Jay Johnson has been around a long time. He's not known as the most creative play caller. His most successful year was running lots of outside zone with Kenneth Walker III at Michigan State. He used his great vision to find his hole and cut. Unfortunately, Oregon's not a great zone run blocking team, but we have shown a tendency to value being able to run the ball of late and that goes for several reasons. One is we're not good in pass blocking and we need to stay out of third and long and keep third down convertible.

One of the things that we need to key on this game should be that Nebraska has the 20th-ranked run defense, Illinois the 59th, and Northwestern is worse at 88th. Furthermore, the Ducks ran for 5.6 yards a rush against Illinois. We should be able to run the ball against Northwestern effectively.

If they would have stayed focused on the run last game, they would have possessed the ball more, stayed out of third and long, and early in the game when they had momentum, they probably would have scored more, widened their lead, and exerted better game control. So, we should stick to the run game, show a lot more dedication in it, and work to try to keep ourselves out of third and long.

While Johnson ran a lot of outside zone with Kenneth Walker III, Oregon's current strength dictates sticking primarily to gap schemes like duo and counter, while mixing in occasional zone looks. It will be interesting to see the blocking scheme he favors and the balance between zone and gap in his calls.

Additionally, the offense needs more creative ways to get Dak the ball beyond predictable screen passes, slants and crosses. This includes lining Dak up as a running back for a couple of touches, running traditional running back screens (which fit Johnson's background even if not typical for Oregon), and throwing to him on wheel routes to force a linebacker into one-on-one coverage, giving opponents wrinkles they haven't seen on film. It is also imperative that Jamari Johnson isn't forgotten and gets featured in the passing game as well, giving the offense another versatile mismatch in heavy personnel sets.

Another metric we should be looking at should be that Nebraska had the number #1 third down conversion rate defense, and Northwestern's number #68. It should be pretty simple to conclude that if we can effectively run the ball against Northwestern and get into third and manageable, we should be able to convert on third down.

Ultimately, these adjustments tailor the offense to protect the offensive line's weaknesses in zone blocking and pass protection, staying out of third-and-long situations prevents defense from bringing wide defensive end sets with speed rushes that our tackles have been struggling against. Staying in third-and-short simplifies reads and allows the ball to come out quickly without waiting on deeper routes to develop and the quarterback getting happy feet or feeling pressure.

Excellent take. That kind of perspective is why we are projected to win by bettors.

We have the runningbacks to get it done.

20 minutes ago, Solar said:

Excellent take. That kind of perspective is why we are projected to win by bettors.

12 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

We have the runningbacks to get it done.

My worry is if they game plan to stop the run and come out in a loaded eight-man box. The QB will need to check out of that and throw to the edge. We can't afford to run into an eight-man box as much as we did against Nebraska.

We will have to dump the screen, or we have that RPO to the TE out the backside. Let's see if we get any checks from Riola at the line.

Throwing to the edge has been an issue the last couple weeks...