As obvious as it has been to most of us, when opposing teams start speaking candidly about the predictability of our play calling, one has to seriously consider if Drew Mehringer should have ever been given this position.

I am all for a new guy being given a shot when his moment comes. But in a year where the talent is there to make a very real run at the National Championship, how did Dan Lanning go through his options and decide a promotion was better than a national coaching search? This is not the season to be going through growing pains at the coordinator level.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/fresh-evidence-dan-lannings-offensive-213709402.html

Going back 2 years now watching all the games I've been able to basically recognize about 50% of the offensive play calls before the snap. In fact I remember posting that here 2 seasons ago. If I can callout plays 50% of the time then what can trained coordinators call? However it doesn't matter until our O line steps up.

I don't think this is the worst time for assistant coaches who are coaching a bunch of players who will play in the NFL?

The D-line and the defense in general stinks because Tosh is at Cal?

Stein isn't around, so 4* and 5* star O-line guys can't move guys out so Oregon can run the ball?

At the end of the National Anthem, it's about the players on the field and not the coaches.

To date, the Oregon players are uninspired and undisciplined.

Would Tosh's coaching, with his defense destroyed by Ohio State in the Rose Bowl and Indiana in the Peach Bowl, make a significant difference?

Would Stein, last seen at Kentucky being blown out by Alabama, make a difference?

No coach will make a difference if the players do not give a whip. If the players don't care, it's on them for cashing checks and not being invested in winning.

The stats tell the story. To date, Oregon's loaded roster is simply soft. This is a top-down player and head coach problem, not an assistant coaching problem.

And credit to him, Dan is the first to admit it. But can it be fixed? Will Dan, with an impeccable record against unranked teams before last Saturday, be able to close the deal with a championship?

If the will to win from the players isn't there, it's on the players, and no group of coaches can fix it. If future NFL guys are fine with being beat up by the junior varsity, so be it.

There are no extraneous reasons why Oregon has underachieved to date; top-drawer players haven't shown up.

I am not sure I agree with it being only a player issue. On defense, Oregon has 8 returning starters, including several on the all BIG ten list and a freshman All American. Do they all of a sudden not care or forget how to play? Tosh was a guy who brought the juice. Players rallied around him. Is Hampton that guy? That is yet to be seen, but so far the answer appears to be no.

Dante Moore is an exceptional pocket passer, but not as accurate while on the move. So naturally on 4th and 8 you call a play to roll him out to the right immediately and take away 1/2 half of the field WITHOUT two of your start receivers in the game? The playcall is indefensible IMO.

Regardless of whose fault this is at the end of the day the fault is on the Oregon Ducks football TEAM.

11 minutes ago, GeotechDuck said:

I am not sure I agree with it being only a player issue. On defense, Oregon has 8 returning starters, including several on the all BIG ten list and a freshman All American. Do they all of a sudden not care or forget how to play? Tosh was a guy who brought the juice. Players rallied around him. Is Hampton that guy? That is yet to be seen, but so far the answer appears to be no.

Dante Moore is an exceptional pocket passer, but not as accurate while on the move. So naturally on 4th and 8 you call a play to roll him out to the right immediately and take away 1/2 half of the field WITHOUT two of your start receivers in the game? The playcall is indefensible IMO.

Good post, Geo.

But if Dante had dropped back instead of rolling out, would Oregon have won the game? This game should have been over at halftime. If the Tulsa coaches were on the sideline, would Oregon have won the game?

Oregon got punched in the mouth and couldn't get off the canvas against a bunch of G6 athletes.

I respect your thoughts and the similar thoughts of other Forum friends.

But I don't believe the Oregon players are failing to perform because of the coaching; I see an entitled group of athletes who are failing to show up and play disciplined and inspired football.

If they are not coached up and not fired up, that's on Lanning more than it is on in-game coaching.

Dan is moving into James Franklin territory. He has won a lot of games, but not the games that win titles.

12 hours ago, GeotechDuck said:

The playcall is indefensible IMO.

As the great Lee Corso would say "Not so fast my friend"

Here are two screen shots from a video posted on another thread that shows Dante missed McCellan plus a defensive hold.

The first one shot shows the snap. The second Dante circled in black, the hold in yellow and McCellan running free.

14 minutes ago, Steven A said:

plus a defensive hold.

I am in no way saying that the refs cost us this game.... the Ducks would have had to do a whole lot more things right for that to be the case.

But seriously... the B1G refs seem to hate us. If that was an Oregon defender holding it would have been flagged. As much as we all hated the old Pac-12 refs I think I like them better than these B1G ones.

13 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

No coach will make a difference if the players do not give a whip. If the players don't care, it's on them for cashing checks and not being invested in winning.

What I am failing to see so far this season are consistent sequences of constraint plays. That is what opposing defenses are keying off of. Kenny Dillingham, so far, has done this better than any of the OC's Lanning has had. We are tipping our hand by the way the O-Line gets set just before the ball is snapped.

Even Will Stein was able to disguise his looks at the LOS by running a constraint off of a run look and changing into play-action or designed passes to keep the opposing linebackers and secondary from getting an extra step on our skill players. I actually figured this would be the primary underlying thread from one OC to the next that Dan Lanning would set an expectation for. I have not seen this happen yet and until I do I believe play calling will continue to struggle against medium to elite defenses.

34 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

I am in no way saying that the refs cost us this game

Agreed. Rarely happens unless the player's name is Dyer and the refs don't review the forearm down vs the knee.

3 minutes ago, Steven A said:

Agreed. Rarely happens unless the player's name is Dyer and the refs don't review the forearm down vs the knee.

LOL! And those guys were also B1G (something or other 🤬)