Romping Ducks: Breakdown

So, to take a little closer look at the game last night.

The biggest takeaway is that BG should be able to move the ball in MAC games.  Even if we end up in shoot-outs, at least they are competitive games you have a shot at winning.  And if the defense does improve as promised, then you might have a shot to win some games.  Which would be very welcome for everyone involved.

Coach said after the game that Presley Motes went out early with an injury.  He's our TE.  The idea was we wanted to play "11" (one RB, one TE) formations to help us block the Oregon DEs but with Motes out we are to go to "10" (one RB, no TE) and that put our tackles basically 1-1 with the Oregon DEs.  Coach noted that it proved to be a very tough matchup for the Falcons.

Doege had a good game but still showed some inexperience at times, especially on the two picks he threw.  He was blind-side strip sacked by one of those DEs who blew by our T untouched. 

He also did a lot well.  He's meant to play QB.  He ended up completing 22 of 38 (58%) for 253 yards, which is not bad.  3 TD, 2INT, 3 sacks.  The offense can still improve and we eventually won't be playing DEs like that all year and we'll have more of our playbook to work with and I think he's going to be very effective.

Scotty Miller had a huge, positively Barnesish game, catching 13 passes for 166 yards and 2 TDs.  He caught 13 of the team's 22 completions.  It is hard to imagine how he keeps getting open when he's the obvious primary threat, but he did.  Morris had 3 catches, Clair 2 and a few guys had 1.  One thing I noted in my offensive preview was that after WR2, BG has unproven WRs in a position where depth is really needed.  Hopefully, that will continue to develop.

The running game was effective, in general.  There was lots of very tough runs.  The new upsized Andrew Clair had 25 carries for 113, which is 4.5 yards per carry.  He did break off some nice runs and then there were plenty of times where there was just nowhere to go.  Denson was 12 for 36, which is a little less effective and Hargrove carried only 4 times for 8.  Obviously, it is harder to run from the "10" than the "11" yet BG was forced to stick to the run because of the protection issues for Doege.

The defense.  As Coach said, "we are who we are."  Here's a number for you.  Oregon averaged 28.1 yards per completion yesterday.  In fact, I don't think most people would suspect that they only completed 11 passes in the whole game and that was on 26 attempts.  BG ran a lot more plays, primarily because Oregon kept scoring so fast.

As Coach noted, Herbert threw some dimes but guys also have to make plays and they did not do it as often as needed.  BG did have 2 picks.

Anyway, Oregon's main RB averaged less than 4 yards a carry and the team as a whole averaged 5 yards per carry.  They were steady---they lost only 6 yards on designed runs in the game--but BG did win some battles.

Brandon Harris led the team with 7 tackles.  Belton and Coleman had 6 each....(remember, Oregon didn't even run 70 plays).  So that's the LBs making the stops, not the D-backs, which I would assume is a good thing.  Josh Croslen had 5 tackles on the inside of the line, something you don't see too often.  Stephens broke up 3 passes and Gregory 2.  Walder had the only Falcon sack.

Anyway, there's a long way to go on defense.

Special teams.

Well, Nate Needham made all the Xps and a 36 yard FG, so that is on the positive side of the ledger.  I thought the KO coverage was really good.  Oregon has a real player back there and the long was only 26 yards. 

As for BG's return game, Hargrove was doing the kickoff returns and had 88 yards in 5 attempts, which is not great at all.  With BG's proclivity for getting penalties in the return game, you wouldn't get any objection from me if you fair caught it to start at the 25 and then let Doege go to work.

So.  Punting.  It was rough, especially early.  Tinnerman averaged 33 yards a kick for the game, which is obviously not very good.  He has punts of 12, 37, 45, 35, 42, 27, which really only puts a couple in the range you'd like to see.  On the other hand, none of the punts were returned, so the net was also 33.  Even so, that is #92 in the nation for the week.

BG did last Mason Lawler take the last kick and he hit a 38 yarder.  Also, there was the snap over the head of Tinnerman and a few other snaps that were not right on target.  Essentially, the punting game led to 16 points for Oregon.

So that's the story.  The result was about what you would have expected and maybe a little better.  As Coach says, it's hard to take positives out of a game like that, but there were a couple but I'm not sure we saw any evidence that this team is ready to break out.  Doesn't mean they aren't or won't, just remains a question.