Was last year's defense Allioti's fault?

[Tray Dub]

http://www.addictedtoquack.com/2009/3/2 ... preview-se

There are many reasons for the performance. Injuries and lack of depth played a role, but, in my mind, the #1 contributing factor to last year's poor pass defense was the play from the free safety position. While TJ Ward was able to hit people, he had serious coverage issues. This was deeply apparent in the USC game. After that game, adjustments were made to limit the deep ball, which achieved the desired result, but this opened up crossing routes and a lot of short passing options for opposing quarterbacks.

The overall results of this strategy when you compare 2008 to 2007 are incredibly interesting. Opponent passer rating improved marginally from 114 to 123, due mainly to a decrease in interceptions, while opponent yards per pass attempt stayed at 6.6.

But where this strategy became apparent was in opponent 3rd down conversion, which jumped from 32.5% to 39.4%. Afraid of the explosion plays, Oregon backed off. Without a safety that could cover the field and give help to beat corners, Byrd and Thurmond had to play more conservatively than they had in the past, and that meant giving opposing wide receivers room to prevent the big play.

And while a lot of duck fans want to sit back and bash Aliotti for the defensive deficiencies, last season was simply a case of picking your poison. The secondary did not have the ability to take away all passing options, so they chose to shut down one aspect of the passing game. And that they did rather effectively.

This is all been a long way of saying, that this spring, we must see development of the safeties, or we'll see the same outcome as last season.

Pretty interesting argument

[echo31]

but isn't it Aliotti's job to coach the safeties?

[dthomas=ddixon]

So giving up 3rd & long after 3rd & long all season was TJ Ward's fault? Putting our DBs out on an island with zero help over the top while our safeties were playing run coverage was Wards fault? And if Ward was so bad in coverage, why did Alliotti put him in single coverage against USC's WRs and have Byrd stay at the line of scrimmage to play run coverage?

Ward gave up some big plays but c'mon, there was way too many breakdowns & just plain terrible defensive play calling to put it all on Ward.

[Tray Dub]

Just an FYI if anyone cares, this is just for discussion, not what I believe.

I do think Ward's coverage was a big factor. But if you have three out of four d-backs who can cover and are first day NFL prospects, you can't just hide behind the one player who isn't great in coverage. Plenty of teams cover the pass better than we do without having four top notch DBs

[Duck07]

the defense has never been aliottis fault. its always something else like injuries, the offense scores to fast, we don't have the right players, whatever. theres a reason ucla fired him after 1 year

[briarduck]

Yup ...we came blame the world but at the end of the day its the coaches responsibility to put player(s) in position to succeed! And if they aren't the right players recruit players that can succeed in your scheme and if you can't do that, change your scheme and/or the coach for someone is willing to do it correctly!

GO DUCKS!!

[dthomas=ddixon]

Good posts duck07 & Briarduck.

Is there a reason a coach always needs excuses different reasons to explain why his team or side of the ball underperforms? Maybe it's because he's not that good of a coach. Are people always making excuses for Kelly? Of course not. There's no need for excuses because he does a great job.

Same thing with Kent. Every year there's 100 different reason why his team underperforms. Does is ever occur to any of the Kent supporters that all those excuses show just why Kent isn't a good coach? If there needs to be excuses after every season then there is something wrong!

I like Alliotti as a person but one of these seasons he's going to have to either fix something or be let go. The excuses are getting old & show exactly why he isn't that great of coach.

[Duckxing]

I don't think you can put all of the blame on Ward, but when Ward and Chung effectively changed positions, the defense did improve. By the end of the year Ward was playing more of the rover position with Chung mostly in coverage, which isn't his best attribute either.

The main problem though is that Oregon just doesn't have the same type of athletes on Defense as they do Offense. Lets face it when an athlete comes to Oregon, he is going to play on the offensive side of the ball, which isn't a bad thing. Oregon's DE's, DT's and LB's are all undersized and when you miss out on recruites or have acedemic causalties, it is going to show up.

I know that one player doesn't win a game but just imagine if Oregon had a run stuffing DT like Haloti, or a game changing LB'er.

[brich75]

here's the thing. we cant go back and change anything with allioti's crappy defense. The way chip is talking ,sounds like he wants a national championship as bad as all of us..My point being, if Allioti cant stop teams like in the past,and we are in tight games. Even after scoring 55 points in a half we will see major changes in the defensive coaching staff. I have no doubt that chip will pull the trigger if Allioti doesn't pull his weight!

[GrandpaDuck]

On the Original Post about the decrease of 3rd down efficiency -

Yes, playing two safeties better suited to play strong safety was a big factor in the decrease in 3rd down efficiency. Either Chung or Ward matched with a Michael Harper or JD Nelson would form a more complementary fit. We didn't have a lot of choices at Ward's spot as Marvin Johnson was injured most of the summer and early fall.

But other big factors in the increase in 3rd down efficiency:

- In 2007 the pair of Gibbs and Harris were much more effective at pushing the middle in the pass rush than Harris and Cole were this year.

- Walter Thurmond was out, then gimpy early in the year, his tackles, interceptions, and breakups finished way way down from 2007.

- Play of the SAM linebacker was not what they had hoped for. The SAM a cross between a strong safety and linebacker, is a key to the TCU/Oregon style defensive schemes. Bellotti recently said that Boyd, who like Eddie Pleasant is a monstrous physical specimen, played dinged up a lot. I do know that when he played well like at ASU the defense was stifling. We held the ASU first team to half the points on the road at ASU than OSU did at OSU and Boyd was making the plays we need out of our SAM both on the rush and in coverage. Apparently the SAM issue is of big concern because Kelly has assigned Allotti to coach that one position personally this year.

- Pass Interference penalties were a real problem this year. Bellotti felt they were being called tighter and sometimes phantomly but for whatever reason we got a boat load of them.

- Clay Matthews was very green and aggressive and got abused early in the year in the passing game. He improved and he was a true sophomore and mistakes will be made by young players.

I think all the above contributors to the increase from 33% to 39% on opponents third down conversions.

[GrandpaDuck]

That was my explanation of the decrease in 3rd down efficiency from 2007 to 2008, not my defense of Nick Alliotti.

I can tell folks the reasons Bellotti and Kelly support him but it is a waste of keystrokes. I can talk defense with people but once Alliotti's name gets in to the conversation rational debate becomes impossible.

[Tray Dub]

That was my explanation of the decrease in 3rd down efficiency from 2007 to 2008, not my defense of Nick Alliotti.

I can tell folks the reasons Bellotti and Kelly support him but it is a waste of keystrokes. I can talk defense with people but once Alliotti's name gets in to the conversation rational debate becomes impossible.

I'd like to hear your explanation if you don't mind. You seem like you know what you're talking about

[VinnyKnuckles]

I actually agree with a lot of Grandpa's post, but at the same time, there's always something that comes up as to why Oregon can't defend worth beans on third down. There will be several other issues next year that lead us struggle, just like there was other issues that led us to struggle the year before last (and the year before that...)

That isn't exactly true. The season before last the Ducks didn't struggle on 3rd down defense, ranking 12th in the country in defensive 3rd down efficiency. The points Grandpa brought up are a very reasonable explanation for why the Ducks went from a team that in 2007 was pretty darn good at defending 3rd downs and in the red zone to a team that suddenly became horrible defending 3rd downs and in the red zone. Same defensive coordinator, different players, different levels of health, different circumstances.

[spinseeker]

Agreed Vinny,

People bring up Gang Green and when Ngata was here as good years, but I thought Dixon's last year we had a stellar defense. The numbers do support that as well. Look at the 3 and outs we gave USC after special team's errors.
Ken Woody had an interesting take on the issues we had this year against tight ends and 3rd downs. His explanation was along Grandpaducks lines but included the play of Casey Matthews. Basically saying our linebackers were too inexperienced and just a step too slow to run the schemes we were doing effectively. They were biting on fakes and just generally making rookie mistakes that really cost the team, since they would have to make adjustments that just aren't as effective as what they could do with better decision making.
Look for a big improvement as they become veteran players. That's probably one of the biggest knocks against Allioti, it is a little harder for people to just step in to a position and go. They have to know how to read the field and make adjustments on the fly, which takes experience and practice.
It is my belief, that after 14 years of being a DC, NA knows his sh**. The problem is he's not on the field making decisions as the plays develop, or even right before the snap to give instructions. He has to rely on the players to make the right call, based on their training. With everything an offense can throw at the defense, it is probably impossible to expect new players to be able to make those kinds of decisions effectively 98% of the time. Those break downs are painfully obvious if the offense takes advantage.

Now it is pretty much a consensus that tOSU regularly has a top defense. Did any of you see the end of their bowl game this year. End of the game, third and long(?), the whole defense was at the line like Texas was going to run the ball or something. Anyway, when I saw that, I was thinking that would never have happened with NA and tOSU probably would have won. But unfortunately for tOSU, Texas threw a quick slant to their best receiver who blew past the defenders who were stuffing the line, no bump, nothing to slow him down. Touchdown, game, Texas.

[dgjducks]

Until the Ducks gets some linemen that require a double team, we’ll struggle on defense. As amazing as Reed was at end, imagine what a first day draft prospect would do in our defense, 40-50 sacks a year.

Seems like in the majority of duck games, the ducks are ahead early and force the opposition into a one-dimensional passing attack. We should lead the Pac 10 in sacks every year.