SB Nation User Blog: jtlight

Another great Postgame Tailgate with Oregon fan Dan Rubenstein, where he makes fun of Lou Holtz,...

jtlight — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:00:28 -0000

Another great Postgame Tailgate with Oregon fan Dan Rubenstein, where he makes fun of Lou Holtz, polls, the SEC, and the Big 12.

Quack Fix: Blount back as fifth string, race for the roses will be as exciting as ever

jtlight — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:53:40 -0000

Apparently some running back was reinstated yesterday, or something. My RSS reader for OregonLive had nine new stories from last night. Every single one related to Blount. I'm ignoring all that indignation crap. We'll have some reaction on how Blount's reinstatement will affect the team in later today.

The first main question will be how LeGarrette Blount fits into the gameplan. Blount practiced yesterday as the fifth string back, which should be no surprise. If he has playing time, he'll have to earn it. RB Coach Gary Cambell also stated later: "We're going to work [Blount] in to do everything he's done in the past...If a short yardage situation came up where I felt like I felt like we needed his size as an advantage, then yeah, we'll probably put him in there for that." For more from Campbell on the football situation, check out this video. But no matter what Blount does, LaMichael James is clear the #1 back.
Well, the Pac-10 race could get really interesting. If Oregon and Arizona drop another game, things will become a huge mess. Rob Moseley rounds up how people are ranking the Pac-10 (such as Bob Clark), and I am really surprised at how many people are putting Stanford at the top of the Pac-10. Yes, I know they beat Oregon. But their gameplan worked out perfectly, and they don't match up that well against other conference teams. They executed against an Oregon team against whom they had some significant matchup advantages. That doesn't make them the best team in the conference over the entire season. Whatever happens, this Pac-10 race will be very exciting, and will come down to the final weekend.
The Arizona game has been picked up by ABC, though the time is not yet known (it will be either 12:30 or 5 PST). If both Oregon and Arizona, I assume that it will be an evening game.
In recruiting news one of Oregon's biggest DT prospects, George Uko, visited UCLA over the weekend and enjoyed that visit. Uko is thought to be a USC lock, though with the d-line problems we saw this past weekend, I'm still holding out hope. Getting a dominant DT like Uko would be huge for 2010. He visits Oregon this weekend against ASU.
Moseley has his Monday practice update. Kelly said that the team practiced well, which shouldn't be a surprise after practicing well all year. Doesn't sound like there are any other big injuries to report, which is always a plus, especially after playing a physical team like Stanford.
Lastly, you can watch Chip Kelly's weekly press conference here.

Leave any other quack in the comments. GO DUCKS!

Quack Fix: Moving on from defeat, weekend basketball roundup

jtlight — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:09 -0000

Well, that was a tough weekend. Hats off to Stanford for executing a perfect gameplan on Saturday. And now, we move on.

As much as this loss stinks, it's important to remember that while it killed any outside chances at the BCS title game, the Ducks still control their own destiny to the Rose Bowl. And they'll get back out there today and work for that. For more player reaction, make sure to check out the videos after the jump.
Though the Ducks dropped in the polls, ESPN picked up next week's Oregon/ASU game for a national telecast, with kickoff set for 7:20 PST.
In terms of where the Duck football stands nationally, the big question is, "how in the world can Oregon be ranked below USC?" Chip Kelly isn't sure, and even Pete Carroll finds it surprising.
Dom had us covered for all things basketball yesterday, but if you missed it, the Oregon men's basketball team won an exhibition game over Lewis and Clark by the score of 74-59. This game ends exhibition, with games that count starting on November 13th.
For a bit more on the men's basketball team, All Pac-10 has their Oregon preview up, and picks the Ducks to finish 6th in the conference.
The Duck women have really been shining, scoring 109 for it's second and final exhibition game, this one against Western Oregon. Whatever happens with the women's basketball team, it should be exciting to watch as new coach Paul Westhead pushes his players to play at a ridiculous pace.

After the jump, we have a bunch of videos, including basketball highlights, a breakdown of the Pac-10 this week, and post game reaction from the Duck football team.

Inside the Pac

Highlights from the men's basketball teams victory over Lewis and Clark

Highlights from the women's basketball teams victory over Western Oregon

Casey Matthews after Stanford

Jeff Maehl after Stanford

Jeremiah Masoli after Stanford

LaMichael James after Stanford

Mark Asper after Stanford

Spencer Paysinger after Stanford

Stanford offense pummels ducks by taking a page out of the Chip Kelly playbook

jtlight — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:59:44 -0000

Ducks vs Cardinal coverage

So, Oregon's offense has been pretty stellar over the past few years. But in the games where it has been most successful, as opposing defenses keyed on the Oregon rushing attack, Oregon went to the air to take other teams off balance. This was seen most markedly in last years Civil War beatdown. And, it was seen yesterday. Unfortunately, in a cruel twist, this strategy undid the Ducks defense yesterday against Stanford.

In the first couple drives of the game, the Oregon defense held Gerhart in check, forcing Stanford into a number of 3rd and long situations. On Gerhart's first 7 carries, he managed a mere 18 yards (one was a one yard touchdown run).

During that same stretch, Andrew Luck went back to pass 9 times, was 4/7 for 65 yards, and there were two penalties on Javes Lewis during that stretch (though one of which was just an atrocious, horrible call that was a big momentum swing in the game).

From this point on, in the middle of Stanford's 3rd drive, Toby Gerhart and the rest of the Stanford offense had their way with the Ducks defense. Luck had only 20 pass attempts on the day, but 8 of those attempts were in the first quarter.

Much like we have seen Oregon do over and over again with Kelly at the helm, Stanford used the pass to set up the run, and when they proved that they could move the ball through the air, the Oregon defenders had no answer. Luck had all day to throw, and he was hitting his receivers that were getting open much too quickly.

And that was pretty much that. The defense didn't get any breaks, and Stanford had it's way. There has been a lot of gnashing of teeth about getting outcoached and all this, but these things happen. An offense that is on, and is executing in all phases of the game is almost unstoppable.

Stanford's execution put the Ducks into react mode early, and if your defense is reacting rather than going out there and playing their own game, your will not often be very successful. Oregon was taken off their gameplan early, was forced to respect the pass, and could not generate pressure with their front 4. A defense that has to deal with a diverse offense that can throw or run will typically not be able to stop either.

So where does this leave us moving forward? Is this like the 2002 loss to ASU, or the 2001 loss to Stanford? Was this a fluke, or did Stanford expose something that other teams will be able to?

I'm still very optimistic about how this season will turn out. This game seemed to be a perfect storm on the defensive side of the ball. Stanford made few mistakes and has an offense that it set up to pound the Ducks speedy but undersized front 7. I think that the Ducks match up very well with the teams left on their schedule, though Arizona is looking mighty scary, and if Oregon wants to win the conference, it's margin of error just dropped significantly.

We still have a great offense, and I still feel that our defense is very good, though not world beating as we had originally hoped. The race for the roses still runs through Eugene, and with 3 games to play, that's about all we could have hoped for.

Open Thread: Oregon @ Stanford

jtlight — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:38:55 -0000

Who: Oregon Ducks (7-1, 5-0 Pac-10) vs. Stanford Cardinal (5-3, 4-2 Pac-10)
Time: 12:30pm PST
Location: Stanford Stadium, Stanford, California
Media: FSN with semi-national coverage

Oregon goes to Stanford today to try and go to 6-0 in the Pac-10. This will be another good test for both sides of the ball, as Stanford is a solid team, and playing on the road is always a challenge.

Stick around and discuss the game below in the comments. GO DUCKS!

Recruiting update from Duck Territory

jtlight — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:31:08 -0000

Recruiting update from Duck Territory

Duck Territory has a non subscription article that runs down some recent recruiting news, including updates on Gabe King, Trovon Reed, Owa, and Ronnie Daniels.

Getting to know the Stanford Cardinal: Q&A with Various Provocations

jtlight — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:01:34 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

Stanford is going to have a very tough time stopping the Oregon rushing attack, led by Jeremiah Masoli and LaMichael James.

Browse more photos »

What? A Stanford blog? YES! We found one! It was tough work scouring the depths of the internet, but we found a real life Stanford fan who writes about the Cardinal online! We caught up with Darius, whose blog is Various Provocations, and asked him a few questions about the Cardinal. Many thanks to Darius for giving us a bit of insight into how Cardinal fans are looking at the upcoming game.

There's been some debate among Oregon fans about the strength of the Stanford offensive line. What are their strengths and weaknesses and how will they be able to handle a quick Oregon defensive line?

The Stanford offensive line is excellent all-around. It run-blocks very well and pass-blocks pretty well too; statistically, they match up pretty well with the Pac-10. Mostly it's a zone-blocking scheme that's being used, though I think they switch sometimes to man blocking. In terms of specific players, we start two redshirt freshmen. David DeCastro at RG (#52) is excellent on traps and pulls (particularly on the classic "Power" play) and very very strong; he matched up pretty well with Brian Price and Lawrence Guy, whom I see as the premier DTs in the conference.

The other redshirt freshman starting is Jonathan Martin (# who's been starting off-and-on at LT due to Allen Smith's injury problems (who's truly an unfortunate player: a first-day NFL pick two years ago, he's had two years destroyed due to knee inuries) Martin is maybe a bit undersized, but very mobile--Harbaugh has sent Martin into motion pre-snap to block on running plays. If there's a weakness in the line--and I see it as a minor weakness--it's senior RT Chris Marinelli, who's a natural guard, not a tackle; he's gotten beaten a few times while pass blocking.

I expect the Stanford OL v. the Oregon DL to be the most favorable matchup for Stanford: departed OL coach Chris Dalman was a disciple of Mike Shanahan, who favored lighter, more mobile offensive lines. The line is built in that image; moreover, it's very strong. I expect Martin and DeCastro to be NFL players when they leave Stanford (barring injury)

Andrew Luck has been very efficient this year, but has not excelled when the game has been put in his hands. What do you expect from him on Saturday?

I guess I'd quibble with the premise here, that Luck has been bad when the game has been placed in his hands. There are three games where the passing game took the forefront: Oregon State, Wake Forest and Arizona. Luck passed for 270+ yard and 430+ yards against Wake and Arizona, with pretty good accuracy; meanwhile, against Oregon State--Owusu, our handsless WR, dropped an 80 yard bomb on the first play of the game. Obviously, Stanford won neither game, but that wasn't Luck's fault. It was the defense's in both of those games, along with weird fluky stuff that happened in each game that I won't burden your readers with; suffice it to say both of those games could have been wins with changed circumstances. You might say a win's a win, and that's true, but never confuse achievement with performance. The hype for Luck is entirely justified: his arm strength is superlative; his accuracy is improving. A lot of the time, he hits receivers with passes that are catchable, but don't lead them well. That could stand to improve. He is surprisingly mobile, though obviously not as good as Masoli. He sometimes has problems sensing the rush, and sometimes has problems checking down. But he doesn't really throw interceptions or force the ball that much. We mostly have Luck throw deep, which accounts for his 58% completion rate (but 9.4 yards per attempt!). In my opinion, Andrew Luck's the best young QB in the Pac-10, better than Barkley and Foles (haven't seen Tuel, so who knows about him).

The main question in my mind, offensively this game, is whether or not Stanford is able to keep it close. Watching a few games of Oregon's, I think Stanford ought to be able to run the ball (USC had 5.9 ypc once the sacks are filtered out; last year against Oregon, Stanford's Anthony Kimble, the since-graduated backup, ran for 4.4 ypc with a dramatically worse QB piloting the offense at Autzen). The question is whether we'll be able to; obviously you can't run down by a substantial margin, which happened to USC last week. Oregon's defense's best weapon is Oregon's offense.

Toby Gerhart: best running back in the state of California?

Simple one here: yes. Jahvid Best might get more hype and NFL love, but he doesn't perform particularly well against the best defenses. Gerhart always performs. Against last year's awesome USC defense, he ran for 100+ yards and 4.4 ypc. He isn't just a grind-it-out back either; he's had multiple 40+ yrd gains and a 60 yard gain. He can win footraces. He's also impossible to tackle high, and his feet are nimble enough to get out of the way of tackle attempts low. He's just great.

The Stanford defense has a monunental task in front of them. What are your expectations this for them this weekend?

My expectations are that Stanford's defense will get gashed. As far as I can tell, dealing with Oregon's offense is about discipline: not biting on the myriad fakes, sticking to your gap or assignment, and tackling surely in your one-on-one assignment. The defense should be fine on the first two; it will suck at the last one. Stanford defenses have sucked at tackling for as long as I've watched Stanford teams (2005, when I was a freshman there). Moreover, if you love watching bubble screens, I bet you'll see a lot of them against Stanford on Saturday: our corners give up big cushions because otherwise we'd be too slow. To be fair, there's been a lot of shuffling on defense towards younger players who were better recruited--Delano Howell at safety is a huge, disciplined hitter; Shayne Skov (#11) is a true freshman who's done good work--but I don't expect much. If Stanford wins, here's how we'll do it: a key turnover or two, combined with limiting Oregon to a FG on a drive it could've gotten a TD in, then scoring 35+ ourselves. I feel pretty decent about the chances of scoring 35+; the odds of holding Oregon in that range are low.

Jim Harbaugh has done a great job turning around a program that was very low for quite a few years. Will he be able to push Stanford into the upper echelon of the Pac-10?

The only thing that can stop Stanford from consistently being an upper-echelon team is Jim Harbaugh leaving. Who knows what the odds of that are. I've heard conjecture about that in both directions, so I really have no read on how likely that is. I will tell you that the places he'd leave to are these: San Diego Chargers, because he has a relationship with the owner, Oakland Raiders, because he and Al Davis hit it off when Harbaugh coached there, and Michigan, if only because that's his alma mater (assuming they'd have him, after that controversy where Harbaugh dissed their academic standards). But if he does stay, you can expect continued success. Harbaugh's an increasingly creative offensive coach, now that the cupboard is filling up, and a great recruiter, at least on the offensive side of the ball. I have my worries about his defensive recruiting, but I guess time will tell (or it won't, if he leaves).

Todd McShay breaks down the Oregon offense

jtlight — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:49:00 -0000

Todd McShay breaks down the Oregon offense

Avoiding the letdown: how Oregon will beat Stanford

jtlight — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:00:56 -0000

More photos » by Wily Low - AP

When Andrew Luck has thrown the ball 30 times or more, his team has lost.

Browse more photos »

Oregon heads on the road this weekend to take on the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto. And after Oregon's victory over USC on Halloween, there is a lot of speculation that the Ducks will have a letdown game against the Cardinal.

First off, I don't think a letdown will happen. I have never seen such a focused Oregon football team. The Boise State loss really brought this team together, and the California win has spurred this team to work as hard as any team in the nation, week in and week out. All reports out of practice this week are that the Ducks are working as hard and as fast as ever.

But even beyond the trap game talk, it seems that there are many pundits and fans that are questioning Oregon coming into this game. They point to the bruising Toby Gerhart, to Oregon's close victory last season, and to the promising Andrew Luck.

However, when it comes down to it, this Oregon team is the best in the Pac-10, and Oregon should beat Stanford by two scores on Saturday.

First of all, the gameplan to beat Stanford has been developed: score a lot of points. Stanford has a porous defense. They are in the middle of the Pac-10 in most defensive categories (even though they have played a weak Pac-10 schedule thus far). Against those competent offenses they have faced (Oregon State and Arizona), they gave up 38 and 43 points. On the season, they are giving up 5.7 yards per play (in contrast, Oregon is giving up 4.2).

The Stanford defense can be scored on, and they simply do not have the athletes or depth to keep up with the Duck's offense for an entire game. Could Stanford stop the Ducks? I guess so, but there isn't any good reasons to think that will actually happen. I would be quite surprised if the Duck offense did not surpass the 40 point mark for the 5th time in 6 Pac-10 games.

On the opposite side of the ball, throughout the season Stanford has made up for these defensive deficiencies through ball control and a power running game on offense. The offensive line and Toby Gerhart lead a rushing attack that accounts for over 200 yards per game on over 5 yards per carry. Not surprisingly, this attack has allowed Stanford to lead the conference in time of possession.

Stanford has won those games where they have run the ball and controlled the ball, and lost those games where they could not control the clock and were forced to throw the ball. Stanford has lost every game where they have thrown 30 or more passes. Against Wake Forest, Stanford simply failed to run the ball. Against OSU and Arizona, Stanford got into a shootout and their team is simply not built to win those games.

In this week's game, I think the Oregon defense will be able to do a great job against Toby Gerhart. I expect the Oregon defensive line to plug the middle as they did against USC last week, and dare Stanford to try and take the ball outside. While Stanford will have solid plays every now and then, as with all other teams the Ducks have faced, the Cardinal will have a very difficult time moving the ball the length of the field.

If the Cardinal can't develop a consistent running game, the game will be placed in Andrew Luck's hands, and he has not excelled at that this season. While he has proven a great game manager, he has not quite reached the level of taking over games on his own. And if he is forced to throw, the Oregon defense will be free to pin their ears back and go after the QB When this happens, moving the ball will become even more difficult for Stanford.

Barring some sort of collapse on offense and defense, the Ducks should win this game easily. The Oregon offense should be able to move the ball. The Oregon defense is the best in the Pac-10, and should be able to limit both the Stanford passing and rushing games.

As always, that's not to say that Stanford can't win the game. This is college football. As we all know, crazy things can happen. Oregon could turn the ball over 5 times, give up some big returns in the kicking game, and maybe throw in two blocked punts and an onside kick for good measure.

But Oregon has most of the matchup advantages in this game, and I believe they'll leave Palo Alto with a victory on Saturday.

Quack Fix: Special teams will be key against Stanford, Oregon women run wild

jtlight — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:53:29 -0000

Well, it's been a quiet beginning of the week. I assume that a lot of that is simple hangover from the USC win. The quack is also a bit sparse, but here's what I found.

Rob Moseley writes on the special teams of both Stanford and Oregon. Both Stanford and Oregon have excellent kickoff return, and kickoff coverage teams. Kenjon Barner and Chris Owusu are 5th and 6th nationally in kick returns, both averaging over 35 yards per return, while Owusu has returned 3 kicks for touchdowns this year. This will be a great battle, and as Moseley reminds us" "As Oregon found out in 2001, a magical season can be undone by special teams play against Stanford." Let's pray that doesn't happen again.
The Oregon women's basketball team started things out with a bang, winning an exhibition game against Southern Oregon 109-47. The hire of Paul Westhead promised an increase in game speed, and that was seen from the beginning, as the Ducks took a 21-2 lead 5 minutes in due to fastbreak offense and full court defense. After years of under performing teams, the Oregon women could be quite a surprise this year.
John Hunt tackled the all consuming Oregon vs. Boise State polling question by contacting a number of AP voters. While Oregon hasn't passed BSU and some voters refuse to entertain the idea, by the end of the season, voters could be split right down the middle.
Nick Daschel looks at the Pac-10's hot coordinators, and I gotta say, not the most inspiring group (Nick Alliotti is the top coordinator, according to Daschel). With the inlufx of head coaching talent, it just seems that coordinators have taken a back seat for a few years.
John Canzano has another Blount piece, just what I know you all were waiting for! This time, he's saying that bringing Blount back will hurt the football team. Hmmm, who knows more about the football team, Canzano, or Chip Kelly? I'll go with the coach, thanks.
Lastly, Anne Peterson of the Seattle PI has a good piece on the young Pac-10 QBs stepping up. Things definitely looked sketchy coming into the season, but Luck, Barkley, Foles, and Tuel all have their teams on the upswing. With the young QBs and coaching talent in the league, the Pac-10 will be very difficult over the next few years.

As always, leave your comments and links below. GO DUCKS!