New freshmen Devon Allen and Royce Freeman have made quite a splash with their performances to create a ton of interest by Oregon fans. However another freshman has been quietly building a resume’ this year on special teams and emerged with the biggest buzz from his last game against Cal. Normally I am doing some type of analysis on Tuesdays, but …
What to look for against Cal: Final FishDuck Hints
Big Rushing Game for Oregon? The game against Cal could be a huge rushing game for the Oregon offense as former News Anchor in Eugene, Todd McKim, revealed yesterday in an interview with Steve Tannen at 953TheScore (Eugene local radio). Todd has served during the Rich Brooks and Mike Bellotti eras before working for Cal, and he explained how the …
Beating the Huskies NEVER Gets Old: A New Target?
Were you grinning at halftime of the Husky game as I was at our 28-6 lead? It did not go at all the way I thought, as we all were pleasantly surprised. Of course I have an irrational hatred of the Huskies, hence my highly disproportionate joy over defeating this foe compared to other games. We have won 11 times straight over …
Pistol Offense Variations now part of the Oregon Spread Attack
The phone lines between Coach Mike Morris (the Grizzled Ol’ Coach) and I have been burning up as we have been discussing the Oregon coaching staff’s introduction of an increasing amount of Pistol Offensive components into the Oregon Spread Offense. It was the Coach who called and noted the big step-up in Pistol variations against UCLA, but we hesitated to …
Check for three Xs and Os tactics against Washington
For Duck fans today — there are a couple of tactics to watch for against our rival in the Huskies. First, note that their defensive tackle over Oregon’s center (the Husky nose tackle) is between 340 pounds and 360 pounds, thus he will give Hroniss Grasu and an additional guard blocking him some trouble. This could foul up our Inside …
My Husky Hatred is Irrational: is yours?
Coach Bellotti had to catch himself and just stopped for a moment after what he had just heard after an Oregon Club meeting about seven years ago. I told him, “really–it IS OK to put seventy points on the Huskies, as we’ll rarely ever get that opportunity and it lets the second team get scoring reps!” He took a breath …
Oregon defeats UCLA with the Bair-Down Strategy
Oregon’s running game against the Bruins was aided by a most unlikely player–Stetzon Bair, who recently moved over to the offensive line from the defense! It is amazing how much better a coach Steve Greatwood became this week with the return of Jake Fisher, the improvement of Matt Pierson and Tyrell Crosby and the emergence of “transfer” Stetzon Bair on …
Civility is REQUIRED at FishDuck!
My Objective for the “Our Beloved Ducks Forum”: I want everyone to share their thoughts on a topic and to present their facts researched, or their opinions and/or rationale laid out. I want all opinions safely expressed regardless of where you are on the wide spectrum of ideas as everyone is protected at this site from the Trolls and the …
Reassessing Being an Oregon Fan
For the first time in the three year existence of this site — we are not doing an analysis this week. Before the days of FishDuck.com, I would simply delete the loss in the DVR and never even want to look at it again. Now I am supposed to analyze it for you, but the pain and the flood of emotions that …
How Royce Freeman Saved Marcus Mariota: Oregon Spread Offense Pass Protection
I know you’re shaking your head at my title; “Charles is shameless in how he tries to get hits.” There is truth in the shameless part, but there is also truth in how Royce Freeman made a huge play to help his teammates score a touchdown AND protect his quarterback, Marcus Mariota, from serious injury. Coach Tony Hoolulu in Hawaii …
How the Oregon Spread Offense Confuses Defenses with the Load-Right
Conditioning. Tempo. Team Speed. Everyone knows of these components that the Oregon Spread Offense attacks the defenses with, and it is assumed that process can be confusing for defenses in lining up during the haste before the play begins. What about the other elements of the attack that create confusion? Today we look at how one facet of the Oregon Football …
Happy With Mark Helfrich?
What a difference a couple of games makes in our impression of the Ducks and Head Coach Mark Helfrich! With the losses to Stanford and Arizona, along with the poor momentum at the end of last season–it all pointed to a big make-or-break year in 2014 for Coach Helfrich in the eyes of many fans. I heard it often … the …