Montana State @ Oregon (Aug 30, Sat 1 PM TV: BTN)

[wlduck]

Good game 1.

Great stuff: Sadiq, Moore's blocking, low penalties, no turnovers, Amauri Washington, Brandon Finney(that play he made on that bubble screen was NEXT LEVEL), Malik Benson, no serious injuries(assuming Pregnon is OK).

Freshmen as a whole looked amazing!

Concerns: (As much as anyone can have in a blowout), Boundary safety, 2nd linebacker(Mixon and Jackson both missed easy tackles) and running back(this is more of a weird one, because they played well today as a group, but if Hughes isn't going to be the guy, I don't see Noah as a #1 back against top teams....there's tons of talent, but the most talented guys might be the freshmen.) Dierre Hill is going to be the best of the bunch I think long term!

I feel like Noah has been disrespected. He was good before the injury, and he was good late last year. And what do we really know about Hughes? Maybe the step up in competition will take a while for him.

[StevensTechU]

Link to re-watch for those interested. I've only made it through the opening series.

https://gamesontvtoday.com/illinois-fig ... nels-times

[StevensTechU]

I'm sure hythloday has done or will review comprehensively, but ahead of the Pregnon injury, the left side had zero blown blocks over three drives, and to the eye looked like how you'd expect with Pregnon being a physical freak and World looking really athletic but not necessarily the strongest guy. The right side was fine. Iuli did a good job of moving guys in the run game but had the only blown block in three series, but Limar actually does a fantastic job and bounces it outside and gets a touchdown. Harkey's lack of athleticism is on display and if I'm projecting forward, I think it will be an issue against higher competition, but I don't know opposing personnel well enough to say exactly who. He does his job throughout the first three series, though. I think Bedford and Gernorris will compete for these spots all season long, though.

[StevensTechU]

Yup LB looked like the weakest group.

Devon Jackson is absolute heat seeking missile, if in this analogy what "heat" is is a blocker. He is a block seeking missile.

Edit: I'm watching the 2nd & 3 run toward the end of the first quarter. Jackson has stone in his shoes. 10 guys moving toward the ball carrier and Jackson, whose gap the ball is headed to, just standing there motionless until a slow footed offensive lineman makes it to the second level to knock him even further out of the play. Once the play is dead, Jackson disengages and touches the down player with two hands.

I think he might honestly just be a special teams player.

[OregonFan4Life]

I'm sure hythloday has done or will review comprehensively, but ahead of the Pregnon injury, the left side had zero blown blocks over three drives, and to the eye looked like how you'd expect with Pregnon being a physical freak and World looking really athletic but not necessarily the strongest guy. The right side was fine. Iuli did a good job of moving guys in the run game but had the only blown block in three series, but Limar actually does a fantastic job and bounces it outside and gets a touchdown. Harkey's lack of athleticism is on display and if I'm projecting forward, I think it will be an issue against higher competition, but I don't know opposing personnel well enough to say exactly who. He does his job throughout the first three series, though. I think Bedford and Gernorris will compete for these spots all season long, though.

I noticed that about Harkey. Dante Moore had a beautiful keep on the zone read and he completely whiffed the block on the LB and if he made that block Moore might have scored. I wouldn’t be surprised if the OLine that started on Saturday isn’t the OLine we see starting in game 12, and that IS NOT due to injuries. Of course you would know more but if Harkey struggled to block guys on Montana State in the second level it’ll only get tougher.

Overall though I rewatched the game on TV and found myself less impressed with the OLine than I was at the game. Not like they’re a bad unit but I could see this unit struggling against Penn St and other high quality DL’s a lot.

[UOducksTK1]

Fwiw, Alex Harkey had the highest pff rating on our offense yesterday.

[UOducksTK1]

By the way, where are Jahlil Florence and Theran Johnson?

Just saw Theran was declared out before the game, didn’t realize that.

[OregonFan4Life]

Fwiw, Alex Harkey had the highest pff rating on our offense yesterday.

Wow, interesting to see. Also here is an interesting case, World had an 87.6 pass block rating but only a 54.2 run blocking rating, I’m sure his run blocking will improve as the season goes on.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-fo ... cd1783621f

[greenyellow]

Ducks vs Them Week 1:

[pudgejeff]

By the way, where are Jahlil Florence and Theran Johnson?

Just saw Theran was declared out before the game, didn’t realize that.

I think Jahlil played some on kickoff coverage.

[whosyourwally]

Opponent not-withstanding, this game felt like a milestone moment for Lanning as a HC.
The team came out far more prepared to start the season than in previous years.
He also showed he won’t succumb to the pressure of starting perceived stars and/or upper clansmen if those roles aren’t earned. I’ve seen a lot of young/newer coaches make that mistake out of fear of losing the locker room. Dan sets the culture here. The team follows. That’s Nick Saban 101.

Love watching him learn the role in real time. He sees an area where the team can grow, and he makes it happen.

[UOducksTK1]

By the way, where are Jahlil Florence and Theran Johnson?

Just saw Theran was declared out before the game, didn’t realize that.

I think Jahlil played some on kickoff coverage.

Did he just get beat out by everyone else? Or is there more going on?

[OrTDuck]

ATQ has been pretty dire about the OL. Their film revew of the meaningful portion of the game showed a 25.7% error rate blocking on the OL, which is below their rates for Oregon OL going back many years, usually around 8%-14% from what I can remember, which is usually praised. Article calls it far below regular FBS averages.

Then PFF comes out and gives Harkley the highest grade of any Oregon offensive player and World a huge pass blocking grade. The only other grade I saw was an excellent run blocking grade by Sadiq.

I doubt PFF all of a sudden decided to be Oregon fans and throw out inflated grades so that appears inconsisent with the "basically very poor" OL grading from ATQ.

Haven't rewatched the game, but the Duck QBs seemed to all have all day to throw the whole game against a Montana State DL that by reputation is supposed to possibly better than 60+ FBS DLs. It also rushed for 253 yards at 6.5 ypc (MSU gave up 121 ypg at 4.1 ypc last year). That's without Pregnon most of the game.

Throwing out the 81-7 Portland State game in 2023, against Oregon's other last 4 FCS opponents it rushed for: 107 yards (Idaho), 263 yards (Eastern Washington), 182 yards (Stony Brook), and 247 yards (Montana). So if 253 yards rushing was done with an OL tripping all over itself all day, that's pretty good.

I think some growing pains by the OL were inevitable for the first few games. I guess it may be a question of seeing it as a solid first outing (PFF); or, possibly either intentionally or unintentionally looking for evidence to use to pounce upon a unit it appears to be betting against (ATQ). Not saying that happened, just interesting. Maybe it's a natural reaction to wanting an unpopular take to be successful? I mean, I think most people understand Oregon isn't returning a bunch of established starters and adding Penei Sewell.

One thing I would agree with ATQ about concerning the first game was noticing Oregon's failure to produce explosive plays in between the tackles running the ball was very uncharacteristic. This quote caught my eye: "What was out-of-line on Saturday compared to pretty much every game since Andy Ludwig was fired was that inside rushing didn't generate any 10+ yard rushing plays at all. The Ducks have consistently generated 10+ yard runs up the middle on a 15% - 23% basis like clockwork for 20 years, even in a down year like 2016." Probably something to be unpacked there?

[StevensTechU]

After Pregnon went out, Oregon basically had a group of guys who are good at getting in the way but not great at paving the way. To my eye, Iuli and Poncho look stronger, but I can't tell how much based on the FCS opponent, yet they still didn't reset the line. If you see Miami's offensive line on run plays against Notre Dame and compare it to Oregon against Montana State, there's a stark difference in the ability to move defensive linemen. So to that end, I agree. On short yardage plays, Montana State generally was able to gum up the interior which is concerning for redzone and 3rd/4th and short situations, I suppose.

But I think your instincts are right that there were very few errors and I have no idea how ATQ got to that rate. They ran a very vanilla blocking scheme with few pullers and generally got a hat on a hat. Before halftime, the blown assignments I saw were Iuli on a pull, Jamarri Johnson on an outside pass, and maybe some others that stick out less because it was a quick pass or hand-off going the other way.

[OregonFan4Life]

Edit: Nvm, ATQ is Addicted to Quack, Hythloday.

I know the OLine isn’t perfect and has a lot to work on, but I’m also convinced Hythloday is either exaggerating the error rate or making it up just to avoid having to admit he was wrong in any way shape or fashion regarding this OLine.

I know there are concerns, World doesn’t anchor well, is Harkey athletic enough, interior blocking wasn’t great against Montana State, but I have a hard time seeing them as bad as Hythloday says they are.