For two weeks in a row the Oregon defense has been exposed, though the final scoreboard may not show it. The Duck defense has a weakness in defending the run. Against Oklahoma State the Ducks gave up 144 total yards, which may not sound too bad as the bulk of Cowboys’ total offense came off only a few drives — ...

The Ducks Have a Problem With Run Defense

Thank you David for writing today's article for Our Beloved Duck Forum!

Tackling a running back, who often times can squat 400 lbs, is a hard task. Ordinarily a 300 lb defensive line versus a 200 lb running back is a no contest. But 20 plus years ago the rules were changed to allow Offensive players to aid and abet the runner by pushing from behind the runner. So in the tight confines of the scrum adding in a few Offensive Linemen changes the dynamics.

I believe it is necessary for the first defensive player to get as low as possible. General rule in football - Low man wins. Hitting the running back above the hips and trying to tackle him allows the scrum to continue the push forward giving more yards after contact (YAC). Someone must sacrifice their body and start grabbing ankles.

Watch our defensive backs make a tackle in the open field. They tackle the lower legs. This is a huge improvement that Dan Lanning and staff have improved.

Minus a 79 yard run in the closing minutes of the game against a lot of reserves, NW averaged 2.8 yards a carry. In the previous game NW averaged over 8 yards a carry.

It was a big ten game on the road, not a top half big ten team probably, but still it was 34-0 going into the fourth quarter.

I'm not worried about the run defense at this point. In fact considering the opponents I think Oregon's defense showed better than Penn St. did vs Villanova,

a DI championship subdivision team.

In the first 3 quarters of the Northwestern game, excluding sacks, Northwestern rushed for 94 yards on 22 carries. That is 4.3 average yards per carry. That’s not very good, especially against a team like Northwestern.

It would be interesting to hear whether this is a result of our defensive line play/execution, linebacker play/execution and/or scheme/play-calling.

I’m sure that Penn State’s OC is licking his chops watching Oregon’s run defense. The blueprint to beat Oregon might be to play that ugly B1G style - grind it out on the ground, limiting Oregon offensive possessions. Northwestern just didn’t have the personnel to execute this for four quarters.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by OregonDucks

My sincere apologies to David Marsh, as I started another big thread about this topic yesterday, before the publication of his article. I did not know the subject of his article until well after I began the other thread. But, what I like is how he brings more facts and information to the topic, to make the case stronger versus what I was writing.

The basis of every defense is to stop the run, but in some cases....we may have to outscore teams. But it is hard when the opposing B1G team can grind the ground and the clock, and severely limit the number of possessions Oregon will have to score.

My curiosity is whether our issues come from technique at the LOS that can be improved, the scheme itself, or simply a ton of defenders playing together for the first time? In the defensive backfield, we have three starters from the portal, along with two corners who are RS and true freshmen. We have three new starters on the defensive line, so perhaps there is some learning curve with the whole defense...that could grow into something special?

However we cannot measure progress against Beavis this Saturday, as they are not a good indicator.

Charles OMG on the GIF..anyways..y is a loss

I think it's a bit cat and mouse with the DL getting skinny trying to get into the backfield to be disruptive vs staying low and stonewalling and hogging OL at the LOS. We are really good at the former but not so great at the latter. If the other team can get 4-6 yards a carry, but every 3rd carry is a loss then maybe it's still worth it

I’ll just say again that Florida International (house of pancakes) rushed for almost 150 in a blowout loss at Penn State. Do we think PSU will be easy to run against?

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by JabbaNoBargain