#2 Oregon @ Washington State

[karlhungis]

Ifo and the other backs "getting beat" wasn't really their fault. When you only rush 3 it gives Halliday all day to sit back there and eventually SOMEONE is going to come open. We could put Darrell Revis back there and eventually his receiver is going to come open. That is what happens when you don't even bother to pressure the quarterback.
Pretty sure during the 3rd quarter I saw him pull his cell phone out and order pizza for his entire offensive line while waiting for a receiver to come open.

Halliday threw almost immediately on a few of those TD's that burned Ifo. It had nothing to do with having all day.

[KingofDucks]

After sleeping on it, re-watching the game, and putting some s*** into perspective, I'm a little calmer about last night.

QB - Mariota is a fucking god. Dude put the team on his back with no help from a battered OL last night. Was sacked 7 times. Still threw for 330 with 5 TDs and no INTs. Also ran for 58 yards - that's after the sacks are taken into account. He ran for nearly 100.

RB - They looked as good as you can expect from an OL with no push.

WR/TE - Caught nearly everything and did some great things after the catch. A position group that seemed to be a question mark before the season has been a massive strength this year.

OL - All the pressure came from Pierson's side. There is a reason he isn't on scholarship. Crosby got confused on some stunts, but growing pains are expected. Getting Fisher, George, and Louisi back will be huge.

DL - They took off plays, but I kind of don't blame them. When Pellum doesn't blitz at all, it puts all the energy on 3 guys, 2 of which are being double-teamed. You can't go full speed every play, especially when they run 90 plays a game.

LBs - Invisible. Never seen any Duck LB corp play like that. No coverage, missed tackles, just no impact on the game at all. Really disappointing. And it's confusing. Coleman, Prevot, Washington, Malone...they're all good players and have shown some greatness. Where is the consistency? Hardrick is garbage. Walker needs to start over him.

DBs - They were giving them room all night to not get beat with the long ball and were hoping to force FG's or get 4th down stops in the red zone. They were basically allowing Wazzu to get chunks of yards, because if you play tight on the receivers, you'll eventually get burned. Unfortuantely, we gave Halliday too much time in the pocket in the redzone and our DBs either got beat with perfect balls or they got beat because eventually a WR will get open if the QB has all day. Mathis was the only performer that was disappointing from this unit.

ST - Wogan missed an easy one, made a tougher one. Inconsistency from our kicking game is expected. Wheeler had his worst game of the season. Coverage on kickoffs and punts has been great, thanks to Charles Nelson.

HELF - He better lay into his guys. This should be a major wake-up call for everyone. We are a good team when we prepare well, and play fast and hard...and FINISH. This team plays lesser teams like they can win playing 50%. Teams are going to gun for us every game. We have to be ready to play EVERY WEEK. That is on Helf. Chip's teams had the occasional let down after a big win (Stanford after USC in 12, USC after Stanford in 11), but Chip never let our guys play lazy against lesser teams. We blew out everyone we were supposed to. Helf needs to start being the asshole Chip was. LIGHT A FUCKING FIRE UNDER THEIR ASSES.

FROST - Not only is his play-calling baffling at times, we don't seem to be running at the tempo we used to. We're not getting off plays fast enough. That's on Frost. He needs to push the guys to go at warp speed. He is also riding Mariota too much. Mariota is phenomenal, but we have a ton of talent around him. Put playmakers in positions to get the ball in the open field. That's the point of the spread. I'm not seeing enough of it.

PELLUM - He isn't blitzing enough. Not sure why. But he seems scared to blitz, which is a mistake when you have great pass-rushers at LB like Washington and Prevot. Let the speedy LBs get after the QB on the outside while our big boys upfront take on the inside. Very frustrating to see us constantly rush 3. We're playing a similar team in 2 weeks. Hope to see some changes in the scheme.

REFS - While the refs missed a big call that benefitted us late in the game, we were getting called for penalties all game and Wazzu was getting away with them. Wazzu was gifted a TD because of a blown call at one point and they were getting away with holds and illegal picks all game. Pac-12 refs are wildly inconsistent and affected the game last night. Frustrating to the point where Helf was visibly angry and almost said something stupid. He's usually very composed. That's how bad it was. Not saying it was on purpose, just that Pac-12 refs are terrible. Which is pretty undeniable at this point.

CONCLUSION...

At the end of the day, this game could end up being a good thing. It's a wake up call. We won a tough game under tough circumstances. If our guys don't take this as a sign that we need to take everyone seriously, we don't deserve to make the playoff. We have the talent to win a national championship this year. If our OL gets healthy, this might be the best offense we've ever had. As we saw against Mich State, our defense is capable of playing great. But we need consistency in energy and smart play calling from Pellum. No great team goes through a season without some attrition. Bama won 2 recent titles while losing a game on the way. It's how you respond to that adversity that defines you as a team.

We have a lot of work to do, we get a week off, and then we get a tough Zona team at home. A good chance to test our mettle again, and get some revenge for last year. Then we have an extra 2 days of prep for UCLA. We're going to learn a lot about our team over the next 3 weeks.

[Cedar Tree]

^^ So in conclusion, our offensive line stinks unless Fisher,George/Louisi are back, our defensive linemen took off plays, our linebackers are invisible, Mathis didn't play well, Helfrich is too nice and needs to start screaming at the kids more, Frost is not doing a good job of pushing the tempo and calling plays, and Pellum doesn't know how to utilize his players as well as "KingofDucks" does.

[snapt]

FROST - Not only is his play-calling baffling at times, we don't seem to be running at the tempo we used to. We're not getting off plays fast enough. That's on Frost. He needs to push the guys to go at warp speed. He is also riding Mariota too much. Mariota is phenomenal, but we have a ton of talent around him. Put playmakers in positions to get the ball in the open field. That's the point of the spread. I'm not seeing enough of it.

While I agree on Frost's play calling at times (where was the screen games last night?) I actually thought him slowing things down last night was a good thing. Going 3 and out at times at warp speed would have been even worse on our D. At least guys got a breather and momentum was tempered at times by slowing down.

[Phenom]

TBH, I've really liked Frost's playcalling this year. Our tempo wasn't all that fast in the 2nd half, but I kind of like that. I think that's the reason why WSU only had 10 points even though they were owning our defense. They just didn't have it as much as they would have if we were going 100% tempo.

[FlDuckFan]

I think Frost has been a bit slow getting the play in but, I think it benefited us in the second half by keeping the ball away from their offense. I also think his play selection has been getting better since last year.

[KingofDucks]

^^ So in conclusion, our offensive line stinks unless Fisher,George/Louisi are back, our defensive linemen took off plays, our linebackers are invisible, Mathis didn't play well, Helfrich is too nice and needs to start screaming at the kids more, Frost is not doing a good job of pushing the tempo and calling plays, and Pellum doesn't know how to utilize his players as well as "KingofDucks" does.

Settle down, bud.

Never implied the wheels are falling off. In fact, I think we'll be just fine. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. I don't claim to know more than Pellum, but coaches aren't infallible and are subject to questioning after a subpar performance.

[KingofDucks]

TBH, I've really liked Frost's playcalling this year. Our tempo wasn't all that fast in the 2nd half, but I kind of like that. I think that's the reason why WSU only had 10 points even though they were owning our defense. They just didn't have it as much as they would have if we were going 100% tempo.

I'm a bit hold and cold on him. I think he's done well adjusting in the 2nd half of games, but there are some play-calling choices in the redzone that have left me scratching my head. I did like how he adjusted in the 2nd half yesterday.

As for tempo, I understand there are times when we need to slow it down. I just haven't seen us get back to the line as quick as I'd like on drives where we're trying to get in moving.

[Cedar Tree]

Settle down, bud.

Never implied the wheels are falling off. In fact, I think we'll be just fine. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. I don't claim to know more than Pellum, but coaches aren't infallible and are subject to questioning after a subpar performance.

Pretty sure I'm not the one who needs to settle down...

[KingofDucks]

Settle down, bud.

Never implied the wheels are falling off. In fact, I think we'll be just fine. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. I don't claim to know more than Pellum, but coaches aren't infallible and are subject to questioning after a subpar performance.

Pretty sure I'm not the one who needs to settle down...

Ok, Mr. Emoticon.

[Cedar Tree]

Settle down, bud.

Never implied the wheels are falling off. In fact, I think we'll be just fine. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. I don't claim to know more than Pellum, but coaches aren't infallible and are subject to questioning after a subpar performance.

Pretty sure I'm not the one who needs to settle down...

Ok, Mr. Emoticon.

[pezsez1]

Ok, Mr. Emoticon.

This made me LOL for real.

KOD, I agree with most of what you say, but I disagree about Frost. I feel he's been right on the money for most of the season. The tempo is a little bit slower, but I can't imagine us moving full speed with such a patchwork O-line. Maybe when we get a couple guys back, we'll see the tempo pick up again. We have enough talent though where we shouldn't have to rely on catching people out of position.

Also, love your comment about the linebackers being invisible. That's how I felt watching the game, especially in regards to Derrick Malone. I didn't hear his name called once the entire broadcast.

After nearly a full day to mull things over, I'm mostly just miffed at DP's defensive schemes. I've never watched an Oregon game where we're so content to just rush three and hardly blitz all game long. It was kind of unreal... makes me think there MUST have been some reason for that which none of us are aware of. I just have no idea what that was.

[OregonFan4Life]

I pretty much agree with everything KoD said except for Frost, sometimes he didn't call the best plays, but I thought his 3rd down playcalling was great last night.

[GoDucksIn09]

It seems Pellum was quite content with rushing 3 all game and giving Halliday enough time he could eat a lunch or order a pizza before having to throw the ball and nothing was going to change his mind. There mere fact this might have been the worst defensive performance in 15 years does not give Pellum any reason to think he was simply wrong. Pellum could do a lot to come out and admit he was totally wrong for putting Oregon's defense in that situation but I highly doubt he will do that.

[OregonFan4Life]

It seems Pellum was quite content with rushing 3 all game and giving Halliday enough time he could eat a lunch or order a pizza before having to throw the ball and nothing was going to change his mind. There mere fact this might have been the worst defensive performance in 15 years does not give Pellum any reason to think he was simply wrong. Pellum could do a lot to come out and admit he was totally wrong for putting Oregon's defense in that situation but I highly doubt he will do that.

Is it necessary for Pellum to say something like that though?