I am sure I'll get hammered for this BUT.......... Oregon's offense is about to be exposed for the inflated, circus act, trickery based scheme that it is. Someone is going to figure out how to pull the plug on this nonsense. Yes they have the talent to consistantly pull it off up till now but I can't help feeling that once it is figured out how to defend, The Ducks will be cooked.
Who better to rise up and turn the tide then our Bears?
Comments other than I'm an idiot?

LSU's already done that as did we last year.

calftball;582043 said:

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I am sure I'll get hammered for this BUT.......... Oregon's offense is about to be exposed for the inflated, circus act, trickery based scheme that it is. Someone is going to figure out how to pull the plug on this nonsense. Yes they have the talent to consistantly pull it off up till now but I can't help feeling that once it is figured out how to defend, The Ducks will be cooked.
Who better to rise up and turn the tide then our Bears?
Comments other than I'm an idiot?

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You are delusional. Oregon's offense, especially at home, is insanely explosive. If this game was played at AT&T then I'd give us a fighter's chance. On the road, during prime time on ESPN, I see us losing by 30 (although we may just win the second half!)

Yes, Oregon offense can be "insanely explosive" because, unlike Cal's, it is real time opportunistic. So, the more important question is, that is, before Cal will be capable of "pulling the plug, will Oregon see any defensive weaknesses that their trickery can exploit?

calftball;582043 said:

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I am sure I'll get hammered for this BUT.......... Oregon's offense is about to be exposed for the inflated, circus act, trickery based scheme that it is. Someone is going to figure out how to pull the plug on this nonsense. Yes they have the talent to consistantly pull it off up till now but I can't help feeling that once it is figured out how to defend, The Ducks will be cooked.
Who better to rise up and turn the tide then our Bears?
Comments other than I'm an idiot?

---

you're not an idiot, but being a Duck fan/grad I'll lend my thoughts/insights & hopefully not be branded one either. First off, primarily it's not Oregon's talent, it's the coaching/schemes. Oregon went to the national championship game last year and yet only had one player drafted (Casey Matthews) in the 3rd round. They've been winning the Pac 10 with lessor talent but now boosted by their success the past two years they've seen their recruiting classes take a substantial bump up. This year they are a pretty young team overall with a lot of this new talent cutting their collegiate teeth. Next year they look to be a beast even without LaMike, but right now I think that Cal has at least as much talent as Oregon.

Gimmicky? Oregon has led the Pac 10 in rushing all 4 years Chip has been there (as OC & HC). They're leading the Pac 12 in rushing this season too. Running the ball is more bread and butter football then a gimmick. CK overloads a side, & if the D commits to stop it he has a built in counter. The Ducks are integrating a lot of highly rated receivers and pass D seems to be the Bear's weakness so far. I'm interested to see how Chip goes after Cal's D with the extra days to prepare.

below is a link to a regular Duck poster's entry's with vids that breaks some stuff down on the zone read

http://fishduck.com/2011/09/fish-report-qb-runs-answered-play/

:beer:

WAY too logical and considered opinions, diego...

If indeed LSU is the best team in college football now, Oregon is not far behind, I feel. I watched that game, and just feel that Oregon, despite being -3 in TO's, still out-yarded LSU in their house.

Last year Cal's D did a better job against the Ducks than did Auburn's, at least in a few key areas. Not sure we can replicate that performance again, especially in Autzen, but if so, and with a much more productive offense, I'm somewhat cautiously optimistic...

Control that Oline and it shuts that zone read down. Oregon often switchs thier reads on the zone reads, they occasionally read the Dtackle especially in 4 man fronts. Linebackers have to fill. Fairly simple. As for thier passing game all i see are 2 different types of plays. All verticals, some times they add a little playaction to draw in the linebackers and hit them right over the top. The second is a crossing route combo. Usually one reciever goes deep the others sit in the holes of the zones if its zone and if they recognize man they'll keep dragging across, rbs often flare out on these plays as well. Wrap up LMJ and go for the strip vs. DAT.

Cal89;582119 said:

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If indeed LSU is the best team in college football now, Oregon is not far behind, I feel. I watched that game, and just feel that Oregon, despite being -3 in TO's, still out-yarded LSU in their house.

Last year Cal's D did a better job against the Ducks than did Auburn's, at least in a few key areas. Not sure we can replicate that performance again, especially in Autzen, but if so, and with a much more productive offense, I'm somewhat cautiously optimistic...

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Oregon out-yarding LSU isn't indicative at all. Oregon was playing from behind the whole game, and had consistently bad field position. LSU was clearly the superior team.

As for Oregon's offense... from what I've seen all you really need is a talented and deep defensive line, and you can stop them pretty easily.

diego;582077 said:

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you're not an idiot, but being a Duck fan/grad I'll lend my thoughts/insights & hopefully not be branded one either. First off, primarily it's not Oregon's talent, it's the coaching/schemes. Oregon went to the national championship game last year and yet only had one player drafted (Casey Matthews) in the 3rd round. They've been winning the Pac 10 with lessor talent but now boosted by their success the past two years they've seen their recruiting classes take a substantial bump up. This year they are a pretty young team overall with a lot of this new talent cutting their collegiate teeth. Next year they look to be a beast even without LaMike, but right now I think that Cal has at least as much talent as Oregon.

Gimmicky? Oregon has led the Pac 10 in rushing all 4 years Chip has been there (as OC & HC). They're leading the Pac 12 in rushing this season too. Running the ball is more bread and butter football then a gimmick. CK overloads a side, & if the D commits to stop it he has a built in counter. The Ducks are integrating a lot of highly rated receivers and pass D seems to be the Bear's weakness so far. I'm interested to see how Chip goes after Cal's D with the extra days to prepare.

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You're right about Kelly's schemes, but then it's also true that Cal's DC came out last year with the perfect counter to it. Who else has held the Ducks to only one offensive TD recently, besides Boise? Therefore, it's certainly possible that we could come to Eugene with another good counter. We need to see what Kelly draws up with 5 extra days.

Enormous heaps of credit need to be given to Cal's players who executed Pendy's game plan to perfection (okay, Darren Thomas sucked that game too). I think it's fairly common that a coach comes out with a good plan only to have the players whiff on the field but that definitely didn't happen.

Cal's big problem this time around, besides being on the road... is that some of the players who pulled off last year's feat are gone now. I don't have much confidence in their replacements at this point in the season.

bearster;582123 said:

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Oregon out-yarding LSU isn't indicative at all. Oregon was playing from behind the whole game, and had consistently bad field position. LSU was clearly the superior team.

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Oregon was leading after the first quarter and down a whole FG at halftime. The lone first half LSU touchdown was the result of a fumble on a punt return near the Duck end zone. The third Q featured two more Duck fumbles near their endzone that led to both of the Tiger's TDs. Largely because of the turnovers, they kept Oregon's offense off the field for almost the entire 3rd quarter. Oregon also shot themselves in the foot with too many penalties which thankfully hasn't been a problem since. The Tigers deserve credit for punching the ball out and playing excellent D in general, and their power running game did move the ball and eat up the clock. But Oregon did move the ball against them pretty well outgaining them on the day. They overloaded the box to take away the run, so Chip countered through the air. Again much of their receiving talent is young, so Duck fans are hoping to see their aerial attack blossom as the season progresses.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=312460099

bearster;582123 said:

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Oregon out-yarding LSU isn't indicative at all. Oregon was playing from behind the whole game, and had consistently bad field position. LSU was clearly the superior team.

As for Oregon's offense... from what I've seen all you really need is a talented and deep defensive line, and you can stop them pretty easily.

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Correct. Teams with strong front sevens-LSU, Ohio State, Auburn, Cal -who can control the line of scrimmage have neutralized them.

diego;582153 said:

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Again much of their receiving talent is young, so Duck fans are hoping to see their aerial attack blossom as the season progresses.

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I don't like the sound of this...

Someone hit Canard's sensitive spot. Poor duck...

I love the way you put "solved" in quotes regarding last year's game. Cal's D kicked the living crap out of the Oregon offense all game long. I know its difficult for people like you to admit that such a thing could happen. But them's the facts. I enjoyed watching it live, and I readily admit I was (quite pleasantly) surprised to see how flummoxed DT was, how slow LMJ looked, and how often the Oregon O line got swallowed up. Some great individual plays (Harris' PR TD, Maehl's 4th quarter sideline catch) kept the ducks afloat just above the line of Cal's offensive ineptitude, and the fact that the Oregon D only had 1 player (Vereen) to worry about is what won you the game.

We won't replicate that defensive feat this year without Mohamed and Conte on the 2nd and 3rd levels. But your tone only shows how far away from reality your arrogance has thrown you.

Bring back the rest of the sane duck posters please. Next...

...Cal has shown one thing on defense....it cannot control a mobile QB, so not only will the Ducks put up 60 points, but any team we play from now until the end of the season will exploit that weakness. That is why I think it is going to be hard to even get to 5 wins this year.

Face it Oregon has become part of the national equation and Cal has fallen back into where we have always been, back of the pack mediocrity. I said we had to wait a few games before piling on and I think from what I have seen this will be our 5th year of sub par seasons.

:gobears:

Don't forget that our O's ineptitude and ineffectiveness also conspired against us - we couldn't sustain a drive for very long - especially in the 2nd half.

their qb is elusive and runs for first downs.

how did you get so smart ? i think oregon wins big.

If Oregon's offense is a gimmick, ours is a joke.

Call it what you want, they are fast and very good. Cal will have to play its best game of the year, by far, to have a chance - kinda like last year.

93BearInOregon;582162 said:

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Cal's D kicked the living crap out of the Oregon offense all game long.

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By now I suspect everyone realizes that the tone with which Canard posted is not really my style, but with that said I feel a need to point out that if you kicked the living crap out of our offense, that was for 3 quarters, and the 4th decidedly belonged to us. In addition, I echo Canard's sentiment that the notion of "solving" this offense is totally absurd. Our offense is not tricky to grasp and understand. (Mind you it's been repeated time and time again on this very board that we don't run that many plays...) The problem opposing defenses has is not related to being unable to understand what's going on.

DO, this is not the first time that you've suggested we could never have been successful against earlier PC USCs... I would argue that we could because his defenses were notorious for over pursuit - which we generally feast on.

bearster;582123 said:

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Oregon out-yarding LSU isn't indicative at all. Oregon was playing from behind the whole game, and had consistently bad field position. LSU was clearly the superior team.

As for Oregon's offense... from what I've seen all you really need is a talented and deep defensive line, and you can stop them pretty easily.

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bearster, don't take this personally, but if there's one thing I don't like on BI, it's when points are being made with misinformation or exaggeration. We "always" run on 1st down is one that I know riled-up a few here recently. Let's be more careful...

As I think diego said earlier, the Ducks led at the end of the first quarter, and took the lead again with 5 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. They were NOT playing from behind the whole game...

As for them having consistently bad field possession, in 12 possessions, their average start was a little past their 24 yard line. AND, that does not include another possession where they started at LSU's 20. Those 13 possession do not equate to bad starting points. You are probably thinking of the 3rd quarter... LSU had better possession start points, but with 3 more TO's, that is often the case...

Oregon spotted the Tigers a 3 TO delta, in their house, and still out-yarded them. They lost, but were not blown-out or dominated.

They've only lead the conference in scoring for like 6 or 7 years now. It looks like a great college offense to me.

I don't understand what about Oregon's offense makes it a gimmick offense? Well, there is one gimmick/BS aspect - the no huddle stuff to prevent the D from subbing, but it's not like Oregon relies on that to be effective. It's just another strategy to make their offense even better, and has nothing to do with the actual playcalls, and is merely one factor when it comes to execution.

Quote:

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...Cal has shown one thing on defense....it cannot control a mobile QB, so not only will the Ducks put up 60 points, but any team we play from now until the end of the season will exploit that weakness. That is why I think it is going to be hard to even get to 5 wins this year.

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Hmm? Because one QB, who has been putting up very good numbers all year (and same with that offense overall) had a good game? Oregon doesn't even play a remotely similar offense to what UW does. You're making an apples to oranges comparison here. Also, how many other mobile QB's in a pro style is Cal even going to play? Luck...and? Also, defenses can adjust/adapt. Remember how Kaepernick showed that the Bears couldn't defend an option run game/mobile QB last year? What happened in the Oregon game?

Blowing up the line of scrimmage and forcing their run game to go horizontally, rather than giving them vertical lanes, is a huge key against that offense. It's a key against any offense, really. I'm not sure we have the talent to do that this year. Hopefully I'm wrong, we'll see what happens.

Darron Thomas' mobility is vastly overrated.

Recalling how poorly Browner played against Nevada has me very worried about how our rookie OLBs will fare.

Cal89;582206 said:

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bearster, don't take this personally, but if there's one thing I don't like on BI, it's when points are being made with misinformation or exaggeration. We "always" run on 1st down is one that I know riled-up a few here recently. Let's be more careful...

As I think diego said earlier, the Ducks led at the end of the first quarter, and took the lead again with 5 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. They were NOT playing from behind the whole game...

As for them having consistently bad field possession, in 12 possessions, their average start was a little past their 24 yard line. AND, that does not include another possession where they started at LSU's 20. Those 13 possession do not equate to bad starting points. You are probably thinking of the 3rd quarter... LSU had better possession start points, but with 3 more TO's, that is often the case...

Oregon spotted the Tigers a 3 TO delta, in their house, and still out-yarded them. They lost, but were not blown-out or dominated.

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Speaking of misinformation... the game was played on a neutral field NOT in Death Valley, and from what I saw LSU's run game worn down the Oregon D, to the point where they were nearly running at will. LSU's D was suffocating as they only surrendered two meaningful touchdowns in the entire game. The last touchdown Oregon scored was when the game was well in hand. So IMO Oregon was dominated. Minus the last second touchdown Oregon got manhandled physically 40-20.

Here are the offensive numbers for Oregon vs Cal over the past 4 years (the Skippy Chippy era):

2010 - 15 points (H)
2009 - 42 points (good bye BBDB)
2008 - 16 points (H)
2007 - 24 points (A)

The Bears have held Oregon to the lowest point total of ANY team over the past 4 years.

The Bears have beaten Oregon 2 of the last 4 years - just not the last two. Although having Mansion last year surely did not help our cause -a game we should have won.

At home at Memorial - the Ducks have average 15.5 points in the last two games played there. On the road a slightly different story, since the Bears have not done so well on the road, as well well know. But we did beat them in 2007, when they eventually went to number 2 in the country (as did we until both of our QBs went down). So I do not think beating the ducks is a mystery or something that just can not be solved for the Bears - we have a good defense and a good front 7. Our run defense is really quite good. This game will come down to can Oregon pass, and will our pass defense play better than it has in hostile territory.

I think we certainly can score on them, and predict at least 31 points. Here's hoping we can keep them at 30.

GO BEARS!!

If you say that an athletic and deep defensive line isn't enough to stop Oregon's offense then tell me the last time Oregon scored at their outrageous pace when faced with a D-line of the caliber of Auburn or even Cal?

Canard;582170 said:

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...And what is really amusing is recalling 2009. The Bears were #6 or something and Bob Gregory had solved the Oregon offense in 2008 to the tune of 16 points, or just six points worse than Pete Carroll's last salty defense managed.

Suddenly in 2009, Gregory couldn't "solve" it to save his life. Did he forget the answer to the riddle or something?

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It's called "homefield advantage", genius. It works for both teams.

GB54;582154 said:

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Correct. Teams with strong front sevens-LSU, Ohio State, Auburn, Cal -who can control the line of scrimmage have neutralized them.

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The problem this year is that we don't have a strong front 7. Well we have a strong front 5 and then our two OLBs are talented but inexperienced and prone to mistakes, taking bad angles, and whiffing on tackles.

You mean like the day Masoli threw out of his mind against us?? That would be tragic.

BellottiBold;582198 said:

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...DO, this is not the first time that you've suggested we could never have been successful against earlier PC USCs... I would argue that we could because his defenses were notorious for over pursuit - which we generally feast on.

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Today's Oregon gets LSUed by the old PC USC teams. It has nothing to do with overpursuit. USC of yesteryear dominates and penetrates your O-line, rendering that bread-and-butter Dive Play obsolete.....just like LSU did. USC simply had SEC talent back in the day.

Options and Tempo won't work if your O-line is getting blown up.

pappysghost;582302 said:

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You mean like the day Masoli threw out of his mind against us?? That would be tragic.

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Yep. And we went into the game thinking that Masoli couldn't throw a lick (remember when we laughed when we heard that he was like 60 of 62 in practice or some ridiculous number like that?).

Oh, and Ed Dickson just called. He says he's in the end zone again.

drunkoski;582152 said:

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oregon has benefited considerably from the lack of elite defenses in the pac-10 during their run. no way they beat the carroll usc teams, as an example.

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except that they did. The Ducks won two of the last three matchups vs Pete including a 47-20 drubbing on Halloween 2009 which was the worst loss in the Carroll era.

http://www.aolnews.com/2009/11/01/oregon-treats-usc-to-halloween-trick/