It was a season of big-time quarterback play and explosive offenses in the Pac-12.

But in the end, it was Utah’s always-steady defense that reigned supreme.

 

Here is a ranking of the Pac-12 defensive play callers, with Pac-12 defensive rankings included.

Are you surprised where they have the Ducks ranked? Were you expecting higher or lower?

 

Gold: Ranking every Pac-12 defensive play-caller after the 2022 regular season

SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM

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A pair of stars who are back at their alma maters lead the Pac-12 defensive coordinator rankings this year, with Utah's Morgan...

Totally blown away from that ranking!  It felt different than that!

 

Kind of makes sense, all 3 of our losses were to better defenses.  We only managed to out score the #1 PAC 12 defense because our defense played above their norm.

On 12/9/2022 at 6:03 PM, PittDuck said:

Kind of makes sense, all 3 of our losses were to better defenses.  We only managed to out score the #1 PAC 12 defense because our defense played above their norm.

Georgia, yes absolutely.  Fuskies and the Beavs? I dunno about that. The Ducks put up 34 on both of them which should have been more than enough to cruise to victory if they had an even a average defense. Lupoi is going to need to show me something next year. I'm hoping with Stein on board Coach L will  concentrate on the defense. 

Honestly I take exception with the analysis in that article.  If you grade out coordinators by where their rosters rank in talent vs where their field production is TL's defense underperformed by about 3-4 rank positions. 

 

I honestly think there's credence to the rumor that DL took a much heavier hand in the Utah games defensive prep/execution.  Does that mean TL has to go?  No, but he does need to improve in 2023. 

 

The defense looked confused a lot this year and struggled to make adjustments against shifting formations.  That's not a talent problem as much as a coaching problem.  The defense needs to do some serious off-season work to understand the systems and be able to play smart, sound, fundamentals football.  We shouldn't be envying OSU's defense with the talent gap between the positions.