[81alum]

At first Arizona looked very good--moved the ball well on offense and kept it close on defense.  It was only in the second half when Oregon scored the tourchdown and two point converstion to make it 21-0 that Arizona folded up.  I was actually pretty impressed with Arizona despite the final score.  Arizona will not be a pushover this year.

I watched most of the game and the Oregon defense worries me as much as their offense.  Their defensive scheme of rotation and the fact that they practice against their fast tempo offense seems to make it impossible to "wear down" their defense the way we like to do with our run game.  I'm not sure how talented their defense really is, but year in and year out they seem to play as well in the 4th quarter as the 1st--and that has to be the scheme. 

As for their offense, the game last night fits a fairly typical pattern similar to when we played them in Eugene two years ago.  Defenses can keep up with them and compete during the first half, but begin to break down in the second half.  It is a similar principle to our run game--we hope to wear a defense down so that our run game is far more effective deep into the game than it is in the first quarter.  With Oregon, it seems that defenses can only stay focussed for about a half before they begin to lose gap discipline or a step of quickness, and that is when the Oregon offense pours it on.  Hopefully our improved and much deeper defense will do better than last year and keep the game closer.

We will see how our team continues to develop, but Oregon seems to me to be a vastly superior team to USC and should be a much greater challenge.

[81alum]

At first Arizona looked very good--moved the ball well on offense and kept it close on defense.  It was only in the second half when Oregon scored the tourchdown and two point converstion to make it 21-0 that Arizona folded up.  I was actually pretty impressed with Arizona despite the final score.  Arizona will not be a pushover this year.

I watched most of the game and the Oregon defense worries me as much as their offense.  Their defensive scheme of rotation and the fact that they practice against their fast tempo offense seems to make it impossible to "wear down" their defense the way we like to do with our run game.  I'm not sure how talented their defense really is, but year in and year out they seem to play as well in the 4th quarter as the 1st--and that has to be the scheme. 

As for their offense, the game last night fits a fairly typical pattern similar to when we played them in Eugene two years ago.  Defenses can keep up with them and compete during the first half, but begin to break down in the second half.  It is a similar principle to our run game--we hope to wear a defense down so that our run game is far more effective deep into the game than it is in the first quarter.  With Oregon, it seems that defenses can only stay focussed for about a half before they begin to lose gap discipline or a step of quickness, and that is when the Oregon offense pours it on.  Hopefully our improved and much deeper defense will do better than last year and keep the game closer.

We will see how our team continues to develop, but Oregon seems to me to be a vastly superior team to USC and should be a much greater challenge.