Well, that was a little too exciting
by jtlight on Nov 16, 2008 2:47 PM PST
in Oregon Ducks Football
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PrintArizona ran 98 plays in the football game. They held the ball for over 40 minutes. They ran 53 plays in the second half alone. They averaged a healthy 5.4 yards per play over the entire game.
On the other hand, Oregon moved the ball very well in the first half, averaging over 11 yards a play. But in the second half, they could barely move the ball, making many drive killing mistakes, and going 3 and out on 4 straight drives. They ran only 23 plays in the second half.
And really, that's the explanation for why this game was so close. I don't think our defense played a bad game. It is what I would expect. But when that type of disparity was present, your defense cannot succeed.
But, looking past that, the offense in the first half was the best we've seen all season. Chip Kelly could do no wrong, as everything was executed to perfection. Masoli had the eye for the spread option. He was hitting every pass perfectly, going down the field to Dickson in the seam, hitting Jaison Williams on the out, and hitting Maehl perfectly in stride multiple times on the run-pass option that they ran well last night. When things did not go right, from slipping down on what would have been a huge 3rd down, to fumbling the ball on big 3rd downs, it wasn't as much due to the Arizona defense, as our own mistakes, which is the story of the offense this season.
On the other side of the ball, the secondary did a very good job most of the game, minus the coverage of Gronkowski, who is one of the best tight ends I've seen in a while. But again, given the circumstances, and the big plays the defense did make, I think they held up well.
Looking forward to the Civil War, Oregon must move the ball with consistency. Even if no points are scored, the 3 play drive must become 6 or 7 play drives. The defense will not hold up well if Oregon goes 3 and out multiple times like it did in the second half yesterday. This has been an achilles heel the last two games, and have led to near-disastrous second halfs.
But this team never gave up, and fought hard. And if we win the Civil War, we'll go to the Holiday Bowl. OSU will have a very, very tough game in the desert next week. If they come through, we'll have the biggest Civil War since 2000. I can't wait.
GO DUCKS!
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Medium drives
I think you hit the nail on the head with the 6-7 play drives. It seems like we dont see the ducks have those medium length drives. They are so important for defensive rest, field position, confidence. Three and outs are just killers.
It was great to see the offense open up in the first half, here’s to hope they can build off for the Civil War.
Ducks Go!
don't forget about the trick play
Dickson to JJ would’ve been so cool if Jeremiah hadn’t tripped
"It was like some sort of crazy torture in the movies. How do people do that so long without taking a breath? I think my ears are still ringing."
-Adrian Peterson, describing Autzen
That was such a great play...
Hilarious to watch. Luckily that didn’t matter in the scheme of things.
--www.AddictedToQuack.com, SBNation's Oregon Ducks blog
Would've been nice to have a SportsCenter top play though...
F*ck you Shufelt you're gonna spend the night... OUT-SIDE!
They're classic.
I met Jason Finn. He was a total boss in real life, no less.
F*ck you Shufelt you're gonna spend the night... OUT-SIDE!
Civil War
The one thing that gives me hope is that the Beavs don’t have a marquee tight end this year. Might be able to hurt the Ducks with passes to the wide outs on play action, but it isn’t nearly as money as play action to the tight end up the middle.
We'll see...
Chip can’t always put up 55 points a game, and I assure you Nick Alliotti will find a way to give up 63 points.
F*ck you Shufelt you're gonna spend the night... OUT-SIDE!
My glass is half empty, too
…but that is only because I am half way through my beer.
Just trying to stay positive.
If you read Ken Woody's recap...
Aside from the usual football genius, X’s and O’s and such, you would have read a comment about the lack of play clock use on the 5 punts the Ducks had in the second half. Something about leaving 20+ seconds on the clock at the time of the snap, times 5 adds up. (Madden Alert) When you’re ahead in the game, you want to use as much of the clock as possible…
That time could have been better used getting the defense more rest. Maybe NA could have used that time to develop a better plan to defend Gronkowski. Who knows? The Ducks were so efficient at times it actually hurt them (defensively, time of possesion).
All I know is that I could really get used to Masoli operating the offense like that for the next 2+ years. Seeing that progress makes me not worry about Roper, DT or Costa for that matter. The game plan was great in the first half and was executed very well. I hope things progress in the off week and we should be in for a VERY entertaining Civil War!
GO DUCKS!!!
May we hand you your taints on a silver platter...
It would be nice
to see someone other than USC go to the civil war, but NOT if its the beavs. It would be so so awesome to crush their dreams.
Civil War?
Or Rose Bowl?
I like the yellow helmets!
by MarineCorpsDuck on Nov 17, 2008 6:16 AM PST up reply actions
Yeah, I agree. I’d like to see the Quack Attack play keep away.
Does anybody know why we are not giving Blount more carries? I saw that he had only nine carries on Saturday. I’d like to see him get more touches.
Keying in
D’s key in better on him than JJ for some reason.
F*ck you Shufelt you're gonna spend the night... OUT-SIDE!
I disagree...
Blount has a better ypc throughout the whole season, and has almost as many yards on 20 less carries as JJ. D’s seem to be doing a better job keying on JJ than Blount. That was specifically seen in the Purdue game.
--www.AddictedToQuack.com, SBNation's Oregon Ducks blog
JJ is also the starting premier back. He’ll get more carries. If you factor in that JJ was essentially out for a game (1 run @ Utah State), and still has more carries than Blount, shows that Blount generally doesn’t get as many carries/game. A few games, they average close, but for the most part JJ is the man.
I think the general premise is to let JJ and Masoli tire out a defense, and let Blount smash into their fatigued bodies.
It's spelled "S-h-u-t-a-b-r-i-c-k".
That was actually the best way to put it that I've seen yet.
Good on you, Joe.
F*ck you Shufelt you're gonna spend the night... OUT-SIDE!
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