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 Monday at 04:46 PM1 day 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 Monday at 07:27 PM1 day by JabbaNoBargain

21 hours ago, JabbaNoBargain said:

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?

Florida International averaged 3.6 yards per carry and, through 3 games, Penn State is holding opposing offenses to 2.85 yards per carry.

Neither we nor Penn State has played a team as good we’ll both see on September 27th but I think the concern about Oregon’s run defense is valid. Ideally, Oregon would get out to a huge lead and make Penn State’s offense one dimensional but it seems like the odds of that are pretty low (barring a complete PSU meltdown).

My real point is I don’t know how valid season stats are 3 games in when all 3 games were blowouts. We built a commanding lead on the road and put in our walk on QB which enabled the opponents offensive starters to get some disproportionate rushing yards and attempts against our 2nd and 3rd string D.

If PSU rushes for 200+ against our starters I’ll change my tune.

All IMO of course.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by JabbaNoBargain

On 9/15/2025 at 11:12 AM, Charles Fischer said:

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?

This summarizes my curiosity as well, but with the added element of new-to-each-other players all over the field. It takes time to learn to trust and gel.

You start anticipating how the guy next to handles that blocker, that pulling guard, or that QB read and you complement their move with a move of your own (all at game speed).

I am slightly concerned, but you have to believe we’ve been running a pretty vanilla scheme knowing there has been no competitive threat so far.

Penn St. forums on the other hand are wringing their hands that their offense has yet to get untracked. They’re worried about Drew Allar shouldering high expectations and the slow start to the running game. They long for that one time last year when they ran all over us. Let them think that.

2 hours ago, JabbaNoBargain said:

If PSU rushes for 200+ against our starters I’ll change my tune.

As a Duck fan, I was pretty happy to escape the 2024 B1G Championship game with a "W" and no major injuries and at the time mostly looked forward to the playoffs rather than read a bunch of post game discussion. I recall some talk (including here on OBD) that was essentially "exactly how bad is this rush defense?"

Penn State indeed ran for 297 yards on the Duck defense at 8.7 ypc. 10 of their 34 rushes went for 10+ yards, including rushes of 41, 32, 26, 24, and 22.

That's with Harmon, Caldwell, Burch, Uiagalelei, Tuioti, Boettcher, and Washington in its front.

That's against a Penn State offense that wasn't exactly hiding what it wanted to do. On the year, it was going to run one of their two RBs: Allen or Singleton (or run TE Warren); or, throw a pass to one of those 3, a fairly remarkable 64.5% of the time (581 out of their 901 running attempts or completed passes were to Warren, Allen, or Singleton). In the championship game, that hit 74.1%. Despite entering the 4th quarter down 14, PSU didn't exactly abandon the run, keeping a roughly 50/50 split.

Does the defensive scheme look like it will approach PSU differently this year? Does the talent so far look much better with the Duck box defenders? PSU had more success moving Oregon's front with double teams last year than any other opponent, will that repeat itself? Does the staff appear less loath to commit more resources to the box if it needs to than in the past? Many questions.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by AnotherOD

1 hour ago, AnotherOD said:

As a Duck fan, I was pretty happy to escape the 2024 B1G Championship game with a "W" and no major injuries and at the time mostly looked forward to the playoffs rather than read a bunch of post game discussion. I recall some talk (including here on OBD) that was essentially "exactly how bad is this rush defense?"

Penn State indeed ran for 297 yards on the Duck defense at 8.7 ypc. 10 of their 34 rushes went for 10+ yards, including rushes of 41, 32, 26, 24, and 22.

That's with Harmon, Caldwell, Burch, Uiagalelei, Tuioti, Boettcher, and Washington in its front.

That's against a Penn State offense that wasn't exactly hiding what it wanted to do. On the year, it was going to run one of their two RBs: Allen or Singleton (or run TE Warren); or, throw a pass to one of those 3, a fairly remarkable 64.5% of the time (581 out of their 901 running attempts or completed passes were to Warren, Allen, or Singleton). In the championship game, that hit 74.1%. Despite entering the 4th quarter down 14, PSU didn't exactly abandon the run, keeping a roughly 50/50 split.

Does the defensive scheme look like it will approach PSU differently this year? Does the talent so far look much better with the Duck box defenders? PSU had more success moving Oregon's front with double teams last year than any other opponent, will that repeat itself? Does the staff appear less loath to commit more resources to the box if it needs to than in the past? Many questions.

I believe Penn State ran for 287 yards because they stacked 7 guys in the box and we countered with two down lineman ( two guys with their hand on the ground before the snap).

A defensive lineman cannot "hold the line" while standing up. This was a topic I brought up in the Spring- Lupoi scheming right into an elite team's strength.

I've been more concerned with the pass rush. Or lack thereof. Am I concerned Penn State will boat race OBD? Not one bit.

Our defense has given up half their rush yards in the fourth quarter. Well after the game was decided. Montana State would give Northwestern a run for their money, and I believe they would defeat Oklahoma State.

That doesn't mean our defense should be content. I don't believe there is a sense of urgency to dominate the teams OBD have played. There will be a much greater sense of urgency to play their absolute best when they go to Happy Valley.

Then we'll know where they stand. I've already stated in not convinced we have an elite defense. But I do know we have one if the best offenses in CFB.

This year is like the Alabama v. Clemson showdowns. Offense is going to wil the Natty this year.

It certainly will help if the Duck offense comes out and scores TDs on its first three drives like last season. It would take quite a while to look up; but, I'd imagine that isn't something Penn State gives up at home often to anyone either.