Arizona at #2 Oregon

[SuperDuck]

People are overreacting like crazy. Pellum trotted out a dumbed down plan against Wyoming as to not give away anything for MSU. He made some great adjustments at halftime and gave up 3 points in the second half against a really good MSU team. Against WSU we had players in position to make a lot of stops that we just didn't execute. Like who would have thought Ifo would get burned one-on-one twice. Plus Leach is one of the best offensive minds in the country. And we still only gave up 10 points in the second half.

Actually, we played MSU before we played Wyoming. We've all made mistakes before.

The MSU game was excusable. They're an excellent football team.

The Wyoming game seemed like Pellum was testing some different things. We gave up the early TD, but we nearly shut them down the rest of the way. Also, you have to give some credit to their head coach. The guy is an excellent coach and I think he'll do well there.

There's no way he let up for WSU. Those guys are Pac-12 caliber players that just haven't been playing up to their potential. He knows better than to play with fire.

Something that everyone "in the know" (Duck fans) should consider when looking at our defensive ranking is that the Ducks have gone DEEP into their bench so far this year in order to get some young players much needed playing time and build more depth in certain areas. We're a LOT better than those stats show.

I hope they can bring those stats up as the season progresses, but I'm not gonna stress on it too much just yet.

[wlduck]

Thankfully they don't have Ka'deem Carey to run at us 48 times again.

I think Solomon is better than Denker though(uh-oh) and they'll come out slinging. I haven't seen enough of Arizona to know how he reacts under pressure/blitz but he is good enough to eat us up if we let him sit back with 8 in coverage.

Solomon is better than Denker, but Denker played the game of his life against us. Solomon is not likely to play any better than Denker did.

[gogreen55]

And we still only gave up 10 points in the second half.

That is the amazing thing. You read some of these comments and you would think the Ducks gave up 30+ points in the second half or something. If someone would have told me before the game that the Ducks would only give up 10 points in the second half, in this sort of a road game where neither team eats up the clock and there are more plays/possessions than normal, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. Obviously there is a ton to improve on, and it was admittedly frustrating to watch at times, but the defensive strategy in the second half wasn't nearly as ineffective as people make it out to be. The first half defensive effort would have potentially been adequate also (certainly not great, but not terrible) if Ifo had been able to break up one of those two touchdown throws directed at him.

[SuperDuck]

And we still only gave up 10 points in the second half.

That is the amazing thing. You read some of these comments and you would think the Ducks gave up 30+ points in the second half or something. If someone would have told me before the game that the Ducks would only give up 10 points in the second half, in this sort of a road game where neither team eats up the clock and there are more plays/possessions than normal, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. Obviously there is a ton to improve on, and it was admittedly frustrating to watch at times, but the defensive strategy in the second half wasn't nearly as ineffective as people make it out to be. The first half defensive effort would have potentially been adequate also (certainly not great, but not terrible) if Ifo had been able to break up one of those two touchdown throws directed at him.

That's something I forgot to mention. Ifo was clearly pushed on that first TD on the fade. It clearly showed it on the replay and the announcers even said that it looked like WSU got away with one.

[UOducksTK1]

People are overreacting like crazy. Pellum trotted out a dumbed down plan against Wyoming as to not give away anything for MSU. He made some great adjustments at halftime and gave up 3 points in the second half against a really good MSU team. Against WSU we had players in position to make a lot of stops that we just didn't execute. Like who would have thought Ifo would get burned one-on-one twice. Plus Leach is one of the best offensive minds in the country. And we still only gave up 10 points in the second half.

None of that negates the terrible defensive game plan we had against Wazzu. And beyond that, I disagree with most of your points.

Wyoming had 24 first downs and 439 yards against Oregon. Against Air Force, FAU, and Montana, they never managed over 18 first downs or more than 340 yards.

I'd give more credit to the crowd at Autzen and our offense rather than DP, regarding our 2nd half stand against MSU. Once our offense started rolling, the crowd got crazy, and Cook was terrible. And tbh, our execution was great.

Of course we missed tackles and made mistakes against Wazzu, but it was obvious as day how flawed our defensive approach was. And while you seemed impressed with our 2nd half defense, I again credit our offense for maintaining long and steady drives to keep Wazzu's offense off the field. And even when Wazzu did get the ball in the 2nd half, they still moved the ball fine..

Wazzu's 2nd half drives:
8 plays 45 yards (Wazzu fumbled 35 yards out of our endzone. Pretty sure they would have scored again)
11 plays 74 yards
6 plays 75 yards
6 plays 31 yards (the only drive where we rushed more than 3 players at least twice!)

Seems to me that Wazzu moved the ball pretty darn well in the 2nd half.

To have the 103rd worst defense (out of 124 teams) in the country when 2 of our games were against Wyoming and South Dakota, that's definitely not good.

[UOducksTK1]

And we still only gave up 10 points in the second half.

That is the amazing thing. You read some of these comments and you would think the Ducks gave up 30+ points in the second half or something. If someone would have told me before the game that the Ducks would only give up 10 points in the second half, in this sort of a road game where neither team eats up the clock and there are more plays/possessions than normal, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. Obviously there is a ton to improve on, and it was admittedly frustrating to watch at times, but the defensive strategy in the second half wasn't nearly as ineffective as people make it out to be. The first half defensive effort would have potentially been adequate also (certainly not great, but not terrible) if Ifo had been able to break up one of those two touchdown throws directed at him.

But we didn't even stop Wazzu in the 2nd half at all. In fact, statistically, they moved the ball better in the 2nd half than they did in the 1st half. If Oregon's offense didn't come alive, Wazzu could have put up another 20+ points in the 2nd half. Minus 2 drives in the first half and the last drive of the game, Oregon didn't even remotely show they could slow down Wazzu. I'm really not trying to be a downer, but just trying to point out what I see as the facts. I hope I'm wrong and DP does a complete 180 and we shut out everyone the rest of the season.

Thank Mariota.

[gogreen55]

But we didn't even stop Wazzu in the 2nd half at all.

What are you talking about? If the Ducks "didn't even stop Wazzu in the 2nd half," how did they not score more than 10 points during the entire second half? The number "10" is an inescapable fact that doesn't fit into the narrative of this being one of the biggest defensive debacles in the history of college football. The defense played well enough to win in the second half since it is a game in which score is kept. Giving up 10 points during a half in that sort of a game isn't terrible and put the Ducks in position to win the game, which they did.

[UOducksTK1]

But we didn't even stop Wazzu in the 2nd half at all.

What are you talking about? If the Ducks "didn't even stop Wazzu in the 2nd half," how did they not score more than 10 points during the entire second half? The number "10" is an inescapable fact that doesn't fit into the narrative of this being one of the biggest defensive debacles in the history of college football. The defense played well enough to win in the second half since it is a game in which score is kept. Giving up 10 points during a half in that sort of a game isn't terrible and put the Ducks in position to win the game, which they did.

Washington State drove 75+ yards for scores on 2 of their drives in the 2nd half. We stopped them in one drive, and the other drive they were in scoring range before they fumbled.

So we, stopped them 3 out of 4 times. That's 75% drives we couldn't stop them. And 50% of their drives ended up in scores.

In the first half, Wazzu was 3 for 7 in scoring drives. That's less than 50%.

Additionally, There wasn't one drive in the 2nd half where we held Wazzu to less than 6 plays. In the first half, we held them to less than 6 players in 3 drives (2 of which resulted in punts, Something we couldn't force Wazzu to do once in the 2nd half!). If you DVR'd the game, go watch it again. If you can't do that, look at the statistics. Oregon did nothing in the 2nd half to slow down wazzu. In fact, we had more stops in the first half, compared to the 2nd half.

And no one ever called this the biggest defensive debacle in history. Everyone is pointing out how poor our scheme was and how no adjustments were really made. Points is a pretty shallow metric to use when evaluating our defense in this context.

[gogreen55]

Good lord. UOducksTK1, at the risk of sounding condescending, I don't think you get it. If you got it, you wouldn't be responding with a bunch of statistics that have absolutely nothing to do with anything in my post. Then to top it off, you end your post with this gem...

Points is a pretty shallow metric to use when evaluating our defense in this context.

Ummm, seriously? Yeah, I guess other than the fact they keep score on a scoreboard, looking at how many points a team gives up is basically a waste of time. It is much more important to focus on the length of WSU's field goal drive!

Let me try to keep this simple.

1. You are comparing Oregon's defense in the first half with the second half, which wasn't the point of my post. The point is Oregon's defense played well enough in the second half to give the team a chance to win. If you feel the first half performance was even better, that is another discussion.

2. If you don't understand that allowing 10 points in the second half invalidates your factually inaccurate comment that Oregon didn't stop WSU "at all" in the second half, I don't know what to tell you. The defensive philosophy in the second half was obviously to play conservative, not allow WSU to score touchdowns on big explosion plays (like the Ducks did repeatedly to the more aggressive defenses of Michigan St. and Washington St.) and minimize the number of points given up (you know, those lights that actually matter on the scoreboard), even if it resulted in giving up more yardage than one would like. As frustrating as it may have been for you to watch WSU drive all those yards to kick a field goal, it is hard to argue with the bottom line result (10), which put the team in a position to win the game.

[UOducksTK1]

Good lord. UOducksTK1, at the risk of sounding condescending, I don't think you get it. If you got it, you wouldn't be responding with a bunch of statistics that have absolutely nothing to do with anything in my post. Then to top it off, you end your post with this gem...

Points is a pretty shallow metric to use when evaluating our defense in this context.

Ummm, seriously? Yeah, I guess other than the fact they keep score on a scoreboard, looking at how many points a team gives up is basically a waste of time. It is much more important to focus on the length of WSU's field goal drive!

Let me try to keep this simple.

1. You are comparing Oregon's defense in the first half with the second half, which wasn't the point of my post. The point is Oregon's defense played well enough in the second half to give the team a chance to win. If you feel the first half performance was even better, that is another discussion.

2. If you don't understand that allowing 10 points in the second half invalidates your factually inaccurate comment that Oregon didn't stop WSU "at all" in the second half, I don't know what to tell you. The defensive philosophy in the second half was obviously to play conservative, not allow WSU to score touchdowns on big explosion plays (like the Ducks did repeatedly to the more aggressive defenses of Michigan St. and Washington St.) and minimize the number of points given up (you know, those lights that actually matter on the scoreboard), even if it resulted in giving up more yardage than one would like. As frustrating as it may have been for you to watch WSU drive all those yards to kick a field goal, it is hard to argue with the bottom line result (10), which put the team in a position to win the game.

But see, you are missing my point. Give credit where credit is due. The Oregon offense helped keep Washington State to only 4 offensive drives. Washington State scored more points per drive in the 2nd half then they did in the first half. Had Oregon's offense continued to struggle, Washington State would have scored more points in the 2nd half then they did in the first half. It's really not rocket science.

I still fail to see how you've shown we had a "defensive philosophy" change in the 2nd half. By your logic, if Oregon did onside kicks continually and the Washington State team NEVER touched the ball in the 2nd half, you'd be arguing how amazing our defense was in the 2nd half because Wazzu scored 0 points. No point in beating a dead horse though, moving on...

[Greydrake]

Offensively I think we will be ok,.... I am just not certain what to make of the defense at this point. What I saw of it against Wyoming and Wazzu did not look anything like the defense that rose against MSU in the second half. So I am concerned and hold a negative attitude toward what I have seen, which I think is a subpar effort in play and coaching which has been the theme over the past 8 quarters of play.

I am simply crossing my fingers and hoping Pellum has been playing a bit of poker and been sandbagging in hiding this defense's real capabilities.

[lukeyrid13]

Thankfully they don't have Ka'deem Carey to run at us 48 times again.

I think Solomon is better than Denker though(uh-oh) and they'll come out slinging. I haven't seen enough of Arizona to know how he reacts under pressure/blitz but he is good enough to eat us up if we let him sit back with 8 in coverage.

Solomon is better than Denker, but Denker played the game of his life against us. Solomon is not likely to play any better than Denker did.

Let's hope so, if Solomon has 2 incompletions then we are screwed. Just like last year

[DAT_man_again]

People are overreacting like crazy. Pellum trotted out a dumbed down plan against Wyoming as to not give away anything for MSU. He made some great adjustments at halftime and gave up 3 points in the second half against a really good MSU team. Against WSU we had players in position to make a lot of stops that we just didn't execute. Like who would have thought Ifo would get burned one-on-one twice. Plus Leach is one of the best offensive minds in the country. And we still only gave up 10 points in the second half.

None of that negates the terrible defensive game plan we had against Wazzu. And beyond that, I disagree with most of your points.

Wyoming had 24 first downs and 439 yards against Oregon. Against Air Force, FAU, and Montana, they never managed over 18 first downs or more than 340 yards.

I'd give more credit to the crowd at Autzen and our offense rather than DP, regarding our 2nd half stand against MSU. Once our offense started rolling, the crowd got crazy, and Cook was terrible. And tbh, our execution was great.

Of course we missed tackles and made mistakes against Wazzu, but it was obvious as day how flawed our defensive approach was. And while you seemed impressed with our 2nd half defense, I again credit our offense for maintaining long and steady drives to keep Wazzu's offense off the field. And even when Wazzu did get the ball in the 2nd half, they still moved the ball fine..

Wazzu's 2nd half drives:
8 plays 45 yards (Wazzu fumbled 35 yards out of our endzone. Pretty sure they would have scored again)
11 plays 74 yards
6 plays 75 yards
6 plays 31 yards (the only drive where we rushed more than 3 players at least twice!)

Seems to me that Wazzu moved the ball pretty darn well in the 2nd half.

To have the 103rd worst defense (out of 124 teams) in the country when 2 of our games were against Wyoming and South Dakota, that's definitely not good.

We had our second/third stringers in the entire second half against Wyoming because we were up by 20+ points.

As for Autzen being the sole reason we shut down one of the better offenses in the country for a half, I don't particularly agree with that. Our voices can't tackle or make the right reads on defense. If your going to accredit our good performance against MSU to our home crowd then maybe you should give some consideration to Wazzu being our first road game too.

[lukeyrid13]

Wyoming gashed us pretty good on offense. They had the ball for like 12 minutes in the first quarter.

[UOducksTK1]

People are overreacting like crazy. Pellum trotted out a dumbed down plan against Wyoming as to not give away anything for MSU. He made some great adjustments at halftime and gave up 3 points in the second half against a really good MSU team. Against WSU we had players in position to make a lot of stops that we just didn't execute. Like who would have thought Ifo would get burned one-on-one twice. Plus Leach is one of the best offensive minds in the country. And we still only gave up 10 points in the second half.

None of that negates the terrible defensive game plan we had against Wazzu. And beyond that, I disagree with most of your points.

Wyoming had 24 first downs and 439 yards against Oregon. Against Air Force, FAU, and Montana, they never managed over 18 first downs or more than 340 yards.

I'd give more credit to the crowd at Autzen and our offense rather than DP, regarding our 2nd half stand against MSU. Once our offense started rolling, the crowd got crazy, and Cook was terrible. And tbh, our execution was great.

Of course we missed tackles and made mistakes against Wazzu, but it was obvious as day how flawed our defensive approach was. And while you seemed impressed with our 2nd half defense, I again credit our offense for maintaining long and steady drives to keep Wazzu's offense off the field. And even when Wazzu did get the ball in the 2nd half, they still moved the ball fine..

Wazzu's 2nd half drives:
8 plays 45 yards (Wazzu fumbled 35 yards out of our endzone. Pretty sure they would have scored again)
11 plays 74 yards
6 plays 75 yards
6 plays 31 yards (the only drive where we rushed more than 3 players at least twice!)

Seems to me that Wazzu moved the ball pretty darn well in the 2nd half.

To have the 103rd worst defense (out of 124 teams) in the country when 2 of our games were against Wyoming and South Dakota, that's definitely not good.

We had our second/third stringers in the entire second half against Wyoming because we were up by 20+ points.

As for Autzen being the sole reason we shut down one of the better offenses in the country for a half, I don't particularly agree with that. Our voices can't tackle or make the right reads on defense. If your going to accredit our good performance against MSU to our home crowd then maybe you should give some consideration to Wazzu being our first road game too.

Sure Autzen wasn't the sole reason, because obviously our execution in the 2nd half was great against MSU.

True, Wyoming did get some late yardage, but as lukey pointed out, they moved the ball decently against our first team defense. Wyoming actually had 270 yards going into halftime. Whereas Wyoming couldn't muster more than 150 yards against Air Force, Montana, and FAU going into halftime.