampmoyer and linebacker Jonah Moi.

Scheme-wise, both defenses struggled covering the flat on certain pass situations and inside zone running plays, bouncing outside the tackle gap. Again, without knowing exactly what the defensive calls were, or what the coaches either wanted or didn’t want, it’s difficult to analyze.

“We have some players on this football team, guys who can play at a high level, and have shown that,” Taggart observed uring the spring. “I think the key is for our kids to play for each other. When I watch film from last year, I didn’t see a team that cared for each other. I personally believe if they did, we would probably have won more games.”