Five questions with Oregon beat writer Andrew Greif

Each Wednesday throughout Cal’s football season, The Chronicle is catching up with a beat reporter for the Bears’ upcoming opponent.

In two games back from a broken index finger, quarterback Vernon Adams appears to have turned a corner.

Coach Mark Helfrich has noted that Adams can go through his progressions more efficiently, rather than appearing to pick a receiver he wants to throw to before the snap and telegraphing the pass.

[...] on his game-tying touchdown pass against Arizona State, with 12 seconds to go, Helfrich pointed out that Adams had his first two progressions wide open in Bralon Addison and Dwayne Stanford.

[...] few quarterbacks could pull off the touchdown pass he threw, and UO doesn’t want to tamp down that ‘playground’ ability of his.

Two of the most experienced replacements, corner Chris Seisay and safety Reggie Daniels, then lost time in late September due to injury, thrusting true freshman corner Ugo Amadi and newcomer safety Juwaan Williams into the rotation.

From speaking with several players, that loss washed away any notion that Oregon carried the same kind of mystique it had developed in recent seasons.

Teams aren’t afraid of Oregon anymore, and it seemed to wake up the Ducks, with several veterans calling out younger teammates for essentially resting on laurels that hadn’t been earned.

Oregon coaches have attempted to rest Freeman wherever possible, wary of overloading him with carries or blocking assignments, and I think part of that comes from last season, when he wasn’t the same player during the College Football Playoff.

[...] his growing comfort as a receiver is paying off.

After 16 catches in 15 games last season, he already has 18 through the first eight games as a sophomore, and is gaining two extra yards per catch.