Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Moderators: greenyellow, Autzenoise, UOducksTK1

Post Reply
GrantDuck
Senior
Posts: 2497
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:05 pm

Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by GrantDuck »

Well, that was fun, let's do it again next year. I may have to re-watch this a 3rd time. :D

Quarterback (B-). This is a bit of a curve grade, in that I'm grading Herbie harder, but he played just OK in this one. The largest issue with Herbert is that he sometimes starts backing up too soon and then gets inaccurate. He's so athletic that he can get outside the pocket and make plays, but his inaccurate passes ..there were a couple he could have stayed in the pocket longer and delivered. As Blackledge pointed out, he missed Kano Dillon wide open early locking onto Mitchell on a 3rd down play. Later, he missed Breeland on a similar play, which I didn't notice the first time. Obviously he had two absolutely 2 perfect throws(Redd TD, Mitchell in OT) and he didn't make any bad mistakes, so if this were a game manager QB I'd give him an A, but Herbie is a future NFL first rounder, not a game manager.

Running Backs (A-). Incredibly solid game from the running backs. Verdell took a pounding and kept going. Dye had good runs too..his vision is soooo good. On one off tackle run he timed a SLIVER absolutely perfectly to get 8 yards. Would have liked to see them hit a big one here. I think when these 2 get 1 more offseason in the weight room, we'll see more broken tackles and big runs. We didn't win many battles with the safeties as far as breaking tackles, but we also had ZERO negative running plays.

Wide Receiver/TE (A-). This may seem a little high, but Mitchell cemented himself as our best WR in a long time at Oregon. Redd had a stunning toe tap catch. No bad drops. JJ and Schooler don't get much separation, but we kind of just know that at this point in time. TE's got open a few times and weren't seen. Ryan Bay has really become a solid unheralded guy for us.

Offensive Line (A-)- I would probably have gone B+, but given that we had multiple injuries and moving parts, and they parted the sea to win the game when it counted, I have to bump it up. Against a 7 man box(which we saw most of the game), we should have broken 1-2 big runs and we didn't. Herbert also got pressured up the middle a little too often, but for the most part we did a pretty darn good job, especially with the adversity.

Offensive coaching comments: I found it interesting that even off a bye week, we didn't run any trick plays. UW ran 2 of them(both worked for big gains, although 1 was just a lucky play). That said, even though our gameplan was run up the gut(stay away from their touted secondary) AND UW was taking away Herbert by only going 7 in the box the whole game, I still think you can add a LITTLE bit more variety into the playbook, especially coming off a bye week. Some WR screens or swing passes or fly sweeps, just a couple more small wrinkles I think to keep UW honest horizontally. We scored 24 points(and honestly should have been 27), but I think we could have had 1 more score with a little more variety in play calling. The last playcall was obviously brilliant, very Chip-Esque play call.

Defensive Line: B+. Fat Mac and Austin were superb in this one. Those 2 get an A. After Carlberg was (unfairly, they need to add something to the targeting rule where if the other player dips his head...but that's another day) ejected we didn't have much depth and they had strong stamina. Imagine Fat Mac trying to play even 75% of those plays last year, he would have collapsed. Jelks had a subpar game for him. On Ahmed's TD run, he entirely bit on the play fake inside and lost contain. Senior's can't be doing that. UW also got the benefit of the officials swallowing their whistles on holding calls against UW. Thought there were at least 2 real obvious ones that went uncalled on passing plays(one which went for a TD, the other a first down).

Linebackers: B-. Apelu got worked a couple of times in coverage situations and smushed on 2 running plays in particular, but honestly, he had a really good game outside of that. Hollins didn't do much in this one and Troy Dye was just OK. ISM was probably our most impressive linebacker in this one. I didn't like how easily UW's running backs(even the backups) broke tackles in this one and out linebackers have to be better at getting off blocks and getting those tackles. On the re-watch UW's OL got stymied up front a few times by our DL, only to have our LBers over pursue and the RB hit the hole on them. Decent game, but it's where UW attacked us the most, perhaps surprisingly well both in the pass and run game.

Secondary: B+. Lenoir played great. He really shut down #2, who had looked great for UW all season. He blew one zone coverage early on UW's first drive, but outside of that, he was lights out. Ugo was good. Pickett was good(his coverage skills/knowledge are finally catching up to his tackling skills). #4 got burned deep badly for a TD, which keeps the grade from being an A, but water is wet even if there was holding on that play. Tackling is just such night and day here from 2 years ago.

Special Teams: C. Punting/Kicking were poor. We have bad luck recruiting kickers, seemingly. Stack maybe is still hurting? Leg strength doesn't seem to be there.

Kickoffs were A+, great coverage. Schooler and Breeze in particular have embraced those roles. Man, when Cristobal focuses on something in coaching, it HAPPENS.

Kick returns...TBJ had a fumble, otherwise pretty solid.

So overall, I'd give the offense an A- and the Defense a B. C for special teams and an A- for coaching.
User avatar
Alan
Senior
Posts: 4193
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2014 2:17 pm

Re: Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by Alan »

I agree for the most part, Herbert was certainly off. He spent way to much of the game locked into Mitchell and too many overthrows....... he looked average and we all know he is not your average QB. Watching the game again right now on my DVR, our new TE, #85, had three drops, all in his hands and no help on to.

As a big Duck fan my grade for entertainment value...A+
User avatar
gogreen55
Senior
Posts: 2284
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:39 pm

Re: Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by gogreen55 »

Good analysis. Can't really disagree with any of it.
User avatar
Duck07
All-American
Posts: 15952
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:36 am
Location: Parts Unknown

Re: Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by Duck07 »

Herbert did miss a wide open CJV in the End Zone on that 2nd and Goal in OT.
Image
User avatar
StevensTechU
All Pac-12
Posts: 5391
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2015 6:25 am
Location: Hoboken, NJ

Re: Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by StevensTechU »

I would flip the QB and WR/TE grades. Herbert didn't play lights out, but he played excellent given that his WRs and TEs did him few favors by way of any kind of separation. His play was also very clutch; his pass to Verdell was a dime, and with the Ducks needing momentum he hit 8 straight in the second half. I was worried going into this that he might force things too much, but he ended the game with zero INTs and rarely put the ball in harm's way.
Greenblood
Senior
Posts: 3126
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:16 pm

Re: Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by Greenblood »

Thought this was a decent thread to put in (fairly) new O-Live Ducks football beat writer James Crepea's mid-season report card on the various Duck positions:

https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/sports/ ... iver_index
dphi
Two Star Recruit
Posts: 172
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2017 2:06 pm

Re: Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by dphi »

StevensTechU wrote: but he ended the game with zero INTs and rarely put the ball in harm's way.
I think this is what made his day relatively quiet - he seemed to play it pretty safe, erring on the side of caution with a lot of his throws. Definitely had a healthy respect for their secondary.
GoDucksIn09
Senior
Posts: 3091
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:15 am

Re: Position Grades Week 7 on Rewatch (Washington)

Post by GoDucksIn09 »

He finally started spreading the ball around a little bit in the second half. The commentators and a bunch of us were complaining that he was locking in on Mitchell. Herbert can be really good when teams have to defend more than one receiver I think the grades are pretty accurate. The TD to Redd was insane.
Post Reply