My thoughts on today’s game…

My findings:

(1) Cornerbacks were absolutely exposed tonight. Burke in particular was repeatedly roasted in individual reporting. I’m a little confused why Jermaine Matthews wasn’t tasked with spelling it in the first place, but it is what it is. Igbinosun took action and was called to the PI. Hancock also had a rough facemask call that led to Burke’s (again) terrible blunder on the ensuing kickoff. And it wasn’t just man coverage – we looked like a Big 12 team in zone coverage. Some of the holes in the middle were big enough for the Duck receivers to have a picnic in.

(2) DL did not generate pass rush. We didn’t shoot much, despite the fact that we never touched Gabriel on our four-point throws. I believe the unit finished with zero sacks. It’s unclear how many pressures there were, but there weren’t many. They were a little stronger against the run, but also allowed some strong plays on the ground that gave Oregon several big touchdowns.

(3) While our top two WRs put up some good looking stats, I honestly think it was a push between their secondary and our receivers. There was a lot of talk about how small the duck corners were compared to our taller wideouts, but they often outclassed our guys out of the blocks to make tackles at the edge, and aside from that one Smith pass, they stopped that one big play. They had one breakdown in coverage, but otherwise were almost always in lockstep with our guys. Furthermore, only Smith and Egbuka were able to make an impact in the aerial attack. The only other receiver to record a catch was Tate, and he only had one grab for 13 yards. Finally, Smith scored a crucial, game-winning penalty. While I agree with other writers that the referee was very careful in calling offensive pass interference on that final drive (plus it was a serious mistake by the referee team to let the clock run), the 15-yard Penalty knocked us out of field goal position and completely changed the momentum to end the game.

(4) We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. Yes, we were the beneficiaries of that bad call, which was an INT but called for a completion early in the game, but we ended up committing 8 penalties for 70 yards (compared to Oregon’s 3 for 25), turning the ball over multiple times, and had countless errors that may not show up in the box score but were essentially turnovers. The multiple false starts killed a first-quarter offensive attack (equivalent to a TO), then Judkins, who lost the fumble at the 15-yard line, gave the Ducks a touchdown. Burke, trained with the short kickoff, also gave the ball back to Oregon after they scored in their own territory (thanks to a silly Hancock penalty on the previous play). Finally, OSU had a 6-point lead in the fourth quarter with the ball, moving it well and eating up the clock. On 3rd-and-2, Howard mishandled a well-snatched ball and had to fall on the fumble, ending the drive. The Ducks marched down the field with 7 points and turned a two-point lead into a 1-point deficit that ultimately decided the game. The crazy fact is that we executed some key situations but then turned around and made the most inappropriate mistakes to throw it all away. I hope that the feeling of being underdogs will allow us to play looser and cleaner in the coming weeks.

(5) Personally, I thought Chip Kelly had a decent game. We had some exotic formations that clearly confused the Ducks and were able to move the ball well through the ground and air, with only our poorly timed turnovers and mistakes holding us back. He found ways to get the TEs involved in the passing game where we were running out of options behind Smith and Egbuka. We weren’t able to take the top off the Oregon D and there were random breakdowns on the OL, but that wasn’t due to Kelly’s poor play calling, but rather poor execution. In fact, I noticed that when Simmons went down, he would routinely support Michalski with a TE or RB chip on the left side and roll the pocket to the right to prevent Oregon from taking advantage of Zen’s inexperience. An A grade for Chip, if only because I wasn’t sure what he was planning on doing on that final drive after JJ made that huge mistake that completely ruined our offensive plan. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with us throwing from the 28 – OU stacked the box and no one expects a referee to make a soft call OPI at such a critical point in a matchup.

(6) I need to watch the game again to find out my final opinion on Knowles’ performance. It wasn’t pretty and I have no idea what he was trying to achieve. I guess he tried to bend over backwards and only allow FGs? Our DBs were a liability despite routinely putting up 7 points, and we allowed big plays through the air but somehow failed to generate a pass rush. We couldn’t get off the field and allowed Oregon to run out the clock until the final possession. Whatever the case, he was absolutely outgunned on D by a 35-year-old who is calling plays from the field after transferring from UTSA a season ago. The playbook of this Knowles defense is becoming more and more familiar to me, and I’m starting to accept that as long as Jim is at DC, we’ll have to rely on our offense to score quickly and win in big games.

(7) Despite all of these unforced errors and errors of execution, we were down 1 point with 22 seconds left in one of the most hostile away stadiums in sports (let alone our best offensive lineman) with the ball literally within FG reach. Assuming we can regroup and get Michalski up to speed (and not continue to make egregious mistakes), we’ll likely see the Ducks back in Indy for Part 2 in a few months.

I’m curious to hear other people’s impressions.