The Duck offense has done fantastic against bad defenses this year and even better against all around bad teams. Oregon’s offense has struggled against teams that have competitive athletes to their own. We saw this at Penn State (yes Penn State, still has some quality athletes), against Indiana, and now Wisconsin. The Badgers’ greatest weakness seems to come more from ...

Oregon RB Rotation Needs to Change

I think Davison will be like Royce Freeman who ended up being the feature back after settling in during the 2014 season. I really like Noah as a change of pace back as stated in your article. He reminds me a lot of CJ Verdell. He's great when the holes are big, but lacks the vision to find the cracks. I'm looking forward to seeing how this RB rotation evolves.

David I agree with all you have said. Thanks for writing what many of us see. OBD Forum is blessed to have your contributions. Thank you!

For what it's worth, I feel that Jordon Davison gets to the hole quicker than Noah Whittington or Jayden Limar. It seems to me that those two are looking for the home run and waiting for the hole to open. When a RB is waiting for the hole and looking for it to open he's a sitting Duck (no pun intended). He is not at full speed.

Getting up to the linemen and trusting them that the hole will be there leads to more positive yards. Davison and Hill are more explosive and get to the line quicker thus more positive yards. This also results in moving the pile forward for yards after contact (YAC). Running backs are taught to trust their linemen, follow the foot path, and explode into the hole.

Great article!

Since I agree with pretty much everything, I'll keep this brief:

RB1, RB2, and RB3 should be Davison, Hill, and Whittington, respectively.

Amen David! Many of us were thinking as you suggested, but you laid out the case extremely well in your article. I also love the top featured picture of the article, as it is the same as what our forum background picture is at the moment.

For those looking at this forum on mobile phone, they cannot see our photo background to the forum. But for those on desktop, (as I am) or laptop....you can see Davison scoring in the rain.

For those who use a Pad to view the forum....can you see this background picture?

I'll add this...

I have been critical of Whittington in the past. I can probably go through and dig up all the articles I have promoted runningbacks over Whittington. Last year I know I was saying Whittington needed to become a receiver instead. The funny thing is that whenever I make an article like we seem to get a great game out of Whittington. Almost like he is trying to prove me wrong.

Whittington is a good Runningback but he is not an elite back. He lacks the size of Davison and that size and physicality makes yards. Davison has a level of physical running that outstrips Jordan James from last year to be honest and I think he is a bit faster as well. Davison is a truly special back and he can be a tone setter for this team if they let him and this team needs him to be that tone setter.

Iowa is up next, after a bye, and Iowa has had good defenses and if the Ducks want to get some early points on the board they are going to need to let Davison get some early carries and gain some solid yards to set up Moore and the receivers.

It's an added bonus that Davison is also a fantastic blocker which is part of his size advantage. At best I have seen Whittington delay good linebackers at worst he gets thrown aside and doesn't impede them at all. I have seen Davison destroy linebackers as both a pass protection blocker and a run blocker.

1 minute ago, Charles Fischer said:

For those looking at this forum on mobile phone, they cannot see our photo background to the forum. But for those on desktop, (as I am) or laptop....you can see Davison scoring in the rain.

I can see shoes on my phone!

Not only do I agree with your running back rotation and analysis, I think Davison's running style (up the middle) plays to the Ducks O line strength. The offense really seems to bog down when they start off by trying to win the battle of the edges then lose them against a good defense. This just seems to set up the third and longs that fail with bubble screens and short passes. Davison gives OBD that Stanford smash moth attack that I think would be a great way to start a game with.

A long bruising drive to start the game could soften up the D making them more vulnerable to explosion plays off the edge later. OBD have the personnel to do it but for some reason haven't chosen to start off a game that way yet. Seems like Iowa would be a great [;ace to start.

Just now, The Kamikaze Kid said:

A long bruising drive to start the game could soften up the D making them more vulnerable to explosion plays off the edge later. OBD have the personnel to do it but for some reason haven't chosen to start off a game that way yet.

This is absolutely the case! Davison forces the other team to back off its edges and gives our tackles time to settle-down. World and Harkey are good but not great, we are certainly missing the Connerly and Cornelius combo of years past. But if both have time to settle they are both significantly better. The middle of our line is where it's strongest with Poncho and Pregnon opening up solid run lanes.

I don't know if there is a way to fix our offensive line pass protection from the tackle spot besides running the ball up the gut and hitting the opposing team in the nose.

“Noah Whittington ended up having a pretty good game with 97 yards, and even had a better yards per carry stat than Davison at 6.9 yards per carry”

Great article.

As I mentioned in my post below, 9 of Whittington’s 14 carries against Wisconsin were 2 yards or fewer. His averages are misleading because he’ll break a long run to improve his YPC.

I’d rather have a RB who consistently gets 4-6 yards a carry. The offense will be playing ahead of the chains, most of the time. Davison appears to be the only RB on Oregon’s roster capable of that against better defenses, IMO.

I would prefer to see Oregon rely on the ground game with Davison and then use play action off of it. I’m a Niners fan and Coach Stein should learn from Coach Shannahan. He is a master.

5 minutes ago, OregonDucks said:

I would prefer to see Oregon rely on the ground game with Davison and then use play action off of it. I’m a Niners fan and Coach Stein should learn from Coach Shannahan. He is a master.

It would appear that we share the same favorite teams: Ducks and 49ers . . . awesome!

Great comment as I was also thinking that the Ducks could involve more play action with Davison setting the tone in the run game.

Question for any Xs/Os gurus. When the Ducks QB does the mesh with the RB, then pulls it to pass, is that "play action". Or is "play action" specifically defined as, from under center, QB's back to the line of scrimmage pretending to hand the ball off but doesn't so he can pass?

Thank you, DM, for another spot-on article. Several player rotations seem to be off this season, at least to me. 🙃

Some of this may be due to the coaching staff looking at the long game? Assuming Indiana and Ohio State run the table and Oregon makes the playoff, with the goal being a Natty, ideally, the season is half over. Eight more games to play with three in the regular season against Massey's top 25-ranked Iowa, USC, and Washington, and four PO games against top competition.

Davison is a stud, but he is also a freshman who I don't think has played a 16-game season. Not an exact comparison, of course, but on many occasions, rookies in the NFL start strong and taper off as the season progresses.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for pointing out that the Badgers' run defense is not a pile of garbage. Luke Fickell could not have asked for better weather on Saturday. Oregon is not going to roll over every Big Ten opponent.

OBD ran the B1G regular season and champ game table last season; Oregon won by three points in Madison. Winning football games is hard. Notwithstanding what ESPN has to say, winning B1G football games in a Power 2 conference is very hard. Even with a talented QB, but one who has not started close to sixty games.

Thanks again. Please, OBD, win this bye week and kick Iowa in Kinnock on 11/8.

David spot on i would love for JD to start because he brings power and agility to his carries. Perhaps that may bring a quicker jump start to the Duck offense.

This old Duck fan owes DL and WS an apology. I have never commented on the game thread until this Wisconsin game. I was critical of the play calls and O line energy and performance.

As an old coach who cut his teeth in the Roman Coloseum, i know better than to criticize during the game. A football game at this level is a high stakes chess match. Calling plays to see how the other teams D reacts. Looking for the other teams tell signs.

The chess game may take all 60 minutes and the only goal is to win.

DL said, because of the wind and rain that there wasnt going to be much passing. OBD's needed to run the ball to win this game....and that the BIG plays great run D and Whisky was strong against the run.

On the first few drives NW and JD ran into stone walls. DL said in his post game comments that Wisconsin had tells from film review. And the Duck O had to run different plays to expose the tells. This took awhile but once they did, then JD found a little room and they moved the ball. NW was running designed plays to set up future play calls.

On the 99 yard drive, once they got breathing room on the 3rd down pass conversion, then they exploited those tells. Moved down the field and scored.OBD's owned the last 4 minutes of the first half.

Then inspite of Dante going down on the 3rd play of 2nd half, Brock came in and the Duck O continued to exploit those tells and controlled the first 4 minutes and beyond.

And Whisky could not stop the Ducks. Only 7 penalties, some drive killers and a lazy holding penalty by MU kept the Ducks out of the endzone. These tells and adjustments opened up the running plays. Didn't matter whether NW or JD carried the ball.

DL and the team were proud of Brock. DL said Brock called and executed his check downs. They even carried him on their shoulders in the locker room. We may all be underestimating his performance......

Before the start of the 99 yard drive the Ducks had very few rushing yards or any yards for that matter. DL acknowledged that they ended up with over 200 plus rushing yardsl Thats impressive and this fan says kudos to the Duck O.

Its fun, exciting and also frustrating to watch these games. It's even more fun to read the game thread comments. The highs, the lows and all that goes into those 4 plus hours during the game.

So sorry DL, WS and the O. That was a coaching masterpiece and I criticized it while it was being created.

The Duck D dominated Whisky and repeatedly gave the O the opportunity to win this game.

I think the pollsters recognized this solid win......

GO DUCKS.......

50 minutes ago, WTD25 said:

When the Ducks QB does the mesh with the RB, then pulls it to pass, is that "play action".

Not a guru, but my opinion is that if the mesh is done as you suggest--it can be an RPO, or a play-action pass regardless of where the QB begins the play. Making the linebackers commit to defending the run is the reason for the fake, or mesh, so the passing lanes are open, IMHO.

With that being said...coaches everywhere have their own terms and definitions.

The one penalty that confuses me is Pass Interference-- they call it then they dont then they call it etc etc-varies from ref to ref and game to game LOL

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by 1Ducker1

5 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

Amen David! Many of us were thinking as you suggested, but you laid out the case extremely well in your article. I also love the top featured picture of the article, as it is the same as what our forum background picture is at the moment.

For those looking at this forum on mobile phone, they cannot see our photo background to the forum. But for those on desktop, (as I am) or laptop....you can see Davison scoring in the rain.

For those who use a Pad to view the forum....can you see this background picture?

Thanks. I'm happy to see the adds for once or else the top of my screen would just be a big red Wisconsin behind.

Going forward it would be better if the duck player was on the left side of the photo. You could always mirror images to make that happen as well.

3 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

Not a guru, but my opinion is that if the mesh is done as you suggest--it can be an RPO, or a play-action pass regardless of where the QB begins the play. Making the linebackers commit to defending the run is the reason for the fake, or mesh, so the passing lanes are open, IMHO.

With that being said...coaches everywhere have their own terms and definitions.

The difference between play action and rpo is for play action linemen only pass block and the QB has zero intention of handing the ball off.

There is nothing more that I like to see from an offense than a big bruising running back that will punish a defense for 4 quarters. You just know you are getting positive yards while softening up the D for either a big run where the RB breaks a tackle and is gone, or setting it up for the change of pace back to break one on the outside.

I have been crying out for a back like Davison since we had Freeman. I always feel like you need that 225+ bruiser.

Davison has become my favorite offensive player this year with his ability to either run the ball up the middle with authority or being a blocking back to free up his RB teammate. He should be getting 15 carriers at a minimum each game.

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Davison Named Big Ten Freshman of the Week

 

EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon running back Jordon Davison was announced on Monday as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week for his performance in the Ducks' 21-7 win over Wisconsin last Saturday.

 

Davison becomes the third Duck to earn a Big Ten weekly honor this season, joining Jerry Mixon (Defense, Week 3) and Dante Moore (Offense, Week 5). 

 

Davison led the Ducks against the Badgers with a career-high 102 rushing yards while scoring each of Oregon's first two touchdowns. It was his second straight 100-yard rushing game after going for 100 the previous week at Rutgers. 

 

Davison leads the Ducks this season with 10 rushing touchdowns, most among FBS freshmen and tied for No. 7 nationally. He is now tied for third in UO single-season history for rushing touchdowns by freshmen, joining Royce Freeman (2014) as the only UO true freshmen to rush for double-digit scores in a season. 

 

The Santa Ana, Calif., native logged his second multi-TD game of the season and has scored at least one touchdown in seven of eight games in 2025. 

 

Davison and the No. 6 Ducks (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) are on a bye this week before traveling to Iowa on Nov. 8.