#7 Indiana @ #3 Oregon (Oct. 11, Sat 12:30 PM CBS)

[greenyellow]

Here's Geoff Schwartz's take on the offense. He says on his viewing, only two of the sacks were on the OL. The rest were on Indiana attacking the RB pass protection and confusing Moore as to where his pass protection should be set. The lack of outside runs were mainly on the TEs not being able to handle Indiana's DEs.

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[UofDuck]

Plenty of blame to go around. For instance, Love Noah W, but he single handily killed our early mojo. Took a short pass over the middle and instead of moving forward directly past the line of gain that was there for the taking, he tried to get fancy and run lateral and came up short. Bad situation awareness. The next series he completely whiffed on a block on an LB blitz causing a sack and another punt.

Moore didn’t look the part yesterday, but he certainly wasn’t alone.

[Xenocide23]

Plenty of blame to go around. For instance, Love Noah W, but he single handily killed our early mojo. Took a short pass over the middle and instead of moving forward directly past the line of gain that was there for the taking, he tried to get fancy and run lateral and came up short. Bad situation awareness. The next series he completely whiffed on a block on an LB blitz causing a sack and another punt.

Moore didn’t look the part yesterday, but he certainly wasn’t alone.

Yeah the Coaches and Players just weren't ready yesterday and we got thoroughly outplayed as a result. The first drive was a perfect encapsulation of Players screwing up (Noah not just going up field for a first down, the holding call on Donte's scramble) and bizarre play calling by Stein (why did Jay Harris randomly get a wildcat carry out of nowhere when he is 5th on the depth chart??????).

[bdkipe]

What does Schwartz know that we all don’t. This board has spoken. A 10-point loss to a Top-10 team (now Top 3) where we played D+ (at best)…and they played A+ (note IU’s 8 penalties were for only 45 total yards)…that was tied with 7:00 to go…is COMPLETELY unacceptable.

Fire everyone!!!! Fire Stein…then rehire him and fire him again just to be safe.

Stein was too cute = fired

Tosh not cute enough = fired

I’m still personally shocked the sun came up today. I expect us to lose the rest of the way out because there is no recent history that Lanning has ever shown that he and the staff have the ability to take their medicine and learn. There is also no recent history of any national champion having 2 head scratching losses and then adjusting.

Even Dan’s 2021 Georgia team, with arguably the greatest college defense of all time, certainly didn’t lose to Bama by 17 and then beat them a month later by 15 after making massive adjustments. That didn’t happen, I must be imagining things. Teams can’t get better, they are what they are and it’s obviously only downhill from here.

[QuackininBama]

Could be worse, Lanning broke the entire Penn State program, Franklin is out.

[OregonFan4Life]

I’d love it if Schwartz or QB11 discussed the identity of the Oregon offense, I feel like there is no identity in the scheme, especially the running game. And I wonder how much that could be causing these mental errors with identifying the pass rush/zone.

[bdkipe]

I just stumbled on finding this, but Cignetti tends to says the same thing after big wins against “good” teams. He said it verbatim after beating Illinois and said it verbatim again after beating us: “We broke their will”.

My hunch is that their defensive staff digs unusually DEEP to find the specific things that make opposing OC’s uncomfortable. Like their specific planning involves a somehow honing into those topics and then going even deeper and finding the opposing OC’s historically preferred counters.

This felt like a game of chicken. We kept waiting for the counter from Stein that never came. Lanning even said “they had the pen last”.

It’s like IU gambles on opposing coordinators being stubborn and only having 1-2 answers.

They go into the game with A): what makes you uncomfortable? and B): a well-researched guess as to how you pivot. They ride with part A as long as they can and then hope that their adjustments to your first pivot frustrate you long enough to hold on for the win.

Stein briefly found a few things, they countered and by that time they were living in Dante’s head.

Several analysts had said leading up to the game it’s more of an NFL scheme in that they hammer on the things that make the opponent uncomfortable vs a majority of college coordinators which generally scheme to maximize their own strengths.

Chess match round #1 went to Cig. I’d like another crack at them.

[OrTDuck]

For those of you that bitch and moan about Stein try to remember Andy Ludwig and year 2 of Gary Crowton.

I did not have year 2 under Gary Crowton catching strays on my bingo card today.

Yeah, it wasn't great but 2006 did have breaking Dennis Dixon in at QB as primary starter (who wasn't very good); and, a pair of sophomore RBs who ran for 1,625 yards (with the trio with Dixon rushing for 2,067 yards). Oregon did finish #25 in the nation in scoring offense that year (scoring over 30 seven times).

Crowton also did enough to get hired away as OC at LSU where they went on to win the National Championship the next season, setting school records in: points in a season, points per game, TDs scored, rushing TDs, passes completed, total yards, and first downs, scoring over 40 seven times (so that as well, I tend to doubt he just suddenly figured out the OC thing in one off-season).

Dixon ended the year with 12 TDs and 14 interceptions and a QB rating of 120.7. Brady Leaf filled in some with a QB rating of 112.8.

[bdkipe]

OrTDuck - I stand corrected. 2006 was just a weird year. Probably should have given Crowton a bit more credit as I loved what he did in 2005 with KC and Whitehead. I just remember feeling like 2006 was clunky, but as you pointed out, that was likely due to Dixon’s first year as a starter. Recency bias on my end. My bad. All that said, I’ll die on the hill that there is no defending Ludwig.

[pezsez1]

Is brining up Crowton and Ludwig supposed to be a defense or an indictment of Stein?

[OrTDuck]

"I stand corrected. 2006 was just a weird year. Probably should have given Crowton a bit more credit as I loved what he did in 2005 with KC and Whitehead. I just remember feeling like 2006 was clunky, but as you pointed out, that was likely due to Dixon’s first year as a starter. Recency bias on my end. My bad. All that said, I’ll die on the hill that there is no defending Ludwig"


Yeah, I mean, I recall there being some upset with Crowton in 2006.

I think it somehow stuck in Duck lore. I think expectations were just so sky high offensively heading into the season, when some ended up disappointed, Crowton took a lot of heat. I don't really recall too many people really being upset when he left.

Dixon, at the time I think the highest rated QB to commit to Oregon (Dixon was nationally #53 and Clemens had been nationally #65), was heading into his junior year, loaded with Stewart and Johnson at RB, Paysinger, Williams, and Colvin at WR (and USC transfer Derrick Jones always tantalizing), future 8 year NFL TE Dante Rosario a senior, an all-conference level veteran C (Enoka Lucas) and two future NFL OT (Unger, Schwartz).

Then 7-6 and the QBs were just disappointing. The 4 loss end of the year tailspin (where Oregon scored only 10, 10, and 8 in 3 of the games, as well as a disappointing loss to the Beavers by having a game winning kick blocked as time expired) I think led, at least in part, to an outcry for some kind of change.

Crowton's teams finished #12 and #25 in scoring offense his two years and it certainly is said Crowton both turned Bellotti on to his old friend Chip (coached together in 1992 at NH); and, paved the way for the breakthrough offense that was to follow in 2007. It has even been written that Chip came out to Oregon to watch Crowton install his spread when he first came to Oregon and that Crowton would at times show Bellotti film of new wrinkles in Kelly's no-huddle, up-tempo spread NH offense (Barry Tramel 9/2018).

Now, Ludwig on the other hand ......

[UOducksTK1]

One positive. It was a fun/loud environment despite the loss. Also, Indiana fans were very considerate after the win. I feel like losing to Penn State or Ohio State would produce way more trash talk / hate. They are nice.

[OregonFan4Life]

Yeah Indiana fans were amazing, they were loud but in a good way, they never were obnoxious and they handled the win really well and were very nice and courteous to duck fans.
I’m a fan of the Indiana fanbase. They enjoyed their win like they should without being rude about it.

[bdkipe]

OrTDuck - thank you for the trip down memory lane. I love it.

Since I’ve hijacked the thread…

Crowton does deserve his flowers, and he was a huge part of convincing one Charles E. Kelly to come here. It’s just that as you said, things got oddly disjointed in 2006. I remember being confused because he was so good at scheming around the limitations of Dennis and Brady in 2005 after Kellen snapped his leg (eff you to the Arizona turf…although technically the Autzen turf monster is what actually bit Dennis, but I digress).

I just remember Bellotti stating how Crowton installed it, then gradually they learned how to counter by game, then by halftime, but when Chip got there he took their counters to the next play.

So Gary Crowton…unsung hero of Duck Lore!

[dd10snoop28]

Whoa. Rough game.

Huge credit to Indiana. They game-planned and executed at an elite level....and on the road.

A few observations:
-the Indiana DC prepared one of the best gameplans i've seen in a while. Their defense was 2-3 steps ahead of us on every play. They looked like a well-coached team....we did not.
-our failures on offense was due to 3 main reasons:
(1) poor play-calling and failing to adjust to what defense was giving....which was the deep passing,
(2) pass-blocking, and
(3) Dante Moore was slow to react to pressure and just generally played a poor game (missed open guys, left the pocket too early etc...)

I would share the blame 1/3.

The run game was solid.

I have to say it....our defense backfield got exposed. Their WR's torched our corners. I don't know if we'll face a team with a QB/WR group that was as in sync as Indiana, but if we do then we are going to continue to have big problems.

Our DL/LB's were solid, but again, we were outcoached on this side of the ball too.

In conclusion: we have a long way to go. To me, that's somewhat exciting because that leaved opportunity for significant improvement.