Oregon, in the past, has been a team that likes to get the ball out quick and into the hands of their arsenal of playmakers.
Advertisement
That stretch started with the Pac-12 Conference championship game when he had seven catches for 126 yards and a touchdown in a 51-13 win over Arizona.
Shortly after, he became the only coach whose press conference opened with a question about square-toed alligator cowboy boots. He was eager to play, and it showed.
Which is to say, the Sun Devils aren’t much for subtlety. “I just know that they are athletic and they’re a Pac-12 school so they’re going to bring a lot of talent to the table”.
It was a ideal regression to the mean for a team that has, time and again, found incredible ways to win by the skin of their teeth, the most fortuitous of which coming at the cost of breaking an opposing player’s leg late in a game.
A lot of people, myself included, had the Arizona State game pegged as a Duck loss, because the Sun Devils had a pretty good team entering the season – at least coach Todd Graham expected them to be good.
Three things to watch Thursday night… Both teams are 4-3 and 2-2 in the conference with both division races heating up. Oregon puts out a weaker defense overall this season (the worst pass defense in the Pac-12) but is still armed with one of the best defensive weapons in the league in 6-foot-7, 300-pound senior defensive lineman Deforest Buckner. The Sun Devils, unranked in the AP poll, were quickly up 7-0 on the nation’s second-ranked team.
-OT Tyrell Crosby left the Washington game early due to an injury and his status for Arizona State is uncertain. It was Adams first game back since breaking his finger and playing the bench.
Scott Frost, University of Oregon Offensive Coordinator, works with the Oregon Ducks team prior to a PAC-12 NCAA football game against the Stanford Cardinal played on November 7, 2013 at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. “We have to hit on our share of plays, too, and hopefully when we hit on our share of plays they’re big plays”.
It started with a pair of quadruple-overtime games in the first two blocks of the day, and ended with two top ten teams going down in the evening, one of which, Florida State, lost in a fashion almost as dramatic as Michigan had the week prior. That’s compared to his 64 percent completion rate when going against normal pressure, per PFF College.
“You’ve just got to make sure the o-line and the running backs are in the right projections, and if you see something just trust it”, said Adams, who’s likely seen that ASU ranks 87th nationally in passing efficiency defense and 91st in turnovers forced. “I like teams that blitz; it gives you a lot of one-on-one opportunities”. “He gives them nothing but hard surfaces when he’s running”.
It’s high-risk, high-reward football. Utah quarterback Travis Wilson timed the blitz well, completing 26-of-36 passes for a pair of touchdowns, in a Utah victory on October 17. But other quarterbacks haven’t been as lucky.
If the Ducks can take full advantage having the off week before running that gauntlet, it will seen in an offense that has sharpened its timing and tempo.
From 1999-2009, the Ducks were 35-14 in one-possession games, including a few of the most memorable comebacks in Oregon history: Oklahoma in 2006, Washington State in 2004 (a game Oregon fans would remember more fondly had the game actually been broadcast on TV; we’ve come a long way in a decade), and Cal in 2003.
“I think we’re going to have to be patient”, Frost said. “Physically, now we may have a guy who doesn’t have quite the experience or the reps and now he’s just got to step up”.
Advertisement
But he didn’t figure to be lacking for motivation, anyway, this week, as the regular season’s final month nears: When it comes to the conference’s bowl projections, Thursday’s loser might just get the boot.
