12 Days for Casey Mattews to bounce back...

[glazeduck]

Don't get me wrong, I cannot be happier that we pulled this one out...

But did anyone else notice Casey Mattews have BY FAR the worst game of his career? Both he and Paysinger have been quiet these last few weeks, but Mattews was nonexistent out there. We might not have fared much worse if we'd have just played 10 on 11 w/out Casey, it's no wonder we're getting gashed up the middle...

My god, if you played a drinking game where you drank everytime he was out of position or missed/whiffed a tackle you'd be dead of alcohol poisoning.

We're gonna need the OLD duck D back in the civil war to win the right to play in the Rose Bowl and Casey Mattews absolutely HAS to perform better.

Here's to hoping he and Allioti can figure things out! Great win, sure, but we have ALOT of improvement to get done over these next 12 days.

Go Ducks!

[ducklydoright]

One thing I have noticed about this Duck team, and also some Duck teams in the past, is that they are not very good tacklers. They arm tackle way too much and I have lost count of the number of times that our guys do their best "Ronnie Lott" impersonation, which is run into an opposing player as hard as you can but not wrap up, only to see the opposing player bounce off and gain more yards. Unfortunately none of our guys are Ronnie Lott, not many people are, and they need a good dose of tackling fundamentals leading up to the Civil War game, because it's not going to get any easier with Jizz and company coming in.

[glazeduck]

I will admit that after a few noticeable blown tackles by Mattews I wasn't paying much attention to anyone else, so yeah it could be more of a complete defensive breakdown, but lets hope not...

All I know is that our middle linebacker, who's supposed to be so good at stopping the run failed to do so tonight, and sadly for him, most of the times that I noticed him, he wasn't even getting blocked, just flat out missing.

[dthomas=ddixon]

The difference is our D-line is getting exposed. The LBs can no longer just run free & makes plays. The opposition's Olineman are getting into the second level & taking out our LBs. No matter how good a core of LBs are, they are nothing without a Dline that at least keeps the other teams Oline occupied. As soon as our Dline started getting gashed, our LBs seemingly dissapeared.

[glazeduck]

The difference is our D-line is getting exposed. The LBs can no longer just run free & makes plays. The opposition's Olineman are getting into the second level & taking out our LBs. No matter how good a core of LBs are, they are nothing without a Dline that at least keeps the other teams Oline occupied. As soon as our Dline started getting gashed, our LBs seemingly dissapeared.

While your point is correct, Bair's lack of size inside is getting exposed, which is leading to the big rushing games that we're giving up, I'm worried that its more than that. Mattews wasn't getting blocked out of plays, at least not from what I saw.

Seemed like everytime he was missing tackles it was in space with linemen nowhere near.

I think its also fair to wonder where they hell he and Paysinger have been in pass coverage? I know we're blitzing more often, but these two guys used to routinely get their mits on the passes and both have had several picks in the last few years... lately? Nothing. From either of them.

[whosyourwally]

ive noticed that matthews plays a lot of mental games. sometimes it works out and he finds a nice rhythm and other times he looks lost and keeps committing to the wrong gap. there were a few plays in a row in the second half where he destroyed the oline and, on one, he wrapped up the rb and basically flipped him over for no gain.

and i still say the defense won this game for us. our offense was MIA for much of the game and the d didnt cave. they picked it up in the fourth and kept putting the ball back in the offense's hands. this game reminded me of the purdue game last year.

oh and tj, after his little muscle show penalty last night, went up and down the sidelines, got in every players face, and basically said, "lets $@#$#@$ go." and they did.