Jump to content
FishDuck Article

Oregon Ducks Football: Keys to Knocking Off the Bruins

Recommended Posts

OBDWriter Alex Heining tells us his keys to defeating UCLA.  What must Oregon do to win?

 

FISHDUCK.COM

Our Oregon Ducks' football season has been a spectacular one so far. Head coach Dan Lanning has assembled a really strong coaching staff...

 

  • Great post! 2
  • Applause 1
  • Thumbs Up 3

Two Sites: FishDuck and the Our Beloved Ducks forum, The only "Forum with Decorum!" And All-Volunteer? What a wonderful community of Duck fans!

Link to post
Share on other sites

It comes down to red zone performance, one position. Can the Ducks slam the door in the red zone, or only gives up field goals? Can the Ducks finish off drives with TD's and not settle for field goals.

 

We will be looking at a top recruit from 2018 and 2019 from each program battling it out. They will be going at it for dominance in the Pac-12. DTR and Bo were both elite qb's coming out of high school, and were given plenty of chances to lead a program to the playoffs.

 

This game will show which one, or maybe both will come of age on the football field, and show they are ready for the next level. DTR needs to keep being the passing leader. Bo will have to, again, lead with his feet when the opportunity is there. I think the difference will be can Bo lead with his arm more this game, and put on an arial show?

 

Both qb's are experienced leaders, with plenty of game. I hope it doesn't come down to mistakes by the qb's, but that might be one of the answers. Which qb throws the pics, fumbles, or gets rattled by the opposing defense? It might just be one qb hits a defense he can't crack. Or he cracks under something he hasn't seen.

 

I think what we will see is a qb performance we could only dream about since Justin willed his way to wins at the end of his senior year. Bo will put up a performance like Justin did, winning with his arm and legs. His passing will have to step up and there will have to be a few runs where the sideline isn't the goal, only the pylon. 

 

Whatever happens I think this will be a Pac-12 game the rest of the nation should pay attention to because offense will be back. We will have Chip leading an elite offense again at Autzen. The difference this time, he just might be overmatched by the Ducks new offensive leader, and our new head coach. Oh the drama, it will be everywhere!

 

 

giphy-1.gif

giphy.gif

giphy-2.gif

  • Thumbs Up 3
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

A balanced offensive attack will be necessary to force UCLA’s defense from focusing on stopping our running game. If Bo Nix is connecting in the passing game, then the Ducks offense will do more than enough to win this game. 
 

UCLA is used to playing football in an empty stadium. They have not had to operate in the raucous conditions that the fans at Autzen will create. There is a reason why Oregon has a distinct home field advantage. 
 

Ultimately, the outcome of the game will depend on our defense, if they contain the QB, Oregon wins.

Link to post
Share on other sites

So here's a thought for the more adept X's and O's among you: I feel like Flowe is athletic enough to spy on DTR and contain him. While I don't think we typically run a man based coverage with our LB's, do you think Lanning/Lupoi might/should use Flowe in that manner for this game?

 

DTR is the key to stopping this offense. He's the wild-card, the X-Factor. Charbonnet is really good, but then again, so is our base run defense.  In my humble, uneducated opinion, we need to pressure DTR while keeping him contained in the pocket. That means our coverage has to be sound enough to force him to throw into very tight windows while under pressure.  We can leave Gonzo on an island, drop our DE into the flat to contain the checkdown to Charbonnet and then have Flowe spy all day on DTR while the safeties provide help to the corner opposite Gonzo.

 

What are your thoughts on the keys to the game and how we might best contain DTR???

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 10/14/2022 at 7:06 AM, Wrathis said:

I feel like Flowe is athletic enough to spy on DTR and contain him.

My concern is Flowe's inexperience, at how he could be learning contain speed and movement at the team's expense.  Meanwhile Bassa has a ton more experience, and has already been playing Spy on a number of plays already.  (I will be doing an analysis about Oregon's Spies in the future)

  • Thumbs Up 2

Mr. FishDuck

Link to post
Share on other sites

I disagree with the main premise that Alex suggests to win the game; in fact I believe we should do the opposite.

 

He suggests we ball-control and keep the UCLA offense off the field.  But as DazeNconfused and I revealed a few weeks ago here, here, and here....the Oregon strategy is be efficient in scoring, (Dilly said this) and make the other team work hard to try to score while burning up clock.  It is the new updated version of Bend-But-Don't-Break, and I think that since Oregon does it well--we will continue to.

 

The difference with the Aliotti days, is that when Oregon got a big lead in those days--Nick had quite a few blitzes that created turnovers.  We have not seen many yet; could this be the game?

 

Jeffrey Bassa_Pac12 Video.jpg

  • Thanks 1

Mr. FishDuck

Link to post
Share on other sites

Know what always concerns me after bye weeks?  Poor tackling and penalties.  

 

For some reason, perhaps the layoff from contact, these two problems seem to crop up with lots of teams.  The fact that Oregon has struggled with both this season really concerns me.  

 

I'm anxious to see how Dan Lanning and his entire staff have dealt with these tendencies, human tendencies actually.  Better than Chip and his staff, I hope.  

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 10/14/2022 at 10:33 AM, Mic said:

Know what always concerns me after bye weeks?  Poor tackling and penalties.

Well the good news is that UCLA also had a bye week and will be dealing with those same issues that we might :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 10/17/2022 at 8:31 AM, Wrathis said:

Well the good news is that UCLA also had a bye week and will be dealing with those same issues that we might 🙂

Well I don't know about UCLA's struggles with these this season.  I haven't really watched them play.  It's been an issue for Oregon, esp in the Stanford game.

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 10/14/2022 at 7:49 AM, Charles Fischer said:

....the Oregon strategy is be efficient in scoring, (Dilly said this) and make the other team work hard to try to score while burning up clock.  It is the new updated version of Bend-But-Don't-Break, and I think that since Oregon does it well--we will continue to.

 

The difference with the Aliotti days, is that when Oregon got a big lead in those days--Nick had quite a few blitzes that created turnovers.  We have not seen many yet; could this be the game?

 

 

First, Charles if you're right this game might become the Mother of all Shoot-outs.  What's the O?U?  Better bump that up to >100.

 

And second, I agree about the blitzes.  It's been puzzling to me why Lanning/Lupoi haven't been pressuring the QB's more and I've been waiting to see the # of sacks start to go up.  I really think O needs to send DTR fleeing for his life and not be trusting our secondary to hold up if he passes the ball 40 times.

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 10/14/2022 at 7:36 AM, Charles Fischer said:

My concern is Flowe's inexperience, at how he could be learning contain speed and movement at the team's expense.  Meanwhile Bassa has a ton more experience, and has already been playing Spy on a number of plays already.  (I will be doing an analysis about Oregon's Spies in the future)

Add in Bennett Williams from safety position. When they send Williams after DTR, drop Bassa  to safety. Bassa can cover.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I feel l

On 10/14/2022 at 6:24 AM, Haywarduck said:

It comes down to red zone performance, one position. Can the Ducks slam the door in the red zone, or only gives up field goals? Can the Ducks finish off drives with TD's and not settle for field goals.

This didn't take long. I agree completely that the obvious, getting 7 instead of 3, is huge. The explosive plats are great, what the Ducks have lived off this season. But getting the grind it out TD's, and stopping UCLA, gets the W. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 10/17/2022 at 8:45 AM, Mic said:

It's been puzzling to me why Lanning/Lupoi haven't been pressuring the QB's more and I've been waiting to see the # of sacks start to go up.

As I've written many times...we sent five or six rushers on Eastern Washington a number of times and got nothing.  We call these clues...

 

The shorter answer is..."we aren't very good at blitzing yet."

 

And yes, it is surprising to me too.

 

HC2 fighting lineman.jpg

Mr. FishDuck

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


×
×
  • Create New...
Top