High-Scoring Illini to Test Duck Defense
By Ken Woody
Coach Dan Lanning awoke Sunday morning to read that his Ducks had achieved their goal for the year, being ranked the number-one college football team in the country. There was just one
problem: the goal was for the end of the season, not halfway through it. Now, the Oregon nation has got to concentrate on Lanning’s most important goal: execution, first, against homecoming opponent Illinois, who are high flying after dominating Michigan in their own homecoming last weekend and the predictable attention the Ducks will attract from their girlfriends and the national media.
Like many opponents, the Fighting Illini are led by their quarterback, in this case Luke Altmyer, who unlike other quarterbacks the Ducks have faced, is not a transfer. In his third year at Champaign, Altmyer is eighth in the Big 10 passing with a 65 percent completion rate for 215 yards per game, 15 touchdowns and only one interception. In the win over Michigan Altmyer showed he could run as well, particularly in key situations. Overall, he’s a lot like Ohio State’s Will Howard.
Oregon’s signal caller, Dillon Gabriel, ranks second in the league in passing, with 297 yards per game, but four interceptions, all on poor throwing decisions. One, against Purdue, he forced a pass deep over the head of his favorite target Tez Johnson, and overlooked a receiver deeper in the end zone uncovered.
Statistically, both teams are close, although the Ducks are only averaging 158 yards per game rushing which is a small number, given the talent upfront and running backs Noah Whittington and Jordan James, who is the third leading rusher in the Big 10.
With defensive end Jordan Burch out of action, it’s up to the rest of the edge defenders to be more disciplined in setting and holding the edge of the defense. Against Purdue there were several times when they got tied up with a blocker and could not get their hands free and/or were so focused on fighting a blocker, they lost sight of the ball, which ended up going outside for big gains. Sometimes the younger players are so eager to get a sack that they rush too far up field (past the quarterback’s depth) or when he scrambles, run halter skelter after him forgetting their responsibility for preservation of the edge. Look for that when the Ducks are defending.
After the victory over Ohio State, in the locker room, coach Lanning reiterated that the victory came not from emotion, but from “execution,” his constant mantra from Monday through Saturday with a day off on Sunday. The Ducks have cut their penalty yards, turnovers and sacks from the first two games of the season. These are prime factors in determining the winner of the game. You could throw in third-down conversions also and the winner of this game will most likely win these categories.
What is somewhat puzzling is the lack of more intense effort at improving the running game and it shows up on play selection, short yardage and in the red zone. For being the number-one ranked team in the nation, they are not even in the top ten in third and fourth-down situations—it’s difficult to say why—the Ducks have backs who can run strong, but no one is running over a goal line defense that has two defenders and a linebacker plugging on the snap, underneath the guards and center. There’s no way those offensive linemen can get to the chest of the defenders to blow them off the ball. And running out of the shotgun formation is not helpful in short yardage.
Last year the Ducks showed some creativity with three tight ends in the game and tight formations (not trips, which takes some run responsibility off defensive backs and puts less blockers on the line of scrimmage to open a hole in the defense). It also seems the play selection is not confident: the Ducks threw twice on third and fourth-down from the two-yard line against Ohio State and came up empty, giving the Buckeyes an unnecessary dose of adrenaline. It could be nitpicking, but there doesn’t appear to be much fire when the offense is faced with a short-yardage situation. Check it out and see what you think.
Watch Illinois closely when they are punting—they had a cool fake punt play that broke Michigan’s back in their win last week. If you would chart the various punt formations teams use you would see that there are endless varieties that could allow an offensive trick play. Most teams probably don’t spend enough time or thought in how to defend during a week’s practice, and most teams’ coaches don’t spend much time on the kinds of fakes they could pull off against a return team that is assuming everyone on the punt team will do exactly what they have been doing the previous games. Watch for it, the defensive players who are supposed to check to make sure the punter kicks the ball sometimes get bored with what seems to be a mere formality.
My sense is the Ducks should win, they have better players in important positions. However, the Illini find themselves one game behind in the standings and not playing Ohio State and Indiana, if they can get by Oregon, they would have an inside track on making the conference championship game. The Ducks play Michigan next week, on the road, cross country. Illinois stands in the way and don’t be surprised if it ends up a dog-fight, just like the Ohio State game.
Ken Woody coached college football for 18 years as an assistant at Oregon, Washington, Utah State and Washington State and as a head coach at Whitman College and Washington University-St. Louis. He conducts a coaching clinic, free to all, at the 6th Street Grill every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. during the season. Plays from Oregon games are analyzed, there are scouting reports for opponents, and highlights from referees; all to learn and enjoy football and understand why the Ducks win or lose.
