| Sun Devils Seek to Pound the Ducks in the Trenches |
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| Written by Ken Woody | |||||||||
| Friday, 02 November 2007 | |||||||||
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Biggest game of the year will be won (or lost) up front. John Neal, Oregon’s secondary coach, described Arizona State’s offense as “patient,” which can be potentially bad news for Duck defensive coaches. In their victory over USC, Oregon’s defense was able to come up with three turnovers to blunt the Trojans and set their own offense up for two second-half touchdowns when yardage suddenly became hard to come by. The Trojans ran the ball well at times, but never seemed to want to get stubborn about it, the same as Michigan earlier in the season. That worked well for the Ducks, who were outmatched physically by both teams.
Nick Aliotti, defensive coordinator for Oregon, believes you’ve got to be able to stop the run and so aligns his front seven (and sometimes eight) to do just that. This can become somewhat of a gamble, because you can overdo it, and get burned by a good passer, like ASU’s Rudy Carpenter, who is one of the top quarterbacks in the Pac-10. You can also get burned if a team with a physical offensive line (ASU) and talented, fast backs (ASU) have the conviction to stay with the running game long enough to wear down a front seven that is not that physical (Oregon). Such is the match up, and the challenge, for Oregon this weekend. For the Ducks to derail the Sun Devils, they will have to beat an offensive line coached by one of the premier offensive line coaches in the Pac-10. Greg Smith, a long-time assistant to Erickson, has always had physical, tough blocking units that are fundamentally sound. Look for them to do a lot of double-team blocking at the point of attack, attempting to move the defender back in a position where the pile will pick off linebackers. Michael Gray, defensive line coach for the Ducks, brings a group of lightly-regarded athletes who rank as the most improved position area since the start of fall camp.
Gray said, “last year we had too many distractions, and when we lost a few guys earlier in the year, it changed the focus of the group. They wanted to be a good defensive line.” He gives much credit to Michael Speed, who started in the beginning of the season, but hasn’t since. “He’s bought into his role, and they enjoy being together, they truly are a team.” Coach Gray also mentioned Jeremy Gibbs, who was ejected from the Oklahoma game last year and has turned it around this season: “I like his energy, he’s learned to control his emotions; I love his passion.” Gray observed that USC quarterback Mark Sanchez had “young eyes” in last week’s game. Young quarterbacks can get mesmerized and hold the ball too long to find the open receiver. Who’s got “old eyes,” coach? “Brink of WSU for sure,” replied Gray, “and this quarterback this week (Rudy Carpenter) for ASU.” Coach Neal, who spends a great deal of time studying the quarterbacks, describes Carpenter as a “fierce competitor.” He also said that Carpenter, who doesn’t look dangerous as a scrambler, is in fact, very dangerous: “He’s not out of control as much as he might look.”
Offensively, the Ducks will seek to get back the momentum they had coming out of the Washington game. The win over USC was big, but the Ducks struggled in running the ball when they were trying to run the clock down, and appeared at other times, to miss some opportunities for big plays in the passing game. Dennis Dixon, quarterback, is lauded by his coach, Chip Kelly, for consistently good decision-making, but in this offense, where the quarterback must make decisions (reads) on the inside, outside and passing game, there comes a time when he may miss a few. Those situations have not been dramatic, but there have been some of them. Sometimes, you just need to let the quarterback hand off and watch, without the pressure of a read. The USC game brought about a situation the offense hadn’t had to deal with this season, and didn’t do so good at it when it came: trying to milk the clock and preserve its lead at the end of the game. The Ducks went three-and-out the final three possessions of the game, allowing the Trojans to get the ball with 3:30 left in the game, down by seven. “The line was frustrated, having to hold it at the line of scrimmage while we waited for the clock to tick down,” said coach Steve Greatwood after the game.
All season, (including practice, spring ball) the Ducks have gone without a huddle at a fast tempo, getting the ball snapped with 12 seconds or so left on the play clock. Using this system, Oregon has consistently worn down defensive teams, particularly the front seven. This may account for Oregon able to get three times the number of yards ‘SC’s defense normally allowed. To have to hold the big guys on the line allowed USC’s gasping defenders to collect themselves, regain their speed, and reactions, to better defend the Ducks those final three drives. What to do? “Obviously, we’ve got to handle it better than we did last week,” said Geoff Schwartz, offensive tackle.
Schwartz was involved in one of the most entertaining plays of the year when Dennis Dixon headed off to his left to run an option play, found it well-defended by the Trojans and reversed his field to the right. Schwartz, who had blocked his defender, had turned to watch the action away from him and was surprised to see Dixon coming back his way. “I actually never saw Dennis,” said Schwartz, “all of a sudden, there was the ball.” The biggest Duck tucked the ball in his outside arm, away from defenders and rumbled for three yards, a pretty good gain for that time of the game. Schwartz said one of the Trojans told him that the play wasn’t legal, but that just shows how frazzled they may have been at that time. Imagine this, using linemen for pitch men on the option! This would really bring in the old rugby element back into the game. By the way, Greatwood said that all his linemen have practiced carrying the ball, just in case. (Good coaching). Fans were mostly happy with head coach Mike Bellotti’s decision to go for it on fourth down against the Trojans, instead of the sure field goal. Bellotti explained to me that he doesn’t have a set philosophy for making the decision when it comes. Among other things, he considers how many points he feels the Ducks will need to win the game, wind direction, how the kicker was kicking in pre-game, during the game, and possible emotional reactions for his players and opponents in case it doesn’t turn out. In addition, he also reflects on how well his offense and defense have been playing to that point. Just writing all this shows how much there is to properly consider in making this decision and you might think of all this next time the Ducks offer you an opportunity to make the call to “go for it.”
When John Madden was the coach of the Oakland Raiders, his philosophy was very simple. “I made the decision in July, in training camp,” he said. “I told our fans that unless the game depended on it, we’d go for the field goal every time, even if all we needed was an inch. Go ahead an boo, but that’s the way it is.” This philosophy seemed to work for Madden, but he had a great defense and usually an offense that could move it in a hurry if necessary. Bellotti said that he felt the Ducks would need every point they could score and going for touchdowns took priority. Disagree? That’s ok, and by the way, one reason football is so interesting: there’s so much to argue about.
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