Phew, what a week! It would seem as though the Ducks lost 30% of their fans this week. People asking to fire the coaching staff, kick Vernon Adams out of school, burn Phil Knight at the stake??? YIKES.
Even I was accused of being a fair weather fan. The guy who wore his Duck gear in SEC country two days after the LaGarette punch heard round the world. The guy with two Duck tattoo's. As I was out in public in SEC country watching the game with some friends I posted to my Facebook "the wheels have come off."
The definition of a fair weather fan is someone who supports their team only when they play well. Or win. I rooted for the Ducks in the 80's. I routed for them in the 90's. The 00's and I'm not going anywhere now. I don't believe speaking about what is going on during a game is being a fair weather fan. Part of the fun of being a fan is talking about the x's and o's with other fans. The good things and the bad things. Just because I say our secondary is young and getting worked this year doesn't mean I don't cheer for those young men. I didn't leave the bar early on Saturday, I watched the whole thing.
But enough about that. Let's get to my 5 things I want to see.
#1 - Please win. I thought last weeks game would be a tone setter. Specifically I said it could be good or bad. The game got away from us and it set a pretty bad tone. Now it's time for me to hope I was incorrect and that the tone can be reset this week.
#2 - Defensive wins. Even small wins. A sack. A tackle for loss. A pick. A fumble. I'd even settle for some good 1 on 1 open field tackles.
#3 - Offensive line play. We have a beast of a running back and we can't seem to get him engaged in a big way in these games. 14 Carries against Utah. I'd like to see him get the ball more.
#4 - Taj Griffin. I know he's just a true frosh but that kid is electric. I really think he will be a HUGE playmaker for us over his career.
#5 - Solid QB play. Short passes. WR screens. Quick outs. Get the ball to our playmakers in space.
That's my wish list.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Thursday, September 24, 2015
The Ducks vs The Youths the what? OH, the Utes.
Saturday night I have this feeling I'll be on the edge of my seat. Will we be able to effectively run against that stout D? Which D on our side will show up? The one that chooses a reciever and lets them break Autzen records or the one that looks extremely solid against a Top 5 team with a QB headed for the NFL? Who will play at QB?
As always, here are the 5 things I would like to see
1 - Win. When we're playing fluff teams I have high expectations of shutting things down, no missed tackles. I'm looking for a well oiled machine that never slips up. Make no mistake about it, this is a tough game and in my opinion it could set up or destroy the entire season. Sound dramatic? I don't think so. Last year against a fired up Utah team we are down 7-0 and getting dominated for the entire 1st QTR. Begining of the 2nd QTR a huge pass and a touchdown for Utah. Ugh, the wheels are coming off, on the road down 14-0 and looking like..... Huh???? Why is there a group of Ducks running down the sideline. Instead of 14-0 it's 7-7 and what a momentum change. I think if Clay doesn't drop the ball on the 1 yard line we lose that game. So much momentum. We've been choppy this year. Up, down. Look great at times, look off at times. A great performance could be a confidence booster, a couple of lousy plays early could be a confidence killer.
2 - I should just say "win" again. But let's get into this thing. I would like to see solid QB play regardless of who starts. Based on the limited amount we've seen I think it will be Vernon. The coaches get to see a lot more than we do and they're a lot smarter in evaluating things so I'll leave that up to them. Vernon has had a limited playbook which is a hinderance to the run game, we're hearing he has more of it down now.
3 - Royce Freeman - Unleash the beast. Royce has looked phenominal agasint the two teams he should look phenominal against. In the MI ST game he carried for 3.8 yards per attempt. Respectable against that stout D. But 3.8 yards per carry would be GREAT if there were 1-2 big plays mixed in. For comparisson, Madre Landon of MI ST ran for jsut over 2 yards a carry if you don't count the 1 for 62 yards. We don't remember the 17 plays he got virtually nothing. We remember the long one. His counterpart ran for about 3 per carry if you don't count the 38 yarder. That MI ST game is a lot differnt had Royce busted a run for 50+ at some point. This game could come down to Royce VS DeVontae - who can break a big one.
4 - Tackling. We've been harping on this for 3 weeks. Our secondary is young and I'm sure at the high school level they were used to just flying in and manhanlding guys. At this level we need sound fundamentals. Break down at the hip level, wrap up and drive thru the ball carrier.
5 - Continue the big play magic on the D. The D has been beat up by the fans this year. Some of that has been earned - tackling! Some of that has not - fire everyone and kick all of them out of school! The great thing about our D is they do make some big plays. If we sure up the fundamentals and continue to provide a spark at key times I think we can do some damage this year.
As always, here are the 5 things I would like to see
1 - Win. When we're playing fluff teams I have high expectations of shutting things down, no missed tackles. I'm looking for a well oiled machine that never slips up. Make no mistake about it, this is a tough game and in my opinion it could set up or destroy the entire season. Sound dramatic? I don't think so. Last year against a fired up Utah team we are down 7-0 and getting dominated for the entire 1st QTR. Begining of the 2nd QTR a huge pass and a touchdown for Utah. Ugh, the wheels are coming off, on the road down 14-0 and looking like..... Huh???? Why is there a group of Ducks running down the sideline. Instead of 14-0 it's 7-7 and what a momentum change. I think if Clay doesn't drop the ball on the 1 yard line we lose that game. So much momentum. We've been choppy this year. Up, down. Look great at times, look off at times. A great performance could be a confidence booster, a couple of lousy plays early could be a confidence killer.
2 - I should just say "win" again. But let's get into this thing. I would like to see solid QB play regardless of who starts. Based on the limited amount we've seen I think it will be Vernon. The coaches get to see a lot more than we do and they're a lot smarter in evaluating things so I'll leave that up to them. Vernon has had a limited playbook which is a hinderance to the run game, we're hearing he has more of it down now.
3 - Royce Freeman - Unleash the beast. Royce has looked phenominal agasint the two teams he should look phenominal against. In the MI ST game he carried for 3.8 yards per attempt. Respectable against that stout D. But 3.8 yards per carry would be GREAT if there were 1-2 big plays mixed in. For comparisson, Madre Landon of MI ST ran for jsut over 2 yards a carry if you don't count the 1 for 62 yards. We don't remember the 17 plays he got virtually nothing. We remember the long one. His counterpart ran for about 3 per carry if you don't count the 38 yarder. That MI ST game is a lot differnt had Royce busted a run for 50+ at some point. This game could come down to Royce VS DeVontae - who can break a big one.
4 - Tackling. We've been harping on this for 3 weeks. Our secondary is young and I'm sure at the high school level they were used to just flying in and manhanlding guys. At this level we need sound fundamentals. Break down at the hip level, wrap up and drive thru the ball carrier.
5 - Continue the big play magic on the D. The D has been beat up by the fans this year. Some of that has been earned - tackling! Some of that has not - fire everyone and kick all of them out of school! The great thing about our D is they do make some big plays. If we sure up the fundamentals and continue to provide a spark at key times I think we can do some damage this year.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
The Ducks vs the..... I don't even know what GA ST is?
This week the Ducks come off a tough and close loss to Michigan State. The defense, outside of a couple big plays, looked much better than during our opener. Tackling looked shady at times but overall a much better performance vs a much better opponent.
Here are my 5 things I'm looking for this week.
#1 - Someone on the D line to blow something up. Looking at you DeFo! Buckner is prejected as a top pick in the draft. I wanted him to completely blow something up on a couple plays vs E. Washington. Shouldn't a top pick be able to blow up a play or two against this level of competition? Once or twice just flatten the tackle and get a sack? Or even just flat beat a double team and get a sack? If not DeFo someone like French? Prevot? Canton?
#2 - Secondary. We showed much improvement agasinst Michigan State. After Kupp ran a muck and broke nearly every Autzen record a WR could hold the big fear going into last week was that Conner Cook would throw for 400 yards and 5 TD's. Of course that didn't happen. This week Coach Neal admitted that he didn't use a full rotation for fear that the young guys would make a mistake. This week against this opponent we need everyone out there. The Panthers don't post any real threat to us. Then again, E. Washington shouldn't either. Northern Iowa held Kupp to less yards, catches and TD's than we did. They aren't even a top 10 ranked team in the FCS.
#3 - I want to see the team play up. What I mean by this is that I want to see the team play our game regardless of who the opponent is. I want a little business mixed in. Not playing down to our opponent. I don't want to see a let down because we expect to win. This game should look 100% over about 10 minutes in.
#4 - Last week Braylon busted a big play and looked like his old self, GREAT to see. This week I'd like to see Devon Allen bust a big one and put that world class speed on display. It was good to see glimpses of him on the field. I want to see him on full display.
#5 - I'd like to see a few more runs by Taj G. I know he's behind a strong stable of backs. I don't have anything against Kani or TBJ, but I just have had this feeling that when Taj is back to full speed he's going to look more like then next great small playmaker. Again, I think Kani and TBJ are good. I think Taj will be that guy that makes us go....."whoa, did you just see that?"
This should be a total blow out. I'm going with 60 - 10 for our Ducks.
Please feel free to comment. Agree, disagree. It's all good.
Here are my 5 things I'm looking for this week.
#1 - Someone on the D line to blow something up. Looking at you DeFo! Buckner is prejected as a top pick in the draft. I wanted him to completely blow something up on a couple plays vs E. Washington. Shouldn't a top pick be able to blow up a play or two against this level of competition? Once or twice just flatten the tackle and get a sack? Or even just flat beat a double team and get a sack? If not DeFo someone like French? Prevot? Canton?
#2 - Secondary. We showed much improvement agasinst Michigan State. After Kupp ran a muck and broke nearly every Autzen record a WR could hold the big fear going into last week was that Conner Cook would throw for 400 yards and 5 TD's. Of course that didn't happen. This week Coach Neal admitted that he didn't use a full rotation for fear that the young guys would make a mistake. This week against this opponent we need everyone out there. The Panthers don't post any real threat to us. Then again, E. Washington shouldn't either. Northern Iowa held Kupp to less yards, catches and TD's than we did. They aren't even a top 10 ranked team in the FCS.
#3 - I want to see the team play up. What I mean by this is that I want to see the team play our game regardless of who the opponent is. I want a little business mixed in. Not playing down to our opponent. I don't want to see a let down because we expect to win. This game should look 100% over about 10 minutes in.
#4 - Last week Braylon busted a big play and looked like his old self, GREAT to see. This week I'd like to see Devon Allen bust a big one and put that world class speed on display. It was good to see glimpses of him on the field. I want to see him on full display.
#5 - I'd like to see a few more runs by Taj G. I know he's behind a strong stable of backs. I don't have anything against Kani or TBJ, but I just have had this feeling that when Taj is back to full speed he's going to look more like then next great small playmaker. Again, I think Kani and TBJ are good. I think Taj will be that guy that makes us go....."whoa, did you just see that?"
This should be a total blow out. I'm going with 60 - 10 for our Ducks.
Please feel free to comment. Agree, disagree. It's all good.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
The Expectations of a Duck Fan
Hello all,
Typically I don't write blogs about what just happened. I write about my predictions and what I like to see out of my team. Tonight vs Michigan State I've seen all kinds of people posting about how awful our team is. How this play went bad and how this didn't happen. This drove me to write. I'm a part of We All Love The Ducks on Facebook, as well as Blur Offense, Oregon Ducks Football. I like Dale Newton, Aaron Fentress, Rob Mosely and several others. I've had the pleasure of being friends via Facebook with several former and current players.
I invite you to read. I invite you to comment if you do read.
Sorry Duck fans but here are some reality checks.
- Good teams lose.
- We wont win all our games.
- No matter how good we get, we will give up big plays.
- No matter how good we get, we will get stuff from time to time.
Here's my 1st Observation - "The Defense SUCKS!"
I've seen this comment over and over. In week 1 the D had a rough outting. We didn't tackle well and overall we looked like crap against an FCS team.
Tonight we faced a 1st round draft pick QB in Conner Cook. This "sucky" defense held a 1st rounder to 20/32 wiht 192 yards. 2 td's and 1 int.
Tonight we face the #5 team in the country. A team with a solid run game and gave up 197 yards in 37 carries. 5.3 yards per carry. BUT! They had 2 huge plays. The 1st play of the game went for 62 yards and late in the game a 38 yarder. 2 plays - 100 yards. That means the other 35 carries went for 97. Or, less than 3 yards a carry.
That's NOT f'n bad at all against the #5 team in the country.
Here's my 2nd Observation - The Oregon Ducks are an Offensive team.
We are. We are a team that thrives on offense. We are a team of timing and pace. We are a team that expects to score points and keep momentum.
We are all that AND we have a QB that has been in the system for 4 weeks. That is tough no matter how you slice it. VA showed some huge play abiltiy. He also showed some missed timing. our secondary is also young. They showed some greatness. They showed some missed timing. We went from Mariota to VA. Mariota is like Manning. He's polished. He's precise. He's damn near perfect. VA is more like Favre. He's a risk taker, he rolls the dice. He lives by the big play and he dies by the big play.
3rd Observations - The Ducks cannot win the big game.
ARGH! WE've won our fair share of big games over the last few years. The honest truth is that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I'm a grappler. I'm very strong and stocky. I have trouble with long tall guys. It is what it is. We will always have trouble with teams that have GREAT d lines and a solid run game. Stanford. Alabama (who we haven't played). OH ST. MI ST. These are the teams we will struggle with each and every time. Good teams. Even great. Style match ups are a big deal. Our style suits us very well. But there are times when we face a team that matches up well with us.
4th Observation -
This was a hard fought game. The team played well. Sure, there were some penalties. Sure, the 5th down VA run was a bad spot. Sure, we left some points on the board.
But hey Duck fans. That happens in big games sometimes. The defense played well tonight. Yes, I would have liked 1 more pick. Yes, I would have loved a 3rd down sack. Yes, I would have liked a fumble. Yes, I would have liked for them to hold on the 2 big plays.
We held a TOP 5 team to 389 yards. AGAIN, 100 yards came on 2 plays. That's 289 yards on 65 plays.
Had VA connected with Byron Marshall late in the forth or had we scored on the goal line in the 1st half we'd be cheering and MI ST would be talking about how their special teams didn't hold Bralyon on that punt. And how they didn't stop a few big plays.
This is a game of inches. Ask anyone who played the game. Don't be ashamed or upset at this loss. We played a solid team on the road and came up 3 points short.
Typically I don't write blogs about what just happened. I write about my predictions and what I like to see out of my team. Tonight vs Michigan State I've seen all kinds of people posting about how awful our team is. How this play went bad and how this didn't happen. This drove me to write. I'm a part of We All Love The Ducks on Facebook, as well as Blur Offense, Oregon Ducks Football. I like Dale Newton, Aaron Fentress, Rob Mosely and several others. I've had the pleasure of being friends via Facebook with several former and current players.
I invite you to read. I invite you to comment if you do read.
Sorry Duck fans but here are some reality checks.
- Good teams lose.
- We wont win all our games.
- No matter how good we get, we will give up big plays.
- No matter how good we get, we will get stuff from time to time.
Here's my 1st Observation - "The Defense SUCKS!"
I've seen this comment over and over. In week 1 the D had a rough outting. We didn't tackle well and overall we looked like crap against an FCS team.
Tonight we faced a 1st round draft pick QB in Conner Cook. This "sucky" defense held a 1st rounder to 20/32 wiht 192 yards. 2 td's and 1 int.
Tonight we face the #5 team in the country. A team with a solid run game and gave up 197 yards in 37 carries. 5.3 yards per carry. BUT! They had 2 huge plays. The 1st play of the game went for 62 yards and late in the game a 38 yarder. 2 plays - 100 yards. That means the other 35 carries went for 97. Or, less than 3 yards a carry.
That's NOT f'n bad at all against the #5 team in the country.
Here's my 2nd Observation - The Oregon Ducks are an Offensive team.
We are. We are a team that thrives on offense. We are a team of timing and pace. We are a team that expects to score points and keep momentum.
We are all that AND we have a QB that has been in the system for 4 weeks. That is tough no matter how you slice it. VA showed some huge play abiltiy. He also showed some missed timing. our secondary is also young. They showed some greatness. They showed some missed timing. We went from Mariota to VA. Mariota is like Manning. He's polished. He's precise. He's damn near perfect. VA is more like Favre. He's a risk taker, he rolls the dice. He lives by the big play and he dies by the big play.
3rd Observations - The Ducks cannot win the big game.
ARGH! WE've won our fair share of big games over the last few years. The honest truth is that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I'm a grappler. I'm very strong and stocky. I have trouble with long tall guys. It is what it is. We will always have trouble with teams that have GREAT d lines and a solid run game. Stanford. Alabama (who we haven't played). OH ST. MI ST. These are the teams we will struggle with each and every time. Good teams. Even great. Style match ups are a big deal. Our style suits us very well. But there are times when we face a team that matches up well with us.
4th Observation -
This was a hard fought game. The team played well. Sure, there were some penalties. Sure, the 5th down VA run was a bad spot. Sure, we left some points on the board.
But hey Duck fans. That happens in big games sometimes. The defense played well tonight. Yes, I would have liked 1 more pick. Yes, I would have loved a 3rd down sack. Yes, I would have liked a fumble. Yes, I would have liked for them to hold on the 2 big plays.
We held a TOP 5 team to 389 yards. AGAIN, 100 yards came on 2 plays. That's 289 yards on 65 plays.
Had VA connected with Byron Marshall late in the forth or had we scored on the goal line in the 1st half we'd be cheering and MI ST would be talking about how their special teams didn't hold Bralyon on that punt. And how they didn't stop a few big plays.
This is a game of inches. Ask anyone who played the game. Don't be ashamed or upset at this loss. We played a solid team on the road and came up 3 points short.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
#7 Oregon at #5 Michigan State
The winner of this game boosts their potential for a playoff run. Either team will still have a ton of games to play and a log hard season in front of them, but this is one of the top games of the year. Probably the best out of conference game. Last year the game against Michigan State meant that we were not in the 1 loss conversation.
Last week both Michigan State and Oregon looked suspect as a top 10 team in certain aspects. Oregon's young secondary struggled against the passing attack of an FCS school. Good news is our secondary is young and the optimist in me says they were just a little shell shocked, everything will be back to normal this week! The pessimist in me will have my cheeks puckered until we make some open field tackles and break up a pass or two. Expect Michigane State to be settled in as well, they have a solid D that didn't play to their liking.
Here's what I'm looking for this week.
#1 - More Vernon Adams. He ran the offense great, I love the way he throws the deep ball our for people to make a play. Six foot five inch Dwayne Stanfor has to be loving those jump balls.
#2 - The D line needs to get to the QB. We ran a pretty vanilla defense, expect to see some stunts this week. But Buckner is supposed to be our blue chip top 10 NFL pick. Sometimes I'd like to see him just blow up the tackle and get after the QB. Maybe even through a double team. hoping to see Canton out there as well.
#3 - Rolls Royce Freeman. I saw a lot of people griping that his 180 yards and 3 TD's didn't get much attention. He has a big nasty #5 team to chew up this week. Looking for him to continue his success.
#4 - Addison had a pretty quiet return to football off his injurty. 3 catches, 24 yards and a TD. Want to see him break one this week.
#5 - The new O line. This week will be a test of the o line minus Grasu and Fisher. If they can get Royce to the next level our offense has a great night.
I do believe we go into the Spartan back yard and pull our a victory. We'll have to tackle better than we did last week. I'm picking a 52 - 28 game. I think the D makes some adjustments and improvements as well as picks up some turnovers due to having such a rough outting last week.
Last week both Michigan State and Oregon looked suspect as a top 10 team in certain aspects. Oregon's young secondary struggled against the passing attack of an FCS school. Good news is our secondary is young and the optimist in me says they were just a little shell shocked, everything will be back to normal this week! The pessimist in me will have my cheeks puckered until we make some open field tackles and break up a pass or two. Expect Michigane State to be settled in as well, they have a solid D that didn't play to their liking.
Here's what I'm looking for this week.
#1 - More Vernon Adams. He ran the offense great, I love the way he throws the deep ball our for people to make a play. Six foot five inch Dwayne Stanfor has to be loving those jump balls.
#2 - The D line needs to get to the QB. We ran a pretty vanilla defense, expect to see some stunts this week. But Buckner is supposed to be our blue chip top 10 NFL pick. Sometimes I'd like to see him just blow up the tackle and get after the QB. Maybe even through a double team. hoping to see Canton out there as well.
#3 - Rolls Royce Freeman. I saw a lot of people griping that his 180 yards and 3 TD's didn't get much attention. He has a big nasty #5 team to chew up this week. Looking for him to continue his success.
#4 - Addison had a pretty quiet return to football off his injurty. 3 catches, 24 yards and a TD. Want to see him break one this week.
#5 - The new O line. This week will be a test of the o line minus Grasu and Fisher. If they can get Royce to the next level our offense has a great night.
I do believe we go into the Spartan back yard and pull our a victory. We'll have to tackle better than we did last week. I'm picking a 52 - 28 game. I think the D makes some adjustments and improvements as well as picks up some turnovers due to having such a rough outting last week.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Oregon Ducks VS Eastern Washington
We're all ready for some football! Saturday evening we get the chance to see our 1st game without the GREAT Marcus Mariota. Here are 5 things I'm wanting to see out of this game.
Now, I've read a few articles on this game, about how EWU will be fired up to play us, about how they are top ranked FCS school, about how their offense will move the ball about how they almost beat the Husky's and the beat the Beavs.
Sorry but that doesn't fly with me. An FCS team shouldn't be tough for us. They shouldn't move the ball on us. We are not the Husky's or the Beavs. We are the Pac Champs, favorite in some cases to get back to the playoff.
Last year in the opener S Dakota rushed for 1, 6, 4 and 3 on their 1st drive. Resulting in a FG. They had a couple of 12 yard runs in the 1st half. If we want to be in the playoff and compete our D has to completely shut down the run game of an FCS team. Maybe someone breaks a big one on a great effort, but outside of that we need to dominate the line. I don't want to see an FCS school's top 3 rushers go 28 carries for 156 yards. No ifs ands or butts. The S Dakota game ended 62-13 so it isn't like we did bad. But if South Dakota can rush for 4.4 yards a carry on us and Sean Wick from WY can rush for 122 yards on 16 carries than Ezekiel Elliot can slash us. I don't want to see the bend but don't break against this team.
When OH ST played Kent State last year there were 23 carries for 46 yards. When BAMA played FAU they rushed for 57 yards on 24 carries. When TCU played Samford they rushed for 87 yards on 47 carries. THAT is the type of performance I want to see our front 7 put up.
OK, let me slide off my soap box now.
#1 - Shut down the run game. Completely. I want 0 net yards in the 1st half.
We have a brand new backfield on D. If EWU gets a little momentum on our young guys I don't have a lot of heartburn. But I don't want to see sustained drives. Our D line needs to get to the QB.
On Offense I'm ready to see Vernon run the O. Let's see how he runs the read option at speed for sustained drives. I'd like to see them mix in a lot of throws from short to mid range to long.
#2 - How quickly can VA pick up the O and how much of it does he know?
#3 - Just like on the D line, I want to see the O line opening up holes that my grandmother could run through. Blowing people off the line.
#4 - Braylon Addison! So glad he's back. Is he back fully? Interesting that he is listed in the second spot behind Stanford. Has he lost a step? Is he in his own head? Did Stanford just up his game that much?
#5 - Replacing Pharoah Brown. I'm still hoping for a full and complete recovery and we'll see brown out there doing his thing. But in the mean time will Mundt or Bayliss step up and fully live up to their potential. Each of them have showed flashes, but nothing sustained.
All in all I expect this to be a glorified scrimmage, we should dominate every aspect. Not only in the final score but in every aspect.
As a bonus I'm really looking forward to true freshman Fotu Leito. If you haven't seen his highlight video please take a look on the side bar. The word is during practice that if Fotu's running down to cover a kick everyone stopped to watch.
Please do leave comments, feel free to agree, disagree or add your own wish list of things you want to see.
Now, I've read a few articles on this game, about how EWU will be fired up to play us, about how they are top ranked FCS school, about how their offense will move the ball about how they almost beat the Husky's and the beat the Beavs.
Sorry but that doesn't fly with me. An FCS team shouldn't be tough for us. They shouldn't move the ball on us. We are not the Husky's or the Beavs. We are the Pac Champs, favorite in some cases to get back to the playoff.
Last year in the opener S Dakota rushed for 1, 6, 4 and 3 on their 1st drive. Resulting in a FG. They had a couple of 12 yard runs in the 1st half. If we want to be in the playoff and compete our D has to completely shut down the run game of an FCS team. Maybe someone breaks a big one on a great effort, but outside of that we need to dominate the line. I don't want to see an FCS school's top 3 rushers go 28 carries for 156 yards. No ifs ands or butts. The S Dakota game ended 62-13 so it isn't like we did bad. But if South Dakota can rush for 4.4 yards a carry on us and Sean Wick from WY can rush for 122 yards on 16 carries than Ezekiel Elliot can slash us. I don't want to see the bend but don't break against this team.
When OH ST played Kent State last year there were 23 carries for 46 yards. When BAMA played FAU they rushed for 57 yards on 24 carries. When TCU played Samford they rushed for 87 yards on 47 carries. THAT is the type of performance I want to see our front 7 put up.
OK, let me slide off my soap box now.
#1 - Shut down the run game. Completely. I want 0 net yards in the 1st half.
We have a brand new backfield on D. If EWU gets a little momentum on our young guys I don't have a lot of heartburn. But I don't want to see sustained drives. Our D line needs to get to the QB.
On Offense I'm ready to see Vernon run the O. Let's see how he runs the read option at speed for sustained drives. I'd like to see them mix in a lot of throws from short to mid range to long.
#2 - How quickly can VA pick up the O and how much of it does he know?
#3 - Just like on the D line, I want to see the O line opening up holes that my grandmother could run through. Blowing people off the line.
#4 - Braylon Addison! So glad he's back. Is he back fully? Interesting that he is listed in the second spot behind Stanford. Has he lost a step? Is he in his own head? Did Stanford just up his game that much?
#5 - Replacing Pharoah Brown. I'm still hoping for a full and complete recovery and we'll see brown out there doing his thing. But in the mean time will Mundt or Bayliss step up and fully live up to their potential. Each of them have showed flashes, but nothing sustained.
All in all I expect this to be a glorified scrimmage, we should dominate every aspect. Not only in the final score but in every aspect.
As a bonus I'm really looking forward to true freshman Fotu Leito. If you haven't seen his highlight video please take a look on the side bar. The word is during practice that if Fotu's running down to cover a kick everyone stopped to watch.
Please do leave comments, feel free to agree, disagree or add your own wish list of things you want to see.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Oregon VS Michigan State
College Game Day will be on hand as the #3 and #7 teams in the country face off tomorrow night. No matter how you slice it this is a huge game for both teams with the winner being a solid early contender in the 'way to early' playoff talks. Both teams will also still have a full season to make it through.
Keys to the game -
#1 - To me the biggest match up is to watch the Duck backs (QB and all three RB's) vs the linebacker corp from Michigan State. The zone read runs of Oregon work to isolate our playmaker against one defender, usually a linebacker. Michigan State is a fundamentally sound tackling team and they will make it tough for us in our run game. In our past losses against Stanford, LSU and Auburn our run game was stopped almost completely. Yards will be tough and we will need to make them miss or break a few throughout the game to keep our offense on the field. Our RB's are much bigger than in years past, I think even if we can take some of those three yard plays where we get tackled and make them five or six yards gains by pushing and dragging people and knocking them back, the night will be better and first downs will be gained.
#2 - Over the years I've said it many times, our TE's are underutilized. From Dickson to Paulson to that other guy (UGH) to Mundt to Brown. USE THEM. The way we stretch the field long and wide our TE's are typically available up the middle. When we are playing lesser teams our speedy playmakers can make a few miss and turn something into a huge gain. If yards are tough we cannot forget about the TE position. Perfect example was in the KSU game two years ago. The first half was tight and KSU was playing us tough. Right before the half there are back to back big gains to the TE, we score and the halftime adjustment had to be made to cover the TE better. This gave a few extra inches here and there, if you know anything about the Ducks its that if we find an inch we can take it to the house.
#3 - I'm looking at you D-Line and Linebackers. The coach should pull everyone's man card at the beginning of this game and let them all know if they want it back they must go out there and earn it. In our scheme the defense doesn't need to play shut down ball. But we do need to make some plays, whether they be big stops or turnovers. Stanford was 14 for 21 on 3rd down and 1 for 1 on 4th down. We need do better that that in key times. I think our defense is MORE athletic than the the D that lead us into the National Championship, yes, MORE. But Casey Matthews and company made big plays in big moments. In that game when we needed a turnover Casey made Cam fumble. We forced a fumble on Cam early in the game that the review booth hosed in my humble opinion.
Marcus will be his cool calm and collected self. The lines have put on the bulk on the offseason. Going into this season I'm as excited as I've ever been about our team. I feel we are the full complete deal poised to make a run. Now we just need to go out and play!
GO DUCKS!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Keys to the game -
#1 - To me the biggest match up is to watch the Duck backs (QB and all three RB's) vs the linebacker corp from Michigan State. The zone read runs of Oregon work to isolate our playmaker against one defender, usually a linebacker. Michigan State is a fundamentally sound tackling team and they will make it tough for us in our run game. In our past losses against Stanford, LSU and Auburn our run game was stopped almost completely. Yards will be tough and we will need to make them miss or break a few throughout the game to keep our offense on the field. Our RB's are much bigger than in years past, I think even if we can take some of those three yard plays where we get tackled and make them five or six yards gains by pushing and dragging people and knocking them back, the night will be better and first downs will be gained.
#2 - Over the years I've said it many times, our TE's are underutilized. From Dickson to Paulson to that other guy (UGH) to Mundt to Brown. USE THEM. The way we stretch the field long and wide our TE's are typically available up the middle. When we are playing lesser teams our speedy playmakers can make a few miss and turn something into a huge gain. If yards are tough we cannot forget about the TE position. Perfect example was in the KSU game two years ago. The first half was tight and KSU was playing us tough. Right before the half there are back to back big gains to the TE, we score and the halftime adjustment had to be made to cover the TE better. This gave a few extra inches here and there, if you know anything about the Ducks its that if we find an inch we can take it to the house.
#3 - I'm looking at you D-Line and Linebackers. The coach should pull everyone's man card at the beginning of this game and let them all know if they want it back they must go out there and earn it. In our scheme the defense doesn't need to play shut down ball. But we do need to make some plays, whether they be big stops or turnovers. Stanford was 14 for 21 on 3rd down and 1 for 1 on 4th down. We need do better that that in key times. I think our defense is MORE athletic than the the D that lead us into the National Championship, yes, MORE. But Casey Matthews and company made big plays in big moments. In that game when we needed a turnover Casey made Cam fumble. We forced a fumble on Cam early in the game that the review booth hosed in my humble opinion.
Marcus will be his cool calm and collected self. The lines have put on the bulk on the offseason. Going into this season I'm as excited as I've ever been about our team. I feel we are the full complete deal poised to make a run. Now we just need to go out and play!
GO DUCKS!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)