What did we learn-Game 2 Oregon

I acknowledged that their play calling changed drastically.  What I'm questioning is "why".  

What I'm not buying is the mantra of..."Oregon was so far ahead they stopped pressing and just protected the lead.".  That's not what they have done for years and it's not what the new staff did in the first game.

I'm guessing it had to do with how we changed our pass defense. 


I mean .... I guess I hope they considered us a bit more of a threat to come back from a big deficit than Southern Utah.  So I'm not sure that really carries much weight.

Royce Freeman had 11 carries in the first half.  He carried it on four of their first five plays in the second half.  I would say they thought they had a good enough rushing attack - with one of the better back in the nation - that they could still get some yards running the ball and no take as many chances throwing it.  And then after they threw the interception they decided to mainly stick to running it and throwing safe passes instead of pushing it down the field like they did in the first half.

 
I don't think the defense changed too much at all. If it would have, the D would have generated pressure numbers, but instead came away with ZERO sacks and 3 TFL and I'm not even sure if they registered any hurries.

 
I mean .... I guess I hope they considered us a bit more of a threat to come back from a big deficit than Southern Utah.  So I'm not sure that really carries much weight.

Royce Freeman had 11 carries in the first half.  He carried it on four of their first five plays in the second half.  I would say they thought they had a good enough rushing attack - with one of the better back in the nation - that they could still get some yards running the ball and no take as many chances throwing it.  And then after they threw the interception they decided to mainly stick to running it and throwing safe passes instead of pushing it down the field like they did in the first half.
Their second play in the 3rd quarter was a completed pass.

Their 6th offensive play of 3rd quarter was an INT. 

2 of their first 6 plays were passes, certainly not evidence suggesting "they come out conservative".   In fact the score was 28-42 by the ducks second possession of the second half.  Only a two score lead with 9 minutes left in the third and they were trying to salt the game away? lol that doesn't even make sense. 

Two things happened in the second half were N tightened on D and whatever "high" duck players were on in the first half had worn off in the second.

 
Their second play in the 3rd quarter was a completed pass.

Their 6th offensive play of 3rd quarter was an INT. 

2 of their first 6 plays were passes, certainly not evidence suggesting "they come out conservative".   In fact the score was 28-42 by the ducks second possession of the second half.  Only a two score lead with 9 minutes left in the third and they were trying to salt the game away? lol that doesn't even make sense. 

Two things happened in the second half were N tightened on D and whatever "high" duck players were on in the first half had worn off in the second.


So they called 55% passes in the first half.  The fact that they called 33% passes early in the second half is proof to you that nothing changed.

OK.

 
Willie Taggart talked about their play calling:

This was a tale of two halves. In the first half, Oregon’s offense amassed 409 total yards and six scores on their way to a 42-14 halftime lead. Over the final 30 minutes, the Duck defense stepped up with the offense being held scoreless. The UO secondary accounted for four interceptions on the day, while holding Nebraska’s offense to 361 total yards.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it got conservative. They kept running the same defense,” said head coach Willie Taggart. “We were running the same plays in the second half, we just didn’t execute. We didn’t play with a sense of urgency like we did in the first half.”


Mav's stats don't lie, and Taggart said they were calling the same plays. I didn't see the second half, so I don't know if those were run/pass options that the QB chose to run with, or if they truly did call the same plays. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 
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So they called 55% passes in the first half.  The fact that they called 33% passes early in the second half is proof to you that nothing changed.

OK.
They passed 7 of 17 plays in the third quarter.  That's 42% not 33%.  Seriously, that's a lot of passing for a team "playing it conservative, especially when the second pass of the 3rd quarter was an INT. 

Results of those 7 pass plays: 1 INT 2 Incompletions 4 receptions

 
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Their second play in the 3rd quarter was a completed pass.

Their 6th offensive play of 3rd quarter was an INT. 

2 of their first 6 plays were passes, certainly not evidence suggesting "they come out conservative".   In fact the score was 28-42 by the ducks second possession of the second half.  Only a two score lead with 9 minutes left in the third and they were trying to salt the game away? lol that doesn't even make sense. 

Two things happened in the second half were N tightened on D and whatever "high" duck players were on in the first half had worn off in the second.
Oh they was high alright

we need some of what they're smokin

 
Willie Taggart talked about their play calling:

Mav's stats don't lie, and Taggart said they were calling the same plays. I didn't see the second half, so I don't know if those were run/pass options that the QB chose to run with, or if they truly did call the same plays. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯


I don't think they did.  At least not in the passing game.  

Hopefully I'll get a look tonight but they were not throwing it down the field nearly as much in the second half.

 
It's hard for me to take much from the second half. The vast majority of teams will likely lower their standards when sporting a 42-14 half time lead. There was probably some combination of Nebraska making corrections and playing better while Oregon relaxed and started making mistakes.

Nebraska is still probably a 8-9 win team at best and I think Oregon is still an 8-9 win team at best.

 
I learned that I love Copper Alt from ZipLine Brewing and that Texas' beer laws are for **** because the majority in the state legislature prostitutes themselves out to InBev. 

And yes, this is very related, as it's the Copper Alts I had in the second quarter which kept me from shooting my TV and getting frustrated. 

(no, I wouldn't shoot the TV because of the Oregon game. Now, if we miss a bowl game...well, it's a good thing Black Friday will have all sorts of 4K TVs on sale). 

 
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Looking at Oregon's play calls more.....

3rd quarter......They ran the ball 8 times passed the ball 7 times.  So....almost 50 - 50.  I don't know if any of the runs were RPO.

3rd quarter drives passing:

1st drive 1- 1

2nd drive 0-1 Interception

3rd drive 3-5

Now, then they went into the 4th quarter and on the first drive they were 0-1.

So, on 4 drives, they were quickly down to a 4-8 completion percentage and they were not moving the ball because drives were stalling with incomplete passes.  They also had one interception that lead to a TD.

So, from this, it appears to me that starting off the 4th quarter, they planned to run the ball a little more than the first half.  But, not that much more.  HOWEVER, their passing game became ineffective.  After having one pass play on the first drive of the 4th that was incomplete and the drive stalled, they decided to do nothing but run the ball and eat up clock as much as possible.

 
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