Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Here's some stuff (from an interview with Canzano: https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/orego ... e_coo.html) from former Duck DC Nick Aliotti on defending Leach's air raid offense. The context was just before the Beavers were going to play WSU, but presumably the same would apply for this game:

How do you defend Mike Leach's "AIR RAID" offense? I asked Aliotti and he said that the first thing you need to defend when playing Leach is the "all-go" routes he likes to run out of four receiver sets -- basically all four eligible receivers spreading the field and running a 'go-long' route.

"He loves four 'go's'" Aliotti said. "He really loves it. That's where it starts with him. He wants to get four go routes -- two up the sidelines and two up the seams... you really have to put a lot of guys into coverage. Disguise coverage. Give pre-snap reads that fool the quarterback."

Aliotti said that if a Leach-coached team has a veteran quarterback, the focus should turn to trying to fool his offensive line and receivers.

I remember Aliotti being pretty bad at stopping the Air Raid so I'm not sure I'd take much advice from him lol

desertfan wrote:I remember Aliotti being pretty bad at stopping the Air Raid so I'm not sure I'd take much advice from him lol

They faced each other twice. The first game the Cougs scored 19 then 7 more in garbage time.

The second game the Cougs got 24 points on a good drive then a defensive touchdown and another turnover fed short field touchdown. Then while 42 points behind against Oregon reserves they scored 14 points in the last 4 minutes of the game.

This year we'll be taking on the Nations 1st ranked passing offense with the 90th ranked passing defense. If we can limit WSU to one scoring drive of over 35 yards in the competitive part of the game I'd take it.

Coach Pepsi has had good success against them at Colorado, but he had better past defenses there than what we have this year. Time for the pass D to step up.

It was 13-10 last year at Halftime and we had the lead with Braxton. I'm not freaking out about their offense vs our defense as much as in years past. I think as a team we're going to embrace the hostile atmosphere on the road.

As expected, the Ducks are going chrome/white/white again tomorrow:

Verdell was great last week. His TD against Washington was a perfect capper to the win. But, he needs to get even better this week. The key to beating the Cougars is ball control, churning out those first downs on time consuming drives down the field. CJV is great running straight up the middle, a'la the TD against the Dawgs. But he needs to display the "vision" that all great RB's have, see LMJ. The path to get the yards is sometimes just over there; CJV needs to see that against the Cougars.

As always, hythloday1 did a great film analysis of our opponent this week: https://www.addictedtoquack.com/2018/10 ... gton-state

Summary (but do read it, it's worth it): on offense they're dangerous, with Minshew a very capable QB who makes smart decisions even under pressure. Our DBs will need to ball out. Their o-line allows pressure though, and if we take away the schematic issues that the air raid offense creates we should be able to stop them. On defense, they're small and quick – "like Wazzu is playing 11 free safeties" – which means they can create pressure with their speed and recover quickly when they're out of position, but also leaves them vulnerable to getting mauled by strong o-line. I like our chances to out-physical them in the run game. Their corners also play too loose, probably because they're just not quite athletic enough to handle top talent, so I'd expect another big game from Mitchell.

Hoping we have a different offensive gameplan than against UW. That was perfect against UW, but will need more variety to beat WSU.

I think Oregon will most likely try to run the ball consistently at them. As someone said earlier will try to Stanford them. The longer Oregon has the ball the less have to rely on the defense to stop them. This is not a Chip Kelly team where you will have the teams running 100 plays each. One thing in regards to our passing game is that I hope Herbert knows he has more than one receiver.

If you watched the SC game, you know we can run and pass on WSU.

This exactly. Gobble up the clock, wear them down and don't let them stay on offense

GoDucksIn09 wrote:I think Oregon will most likely try to run the ball consistently at them. As someone said earlier will try to Stanford them. The longer Oregon has the ball the less have to rely on the defense to stop them. This is not a Chip Kelly team where you will have the teams running 100 plays each. One thing in regards to our passing game is that I hope Herbert knows he has more than one receiver.

So what is everyone doing 90 minutes before kickoff?

With the WSU team and fans on an even higher emotional level than usual, the first quarter will be even more important than usual. This time I hoe the Ducks win the toss and take a nice methodical time consuming drive down the field culminating in a touchdown, nothing better than getting the Cougars frustrated from the start.

Cougars going off color in this one, a dark shade of a kind of green.