oregon112

More like coached by a little league dad. If Oregon was playing Texas today, would the Oregon staff be able to make adjustments, and change QBs to win? I hope everybody agrees that the answer to that question is 'NO'. Can Oregon's coaching improve? Yes, in theory. But this is Cristobal's 4th year. Can we cut them a little slack because they have 2 new coordinators and 2 new systems? --- I would normally say yes, but I would expect improvement as the season went on. Not seeing that at all so far. I am thinking now that the whole staff isn't all that great. Most likely they will be under-performing for a few more years. It went downhill fast with Helfrich - it was a like a tire blowout on the freeway. This team is like a slow air leak where the tire is mushy and you have put air in it every day - not enough to stop you from driving, but enough to let you know that your car shouldn't be working this way. I'm chilling out. I went off the deep end last year. My expectations are lowered until they get a top tiered coach. USC's coaching is a mess - and they have future NFL players. Much of the same kind of problem.

Why? Because those teams have a GAME PLAN. And some QBs who can complete long throws. They bring blitzers. They change up coverages. They get their receivers open. Their QBs LOOK for secondary receivers, instead of tucking and running for 2 yd gains. It is not so much player talent, but having the players play well as a team. This aspect will probably get even more noticeable as the season wears on. They also probably wouldn't have much of a chance against teams like Iowa, Penn St, Kentucky and others. I think they did a great job of scouting and game planning Ohio St. But I think that was going to be the only game of the season where the coaching staff did better than the opposing coaching staffs.

I saw much of the first half of the Red River Shootout. Those are teams who have good schemes and are well coached. The players PLAY FAST. That was a real college football game. What the Ducks have been doing lately is so plain vanilla, that teams who cannot win can play even with them.

He can work TT in for a few series vs Cal. But I would be very surprised if he did.

I would, up to a point. Would you root for the beavs over Oregon if the win would take the beavs to the playoffs? I just might. Only because I can't take such poorly coached college football.

I am confident that if he can stop screwing the pooch, he can get us to the playoffs. Let the coordinators draw up plays/schemes and make personnel decisions, especially at QB. It will be especially tough for a team from the northwest to beat the best team in the nation. Just getting to the playoffs and having some kind of chance late in the game is a win for me.

Az St had a PLAN that worked. Oregon didn't. I could write more on this, but everything has already been said. Sparky did to Stanford what the Ducks should have done to Stanford. On the plus side, if Oregon wins out, they win the north. That would be my high water mark for the year - that and beating Ohio St. My expectations cannot go much higher as long as Cristobal is coaching this team.

All those penalties were bogus, in my opinion.

For a very uncivilized feeling, I used to go to Cleveland Browns games in the 70s. Nothing but blue collar lunch bucket heads acting like animals all the time. When Pittsburg was in town, there would be fights all over downtown. Lots of hot dog stands out on the street corners. Fans at the games would steal food and beer from the venders working the seats. And just about every game, in the fourth quarter, some fan would run out on the field when teams were in the huddle, and grab the football and start running around. About 20 cops would try to catch him. When the guy put a move on a cop, and said cop lost his balance and fell down, the whole stadium would cheer loudly. Late in the season, the fronts would blow in from Lake Erie and it would be cold, damp and windy. The team was usually not very good, so the fans for the most part, just went for the hell-raising experience. It was a way to blow off steam before they all went back to their union factory jobs.

Yes. I hate them. Their only claim to fame is beating good Oregon teams. They can do nothing else. Beat them badly and run up the score on them. We only seem to beat them when we are having a bad year.

I wouldn't at first play the youth vs UCLA, but against Cal - you can take the chance and still not lose. If they do well, then move forward. If they make too many mistakes, then go back to your previous starters against UCLA.

What do we know about recent head coaches? Chip could not recruit well enough. He brought in great players, but he never had a full roster of enough talent, especially linemen and linebackers. Helfrich was clueless about defense and recruiting dropped off. The Snake used Oregon as a stepping stone. So whatever his potential was, it was only very short term. Cristobal won't change QBs. He doesn't have his team playing the right schemes. He can't make in game or post game adjustments. Players get hurt in training and practices. I don't see any reason to expect any change. I am kind of numb right now and may be losing interest.

They might not lose to UCLA and the beavs, but those games will probably be tossups and come down to the last few posessions.

If McKee stays healthy, his arm will win games even if the rest of his team isn't that good. Oregon might have just lost the north last game.

The team has only prepared Brown for the games, so the other 3 are non-options unless Brown goes out with injury. The replacement play caller was not calling plays that Brown was comfortable with: The reads were bad because Brown didn't know what was up. The throws were bad because Brown wasn't familiar with where the receivers were supposed to be. Why do I say this? Because Brown was not that bad in all his other games. Yes, some throws were off, but not all the downfield throws. The pass defense scheme has been figured out. Since even before the season started, as evidence by what Fresno did the first game. They were not going to risk changing it up for Stanford, especially with Bennet going out the day before the game. --------------------------- What I think they will do with this bye week: They will probably shorten the playbook a little to focus on what Brown can do best. And then drill those plays with repetition to get the reads right. Also to get the other 10 guys to do the right things at the right times. They will work on some different coverages to take away all those easy passes. They will need to get the replacement weakside LBs ready to make their reads and breaks to the spots they need to be in. They will continue to work with Noah on his pass coverage too. They will prepare to tighten up many of their mistakes to put out a game plan that will take care of Cal, but not be spectacular. ______________________ What I hope they do: Stop getting players hurt during practice and training. Players are too big, too strong, too fast to be going hard core in practice and not get hurt and be out for many games. -------------------------------------- How they play vs Cal: I think they play with far fewer mistakes on both sides. They will rely on better players to win. I think they will get a lead at some point in the first quarter and slowly build on it. But I don't think they light up the scoreboard. They will have to figure out who will be the main replacement for Verdell. They will also have to emphasize keeping your head and not making so many penalties. ----------------------------------- This is all speculation. But I think they just go for a solid, unspectacular win vs Cal just to get on the right track. Then after that, they get ready for UCLA by preparing more plays on offense and defense. First, they need to find some plays that work vs Cal. They can't have another helter-skelter game, which is why they are sticking with Brown. ------------------------------- Will they ever replace Brown? If not now, then most likely not at all this season. Not unless Brown has a total meltdown and can't execute any plays. Even if this team wins out, I think they will be so unimpressive that it will be hard for them to make the playoffs. An offense the grinds out first downs and eats the clock with no big gains and a bend but try not to break defense won't impress the selection committee. And I think they will go back into their shell so deep that winning out will be really tough. I think lots of games this year will be a lot like the Stanford game - close contests that get decided late in the 4th qtr. I don't think they will face another QB like McKee the rest of the year. But they won't pull away from teams like they should. I think as fans, we will be happy for the 'Ws' we get, but not thrilled about how we got them.

I never seen him get as many yards after contact as he did vs Stanford. He used to put his head down in the numbers of the defender and get an extra 2 feet. But last game, he was driving his legs and it seemed he was getting several yards or more after contact. That run where he was a few feet away from the goal line just before halftime was some really tough running. I think Benson is next up for those tough yards.

I consider the linebackers to be part of the trenches, tight ends blocking too. Overall, I think the O line and D line are OK for this team -some parts could be better, and some parts are very good. Don't want to nit pick on that stuff either. Totally agree that the linemen are not the reason for the loss or not so good play in the other games. If they were really bad, then Ohio St would have rolled all over them at the line of scrimmage. D line undersized: yeah some of them. Some of that is scheme. The standup ends are smaller than 3-4 ends like Armstead and Buckner. Some of the backups are really small at that position. A. Jackson would be more of an inside or outside LB than a standup defensive end at his height and weight. I think they should move him to weakside LB, considering all the problems they have been having there. He is very similar to Flowe. In some ways, I think some of the current players in the defensive front 6 are not what DeRuyter needs for his defensive scheme. I do think that KT is perfect for his scheme. Team needs about four more guys just like him. The defense has changed schemes from the 3-4 (Allioti's), to Hoke's, to Leavitt's, to Avalos and now to DeRuyter. How the heck are you supposed to recruit for your scheme when it keeps changing like that? 5 schemes in 7 years. Justin Hollins and Bryson Young might have worked out well at the stand up end positions - not too large, but quick pass rushers and fast enough to chase RBs out in the flats. Gus Cumberlander too. And Dion Jordan would have been a terror at that spot. Right now, its just KT doing really well at that spot, and he is gone after this season.

Except for a few of them, Oregon's best players are either on the bench or injured. KT, Noah, Wright, Dorlus playing well. Some of the O line is playing well, hard to tell actually. Brown isn't hitting the receivers, so that is hard to tell. It is going to take some time for the new players to grow into Moorhead's and DeRuyters's systems - assuming players and coaches don't leave. I just want the Ducks to win out the regular season, then whatever happens, happens. Probably a loss to Az St in the conf championship game. I doubt that Stanford wins out - pac12 teams that are well coached can compete with Stanford. They are not the same kind of team from a decade ago.

I expected Cristobal to stick with Brown. How many of the other three are going to transfer? Some of them could go right now. Brown was not too bad in the other games. They need to call plays that he can run properly. He can run some plays very well. In addition to Brown, Ducks are not so good at weakside LB, not good in pass coverage, the corner opposite Wright gets beat a lot, Verdell is out, they don't have big TEs who can block well, the OTs are not that great, and other assorted issues, including lack of edge rushers not named KT. I think the pac12 is not great, so the Ducks can try to make it a one loss season. If they can do that, then I will be happy, sort of.

Nice investigation. This is the year of chaos. Oklahoma needs to go down, or they will win every game by a field goal. Texas looks pretty good. I was thinking that the better teams are better, but except for bama/Ga, all the lesser teams can play with the better teams - there are that many decent players out there that all teams can compete. And with the transfer portal, even teams like the beavs can compete. I think if the Ducks get it together, the other teams will eat each other alive. Ducks could still go to playoffs this year.

I think you might be going off the deep end, and I am not far behind you. I'm not even sure what day of the week it is and I haven't done anything productive since last week. This team drives me nuts. They beat OSU, get up to #3, then hang on against low level teams and blow it against an average team that is not even ranked. What is this program going to do between now and the end of November? When they have a bad bowl game, we can at least say "Its over for the year". But I am worried that the low point could be really, really far down there. With 7 games left, there could be 4 more losses due to below avg QB play and lack of pass coverage. It could easily happen, regardless of how many 4 and 5 star players they have. I can tell you all what I don't want to hear: "We had a great week of practice". I want to see it in the game. I just want to see some plays that work.

I was impressed with the Spring game. Lots of passing. Lots of QBs. Just do it like the Spring game. You can't lose to Cal. 3 best players on offense are all on the bench: TT, Thornton, McGee

1. new QB 2. defend the short passes over the middle 3. take some shots down the field 4. give the opposing offense some different looks on D and throw in some blitzing packages 5. get some long gains on offense 6. don't just try to win by 7 points

Shough was tucking and running - giving up on plays. Brown is making bad reads and throwing bad balls. He also once in a while gives up on plays, but not nearly as often. 2 different problems. Herbert didn't have open receivers to throw to. He was in a bad place on 3rd and long after 2 failed Verdell runs up the middle. Moorhead fixed Herbert's problem. Shough left the program. Brown is just not a good QB. The only systemic problem left is NOT replacing Brown. And that just might be a systemic problem - not making the necessary changes. The plays are there.

Its the QB. He either makes the wrong reads or misfires the ball. Redd, Hutson, Devon, Johnson, Franklin, Thornton, and Pittman - they would be superstars in the right system with the right QB.