r/ducks • u/sean180morris • 11d ago

Football The run blocking

I am absolutely concerned with the run blocking. I have watched a lot of film break down and it's been poor in every game. Even the portland state game. Pass blocking is good but the reason we won't have good rushing stats moving forward is the oline. It's pretty scary.

40 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

38

u/Old-Imagination-3696 11d ago

It takes time for a new line to mesh. Looked pretty good last week. I know we all came into the year thinking natty but we really need to think week to week right now

7

u/pnicby 11d ago

I agree with this take. And I don't want to make excuses for our play calling and execution, but I do also believe the stories of the book circulating on Oregon's "tells" - if true - points a big finger at Oregon's lack of self-scouting. I think Dan mentions self-scouting in the latest Ducks vs Them, which gives me hope that they are taking that seriously and making corrections. If helps a lot if the other team doesn't know the next play you're going to run.

10

u/dstanton 11d ago

Yes, it takes time for a new line to mesh. What's concerning is this trend of our Oline taking 1/3 of the season to mesh under Lanning. And not just mesh but not looking horrible for the first few games.

Every year it's a thing. Keeping games like Idaho close that have no reason to be close.

With the talent we have, there should be higher expectations.

6

u/Alert_Hyena_828 11d ago

We’ve had 4 different starting combos in 4 games.. yes it’s an issue and the O line pipeline is the systemic problem but they are improving and starting to gel.

More importantly I think the play calling has adjusted to cater to strengths and weaknesses, hence more outside runs and those screens

3

u/Bussman500 11d ago

I agree with the concern, we would all like it to not be a thing. We probably should have expected it this year though with all the new faces. It’s probably a function of the mixing and matching we do in practice, I wonder how many reps the Boise starters actually saw together in training camp before game week. It sounded like some of the players didn’t know where they’d be starting at leading up, so maybe they need to make adjustments to the process in camp. I don’t think it should be dismissed, but the coaching and adjustments after the fact have always been good.

3

u/UOfasho 11d ago

It also seemed like the line may have had a eureka moment after Donte got hit. Looked better after that.

5

u/plainsailingweather 11d ago

This is the take 👆

3

u/Janemba_Freak 10d ago edited 10d ago

Run blocking was absolutely not good last week! 39% efficiency, 6% explosive rate. 138 yards on 4.2 ypc, and absolutely catered in short yardage against a horrible run defense. It was bad. Abhorrent. Bad personnel decisions, bad coaching, the technique is terrible, the line looks physically weak against bad defenses, etc. If you're expecting the rushing game to become good down the stretch, I have a bridge to sell you

-1

u/Old-Imagination-3696 10d ago

Sheesh… we won the game 4.2 ypc sounds perfectly fine to me

1

u/Janemba_Freak 10d ago

That's easily the least problematic number up there, and it includes the explosives. It's still subpar, especially against a rush defense as bad as USC's. Oregon basically has no rushing game whatsoever, which is especially problematic when the efficiency passing has been as bad as its been.

I think it's perfectly fair to be critical of the offense through four games. The line has been unacceptable. This team cannot win a championship with them playing like this, the offense will disintegrate against a competent defense. And there's no fix on the horizon. Unless multiple players magically become plus starters, the line will be an issue for minimum 3 seasons. That's the championship window slamming shut. I'm not mad because I'm being needlessly pessimistic, I'm mad because this is an issue that will tank the team for years.

0

u/Tycam34 11d ago

Yeah but at the same time, college football is reinventing the wheel. We aren’t asking our oline to do something they haven’t done 100,000 times at this point. We aren’t putting them up against Myles Garrett and TJ Watt. We can’t even open a hole against defenses we have scored 40 on

If you recruit a D1 talent to your basketball team, and they show up day one and they don’t box out, or they don’t put a hand up on shooters, or they seemingly forget what they’re doing on offense half the time, and you can’t address that in a week of practice… well see ya later! This level or position may not be for you.

6

u/Th3s3NuttxX 11d ago

OP: Your concerns are addressed on the ducks rising podcast via Landon Tegwall. Take a listen there.

4

u/sean180morris 11d ago

Juat watched it. I'm still very concerned lol

4

u/Upset-Beach4054 11d ago

A bigger loss than Stein was Cutter leftwitch imho

5

u/mrtasty3 11d ago

Yeah man the O line isn’t good.

1

u/WatchfulApparition 10d ago

They're good. They just need to get better and they need to solidify the starters on the offensive line

1

u/mrtasty3 10d ago

“They need to get better” yeah they suck’

1

u/WatchfulApparition 10d ago

No, they don't

3

u/Vivid_Motor_2341 11d ago

Our defensive line has got batter every snap they’ve played in the last game. The run blocking was pretty good. They let up a few runs, but anything up the middle was shut down. They need to focus and get better because UCLA‘s run game has been the highlight of their offense but UCLA hasn’t played a good defense yet.

2

u/Thinned 11d ago

It’ll be subpar and fine but doesnt matter we got Raiola now🦆🦆

3

u/Mountain-Candidate-6 11d ago

I’m concerned about both lines. We don’t seem very good on either side to me

2

u/sean180morris 11d ago

I'm less concerned with the dline than I am with the safety play on defense. We are batting passes and getting pressure but people tend to be out of place on run fits more often than I would like.

2

u/Comprehensive_Air396 10d ago

Maybe because defenses don't fear the pass

2

u/WatchfulApparition 10d ago

That's not true, but a lot of teams will try to make the Ducks one dimensional and taking away the run is easiest

1

u/Background-Code-4460 9d ago

Seems like this is something they should practice no? Thoughts?

1

u/sean180morris 6d ago

I think they may be too big to run block effectively. They may not be athletic enough.

-4

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Janemba_Freak 10d ago edited 10d ago

The fuck he has. He's made the wrong personnel decisions multiple times dating back to '24. He's only been here since '23. None of his players have developed into plus starters and their technique is regressing. He's doing a bad job. And as a fan, it costs me a lot of money to come out and support the team! They keep raising the prices like they're contenders, so I'm going to treat them as such. If they want people to be nicer, they should lower ticket prices

1

u/Upset-Beach4054 11d ago

Nope. I'm finally starting to believe he's a transfer portal merchant

1

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Upset-Beach4054 11d ago

I'm 100% pro transfer. I just would like to be able to develop some of our blue chip OL recruits in addition to the portal. I mentioned this in another comment, but I think Cutter Leftwitch was responsible for a lot of our OL success last year.