Week 2 - What do we think we know

[StevensTechU]

Trying to summarize a few things in my own head after the first two games of the year.

1. The defense has improved, but still isn't championship level. Pass rush, defensive backfield, and 3rd down defense aren't the envy of many people, but better than they were a year ago.

2. Our linebackers largely stink. I wonder about the Keith Brown situation, because we're starting a walk on with a safety build at inside linebacker and only one guy is injured. I see a need to go fishing in the portal here this off-season.

3. Our OL is good at pass pro, but doesn't have the maulers for run blocking. For the limitations athletically of last year's group, guys like Bass and Sala could push over a tank. Only JPJ is that guy this year.

4. Conerly still has a ways to go. He's a true sophomore and gifted enough to be an NFL guy someday, but right now he's one of the worst starting left tackles we've had in the last twenty years (we've been gifted with a lot of good ones, so it's a high bar).

5. Bo Nix doesn't want to run. It reminds me of Herbert's last season where you could see the offense get handicapped by the desire to keep him in the pocket. Glad he made a play yesterday on that 3rd and long, but it's clear Stein and Nix are playing to prevent injuries not maximize points. Given our lack of depth, hopefully that's prudent.

[whosyourwally]

Hoping this was an outlier, but one concerning takeaway I had yesterday was that, for all the talent we have at the WR position, only Franklin showed the ability to really go get the ball. There were probably 7-10 big play opportunities where Nix put a ball on the fringes of our WR’s catch radius, difficult catches at odd angles, but the kind that stars find a way to catch, that were dropped. Really hoping, going forward, our WR’s show more of an ability to help Nix out.


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[Phalanx]

1. The defense has improved, but still isn't championship level. Pass rush, defensive backfield, and 3rd down defense aren't the envy of many people, but better than they were a year ago.

Disagree, I think so far the defensive backfield is worse than a year ago when Christian Gonzalez had at least one side of the field nailed down. There is potential for improvement as the season progresses, but it was pretty depressing watching the new guys all get torched in both pass and run game yesterday.

I'm really hoping Lanning and Co. were holding something back in terms of the offensive play book yesterday, not wanting to show too much early in the season. The passing game was really limited, other than one nice downfield pass to Franklin.

[chapelhillduck]

I think people are under interpreting how much MULTIPLE 1st and 15 situations and how some of the field positions screw up the playcalling capabilities we saw in the 2nd/3rd quarters


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[Tray Dub]

1. The defense has improved, but still isn't championship level. Pass rush, defensive backfield, and 3rd down defense aren't the envy of many people, but better than they were a year ago.

Disagree, I think so far the defensive backfield is worse than a year ago when Christian Gonzalez had at least one side of the field nailed down. There is potential for improvement as the season progresses, but it was pretty depressing watching the new guys all get torched in both pass and run game yesterday.

I'm really hoping Lanning and Co. were holding something back in terms of the offensive play book yesterday, not wanting to show too much early in the season. The passing game was really limited, other than one nice downfield pass to Franklin.

Agreed. Conversely the pass rush does look improved, Matayo was flashing and Dorlus can kill a drive. If our defense can hold its own against the likes of Caleb and Penix it'll be through QB pressure.

[duckfan96]

1. Franklin is good…really good. Seemed they stopped looking his way in 2nd and 3rd quarter.
2. Lots of passes to rbs(13 total I think)
3. Herbert is looking ok…pleasant surprise
4. Seemed to be getting more pressure on wb which is good
5. Refs need to be told they don’t need to do fn instant replay that much
6. Helfrich didn’t do bad at announcing.
7. Ducks need to clean stuff up…they were lucky to get the w

[StevensTechU]

Good point in bringing up Herbert. He's been better than I expected, but Ferguson has also been worse. I thought Ferguson was a lock as an NFL guy and college difference maker, and so far he's been just another body on the field. He's lost some.athelticism with the added bulk.

[UOducksTK1]

Idk if our pass rush was good, it was Ok. Way too many times Shough had 3-5 seconds to stand in the pocket in through.

Matayo Has potential, but outside of Dorlus out front 7 feels like one of the worst in the PAC-12.

[pudgejeff]

Trying to summarize a few things in my own head after the first two games of the year.

1. The defense has improved, but still isn't championship level. Pass rush, defensive backfield, and 3rd down defense aren't the envy of many people, but better than they were a year ago.

2. Our linebackers largely stink. I wonder about the Keith Brown situation, because we're starting a walk on with a safety build at inside linebacker and only one guy is injured. I see a need to go fishing in the portal here this off-season.

3. Our OL is good at pass pro, but doesn't have the maulers for run blocking. For the limitations athletically of last year's group, guys like Bass and Sala could push over a tank. Only JPJ is that guy this year.

4. Conerly still has a ways to go. He's a true sophomore and gifted enough to be an NFL guy someday, but right now he's one of the worst starting left tackles we've had in the last twenty years (we've been gifted with a lot of good ones, so it's a high bar).

5. Bo Nix doesn't want to run. It reminds me of Herbert's last season where you could see the offense get handicapped by the desire to keep him in the pocket. Glad he made a play yesterday on that 3rd and long, but it's clear Stein and Nix are playing to prevent injuries not maximize points. Given our lack of depth, hopefully that's prudent.

Yesterday he didn't look healthy/comfortable. I don't know if it's lingering from last year or something he's dealing with from this year.

[ducks5ever]

1. The defense has improved, but still isn't championship level. Pass rush, defensive backfield, and 3rd down defense aren't the envy of many people, but better than they were a year ago.

Disagree, I think so far the defensive backfield is worse than a year ago when Christian Gonzalez had at least one side of the field nailed down. There is potential for improvement as the season progresses, but it was pretty depressing watching the new guys all get torched in both pass and run game yesterday.

I'm really hoping Lanning and Co. were holding something back in terms of the offensive play book yesterday, not wanting to show too much early in the season. The passing game was really limited, other than one nice downfield pass to Franklin.

Based on what i saw yesterday, pass defense wasn't that bad outside the PI's.

It's the offense that didn't deliver yesterday.

Coming into the season, I believe the broadly accepted consensus was that the defense would be better than what we fielded last year but it wouldn't be a stifling shut down defense (especially since we play in the pac). However, the defense was expected to make enough stops to give the offense chances to win the game. For the most part, the defense did its part. The offense did not exactly hold their end of the bargain.

[bellsduck]

Trying to summarize a few things in my own head after the first two games of the year.

1. The defense has improved, but still isn't championship level. Pass rush, defensive backfield, and 3rd down defense aren't the envy of many people, but better than they were a year ago.

2. Our linebackers largely stink. I wonder about the Keith Brown situation, because we're starting a walk on with a safety build at inside linebacker and only one guy is injured. I see a need to go fishing in the portal here this off-season.

3. Our OL is good at pass pro, but doesn't have the maulers for run blocking. For the limitations athletically of last year's group, guys like Bass and Sala could push over a tank. Only JPJ is that guy this year.

4. Conerly still has a ways to go. He's a true sophomore and gifted enough to be an NFL guy someday, but right now he's one of the worst starting left tackles we've had in the last twenty years (we've been gifted with a lot of good ones, so it's a high bar).

5. Bo Nix doesn't want to run. It reminds me of Herbert's last season where you could see the offense get handicapped by the desire to keep him in the pocket. Glad he made a play yesterday on that 3rd and long, but it's clear Stein and Nix are playing to prevent injuries not maximize points. Given our lack of depth, hopefully that's prudent.

I largely agree with this. In regards to the LBs, we knew this was an issue at the end of last year and the only player we signed of any substance in the portal was Jacobs and he's yet to see the field. I have a hard time seeing him as only being one guy that's gonna change everything about the LB unit.

[dthomas=ddixon]

1. The defense has improved, but still isn't championship level. Pass rush, defensive backfield, and 3rd down defense aren't the envy of many people, but better than they were a year ago.

Disagree, I think so far the defensive backfield is worse than a year ago when Christian Gonzalez had at least one side of the field nailed down. There is potential for improvement as the season progresses, but it was pretty depressing watching the new guys all get torched in both pass and run game yesterday.

I'm really hoping Lanning and Co. were holding something back in terms of the offensive play book yesterday, not wanting to show too much early in the season. The passing game was really limited, other than one nice downfield pass to Franklin.

Based on what i saw yesterday, pass defense wasn't that bad outside the PI's.

It's the offense that didn't deliver yesterday.

Coming into the season, I believe the broadly accepted consensus was that the defense would be better than what we fielded last year but it wouldn't be a stifling shut down defense (especially since we play in the pac). However, the defense was expected to make enough stops to give the offense chances to win the game. For the most part, the defense did its part. The offense did not exactly hold their end of the bargain.

This aligns with my macro view of the game. Allowing 282 yards through the air in todays game is a pretty good performance by the secondary. The offense was given every opportunity to pull away and came up short until the very last moment possible. The defense is what it is at this point in the rebuild but the offense is absolutely loaded, and has no business struggling like they did.

[buckmarkduck]

I think people are under interpreting how much MULTIPLE 1st and 15 situations and how some of the field positions screw up the playcalling capabilities we saw in the 2nd/3rd quarters


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This 100%. It severely limits your playcalling. Especially if you are wanting to establish the run. Running for 3-4 yards, you still have 2 and long.

Connely played well. The false starts weren’t totally his fault, and Lanning even said so after the game. TT D was calling out fake cadence which the pac refs refused to throw a flag on.

Our LB aren’t great, but Brown 100% wasn’t going to help. He is playing about 10 plays a game for Louisville right now. Our LB recruiting has been bad for 5-6 years now. Recruiting isn’t just star rating, it’s coaches evaluating also.

[Tray Dub]

Allowing 282 yards through the air in todays game is a pretty good performance by the secondary.

Allowing 282 passing yards per game would've put a team 125th in the country last year, out of 131 teams. Although we ranked 110th last year in that metric so I guess it's not so bad if that's your standard.

[buckmarkduck]

Allowing 282 yards through the air in todays game is a pretty good performance by the secondary.

Allowing 282 passing yards per game would've put a team 125th in the country last year, out of 131 teams. Although we ranked 110th last year in that metric so I guess it's not so bad if that's your standard.

If Bassa goes down, we give up like 220 for the game. Instead we played the prevent, and let TS pad his stats.