Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Has anyone broke down the tape to gauge if are giving Perich the same freedoms we gave Thieneman? I don’t watch all-22’s and I don’t have enough depth of knowledge in any way to have an opinion.

However, I DO NOT think Perich is a “bad player”. Dude clearly is a baller. You can see it in flashes here and there. He was clearly coveted by other big time P4 programs and NFL player personnel people love him. So he has something there.

My hunch would be, from body language during plays and just watching him, that Hampton is either giving him too much freedom to roam around (ala Thieneman last year and what Day/Knowles did with Downs) OR he just isn’t comfortable with the coverage rules and defensive call sheets...or a combo of both.

People forget Thieneman had an ELITE football IQ (and got into Purdue so he’s smart in general). We also bitched about Thienaman before the walk-off OT pick in Happy Valley. We also griped hard about Evan Williams too in 2023, aka Hampton’s first year on staff.

Consider:

- Woodyard is a very smart kid
- Jett Washington has “it”
- as a fan I would love to see what McNutt can do.
- it took Lopa a few years to see the field so he followed Tosh to Cal.

Yet, none of the above broke/or have broken through to meaningful snaps…YET.

That would seem to indicate that it takes a bit of time to understand what Hampton & Dan want from the safeties and Thieneman just happened to be the rare outlier.

It happens all the time in other sports. Take the analogy in basketball:

- Ray Allen and Rip Hamilton were elite all-timers at off-ball and relocation

While…
- Dame is an elite all-timer and ball-dominant

OUTLIER: No one has ever excelled at both quite like Steph Curry.

TLDR: I think as fans (in any sport) we can be sometimes just default to “player x sucks” vs “maybe the fit isn’t there yet”.

I occasionally watch the game with a few friends. One of them is an old ball coach who has forgotten more about playing DB than I will ever know.

He thinks Perich should play linebacker. After watching him play I kind of agree.

Do we want him back next year?

I think that pick at the end of the USC game will help his confidence. He was beaming from ear to ear when he was running with the ball he picked off into the locker-room tunnel.

I'm another without All-22 and have not seen them play in person. The message board was all about how he was invisible and the worse player on the field, a virtual ghost, BUT he does lead the team in Solo Tackles and tied for the lead in Total Tackles so it's not like he is doing nothing. Safety is one of the hardest positions to truly evaluate from a TV broadcast.

GrandpaDuck wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2026 3:28 pm I'm another without All-22 and have not seen them play in person. The message board was all about how he was invisible and the worse player on the field, a virtual ghost, BUT he does lead the team in Solo Tackles and tied for the lead in Total Tackles so it's not like he is doing nothing. Safety is one of the hardest positions to truly evaluate from a TV broadcast.

He did have his worst pff of his career against USC. Out of position a lot.

UOducksTK1 wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2026 3:45 pm

GrandpaDuck wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2026 3:28 pm I'm another without All-22 and have not seen them play in person. The message board was all about how he was invisible and the worse player on the field, a virtual ghost, BUT he does lead the team in Solo Tackles and tied for the lead in Total Tackles so it's not like he is doing nothing. Safety is one of the hardest positions to truly evaluate from a TV broadcast.

He did have his worst pff of his career against USC. Out of position a lot.

Not just against SC. He and Flowers are awful all year via PFF. Ducks have a problem at Safety, period. Hoping after this bye, we see improvements, or changes. Isn’t this Hampton’s squad? LB’s and safeties are the Ducks weak points. Perich isn’t worth the NIL money he’s being paid. His best year was his freshman year. Hasn’t lived up to the hype. At all.

Ducks do have a safety problem and I fully expect there to be some changes at the position, I bet Woodyard starts against UCLA.

A fan on Autzen Audibles brought up an interesting idea, switch Finney to that Tampa 2 safety position and start Benjamin at Star. He’s young but he’s talented and while having 3 lockdown CB’s is great it doesn’t matter much if a team can go in max protection and just attack our safeties like USC did in the 2nd half. Finney is a very smart and physical player, I have no doubt he could play that Thieneman role very well, and at some point even better than Thieneman.


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I have no doubt that Benjamin is a future star, but he is far from 'lock-down' currently. He was getting torched as much as anyone on Saturday.

Phalanx wrote:I have no doubt that Benjamin is a future star, but he is far from 'lock-down' currently. He was getting torched as much as anyone on Saturday.

He’s been showing good signs and has improved as the season has gone on, I know it’s a risk, but after 4 games I feel confident saying they starting Koi and Flowers is just as much of a risk, if not more.


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