#2 Oregon v Bye Week

[pezsez1]

Ehh, Aliotti's defenses were better under Chip kelly than under Belotti...coincidence?

Not a coincidence at all. As I said up above, Bellotti was a far more conservative-minded head coach than CK. Aliotti's tendencies had to reflect that. When Bellotti left, NA was more free to do what he wanted.

Great quote today from Aliotti on Olive:

"Everybody puts their own stamp on defense. I was the type of guy that, I will say, that lived by the sword and died by the sword. I liked fast. If I was going to die wanted it to happen fast. I wasn't afraid to blitz and bring pressure. Sometimes you have to change the math, you have to put your neck out there and say hey, 'We have to make a play, we're coming after you,' sometimes you get burned but I didn't mind taking that chance."

Pellum is seeming to be the opposite.

[wlduck]

I must have missed the game. How much did we lose to Wazzu by? Reading this thread I'm figuring we lost by something like 70-3. Thought I was watching the right game but now I'm not so sure.

[UofDuck]

My apologies for derailing the bye-week thread. I just like to make sure facts are properly represented.

Are we haters? Or are you an apologist? Your own stats point out that NA was average and I'd say that is accurate. Some years a little better than average, some years a little worse. But nobody dreaded facing our defense. People did dread facing our offense because it was great and the nation knew it.

[Duck07]

I must have missed the game. How much did we lose to Wazzu by? Reading this thread I'm figuring we lost by something like 70-3. Thought I was watching the right game but now I'm not so sure.

You're right, on 2nd thought I'm not sure why anybody would be worried about the rest of the season after having watched that game.

[pezsez1]

Your own stats point out that NA was average and I'd say that is accurate.

He was better than average, in my opinion. However, I'm the kind of guy who doesn't mind a "bend but don't break" approach as long as we keep them out of the endzone and/or create turnovers, which NA's defenses did. As for my stats, I chose to use last year's stats because -- even in NA's worst statistical season in four or five years -- he was still better than average. I don't need to cherrypick from a previous recent year in order to make my point.

What I take issue with is the stance that he was "mediocre at best," which simply isn't true.

At best, his defenses were among the best in the nation. And during the years when we had lesser talent, he was average.

Why Duck fans continue to hate on the guy is beyond me.

[Duck07]

Why Duck fans continue to hate on the guy is beyond me.

I stopped griping after the National Championship when the D did everything necessary to win the game and the Offense laid a big egg. After that I might have grumbled, but the former vitriol over his play-calling/schemes had died down.

[GoDucksIn09]

I am one of those who did not like Allioti and have admitted that before. Pez has some good points. Some of our stats were very good defensively but I will just bring up two points. When did converting 3rd and long become a stat ranks up there with having a better than average defense. Our bend but don't break defense is not what wins championships. Look at the string of national championships the SEC had and show me a defense that routinely would give up 3rd and long. I doubt seriously will find one. Our third down defense was not better than average and most teams knew that.

4 games into the season not been impressed with what seen from Pellum. Aside from the 1 half against Michigan State our defense has been even worse than Allioti. He seems to be content with staying with what is not working instead of trying to do things that work. If we come across a team that is able to shut down our offense... and that will happen... the way our defense is playing we have zero chance of winning.

[pezsez1]

Ironically, NA's bend-but-don't-break defense WOULD have won us a championship had our offense not been so inept.

Sadly, though, I agree about Pellum. It's still too early for me to start beating my war drum, but anyone can rightfully be concerned. Take out the MSU game, and the defense certainly seems to have taken a step back. We'll learn a lot more about him over the next couple games. I want to see how his schemes fare against a couple other Pac-12 opponents.

The key word in "bend-but-don't-break" is "DON'T."

[Phalanx]

Why Duck fans continue to hate on the guy is beyond me.

I stopped griping after the National Championship when the D did everything necessary to win the game and the Offense laid a big egg. After that I might have grumbled, but the former vitriol over his play-calling/schemes had died down.

I'll go one further, I think that NC game was Aliotti's shining moment, or should have been. The defense was unbelievable in that game. They stopped the Heisman QB from doing what he wanted to do for most of the game. They also caused two turnovers that they didn't get credit for because the refs made horrible, game-altering calls (Newton fumble that wasn't called, and Harris interception). The 2001 season, culminating in the Fiesta Bowl against Colorado was another great example of a stout defense that stopped Colorado cold.

I think we forget that Nick was not working with the most NFL-ready talent at Oregon. He started every year with a disadvantage in that respect, and had to play catch up to coach his three-star guys up throughout the year. People point to his doing better under Chip, but the talent started to improve during those years as well, not just the freedom to blitz more.

I think Pellum comes in at an unfortunate time for a new coach - during a season that the fans have very high hopes because of our amazing quarterback. I was disappointed in the defense on Saturday, but I think Pellum will figure it out. Oregon has been a forward-thinking bunch thus far, and I can't see them anchoring themselves to a legacy choice for very long if he isn't good. Meanwhile, I'm willing to give the guy a break for the time being. It's not hard when they continue to win.

[Duck07]

Why Duck fans continue to hate on the guy is beyond me.

I stopped griping after the National Championship when the D did everything necessary to win the game and the Offense laid a big egg. After that I might have grumbled, but the former vitriol over his play-calling/schemes had died down.

I'll go one further, I think that NC game was Aliotti's shining moment, or should have been. The defense was unbelievable in that game. They stopped the Heisman QB from doing what he wanted to do for most of the game. They also caused two turnovers that they didn't get credit for because the refs made horrible, game-altering calls (Newton fumble that wasn't called, and Harris interception). The 2001 season, culminating in the Fiesta Bowl against Colorado was another great example of a stout defense that stopped Colorado cold.

I think we forget that Nick was not working with the most NFL-ready talent at Oregon. He started every year with a disadvantage in that respect, and had to play catch up to coach his three-star guys up throughout the year. People point to his doing better under Chip, but the talent started to improve during those years as well, not just the freedom to blitz more.

I think Pellum comes in at an unfortunate time for a new coach - during a season that the fans have very high hopes because of our amazing quarterback. I was disappointed in the defense on Saturday, but I think Pellum will figure it out. Oregon has been a forward-thinking bunch thus far, and I can't see them anchoring themselves to a legacy choice for very long if he isn't good. Meanwhile, I'm willing to give the guy a break for the time being. It's not hard when they continue to win.

Well, the Defensive Coordinator IS responsible for recruiting guys to play for him so that isn't why I've ever accepted that, its merely an excuse. What was so shocking to me is that its not like Pellum is new to the P12, so why did he look like that was the first time he had ever seen WSU and Leach? I get being new to calling plays and being responsible for your own schemes but at the same time, he should be one of the most familiar coaches in the league because he's been here to see it all too. Right now, I don't have the confidence that he can come up with a gameplan to stop Arizona, and that f'in sucks.

[lukeyrid13]

The only positive is that if DP is this reactionary against Stanford, then we should put 6 guys on the LOS every play, instead of sticking to our scheme no matter what.

[pezsez1]

Well NA played a high-risk, high reward scheme that could be frustrating for fans, but ultimately tended to result in stops, field goals or turnovers, feeding right into the jaws of our offense. I get that some people didn't like his vision, but at least he had vision, and it was effective more often than not.

So far, watching DP's schemes, I just don't know exactly what his vision is. Again, he did great against MSU, but the other three have been head-scratchers. Would we be talking about the WSU game differently had our players not been so disinterested in making real tackles? I don't know. I'd feel better though if I knew what kind of D-coord DP was trying to be. Aside from MSU, all we've really seen is a soft zone with very little pass rush.

And the funny thing is when DP took over, he talked about how the defense would be simplified so that players could attack the play more freely. So far, though, I haven't seen that at all. Even against MSU, I've really seen nothing to indicate "attacking" will be a word used to describe this defense.

I'm still confident we'll rise to the occasion for Arizona. I'm choosing to believe this group can put together another MSU-like performance. I'm also hoping the WSU game was a HUGE wake-up call for everyone.

Clearly, the talent and potential are there.

[NCDucks09]

At least Nick sat in the damn box!!! Still not sure how defensive coordinators can see alignment and gap issues from a sideline...DON PELLUM!!!

Nick has had some pretty impressive defenses when he had the right personnel to run his schemes. He lived and died by selling out to stop the run first and putting his DB's on Islands. I also was never a fan of the rush 3 and prevent zone D on 3rd and long or at the end of games we were ahead in. Pressure forces decisions and at the college level, usually bad ones.

If you think back to the 80's and early 90's when Nick was a D Coordinator under Brooks (a defensive-minded head coach), the Ducks had insane Defenses, but their Offenses were so bad we would only win 3 games a year. Gang Green was Nick's D in 1994. When we ran the 4-3 schemes in the 2000's it always seemed like we had a DE that lead the Pac-12 in sacks. Anyone remember Nick Reed?

[wlduck]

I must have missed the game. How much did we lose to Wazzu by? Reading this thread I'm figuring we lost by something like 70-3. Thought I was watching the right game but now I'm not so sure.

You're right, on 2nd thought I'm not sure why anybody would be worried about the rest of the season after having watched that game.

I guess the amount of "worry" based on this game may depend on what you're expectations were before the season. I figured this was a 10-2 team. Haven't seen much to sway me from that so far, including the Wazzu game. Wasn't a thing of beauty, but they won a conference road game (and first road game). And seriously the hand wringing and second guessing on here would make you think we lost in a blow out.

[DAT_man_again]

I must have missed the game. How much did we lose to Wazzu by? Reading this thread I'm figuring we lost by something like 70-3. Thought I was watching the right game but now I'm not so sure.

You're right, on 2nd thought I'm not sure why anybody would be worried about the rest of the season after having watched that game.

I guess the amount of "worry" based on this game may depend on what you're expectations were before the season. I figured this was a 10-2 team. Haven't seen much to sway me from that so far, including the Wazzu game. Wasn't a thing of beauty, but they won a conference road game (and first road game). And seriously the hand wringing and second guessing on here would make you think we lost in a blow out.

I think after the MSU game our expectations sky-rocketed, and anything less than a twenty point blow out of a 1-2 team would have drawn ire from the fan base. The fact that it was a 7 point game (only two weeks after MSU) is the reason the reaction has been like this.


I think it's funny that people completely discount the MSU game now. It's funny that people outside of our fan base are saying we are overrated this week and that we dropped in the coaches poll. People completely forget that we still have the best win out of anybody.