Interesting comments in CollegeRag preview

[woundedknees]

http://www.collegerag.org/main/2009/08/ ... gon-ducks/

DEFENSE

"It really amazes me that Nick Aliotti still has a job. He’s been an Oregon assistant off and on for decades now, and his defenses are consistently terrible. They had playmakers all over the field last year in guys like Nick Reed, Patrick Chung and Jairus Byrd (all NFL draft picks), yet they still gave up nearly 400 yards a game. When you have a bad defense it can be good to lose a lot of guys, but when you have a bad defense yet all your guys get drafted? Let’s leave that rhetorical."

[maxduck]

Did they happen to mention the amount of time the defense was on the field? I acknowledge NA has his limitations but when the offense scores quickly and often the defensive statistics will certainly suffer.

I have noticed a couple comments by Kelly that the defense will be simplified.

[ducksrock]

Same ole crap we hear year after year...Time to prove the "know it alls" wrong again....
Hey, its what we do....GOOOOO DUCKS

[ducksrock]

http://www.collegerag.org/main/2009/08/ ... gon-ducks/

DEFENSE

"It really amazes me that Nick Aliotti still has a job. He’s been an Oregon assistant off and on for decades now, and his defenses are consistently terrible. They had playmakers all over the field last year in guys like Nick Reed, Patrick Chung and Jairus Byrd (all NFL draft picks), yet they still gave up nearly 400 yards a game. When you have a bad defense it can be good to lose a lot of guys, but when you have a bad defense yet all your guys get drafted? Let’s leave that rhetorical."

It seems that too many of the so-called experts or peeps in the know, forget one small thing about the game of college football...And that is.....Drum Rolll....It isnt nearly as important how many yards your defense gives up each game as it does as to which team has the highest score at the end of the game...If ya cant "Out D Em", outscore em.....And we have done fairly well at that lately....Thank you very much....Do we want an improved "D"? Sure, why not...Do we necessarily need it...Ehhh...

[fecta23]

The problem with our D is the amount of third down conversions we give up, we constantly "lead" the pac in this stat and it needs to change.

[GoDucksIn09]

I have said it before and will continue to use the cliche.. Offense wins games... but defense wins championships. If look at the last decade or so and compare the numbers of Nick Allioti's defense to those winning BCS championships... is no comparison. I think that speaks loads as to how good of a coach Allow A lot E is. Yes our offense wins lots of games.. but of our losses.. how many could have been prevented if we had a good defense.

[woundedknees]

Think about it this way... Or don't.

Stop 1/3 of the 3rd or 4th and long plays that opposing teams have converted against the Ducks over the last 2 seasons, and where does that put Oregon's record?

Wanna get really frustrated? Do the same to the number of drops receivers have produced in the same situations.

Any thought's on why coaches lose jobs (Especially those in the last year of a contract, or with no major buy-out clause...)?

I think NA is on the hot seat this season.

There's always room for improvement.

[gregspechtismyhero]

Think about it this way... Or don't.

Stop 1/3 of the 3rd or 4th and long plays that opposing teams have converted against the Ducks over the last 2 seasons, and where does that put Oregon's record?

Wanna get really frustrated? Do the same to the number of drops receivers have produced in the same situations.

Any thought's on why coaches lose jobs (Especially those in the last year of a contract, or with no major buy-out clause...)?

I think NA is on the hot seat this season.

There's always room for improvement.

Well said.

[brich75]

Alliotti is like that dumb a** friend we all have, we pick on him and give him a hard time but as soon as someone else starts to pick on him we are ready to fight!!! Defend our ducks even the ones we give a hard time to..

[freedjr]

I listened to CK on the subject and you can skew numbers however you want. Chip was saying that while total yardage was last in the NCAA, the yards per play was pretty solid. He basically said total yardage yielded was so high because opponents run so many more plays than other teams. In fact, Oregon opponents ran more plays than everyone with the exception of either OK or OK St., I dont' remember which.

Granted Allioti isn't the best, but I think he's still pretty solid with what he has to work with.

[gofightingducks]

The Ducks D is good against the run but is terrible on 3rd down and gives up huge passing plays. Chip Kelly said people will be pleasantly surprised with what the defense is going to do this year so maybe they are going to change strategy to not play the DB's man to man and leave them on an island or something different.

[ducklydoright]

I don't know about you guys but I get the feeling that Chip is going to be keeping a real close eye (More than normal) on the performance of our defense this year. Over the years I, like many Duck fans, grew increasingly frustrated at the underacheiving play of our defense and the best friend relationship between Bellotti and Aliotti that prevented MB from bringing in a new Def. Coordinator. Now we have a Head Coach that is more vocal about being the best team we can possibly be and I truly believe that if CK feels that our defense is not playing as well as it should and meeting his expectations, he will have no problem with getting rid of Aliotti. Hopefully the combination of CK and NA will produce a difference in the scheme and play of our defense and we will somehow quit giving up so many 3rd and longs. Whether that happens I don't know but I will say that i'm not going to hold my breath because I have been let down, especially last year, by the play of our defense too many times and it's hard to get excited because of it.

[VinnyKnuckles]

The problem with our D is the amount of third down conversions we give up, we constantly "lead" the pac in this stat and it needs to change.

The Ducks were not very good in terms of defensive third-down efficiency last season, ranking 64th out of 119 teams and 7th in the Pac-10. However, the season before that the Ducks were actually pretty good in terms of defensive third-down efficiency, ranking 12th in the country. Same defensive coordinator, different players (Matthew Harper was solid in pass coverage, Ward wasn't and blew a lot of assignments), different levels of health (Thurmond playing hurt the majority of last season didn't help), different circumstances, different results.

[woundedknees]

In 2007, the Ducks also were much higher ranked in red-zone defense, compared to 108th in 2008, at 91% (18 TDs, 15 Fgs).



Oregon only allowed 23.6 ppg (307 total) in 2007, compared to 28.2 ppg (367 total) in 2008.