Here's A Reality Check About Defenses In College Football

[SuperDuck]

http://projects.registerguard.com/apf/s ... off-pulse/

Most defenses are struggling nationally, even highly ranked teams. It's not just an "Oregon thing". Another example that they didn't give in the article is Auburn's 42-35 win over South Carolina. I guess Auburn's defense must suck, eh? Not at all. It's just that some teams may match up well with you and/or are simply difficult to defend.

[pezsez1]

Great read. The game is changing, and we can't have our cake and eat it too.

[woundedknees]

Offense have morphed considerably since the days when many teams consistently held the losing team under 300 yards of total O.

[DAT_man_again]

Kentucky, a worse offense than Cal, Arizona or Wazzu, put up 31 against the number one team in the nation today as well.

[pezsez1]

Kentucky, a worse offense than Cal, Arizona or Wazzu, put up 31 against the number one team in the nation today as well.

On offense, Kentucky is SIGNIFICANTLY worse than either of those teams.

Arizona and Wazzu are top-10 offenses, and Cal is no. 17.

Kentucky is... wait for it... no. 62.

[fpsduck]

Never mind the fact that we have the 11th best defense in the conference.

See how "average" we are. Not.

[pezsez1]

I hope you aren't using total defense stat as the basis for that claim....

[buckmarkduck]

I hope you aren't using total defense stat as the basis for that claim....

Dude love your enthusiasm as a duck fan, but give it up. Our D is really bad, anyway you slice it, and yes total yards matter. we are avg almost 100 yards more a game than the last 6 years of D. All of them had to deal with the same style of O. It's ok as a fan to question the D, we all want the same thing, a title, fact is our d needs to improve. Anyone painting it any other way, is just fooling themselves.

The basics of D is tackling, correct? This D has been the worst tackling team I have ever seen at UO. That is a problem that can be fixed, but hasn't. Wrap up, get your head infront of the ball carrier and bring him down. I see to many guys not wrapping up, and not trying to make a proper tackle. We don't need to knock people out with a big hit, just wrap up. And like the sound says, the hips don't lie, don't watch the shoulders and head movements, our guys get juked far to much by avg Rb out there.

Basics, that is why our D is having issues. When I watch the tape, I see guys over pursuing, missing tackles but I see guys who are in the right spots, except vs the swing passes and little short stuff that killed us that's on the coaches Imo. But like I e said, it's all correctable for the most part. We aren't having issues because our guys are outclassed, unathletic or any of those things. It's basics, which are boring, but teams that do the basics (ie Stanford, or our 94 team that didn't have half the athletes this team does) they look much better on D.

Last edit, I promise. All these things are why I think Charles Nelson would be an AA safety. He plays hard, has a cant stop me attitude, and form tackles most of the time.

[fpsduck]

I hope you aren't using total defense stat as the basis for that claim....

Yes, we get it Pez, you would love a pile of s*** if it was green and yellow.

[QuackininBama]

I hope you aren't using total defense stat as the basis for that claim....

Dude love your enthusiasm as a duck fan, but give it up. Our D is really bad, anyway you slice it, and yes total yards matter. we are avg almost 100 yards more a game than the last 6 years of D. All of them had to deal with the same style of O. It's ok as a fan to question the D, we all want the same thing, a title, fact is our d needs to improve. Anyone painting it any other way, is just fooling themselves.

The basics of D is tackling, correct? This D has been the worst tackling team I have ever seen at UO. That is a problem that can be fixed, but hasn't. Wrap up, get your head infront of the ball carrier and bring him down. I see to many guys not wrapping up, and not trying to make a proper tackle. We don't need to knock people out with a big hit, just wrap up. And like the sound says, the hips don't lie, don't watch the shoulders and head movements, our guys get juked far to much by avg Rb out there.

Basics, that is why our D is having issues. When I watch the tape, I see guys over pursuing, missing tackles but I see guys who are in the right spots, except vs the swing passes and little short stuff that killed us that's on the coaches Imo. But like I e said, it's all correctable for the most part. We aren't having issues because our guys are outclassed, unathletic or any of those things. It's basics, which are boring, but teams that do the basics (ie Stanford, or our 94 team that didn't have half the athletes this team does) they look much better on D.

Last edit, I promise. All these things are why I think Charles Nelson would be an AA safety. He plays hard, has a cant stop me attitude, and form tackles most of the time.

Pretty much an A+ analysis. I would pos rep ya but 3 years and running of me asking, the mods won't put it in!

We have the players to make the plays. Its not like we are not recruiting effectively. Our defense should, and could be ranked top 30 nationally every year but the players are not being put in a position to play smart, disciplined, football. While I don't remember the exact time it happened, it was 3rd and 8, Cal has the ball. While our defenders are playing within 5 yards, which is exactly what you want to see, when the ball was snapped they dropped back, I kid you not, 15 yards more. The receiver runs 10 yards out, and curls in to catch an easy 1st down pass. Just...../facepalm.

[QuackininBama]

We see this time and time again with Pellum defenses. He is so terrified to get beat deep, he is willing to give up 8-15 yards a play every time so long as we don't get beat deep.

[buckmarkduck]

We see this time and time again with Pellum defenses. He is so terrified to get beat deep, he is willing to give up 8-15 yards a play every time so long as we don't get beat deep.

I agree, he is willing to give up 5-10yds every play to take away any long play.

[SuperDuck]

I hope you aren't using total defense stat as the basis for that claim....

Dude love your enthusiasm as a duck fan, but give it up. Our D is really bad, anyway you slice it, and yes total yards matter. we are avg almost 100 yards more a game than the last 6 years of D. All of them had to deal with the same style of O. It's ok as a fan to question the D, we all want the same thing, a title, fact is our d needs to improve. Anyone painting it any other way, is just fooling themselves.

Although we are giving up nearly 100 more yards per game, we're only giving up 4 more points, and that's what matters - keeping teams out of the end zone.

The basics of D is tackling, correct? This D has been the worst tackling team I have ever seen at UO. That is a problem that can be fixed, but hasn't. Wrap up, get your head infront of the ball carrier and bring him down. I see to many guys not wrapping up, and not trying to make a proper tackle. We don't need to knock people out with a big hit, just wrap up. And like the sound says, the hips don't lie, don't watch the shoulders and head movements, our guys get juked far to much by avg Rb out there.

I do agree 100% on this. Ifo is the only player that I've seen consistently tackle using proper technique. Like you said, this is easily correctable and should be a point of emphasis right away. I'm pretty certain these guys didn't get recruited to Oregon by playing like that.

While I realize the defense still has a ways to go, I do see improvements being made. Also, people have to consider that the first couple games were breaking in a modified system and a lot of young players played to gain experience. Our defense has actually done fairly well considering who we've played so far.

Yes, the Ducks are 11th in the conference in total defense, but they're #6 in scoring defense. Look at the difference between Oregon and USC at #3. That's only 2.7 PPG. If we'd given up just 22 points less this year, a decrease of 2.75 PPG, we'd be just ahead of the Trojans. Look back at games where we played deep into our bench. Look at the 20 points we gave up to UCLA in the last QTR or so in that game alone!

SCORING DEFENSE G TD FG XPT 2XP DXP Saf Points Avg/G
1. Stanford 8 11 8 10 0 0 0 100 12.5
2. Utah 7 20 4 19 0 0 0 151 21.6
3. USC 8 24 7 19 1 0 0 186 23.2
4. Washington 8 24 9 24 0 0 1 197 24.6
5. Arizona State 7 22 7 22 0 1 0 177 25.3
6. Oregon 8 26 9 22 1 0 0 207 25.9
7. Oregon State 7 24 6 22 0 0 0 184 26.3
8. Arizona 7 25 7 23 1 0 1 198 28.3
9. UCLA 8 30 11 27 1 0 0 242 30.2
10. WSU 8 39 11 37 0 0 0 304 38.0
11. Colorado 8 39 13 37 0 0 0 310 38.8
12. California 8 43 10 40 0 0 0 328 41.0


Now look at the Scoring Offenses and you'll see that Oregon has held every conference opponent under their scoring average so far. ALL of them!

Jason Sehorn, a former DB at USC, made this very point yesterday. He said something along the lines of it doesn't matter as much if a team's getting yards, what counts is whether you give up points or not. Yardage stats don't go on the scoreboard.

SCORING OFFENSE G TD FG XPT 2XP DXP Saf Points Avg/G
1. Oregon 8 50 5 43 3 0 0 364 45.5
2. California 8 45 7 41 0 0 0 332 41.5
3. Arizona 7 35 14 32 0 0 0 284 40.6
4. Arizona State 7 32 11 27 2 0 0 256 36.6
5. Utah 7 30 14 29 0 0 0 251 35.9
6. UCLA 8 37 10 30 2 0 0 286 35.8
7. WSU 8 37 8 36 0 0 0 282 35.2
8. USC 8 36 6 36 0 0 0 270 33.8
9. Colorado 8 33 8 33 0 0 0 255 31.9
10. Washington 8 30 10 27 1 0 0 239 29.9
11. Stanford 8 26 8 26 0 0 0 206 25.8
12. Oregon State 7 20 13 19 0 0 0 178 25.4

So, once again, while I agree that there is definitely room for improvement, I do not believe that the sky is falling. I do believe we need to clean up some of the basics quickly, though. Stanford and Utah are going to be tough games.