11-16-2011, 12:31 PM
Its taken me a while to recover from the fun ESPN CGD and the Oregon game. It was a long day in more ways.
As much as I wanted us to win and thought we really could win, in the back of my mind, I thought back to the beginning of the season when we thought there were a number of things that needed to happen if we were going to have a shot at beating Oregon. Our D-Line and O-Line had to mature, develop, and come together (they did), we thought we needed to be more athletic and faster on D and we thought Wayne Lyons and James Vaughters would work their way into the starting line-up by Oregon. We also were looking to Owusu coming back to his 2009 form and for the another WR to develop.
But, if we were told at the beginning of the season that we would have to play Oregon without Shayne Skov, Delano Howell, Wayne Lyons, Chris Owusu, Zach Ertz, and Jordan Williamson - I doubt many of us would think we could win. I think it is a testament to the coaches and the teams success at developing young players and them stepping up when injuries hit - that gave us the confidence that inspite all the loss of key players, that we could still beat Oregon.
And we have beat everyone else, but Oregon could be the best team in the country. Certainly, when you only have a week to prepare.
We were well prepared, given the circumstances and we played inspired and all out. I applaud our team for what they did do.
Oregon is scary fast and you really cannot simulate that in practice. The field was very slick and it was hard to get footing. I think that made it more difficult on us - trying to react in the open field to speedy Ducks. I really did NOT consider it poor tackling. You try to stop D'Anthony Thomas or LaMichael James when they are going full speed in the open field when the grass is slick. Its just about impossible.
Our D-Line played extremely well.
I think our LBs missed Skov a lot. He's a lot bigger and goes through blocks. Tarpley and Lancaster are smaller and tend to go around blocks. This plays into Oregon's style of play - shielding and at times holding. They just need to give LMJ a few inches and he can blow by. Holding is just a fact that our LBs have to figure out how to combat.
As much as I wanted us to win and thought we really could win, in the back of my mind, I thought back to the beginning of the season when we thought there were a number of things that needed to happen if we were going to have a shot at beating Oregon. Our D-Line and O-Line had to mature, develop, and come together (they did), we thought we needed to be more athletic and faster on D and we thought Wayne Lyons and James Vaughters would work their way into the starting line-up by Oregon. We also were looking to Owusu coming back to his 2009 form and for the another WR to develop.
But, if we were told at the beginning of the season that we would have to play Oregon without Shayne Skov, Delano Howell, Wayne Lyons, Chris Owusu, Zach Ertz, and Jordan Williamson - I doubt many of us would think we could win. I think it is a testament to the coaches and the teams success at developing young players and them stepping up when injuries hit - that gave us the confidence that inspite all the loss of key players, that we could still beat Oregon.
And we have beat everyone else, but Oregon could be the best team in the country. Certainly, when you only have a week to prepare.
We were well prepared, given the circumstances and we played inspired and all out. I applaud our team for what they did do.
Oregon is scary fast and you really cannot simulate that in practice. The field was very slick and it was hard to get footing. I think that made it more difficult on us - trying to react in the open field to speedy Ducks. I really did NOT consider it poor tackling. You try to stop D'Anthony Thomas or LaMichael James when they are going full speed in the open field when the grass is slick. Its just about impossible.
Our D-Line played extremely well.
I think our LBs missed Skov a lot. He's a lot bigger and goes through blocks. Tarpley and Lancaster are smaller and tend to go around blocks. This plays into Oregon's style of play - shielding and at times holding. They just need to give LMJ a few inches and he can blow by. Holding is just a fact that our LBs have to figure out how to combat.