FishDuck Article Administrator No. 1 Share Posted November 25, 2022 When Dan Lanning was hired as Oregon’s head coach, the assumption was the Ducks’ defense would instantly improve. Lanning had just spent a couple of years working under one of the best defensive minds in the game, and he was an instrumental part of one of the best college defenses of all time. Besides, Oregon entered 2022 with a boatload... Oregon Must Ride Its Defense to a Title FISHDUCK.COM When Dan Lanning was hired as Oregon's head coach, the assumption was the Ducks' defense would instantly improve. Lanning had just spent... 1 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 More sharing options...
HappyToBeADuck No. 2 Share Posted November 25, 2022 Joshua, I certainly admit that I felt that the defense would improve immediately with the hiring of DL. For me, it was more wishful thinking than actual thinking. It does take time to install a new system or scheme. Time to get players to play their position and trust their team mates to do the same. It also takes time, practice, patience and discipline to settle wild stallions down. The Duck D has a few uber talented players who got themselves out of position trying to do too much. The effort was there but not the team discipline. Also the D had many young inexperienced players who needed the time and practice to learn. Maybe some of that came together against Utah. Either way, it was nice to see the Duck D dominate a talented, disciplined Utah offense. Whatever DL did to motivate the D will be needed again against the Beavers. The rodents defend their home turf better than most No easy wins in Corvallis....... It's a team sport and the D needs to hold Beavus to 13 or less to seal a win for the Ducks. Go Ducks....... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck Moderator No. 3 Share Posted November 25, 2022 Great article, I look for Lanning to, once again, be extremely involved in the defense. This beav team plays into our strengths, if Lanning can make sure the players unite on defense to bring down the vaunted beav running game. I also think this is another challenge for Dilly against a defense I hope he has spent enough time studying. A great coach like Dilly should be able to bring the beav defense down a few notches. I hope it happens before the start of the third quarter, but we need to get that two possession lead so Lanning can then flex his game clock management skills. This has been one of the most exciting new developments of the Lanning coaching era. We now have a coach who knows how to win a game going away. Nothing too cute, just execute! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Haulin No. 4 Share Posted November 25, 2022 I commented that Ducks would have to score more than 20 to beat the Utes. Being so wrong has never felt so right. The team D Oregon executed last week was outstanding. The tips and QB pressure lead to picks and PBU in the 2nd and 3rd levels. Just a great team effort. Lanning out coached KW. Huge accomplishment. Utes are a highly respected well coached team. Lanning's presser after the Fusky loss was a great moment in Lanning's short tenure. He said "it's on me". Nothing more needed to be said. To go out and beat KW from the sideline like he did shows DL doesn't just throw out coach speak to appease the media. Well done coach! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastBayDuckDad Moderator No. 5 Share Posted November 25, 2022 On 11/25/2022 at 7:45 AM, Haywarduck said: Nothing too cute, just execute! Hayward, if we could boil down tomorrow's game, and hopefully the P12 champ game that follows against U$C to the essentials, your statement should be Oregon's mantra. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazeNconfused No. 6 Share Posted November 25, 2022 (edited) I've been away from posting on the board, but I have read the questions and speculation about why the Ducks defense stepped up last week against the Utes. The answer is simple... The Ducks became a cover-1 scheme team last week and went away from the heavy (80%) cover-2 scheme. The Ducks did some of the things I wrote that we might see them mix in against UW. Why? 1. Utah lost its go-to WR Covey from last year, Kuthie the TE and early season go-to target for Rising went down for the year. Utah don't have the WRs the Huskies have and Rising doesn't have the arm Penix does. Utah runs the ball and uses the short to medium passing game. Cover-1 lets the Ducks get another defender up close to the line of scrimmage to defend the bubble screen, slants, short crosses, RB screens and running game. Utah wasn't the threat to take the top off the defense so Cover-2 wasn't needed. 2. With Nix going to be out we expected our scoring to be down. We needed to give up less points and not plan to outscore them. 3. The three games before Utah playing Cover-2 we had started to give up explosion passing plays we didn't early in the year. Worse we have horrible coverage busts running a defense that is supposed to protect the deep ball. Cover-2 gives up more underneath passing to protect against the deep ball and we got burned both places. If we can't run Cover-2 and switch onto WRs when they run into our zone then why not just go Cover-1 and play man-to-man? You don't bust a coverage in man-to-man, you just get beat. If Utah makes it living running the ball then why not go Cover-1 and attack what Utah does. 4. Maybe the staff decided we have lots of talent on the front seven of the D and we aren't setting them free in the Cover-2. Sewell is a gap filling downhill LB and Bennet Williams is a Star safety who is great in run support and short to medium pass cover. When we aren't letting Sewell attack we aren't using him to his strength. When we have Bennett as the deep safety and he bust the deep coverage then we aren't using him to his strength. What did we do in Cover-1? 1. We played Cover-1 more than half the game - we used all kinds of player combos, sets and plays. 2. Lots of sets and looks. We had a 5-man DL set with Taki, Dorlus, Rogers and the DL-me and Funa, Swinny as the edge guys. We had a 4-DL set with Funa-Sewell-Bassa set back as the LBs. We showed 6-man fronts as well and almost all game had 8 men in the box. 3. Plays- we blitzed more. We brought 5 guys and maybe even 6 (i can't see everything) We did a overload on the right side with 3-men and Swinny stunted into the middle to get at the QB. 4. The DL slanted into the gaps more or just shot gaps. 5. Bennett was played to his strengths. We saw him up on the line and reading run and making tackles - he had two picks. Bennett in the Cover-1 was in the middle of the field where you can have a safety covering crosses. He had 14 tackles and two picks - why did we have him playing deep safety? 6. In the Cover-1 we defended the screens, slants, cross passes better. People think Lanning took over from Tosh and have him as the fall guy 1. Sitting over 80% in Cover2 was not the Tosh scheme. Tosh said he wanted a attacking Havoc defense when he came in. We went Cover-2 because it with our offense soring tons of points playing Bend-But-Don't-Break and not giving up huge explosion plays was the safe route to win. 2. Don't blame Tosh. Our scheme has been show Cover-2 with a 4-man rush and give them the short passing game - by choice. The change wasn't because Lanning felt Tosh was mucking it up - it was for reasons I've listed and more we may never know. People say Lanning took over the Defense 1. Yes he did, he's the head coach. The heavy Cover-2 scheme was with his approval and possibly his idea. The heat fell on Lanning and now factors required a change. 2. Lanning I suspect was more hands on with the defense prep and play calling than all year. I bet he took the point as lead man over Tosh. Why? Because he is the HC and Vet DC - and he was doing a 180 scheme change in one week late in the year. Lanning's butt was on the line - not Tosh's 3. Lanning was more involved in the play calls because in the Cover-1 there is more things to dial up. He also was the Guy on the sideline trying to make this week-to-week scheme change work. What will we see against OSU? 1. More of the same we saw with Utah, the Beavs do the same things on offense. Edited November 25, 2022 by DazeNconfused 1 5 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OregonDucks No. 7 Share Posted November 25, 2022 Wow. Great post DazeNconfused! I'm no expert but I've been extremely disappointed with the defense. I thought for sure with Lanning (and Tosh) we would see a step forward in our defense performance this year, and was hopeful that Oregon's defense could be dominant in a couple of years. I look around college football and see the tough, gritty defense that Oregon State fields. Do they have better athletes than Oregon does on defense or is it scheme/coaching/desire? I would let Gonzalez play man-to-man against his receiver. We have seen too many miscommunications between him and the safety resulting in a long, blown coverage TD. He is projected by some to be the #1 CB taken in the NFL Draft. Let him lock down the player across from him. Utah and Oregon State want to run the ball on offense. They don't have the passing attack that Washington and USC possess. If we can get by Oregon State, I hope Bo Nix can get close to 100% for the Pac-12 Championship Game because I'm not sure how we are going to stop USC's offense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyToBeADuck No. 8 Share Posted November 25, 2022 DazeNconfused, thank you for that amazing, detailed explanation. Nice to have you back posting, its greatly appreciated. You are just one of the amazing people that help make this Forum a notch above 5 stars. The defense seemed to be more comfortable in this cover scheme. Talented players made key play after key play. KW had no answers for his offense against the changes DL made in his cover/scheme. The Beavers have made many mistakes this season when they couldnt run the ball. But either way they will give everything they have to defend their home turf. Go Ducks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazeNconfused No. 9 Share Posted November 25, 2022 (edited) On 11/25/2022 at 12:03 PM, OregonDucks said: I'm no expert but I've been extremely disappointed with the defense. I thought for sure with Lanning (and Tosh) we would see a step forward in our defense performance this year, and was hopeful that Oregon's defense could be dominant in a couple of years. I look around college football and see the tough, gritty defense that Oregon State fields. Do they have better athletes than Oregon does on defense or is it scheme/coaching/desire? Your judging the defense by the wrong metric. The defense had the job of limiting explosion plays and making teams drive the field, getting a few stops or holding some drives to FGs. The defense has done a pretty good job at doing that with a 9-2 team record. The defense wasn't being asked to create a bunch of havoc playing downhill - they weren't being asked to be a shut down defense. If not for a bunch of plays going against the Ducks vrs UW they would have won that game. An onside kick, fumbled snap, bad snap, Bo getting hurt, Gonzo's play looked like a pick, two busted covers for a long score, and the 4th and 1 that we went for with Ty in the game on our 34 yard line. That's 8 plays that had to go against the Ducks for them to lose, those are freaky odds.. If we win that game then the defense did it's job.. The Cover-2 Bend-But-Don't-Break scheme was about one stat... the scoreboard at the end of 60 minutes Last week we saw the defense do a 180 in scheme - they gave up the fewest yards of the season, had havoc plays with tackles for loss, pressured and flushed Rising, had three picks.. About the OSU defense - they can't play a Cover-2 Bend-But-Don't-Break scheme and outscore people. I expect we will play OSU with much the same scheme as we did Utah. If I'm right we will be heavy Cover-1 and see much the same as last week. If we win then comes the real question against USC - We beat UCLA playing Cover-2 heavy and should have beat UW playing it as well. will Bo be healthy and we expect to outscore USC, will we go back to heavy Cover-2? Or will we play more Cover-1 and attack? Edited November 25, 2022 by DazeNconfused Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OregonDucks No. 10 Share Posted November 25, 2022 On 11/25/2022 at 1:55 PM, DazeNconfused said: Your judging the defense by the wrong metric. The defense had the job of limiting explosion plays and making teams drive the field, getting a few stops or holding some drives to FGs. The defense has done a pretty good job at doing that with a 9-2 team record. The defense wasn't being asked to create a bunch of havoc playing downhill - they weren't being asked to be a shut down defense. I can't argue with a 9-2 record. The Georgia game was expected but the Washington game was painful. What I find most troubling with Oregon's defense is their inability to make a play on 3rd-and-long and blown coverages for long touchdowns, when they are playing a conservative defense. I would like to see more man-on-man coverages, especially with Gonzalez. The soft zone is a terrible choice on 3rd-and-long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Haulin No. 11 Share Posted November 25, 2022 No matter what defense you are in, regardless of what you are asked to do, on 3rd and 7+, make a darn play! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
