A New Defensive Era has Arrived at Oregon

[Charles Fischer]

Great article by David Marsh about a topic we thought we would never see at Oregon; an emerging defensive tradition.  Read the article right here, as there are some really good points-to-ponder!

Thoughts?

 

[30Duck]

Great article, David. As much fun as CK's blur was, TD drives that took 38 seconds. A dominating defense that it looks like Mario is building, will be a blast. Getting a sack, knocking the stuffing out of a receiver daring to run a crossing route, stopping the running back cold. These are the sights we can look forward to.

 And, there won't be any, "gimmick" or "finesse" attached to it. It will be flat out physicality that Oregon uses to demolish its opponents. KT got it started big time against USC, and it spread to the 10 others, and now they have their eyes on Iowa State. 

[Charles Fischer]

Perhaps you do not understand; we will be posting articles, tweets, videos and GIFs from all websites off the web, and a FishDuck article is one of them each day that we will be posting in here because we soon will not have comments below the article at FishDuck.  Thus to comment on the FishDuck article...we do it here.

Or you did not click on the link?  It takes you right to the article at FishDuck, or anyone can read the article at FishDuck without the link.

I guess I am not sure of the question, or I am the one confused...

[Haywarduck]

I would argue the new era arrived when Leavitt took us from the worst to more than respectable. The problem is that era went on life support until Thibs decided to put the defense on his shoulders and brig it back to life.

I will say the new era looks to have legs, lots of legs going forward. With Sewell, and others coming into their own, we can rest assured we won't see, what looked like sudden cardiac arrest, of our once healthy defense. Hopefully we will see a thriving defense throttle the cyclone and become a dominating force in college football going forward. I know I don't need to see such struggles, not good for my heart!

[30Duck]

55 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

But sorry football 'purists,' D alone no longer wins the biggest of prizes.

So true. So what does Alabama do this season? Its defense allowed 20 points a game, and the offense, under Frank Broyles Assistant Of The Year Award Winner OC, Steve Sarkisian, averages 50 points a game! WR, DeVonta Smith is the favorite for the Heisman.

 The message is clear Mario. Recruit great players, establish a culture, maintain a presence, but get out of the way of your Coordinators!

[David Marsh]

As I have read above... Yes the offense needs some significant improvements as defense alone cannot consistently win games... Though a good defense can save games. 

2 hours ago, Haywarduck said:

I would argue the new era arrived when Leavitt took us from the worst to more than respectable. The problem is that era went on life support until Thibs decided to put the defense on his shoulders and brig it back to life.

I would argue the Leavitt era was a stop gap. It took the overall decent to good talent on the Oregon roster and gave it a scheme that allowed that talent to succeed. 

Whether Oregon holds onto Avalos or not the defensive machine that has been built will continue to roll. I am confident in Cristobal's hires... Especially on the defensive side of the ball. 

[David Marsh]

8 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

I don't think any coach in CFB history has come close to giving fired HCs a 2nd chance than has Nick Saban.

Sark will be a CFB HC again. He has already turned down the Auburn, CU and MS ST jobs. As of today I think he is the leading candidate to follow Saban, when Saban finally departs Tuscaloosa? Sark also comes with the recruiting goods. Bama QB back-up Young is the latest guy Sark has stolen from the west coast. 

MC has learned the lesson from Saban that former head coaches can make good assistant coaches. MC was one of the beneficiaries of Saban's hiring of former headcoaches. The Moorhead hire was a good hire but MC needs to let Moorhead run his offense. 

We have seen what good things happen when MC let his coordinators work in that Avalos has good an over all good job with the defense. 

However, this is not always true, just look at the Helfrich Hoke hire. Now Hoke is a head coach at the group of five level and doing fairly well for himself but he was a terrible DC. 

The next evolution for Cristobal will come in taking his hands of the reigns of the offense and letting his coaches work on that side of the ball. We have already seen that start to happen this year... But keep in mind it is only a start.

[PittDuck]

Thanks David, for a good and thought provoking article. I agree that a strong D can keep a mediocre O in a game.

I am probably in the minority of fans, but I strongly believe that for the most part, College sports are played by kids, and in my experience, kids can be counted on to make mistakes.  It is a huge part of growing up.  For fans to expect perfection out of these kids, I think, is asking way too much.

That said, the thing that corrects these mistakes is experience. We know the 2020 edition of the Football Ducks is one of (if not the) youngest teams in the nation.  They are gaining experience and they are learning to trust each other to do their jobs.

In this $#!%show of a Covid crippled season, I believe our boys are getting better, and learning to communicate with and trust each other. I think AA will have the D on point, and they will do their jobs in the Fiesta Bowl.  They need to limit the ground game while disrupting the passing game.  I think the Ducks can keep the Cyclones under 30 points.

It will be up to MC to let JM do his job and score more than 32 points for the win.

[Jon Sousa]

12 hours ago, 30Duck said:

And, there won't be any, "gimmick" or "finesse" attached to it

I just love seeing Kayvon Thibodeaux "finessing" QBs to the ground.