Our Honor Defend

The 2009 football season comes to an end that I’m not sure most people imagined in August.  If the Buckeyes were a BCS team, they may have been an at-large selection with Penn State as (arguably) preseason favorites.  All else equal, they would probably be playing on January 1st, but maybe in Orlando, Florida.  Instead, the Buckeyes will conclude the 2009 season, one that featured two (in hindsight) dumb, avoidable catastrophes against USC and Purdue, as the outright Big Ten champions in the 2010 Rose Bowl.  Their opponent is surprisingly not the USC Trojans, who have played in five of the past six Granddaddies.  Instead, the Buckeyes draw the Pac 10 champion Oregon Ducks, then more commonly known as the “Webfoots” in their previous Rose Bowl matchup in 1958.  The Buckeyes are undefeated against Oregon, a perfect 7-0 with the last matchup played in 1987.  These matchups were admittedly played under different circumstances.  Ohio State was often the national (or regional) heavyweight, while Oregon played the role of the hopeful underdog.  Now, Oregon is favored and the Buckeyes appear to college football fans at large as the unlikeable¹ dinosaur, a relic of a bygone era.  With the game (and the season’s conclusion) around the corner, I use the following as a preview of the Amazing Technicolor Webfoots, the Buckeyes’ Rose Bowl opponent.

The Oregon Ducks appear as vanguards of college football.  Their nontraditional uniforms aside, the Oregon Ducks and offensive-minded first year head coach Chip Kelly expertly execute a run-oriented spread offense that can leave opposing defenses obliterated.  After a debacle in the season opener against Boise State, the Ducks rebounded and finished the season as the country’s 6th ranked rushing offense (236.08 ypg) and were 7th nationally in scoring (37.7 ppg).  At 115th nationally in time of possession, they can, and will, strike fast.  Leading the charge is their fire hydrant of a quarterback Jeremiah Masoli.  Masoli is back for year two as the Ducks’ QB, finishing the season with 2066 yards passing, 15 TDs through the air and only 5 INTs.  He added 659 yards rushing and 12 TDs on the ground.  Most important for Buckeye fans, Masoli is so effective because he has a firm grasp on what Chip Kelly expects out of a quarterback in his style of offense.  If you watched the USC game, you probably watched him torch USC’s defense with the inside zone read.  The inside zone read is not to be confused with the outside zone read, though, combined, they account for more than half of Oregon’s rushing production.  The problem for opposing, aggressive defensive lines, such as ours, is that the design of Oregon’s offense often reads a defensive tackle and puts him in a position that is normally uncomfortable.  In essence, they read the 3 technique DT, and not the backside defensive end that you’re accustomed to hearing about.  Stellar play from our interior linemen will be necessary to containing Masoli.  He ball fakes beautifully and, if the “read” defensive tackle swings out wide thinking Masoli will bounce out, he can cut up the field for big yards.  This is precisely what Oregon did to USC.  Not all is inside/outside zone read.  Watch Oregon use Masoli on designed counter plays.  All told, Masoli’s stellar play has Oregon in a position to give the Webfoots their first Rose Bowl win since the 14-0 shutout over the Penn Quakers in 1917.

Oregon has a few tailbacks that Buckeye fans will see plenty of.  Redshirt freshman LaMichael James eventually replaced the dismissed LeGarrette Blount as the primary tailback and finished the regular season with an impressive 1476 yards, good for 8th nationally in yards per game average.  At 5’9, 180lbs, James is a smurf, but, well, Speedy Smurf if anyone.  He’s demonstrated a comfortableness with the offensive scheme.  He hits the hole hard behind Oregon’s efficient offensive line (Bo Thran, Carson York, Jordan Holmes, Mark Asper and CE Kaiser going left to right²).  He’s fast and fits well with the “home run hitting” style of the Oregon offense.  James has emerged as the clear no. 1 tailback for Chip Kelly’s Webfoots, allowing for the un-dismissed, but significantly larger, Blount to serve as the counterpunch³ for the Ducks.  I’m expecting James and Blount to be the tailbacks of interest for the Buckeyes, but the Ducks are loaded at this position.  Freshman Kenjon Barner and senior Andre Crenshaw are names worth noting.

One of the drawbacks of Oregon’s approach on offense, if you prefer to express it that way for one of the most explosive offenses in college football, is that the receiving game is a little underdeveloped (92nd nationally).  As with most “spread” teams, Oregon gets receiving yards on simple pass plays (screens, swings, et cetera) aimed at getting yards laterally or, if the running game is clicking, on deep heaves once the safeties are cheating to the line of scrimmage.  As such, Oregon’s wide receivers are consistent performers on Oregon’s offense and serve their head coach well, but are unlikely to garner conference or national accolades.  Oregon will employ 3 to 4 WR sets in their offense.  You’ll mostly see Jeff Maehl, DJ Davis and the 6’5 200lb Lavasier Tuinei, with Maehl clearly leading the way in production for the unit (686 yards, 6 TDs).  Jamere Holland, the transfer from USC, is the 4th receiver, but is academically ineligible.  However, the beauty of what Oregon does is that the WR corp isn’t the end of their receiving game.  Rather, the Ducks get a lot of production from TEs Ed Dickson and David Paulson.  Dickson is second on the team with 42 receptions, 551 yards and tied with Maehl for 6 TDs.  He’s arguably Oregon’s best receiving TE ever and is Oregon’s only representative on the first team all-Pac 10 offense.

The Oregon defense isn’t getting much credit on the other side of the ball.  The Oregon offense can be electric while the Oregon defense lags in most defensive categories (50th in scoring defense, for example).  While these numbers stick out, as do performances against the likes of Arizona and Stanford, Addicted to Quack insists that Oregon’s defense is better than they’re given credit for.  Going beyond the box score, Oregon’s defense is efficient and aggregate numbers appear in important ways as functions of the fact that Oregon’s quick strike offense means they’re on the field more.  Buckeye Football Analysis has another take, noting that Oregon can get controlled up front but do a good job at getting teams behind down and distance here and there with blitzes.

Oregon’s defensive composition is quirky because, as BFA notes, it’s a flexible 4-3 (on the depth chart) that appears as a nickel defense that’s morphable into a 4-4 box (when the free safety drops down).  Oregon doesn’t do too many exotic things with their defensive linemen, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth taking into account.  Defensive tackle Brandon Bair is a tall glass of water (6’7, 268lbs) and leads the unit in tackles (43) and is second on the team in TFLs (7.5) behind defensive end Kenny Rowe (listed as a linebacker on Oregon’s athletic site).  Rowe is a light, light defensive end, but he uses his speed to be disruptive, leading the team in sacks.  This should be a problem because our tackles are the weak spots on our offensive line and we’ve been burned before by the lighter, faster defensive ends (think Wisconsin’s O’Brien Schofield and Purdue’s Ryan Kerrigan).  These two stand out to me, but the other two starters, both JUCO transfers, are very good.  Blake Ferras joins Bair in the interior, while Will Tukuafu is the other end.  Tukuafu also contributes with some heat off the edge.  Part of Oregon’s defensive approach will involve going desert swarm on opposing offenses with their variation of the eagle front.

The linebacker corp is led by Casey Matthews in the interior.  If that name sounds familiar, it should.  He’s part of the Matthews clan.  His uncle is the longtime professional offensive lineman Bruce Matthews.  His father is Clay Matthews Sr, the longtime former Cleveland Brown and his older brother is Clay Matthews Jr, who is now in the NFL.  Casey is the lone Matthews of that bunch to not be a USC Trojan, but he’s made an impact in Eugene.  He, and outside linebacker Spencer Paysinger, lead their unit with 72 tackles.  Eddie Pleasant, the other starting linebacker, probably stands out.  At 5’11, 207lbs, him being a starting linebacker seems almost incredulous, but expect Pleasant to be a significant part of the man blitz package for Oregon’s defense.  He has 7 TFLs and is second on the team in sacks.

Oregon can do some fun things with their secondary, but I’m a little unsure who exactly is doing what since Oregon’s official depth chart is a little curious.  I notice they bring a safety down, transforming their front into a 4-4 box.  When the safety or rover back comes down in the formation, the secondary is transformed into a 1-high with 2 CBs.  As Stanford demonstrated, you, in turn, can do fun things with that.  BFA notes that Stanford’s liberal uses of 3-verts put the other deep back in a position where he is always wrong no matter what decision he makes.  Ohio State’s offense can probably make this even more apparent in their base offensive formation.  TJ Ward is the free safety while Javes Lewis is listed as the roverback.  I don’t know what to make of Oregon’s depth chart here.  True freshman Cliff Harris is listed as the other cornerback, but has sparsely played this season.  He has two starts, has played in 7 games and did not start against Oregon State.  As such, I don’t know what to say here.  Talmadge Jackson III is the other corner and I’m fully expecting to see John Boyett, the team’s leader in tackles, on the field.

What I want to see in this game will come in the live blogging ’09 (’10?) post on New Years.  Until then, this shall suffice.  Enjoy your New Years Eve, as it is the calm before the storm.

1. Yeah, we are.  Go die in a fire. [↩]
2. I don’t have this unit well-scouted, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Thran, Holmes and Kaiser. [↩]
3. Don’t look at me at that way. That’s Oregon’s OC’s words, and not mine. [↩]