#19 Colorado @ #10 Oregon (Sept 23, Sat 12:30 PM ABC)

[OfaFeather]

I don’t understand the hate on our D on this site. What have you seen that makes you think the D hasn’t improved a bunch from last year?

Oh and Sanders is nothing like VA, he isn’t near as good a runner. Why do I keep seeing duck fans say he can run? Guy has under 200 yards in 3 years of rushing yards.

They've proved significantly. They are tackling better and wrapping up.

I am hoping that Oregon plays its best games in conference play. There were two main things that have been present since the PSU game and I hope that they have fixed for the CU game.

1. QB pressure, or more accurately lack there of for the majority of the game. Like him or hate him, at least Allioti did well thought out blitzes, stunts and shifts. This defense is far more talented, but seem a whole lot less aggressive.

2. Coverage issues, there have been multiple games now that you can clearly see the opponents WR’s clearly getting separation from the secondary

These two issues, with a competent QB, are huge issues. Sanders is a mobile QB, and these issue continue then it’s gonna be a late night. However, if they have found a way to exploit this issue, it should be a good win.

I am not trying to be a debbie downer, but I keep seeing the same issues. What is troubling is that TTech had 4 turnovers and Oregon only won by 8. Usually if there would have been +4 turnovers with the red raider, that should have been a stomping. Not barely winn8ng. Imho issues fixed, then s

[UofDuck]

Remove all the penalties from ducks, and Texas tech still had 21 first downs. Same as our O in that game.

Our O didn’t help our D against TTech. They were flat and couldn’t stay on the field.

[Duck07]

1. QB pressure, or more accurately lack there of for the majority of the game. Like him or hate him, at least Allioti did well thought out blitzes, stunts and shifts. This defense is far more talented, but seem a whole lot less aggressive.

Quick Question, do you think raw sack numbers are more important or creating pressure consistently when most QBs release the ball before the Defense can get there? So far I've seen Popo, Taimani and Rogers all with some regularity walk the Center into the QB.

Mind you, this also relates to the Defensive Ethos that a team has to use. IF raw sack numbers were the most important I might agree that we need to send the house. Yet most offensive schemes can counter those, especially when you do them often and in the same situations. NA's Fire Zone 3 rarely worked against the top teams and we often lost games because teams knew it was coming every 3rd down.

We are often lining up in our Mint Defense against a lot of these spread passing offenses. That means we're usually seeing 5 guys in the box to counter the effect of the spread pass. Know the scheme before you start to complain about it frankly because when we send 3-4 and collapse a pocket, the Defensive Front is in fact doing its job.

Oregon's Defense is currently ranked 15th in Passing Yards allowed, after having just played the #1 Passing Offense in Yards in the country.

29th in 3rd Down Stops, 29th in Yards Per Play and 30th in Overall Defense.

When we go to seattle, Penix is going to get the ball out quickly just like how Bo will get the ball out quickly, that means that focusing on sacks alone is a dumb way of looking at the defense against a modern football offense.

[Duck07]

Chance of rain showing in the forecast on Saturday

[pezsez1]

The D played fine, it was all the penalties that kept TTU in that one.

Was it, though? I mean, kind of, if you "coulda, shoulda" away the bonehead plays and penalties (like the DBs straight up tackling receivers while the ball was still in the air) but I wouldn't say the defense was fine. Texas Tech moved the ball pretty easily throughout the game and we really struggled to contain Shough. Colorado appears significantly better offensively just with its passing game alone, and Baby Sanders is phenomenal at making big plays on the run after things have broken down.

I do see the Ducks winning this, and I do think there's room for the defense to improve (or at least play cleaner), but I need to see it before I can believe it will happen.

[dthomas=ddixon]

It’s going to take a few years of really good defense for fans to get over last year’s D. Nothing the defense does this year will be good enough to undo the trauma of what happened against the beavs.

[Duck07]

The D played fine, it was all the penalties that kept TTU in that one.

Was it, though? I mean, kind of, if you "coulda, shoulda" away the bonehead plays and penalties (like the DBs straight up tackling receivers while the ball was still in the air) but I wouldn't say the defense was fine. Texas Tech moved the ball pretty easily throughout the game and we really struggled to contain Shough. Colorado appears significantly better offensively just with its passing game alone, and Baby Sanders is phenomenal at making big plays on the run after things have broken down.

I do see the Ducks winning this, and I do think there's room for the defense to improve (or at least play cleaner), but I need to see it before I can believe it will happen.

Sure you can.

-Pass Interference penalty on the 3rd drive of the game on 3rd down results in 7 points. Otherwise TT scores 23.
-Final drive of the 1st half, Dorlus has an unsportsmanlike penalty on 3rd down which would have given us the ball around our 30 with just under a minute left. TT would end up missing a FG on that drive but it took away a potential scoring opportunity for us, especially had we gotten a decent return on the punt.
-4th Q with a 3rd and 2 and Oregon has a pre-snap penalty. TT would later hit a FG, otherwise TT scores 20.

So just off of 3 different drives alone, we had 3 penalties on 3rd down that kept the drive going where TT scored 10 points on us. We also didn't struggle to contain Shough as he never ran outside but instead as QB Power/Draw. So while CU has a better pass offense, their Rush Offense is also considerably worse than TT's. Like its complete dog shhh bad.

As I've said multiple times, I welcome Sanders, Penix and Williams all using QB Power against us because it takes them away from their strengths and lets us hit them. So if you're concerned about those guys playing like Shough, I don't think its warranted at all because I think their coaches would dumb to play them like that. They will test us in other areas we haven't seen yet but CU's OL is about to get savaged this weekend as they've already given up 16 Sacks and 27 TFL.

[UOducksTK1]

I don’t understand the hate on our D on this site. What have you seen that makes you think the D hasn’t improved a bunch from last year?

Oh and Sanders is nothing like VA, he isn’t near as good a runner. Why do I keep seeing duck fans say he can run? Guy has under 200 yards in 3 years of rushing yards.

Well that's a little deceiving. Nix has been sacked 18 times the last 3 seasons. Comparatively, Sanders has been sacked 73 times.

That's around a 250-400 yard difference. Sanders can definitely run, maybe not exceptional, but he has the tools to be as successful as Nix at scrambling.

(Also at Oregon, VA averaged 1.8 yards per carry and finished with 14.7 rushing yards per game)

[StevensTechU]

Sanders is a poor man's VA. VA was a legitimate Heisman contender if he wasn't injured, whereas I would say Sanders is somewhere in the 5th to 10th range of most valuable QB in the country this year. So I agree that his skillset is comparable, but it's not as good (deep ball/arm strength, playmaking ability), though he does function within an offense better from what I've seen.

[duckpoint]

It's amazing how the hype machine has gone into overdrive for Colorado. All that bling master DS has done so far is attract better rated recruits than Colorado has for some time and unexpectedly beat (a mediocre) TCU. We're not giving high praise for beating a Nebraska team that has been equally irrelevant since they both left the Big 12 are we?

My initial prediction for this game was Oregon by 10 worst case and by 21+ very possible. Being how overblown the hype has become, I want to see them absolutely destroyed!

I'll enjoy watching how fast they slide back into irrelevance!

[StevensTechU]

Colorado vs. Colorado State drew 9.3 million viewers after hosting GameDay, Big Noon, and being featured in mainstream programs like Good Morning America and 60 Minutes. I wonder if this game will beat that - bigger opponent, better time slot, but the nation's focus will be more split on many big games and without as much of a fever pitch of marketing.

[lmduck]

Colorado vs. Colorado State drew 9.3 million viewers after hosting GameDay, Big Noon, and being featured in mainstream programs like Good Morning America and 60 Minutes. I wonder if this game will beat that - bigger opponent, better time slot, but the nation's focus will be more split on many big games and without as much of a fever pitch of marketing.

Hard to say as ND/Ohio State will certainly have some eyes on it.

[dthomas=ddixon]

The D played fine, it was all the penalties that kept TTU in that one.

Was it, though? I mean, kind of, if you "coulda, shoulda" away the bonehead plays and penalties (like the DBs straight up tackling receivers while the ball was still in the air) but I wouldn't say the defense was fine. Texas Tech moved the ball pretty easily throughout the game and we really struggled to contain Shough. Colorado appears significantly better offensively just with its passing game alone, and Baby Sanders is phenomenal at making big plays on the run after things have broken down.

I do see the Ducks winning this, and I do think there's room for the defense to improve (or at least play cleaner), but I need to see it before I can believe it will happen.

Sure you can.

-Pass Interference penalty on the 3rd drive of the game on 3rd down results in 7 points. Otherwise TT scores 23.
-Final drive of the 1st half, Dorlus has an unsportsmanlike penalty on 3rd down which would have given us the ball around our 30 with just under a minute left. TT would end up missing a FG on that drive but it took away a potential scoring opportunity for us, especially had we gotten a decent return on the punt.
-4th Q with a 3rd and 2 and Oregon has a pre-snap penalty. TT would later hit a FG, otherwise TT scores 20.

So just off of 3 different drives alone, we had 3 penalties on 3rd down that kept the drive going where TT scored 10 points on us. We also didn't struggle to contain Shough as he never ran outside but instead as QB Power/Draw. So while CU has a better pass offense, their Rush Offense is also considerably worse than TT's. Like its complete dog shhh bad.

As I've said multiple times, I welcome Sanders, Penix and Williams all using QB Power against us because it takes them away from their strengths and lets us hit them. So if you're concerned about those guys playing like Shough, I don't think its warranted at all because I think their coaches would dumb to play them like that. They will test us in other areas we haven't seen yet but CU's OL is about to get savaged this weekend as they've already given up 16 Sacks and 27 TFL.

Never mind that TTU rolled out a bunch of tendency breakers that they were so committed to saving for the Oregon game, they were willing to lose to Wyoming.

The majority of their successful plays came from these plays in the first and third quarters. Our defense adjusted, began to shut them down, they reverted to their normal playbook, and we completely stifled them.

A team like Colorado has already played their best cards and, while they may have a few tendency breakers up their sleeve, they aren’t going to roll out an entirely different playbook like TTU had cooked up in the off-season. When our defense struggled against TTU it was because they were seeing plays they’d never seen before. That won’t happen against the Buffs.

[greenyellow]

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[UOducksTK1]

Would be nice to get Jacobs into the fold soon.