oregon123

The formula to stop the Ducks offense: Big aggressive, strong, fast front 7. Pressure on Dante. All receivers covered. Shut down run game. Load the box. Don't give Dante time. Athletic linebackers give the Ducks trouble. This past season, the O line was getting burned on pass rush. So they could get away with crowding the line of scrimmage. In this case, screens don't work. RPO won't work either unless there is a deep threat. And Dante was a non runner for the most part. Even when he did run, he was not very effective. I suspect that teams caught up to Stein's bag of tricks. I think Lanning hired from within so he could put in his changes. Dante has the best pure arm Oregon ever had. At least recently. And they have speed at receivers. Time to open it up. If all you do is run (or screen) on 1st and 2nd down, and then throw just to the sticks on 3rd, that is very predictable. Even more so when they watch film and know all your plays.

This is about the only unit I have questions about going into next year. And it's just because I haven't seen a lot from the new starters. And it is really about giving Dante time when they get to the playoffs.

They didn't seem to pass protect as well as the 2024 guys, but I sure did like seeing Harkey throw some nasty blocks. That dude is an animal.

I am cautiously optimistic. These players have been developing in the system, so there should be more of a known factor than bringing a guy from the portal. I think the biggest 'win' was not seeing so many of leave like the D line just did. On the upside, we should see them play well as a unit because they have been practicing together for so long in the same system. Last point: Seaton was great in the Big 12, but they don't have same kind of defensive players as the Big 10, except for Texas Tech. It will be interesting to see how he does vs SEC rushers.

I hope LSU loses half their games.

I don't know about 'peaking' anymore. I think it is more about players knowing how to execute their assignments without making mistakes. That and getting ready to compete against better players when playoffs roll around.

Hey, he could have went to 'Action U', I mean the university of Akron Ohio. I grew up in the area. It was the place for high school players to keep playing if they weren't big enough to play at a real college. Novosad and Luke Moga could play at the smallest of venues and light up the conference - then go play on a real team their senior year. In today's world - actually not a bad strategy. It seems that the bad strategy these days is to sign with a big program that almost always gets its QBs from the portal.

Underthrowing a ball into double coverage usually doesn't work out. To do that, you need a receiver who will adjust and fight for the ball instead of staying on his route and waiting for it to come to him. Either way, Beck still had time and he did not need to make that desperation attempt quite so early.

Penn St should have learned that lesson. They lost to the Ducks for their first loss and their whole season imploded and then they fired their head coach. They went 'all in' on that white out and flamed out after that. Then a whole lot of their team and recruiting class disappeared. It may take them a very long time to bounce back. And they all went nuts because they lost in overtime. When they played Indiana, it was close but by that time, the program was in the toilet. Some Oregon fans lose their minds when bad things happen, but the Oregon football ecosystem puts it in perspective and keeps chugging along. That first half vs Indiana in the playoffs was about as bad as bad can get. Gear up and get ready for next season. Ducks had some very good wins this season.

OOOOOOhhhhhh, that's different! Great Point! And you know what? If nobody is open then instead of throwing it away, run a few steps and go down, or a path might be avail to the endzone. Play calling to mix up what they think is coming is a good way to gain an advantage. Another option on 3rd down could have been a zone read to keep it and go outside if the DE crashes. Nobody deep in the playoffs is going to smash it thru a loaded box when everyone knows it is coming.

I thought about that too at the time. But it would have made it too easy to get a field goal and tie the game, especially with today's kickers in warm weather with not much wind. It would have been different if they were playing in a place like Green Bay. The loss of the offense's time out becomes huge if there is a sack. And once a team gets in the red zone, they have to keep throwing it or run out of time. But before that decision is made, it pays off to go for two early in the game so a situation like that does not become a tie. Of course if you don't make it, then you are playing 'catch up' to get that missed point back. I like taking the chance deep in their zone on 4th down earlier in the game. If you don't make it, most of the time they will punt deep and you get the ball back mid field or closer - then it is pretty easy to get that field goal back that you passed up.

I say possibly a loss or two regular season or conf championship game, but they make it to the finals. More young talent gets on the field. Veterans improve from this past season. Team plays better as a unit.

How about Dante learns how to run like Bo Nix in his second year of starting at Oregon? But as for your comment, I liked Bo Nix AFTER the Georgia game. That seemed to be when he stopped being the old Bo Nix and became the new Bo Nix.

I thought Miami was going to score a TD and win the game. They blew it. A great QB doesn't blow it when it counts the most. What I can imagine a coach saying in that spot would be: "Don't give it away, focus on your assignments and make them earn it".

Pass protection and pass rush were below the standard especially against the better teams. Everything else was very good. Dante needs to learn what to do when under pressure - but he is so good at everything else, he has that as his only item to work on. During games, mistakes were made, most not fatal, but some were to the season. Final Grade: A--- 1 minus for pass protection, 1 for lack of pass rush, and 1 for mistakes, the A for achieving with new players

With 5 DBs and 2 inside linebackers and only 2 big defensive linemen, the edge players have to do two jobs: be a defensive end when needed and be an athletic blitzing outside linebacker when needed. It is a tall order. The inside linebackers need to be faster and react quicker, which would help. When the edge players get locked up in a wrestling match with the offensive tackles, the QB has a lot of time to scan the field. I think the key to winning games is having the best offensive tackles and edge players on your team. Which is why I feel that the 2019 team was such a disappointment because they had the best O tackle and best edge in all of college football that year. A 3 man D line will not work because you always need a blitzer and option plays will pick that apart. Oregon needs to recruit to fill the prototype of the edge player because not many top edges make it to the portal. I also think that aggressive DBs can help on the run game, taking some of the pressure off the edge players. Oregon edge players need to be sack machines.

Oregon playing its best game could have beaten either of those teams. Something to be said for a team that plays well together. Playing as a team is more important that the number of individual stars. Miami had it at the end with plenty of time but they blew it. Indiana is really good at going after the ball on defense. Indiana earned it by being the most complete team all season long.

Derrick Harmon, Bear Alexander, Jordan Burch at the top because D linemen are hard to find. What would Oregon be like those seasons without them? Answer: not as good Below that, I go with Bo Nix and Tez Johnson due to production. I rate Bo Nix to be the best QB to play at Oregon.

Oregon needs to get him. He is worth the cost. Offensive linemen can be moved around. And he doesn't need to start this year. The Oregon pass protection was not as good as last year, so it seemed. Here is a good question to fellow forum people: If Ducks get him, on average, how many more points a game does Oregon score? Another question: If Ducks get him, on average, how many fewer hits on the QB happen per game? When you look at it that way, it starts to make sense.

I don't know why so many of the D line backups have left. Could it be money? Could it be playing time? Did the staff feel that those guys are not top notch? We are not going to know those answers. My guess is that when players are in the system for a couple of years and they are not the stars like they were in high school, they start thinking the grass might be greener somewhere else. But also consider this: in the past seasons under Lanning, he brought in transfers that beat out the current players on the team. What does that tell you? I won't make a call on it until I see how well the transfers are playing at other teams, if they get on the field.

I read somewhere they are planning to play him at nickel. Makes sense because every other position seems to be filled.

I am now into the Ducks working the portal and hoping for more of a ski season. Dan Lanning was right - play these playoff games on Saturdays and finish the season. Fall has long past and now we are into the unofficial second half of winter since we just passed mid January. This is starting to feel like pro baseball going all the way almost into November to finish the season. If they go with a 32 team playoff.... we might be going all the way to college basketball's March Madness before we get a winner. If they go double elimination like they do in college baseball, we might just make it into June! The excitement of the playoffs has already faded for me. It's not just the Ducks losing. It is the long gap between games. I am used to a game every Saturday. This playoff schedule just feels out of whack. And I am also not happy about it being cable tv only. In the olden days, the major networks would carry the biggest bowl games and then a champion would be anointed. And just for good measure, I don't think we need games almost stretching into the 4 hour territory. As for the natty: I kind of don't like either team. But I do want to see the players battle it out and see who comes out on top. I definitely don't want to see either Cig or Mario win it all.

Novosad went to Bowling Green, where he should see a lot of playing time. Beaver went to Georgia, where his chances of playing probably just got smaller. I don't see that move making any sense at all. He might be one of the guys that transfers a dozen times in his college career.

I don't see any of those on the list becoming great players at Oregon. Justius Lowe and Blake Purchase have made some plays. But even those guys are not good enough to start for Ohio St, Georgia, Texas, etc. Oregon is growing and growing means the pretty good are no longer good enough. The standard is rising. Lanning might be planning on playing a lot of the incoming true freshmen. Hill, Davison, Dak Moore, Finny broke the mold - talent trumps experience. In years past, a lot on that list would have broken through with some time and won a starting job or got on the field quite a bit. Blake Purchase did that. But with what is coming in, it is harder for those kind of players to ascend at Oregon.

Remember when Masoli was something like a no star guy and beat everyone out for the starting job? Masoli had a strong fighter vibe. Beaver does not come across with that kind of confidence. Beaver should have thought it out before joining the Ducks. If he wasn't going to come to practice for a season and compete on the practice field, he should have committed elsewhere. Oregon has turned into a top 5 kind of program recently. They were there for a while under Chip Kelly and now they are back to that level. Oregon should be getting 5 star QBs to play for them. They just recently got three of them through the portal.