Duck Fan 76

I agree, it's time the PAC modernized its officiating compensation and significantly increased its officiating training, standards and evaluations. The PAC needs professional refs and not super-fans.

This is a bit of a double edged sword if Oregon's offense is struggling. I think the missing component is the Cover-1 scheme adjustment that increases the risk of an explosive play a small amount but gives a higher probability of returning the ball to Oregon's offense with significant game time left. That's the adaptive situational defense I would expect. Maybe we would have seen it if Oregon's offense wasn't doing as well as it did against WSU. I mean the game was always relatively close...

To be honest I'm not super worried (yet) about the O-line recruiting. Obviously it's been a topic of conversation so far this cycle but I have a tremendous amount of respect for coach Klemm and the product he's putting together. Here is a recent interview with Marcus Harper II that really shines a light on the approach Oregon is using with the O-line. The focus is heavy on technical development, relentless improvement and the returns have been showing up in games. To your point this weekend could be big for Oregon recruiting. I think when quality O-line recruits come here looking at Oregon, great player development is what they are going to see. This is a somewhat down year for west coast O-line recruits (by volume) but some of the guys visiting this weekend are California, Utah and Hawaii natives. Oregon offers a good opportunity to develop for the NFL but stay closer to home. Utah is however a big competitor for us as they do player development very well also.

That's a great point and will be important down the stretch against Washington, Utah and possibly USC with decent offenses in the PAC that will hang with Oregon's offense. With Oregon sitting at 54% on 3rd downs we are obviously not consistently getting stops but a more nuanced look at when we are getting stops is warranted. Dazed had a great article discussing the Cover-2 and stopping big plays and obviously in the Red-Zone with compressed spacing the defense is in better position but the edge play will likely continue to be the attack point for Oregon opponents. Those crossing/hook short gain routes are reliably converting 3rd downs and that feels frustrating. Perhaps we will see more of the defense install as the season goes on? I'm assuming the coaches have/or are teaching some sort of answer to this other than to rely on athletic prowess on the edge to get off blocks and make open field tackles.

That was a terrific article and I thought the analysis was spot on. I agree with your assessment and I would add that the coaching staff knows the Oregon players very very well so there's a reason this defense is showing itself. I would add to the discussion that part of the rationale for the B2B defense is the strength of Oregon's interior linebackers. Oregon is STOUT against the run because our linebackers are the run safeties. I think we will see this against Utah who will play a grinding offense scheme. Fresh defenders and a stout run defense will be the difference maker this year.

I think this is deliberate by the coaches. They are focusing on building up Bo's confidence on the protection and continuing to work with him on being disciplined with his reads. Kenny said he would call plays back to back like this but Bo needs to recognize if the defense sniffs these out. He lost track of Mauigoa in the defense and with the pressure coming down on him he threw the ball with air under it. Honestly the WSU defense played that pass PERFECT. He's gaining confidence though with what he's being taught and I think when the game plan calls for it he will be taking more and more shots down the field. Probably not against Stanford next week... but I think we will have more close games this year and the deep shots will be needed.

Yup, and even though they aren't going to be this week I think that team will continue to get better and will end up ranked by the end of the year and go to a well deserved bowl game. The Cougar Raid offense is for real and that defense is fast and plays HARD. I will DEFINITELY be watching the WSU at USC game on Oct 8th as I don't think USC's defense is up to this test so that will be a shootout.

Ward absolutely dished out the ball to his playmakers finding those zone gaps and those WR's were difficult to bring down. I saw a mix of missed and amazing tackles from Oregon's defenders and that's good progress against slippery skill players. Some of the DB play was great including pass breakups and coverage sacks. The DB's definitely have room to grow in coverage and the perimeter seems to be where every team chooses to attack Oregon. WSU only had 53 yards from the handoff, averaging about 3 yards per carry for the RB's and 0.4 YPC for Ward on the scramble. Against Wisconsin they had 174 yards on the ground.

I agree, I'm not positive what was going on with the red zone play calling in the first half. I think he was using plays that were working on the drives and not realizing that the compressed field didn't give him the same numbers advantages. WSU did a great job of swarming to the play all game. They had so much drive in the game, this was an absolute brawl. That being said, I continue to be impressed with the offense. Oregon only punted twice in the whole game. We definitely want TD's and not Kicks but there's magic brewing in the Oregon offense. The defense had some challenges but the Cougar Raid offense isn't fun to defend, especially in Pullman. The defense is still learning but they had some great plays. Game ball goes to the Offensive line... 0 sacks in 4 games.

I assume you mean would Ty transfer? Hard to say, he's very talented and could already be playing at a lot of schools. That breaks down to a very personal decision on his part and we should support him to do what is best for him. The odds are overwhelmingly in favor of this being Bo's last year no matter what so I really think next year Ty's the Oregon QB unless Jay passes him in development but that doesn't seem to be the case. Dante Moore coming in next year is likely going to be a phenom but there is zero chance I would think he beats out Ty and Jay for the job. My best guess (a dumb move on my part) is that Bo plays this year, Ty plays for 2 years and then Dante Moore gets the start as a redshirt sophomore.

Based on some of the player interviews it looks like there are leaders in each group (DB's, LB's, Line). The player led model uses the informal position leaders to self organize outside of games/practices. As far as an overall leader of the defense I don't know for sure but I think Bennett Williams does a lot of the talking. Noah is more of a quiet personality but I'm sure when he talks everyone listens. Flowe has always been an emotional leader and I'm sure he does a great job of motivating players on and off the field.

I loved this article, great tone! I think you just coined it, I'm going to start calling this thing the "Gimme Shelter Offense"

Agreed, it's great to see Bo thriving in the system and I really hope he stays healthy and keeps developing. He had a rough time in Auburn and I would love to see him cap his college years with a truly positive experience. Technically he has another year of eligibility for next season but I believe Bo wanted this year at Oregon to show his skills in the best light so he can go to the NFL in the Spring. That would mean this will likely be Ty's team next year so his and Jay's continued development is absolutely crucial to the program and Bo is a huge help there.

This is from last week against EWU but you can just see in the BYU game how the coaching staff is taking hold and molding this as their program.

I agree with that point as well as your point on the transfer portal. I'm however extremely grateful for the modified transfer window rules to calm some of the chaos of the portal. There are four big trends currently working the way through CFB transforming the sport in unique ways: 1) Broadcast Consolidation (ESPN and Fox) 2) NIL 3) Transfer Portal 4) BCS Expansion That many moving parts across a distributed network makes predicting the future of CFB a fools game in my opinion. In math we call such a system complex which means small changes have outsized impacts in a way that isn't obvious. I think the effects of "Broadcast Consolidation" are mostly negative, I mean who thinks having only Fox and ESPN covering games is good for the sport? The net result may be the destruction of the regional conferences and much of CFB's history. I'm not sure how this one plays out to be honest. Maybe congress gets involved since there are so many public dollars in the mix. NIL is still evolving and like most things there are good and bad things associated with it. I love the idea of the athletes recovering their rights and getting to earn some cash but I absolutely hate some of the abuses categorized as "collectives". I'm also not sure how this one plays out. With the modified transfer windows the portal I think is mostly a net gain to all but the highest tier programs. The days of Pete Carrol sending guys to the NFL that never played a down at USC are probably over and that's good for the sport. Let the best players play. I believe the BCS expansion does exactly what you said, it lowers some of the impacts of regular season games but opens up the possibility of a true Cinderella story (likely with significant help from the transfer portal). I would say there is the possibility of an unintended positive from lowering the impact of regular season games. With less desperation to play perfect we could hopefully see fewer injuries and a bit more experimentation in CFB. In general I'm not gloom and doom on the sport like most fans my age. Sitting in Autzen stadium I can see plenty of passion for the game. The CFB experience brings a local excitement that the NFL can't match since college towns are smaller and more widespread. I mean is the Rose Bowl empty because everyone in LA is getting their Rams and Chargers fix on? That's not even a possibility for Oregon.

Just look at Clemson!

I agree Oregon looked so much better especially on the perimeter but Georgia has a double tap against most teams IMHO. Georgia recruits better athletes at nearly every positions AND Georgia is developing their talent at a very high level. BYU gets credit for developing their talent at a high level but the recruiting differences are unfortunately very stark. Here are the last 5 classes from 247 sports: Year BYU Oregon Georgia 2022 #56 #13 #3 2021 #77 #6 #4 2020 #80 #12 #1 2019 #81 #7 #2 2018 #78 #13 #1 In those five classes BYU has recruited a total of three 4-star players. Now I'm not in the camp that thinks stars are everything because both Marcus Mariota and Justin Herbert were three star recruits and they grade out slightly above average. Work ethic means a lot when it comes down to players developing and sometimes HS recruits peak early or don't show their top end out of high school. I'm absolutely not trying to take anything away from Georgia, they have 100% earned the #1 spot. The truth is it's rarified air with Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and now Georgia. Oregon is seeking to get there but the program needs to get stability and even better recruiting to break through to win a national championship. I absolutely BELIEVE in this coaching staff! I'd like to believe that CFB allows for a Cinderella story but the last 20 years of evidence is just mostly to the contrary. Oregon got as close as anyone under Chip's spread with a three and four star roster but he had to outmaneuver most of the conventions of football defenses to get there. We very nearly did it under Helfrich in 2015 but Ohio State's offense helmed by their 3rd string QB proved too much for Oregon's defense and Ohio State had figured out some of the formula to mitigate the spread by that game. I do however have real hope that the rest of Oregon's season will be good, potentially very very good. If the PAC is to stay alive Oregon has to carry the banner and that means success on the field and in recruiting. Images like this give me hope that Oregon will continue to do extremely well recruiting SoCal especially when USC begins to get mangled by Ohio State and/or Lincoln Riley gets the NFL payday he's looking for.

Yup, this isn't the game to get the backups in and be cordial. Oregon needs to score fast and often and keep WSU out of this game. I can guarantee the national media is looking for Oregon to get soft and forget to play one of these games.

WSU got disrespected in the polls, that is going to put some extra burn in the WSU players for Saturday. USC is #7 after beating Rice, Stanford, Fresno State. I'm circling the October 15th game USC @ Utah.

Playing in Pullman is going to be tough but I think Oregon's primary opponent will continue to be Oregon. By that I mean Oregon should win by the number but Oregon has to continue to execute at a high level to win this game. From an Oregon defense point of view and looking at the WSU film for this season their offense has some real weapons and their combination of playaction/RPO hitting crossing routes is very effective at exposing zone gaps. Christian Gonzalez is an absolute stud but we are still looking for a #2 corner to step up. To limit their pass options we need to either have effective pressure against Ward or get our DBs into a lockdown mode. So far this year we haven't consistently done this. I expect this weeks practice to focus on this. The WSU run attack led by Nakia Watson has been pretty effective. So far all three Oregon opponents have been attacking Oregon's edges and running away from the middle with Noah Sewell and Justin Flowe (when healthy). I don't think WSU will change that gameplan much but will likely mix some Watson runs into the center for spice. From an Oregon offense perspective we're firing on all cylinders so WSU will have their hands full. They play a smaller faster front that is designed to get pressure, I don't think they will succeed against a very good Oregon O-line and an athletic Bo Nix. The danger here is if Oregon's success in the past two games results in players loosing sync. I think at this point Oregon's offense has only one major opponent and that's Oregon. Note that this week is the last full practice week before school starts. Since the Georgia blowout Oregon has practiced in pads (hitting hard) almost every practice and that's why there are so many dings on the squad. It's also why the tackling and offensive evasions have significantly improved. They are mostly healthy but they have been playing very very hard the last few weeks. I can't imagine the coaches will take their foot off the gas this week since it's proven to be successful on the field. Oregon is playing excellent fundamentals football right now and the coaches want to cement that for the rest of the season. Next week I expect practices will change dramatically. The current rules limit the team to only 20 hours of player participation a week when classes are in session. That doesn't mean the players will only practice 20 hours as Bo has been working with the TE and Receiver groups outside of practice. The team emphasizes a player led approach and that I hope will be the secret sauce for the remainder of the season. Players coaching each other and holding the focus on playing sound football.

I agree 100%. You can hear that theme in the pre and post game interviews. The players and coaches are focused on practicing hard and focusing on clean fundamentals. The scheme was good today but the players were just executing really well. Some of today was skills advantage from Oregon's recruiting but the fundamentals were there and that allows the talent to shine through. The danger is going into Pullman next Saturday. The Cougs are playing some ball and Pullman is an atmosphere. If the maturity is there the players will take what the coaches are teaching about playing 1 down football and keep focusing on execution. If they do, Oregon will handle the Cougs. If they don't...

I agree, the quality was definitely there. Something to think about for the Oregon brand, advertising takes a hit during recessions and entertainment spending changes character. Think about how you will choose to watch football if things get financially tough. If you had to cut your entertainment budget would Amazon prime make the cut?

They work for me on desktop Chrome.

I agree with your assessment and general wariness. I thought the focus on practicing fundamentals and the reduced scheme complexity helped Oregon play a much better game. In general I like this offensive scheme quite a bit. If we develop a true deep ball threat then it will be potent. For the offense Bo threw a clear interception that ended up as an Oregon touchdown and made a couple other poor reads. Bo still needs to work in general on his reads and patience but he showed why he came out of HS with 5 stars. If the coaches keep working with him (a likely prospect) and they get enough repetitions in for him to reliably recognize a bad situation then he will have a solid command of the offense. He's just not there yet. I'm afraid that in big games or if we get behind he could regress. I haven't scouted BYU yet but the highlights showed a decent defense against Baylor. With the defense I hope Oregon continues to emphasize sound tackling, getting off blocks and swarming defenders this week. David Marsh pointed out that our secondary played more man coverage with pressure from the line and that really helped keep pressure on the EWU passing attack. That seems a likely approach unless we face opposing receivers that can blow the top off our defenders. I know from last year that BYU's power-spread offense can be very capable so this week is a real challenge to the still forming Oregon defense.

On paper alone Oregon SHOULD beat BYU but BYU will be pass heavy and attacking our edges. Oregon's pass defense is still finding itself but BYU will not be able to rush anywhere near the middle. I saw significant improvement from Oregon on fundamentals but more work is absolutely needed. I'm really excited to see what the coaches can correct/adjust this week. Bo still made some bad decisions and that just can't happen. When he played smart and trusted the next down he played really really well. I saw more than a few broken tackles for Oregon's offense but that was more about talent gap than scheme. Still, it had to be a great confidence booster for the skill players. I loved watching the EWU game but Oregon better play solid fundamentals football against BYU and let the talent gap and scheme do its work. I have solid hopes that the coaching is taking hold and the players are cleaning up the fundamentals and slowly building out the playbook.