The past two seasons the Oregon football program has primarily used zone blocking schemes to run the football, and this blocking concept usually has the offensive line moving in unison at the point of attack. These schemes take advantage of a defense by using double teams initially, then having one of the two blockers peel off to attack a linebacker …
I’ve been blustering about the Oregon offense and how I feel it is vastly underachieving its potential. Yet listening to Joey Harrington on Talking Ducks the other night helped give me a little different perspective on it. His 2001 team was truly the No. 2 team in the nation, yet that team won a ton of close games and the …
The game against Cal was ominous in many respects for both our opponents (The nasty Oregon defense) and for the fans with the obvious reduction in scoring by the Oregon offense. I have not witnessed such a dominant defense at Oregon before, and it will certainly keep the Ducks in every game they play. The natural question that fans are …
Perhaps Marcus Arroyo’s biggest challenge when he took over as lone offensive coordinator and play-caller for the Oregon Ducks was building an offense that would marry his own experience with the kind of physicality that head coach Mario Cristobal was looking for in the run game. I believe that his answer has been to infuse a heavy dosage of RPOs (run-pass options) …
You don’t have to be tuned into a televised football game long before you start to hear commentators throw around the term RPO. Most people have a basic understanding of what that is: a run-pass option. Though it’s easy enough to understand that these are plays with both the option to run or to pass, packaged together, not everyone knows …
I’ve often wondered if Mario Cristobal has a sense of humor. Here’s a man who intentionally replaced the vaunted Chip Kelly spread offense at Oregon, featuring an awesome running game, with an offense led by a coordinator whose strength is his passing background. How’s that for a head scratcher? But guess what? Old tricks are new tricks in football. Just …
I’ve seen a lot of discussion over the last few weeks about why the Oregon Ducks are not putting up the kind of rushing numbers this season that they traditionally have. The two areas that are super easy for fans to grab at are scheme and play calling. Any time the offense has a letdown in the scoring column, you’ll be sure to …
This week, we’ll dive into one of the many benefits the Pistol formation has extended the Oregon Duck offense. On deck in this article is the variety of play-action pass looks the Pistol allows. Where all play-action passes from the Shotgun look pretty much the same, those from the Pistol can look very different, depending on the call. It even allows for a cool little misdirection that …
Today I want to stomp out the notion that the design of Oregon’s passing game under OC Marcus Arroyo is an unsophisticated attack that only sends receivers on long-developing deep routes. It wasn’t true last week, when the narrative started popping up across message boards, and it certainly isn’t true after the game against Portland State. After diagraming all of …
When running a spread offense that utilizes a power run game, the H-Back position is key. The position opens up a variety of possibilities in the run game that are not usually afforded the offense with an in-line tight end. The position was used some during the Chip Kelly/Mark Helfrich era, but was a staple of the offense that Willie …
Throughout the spring, we have received a few clues as to what the Oregon Duck offense will look like under new head man Mario Cristobal and new offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo. Taking these clues, we can make several educated guesses as to what we’ll see come payoff time this fall. Today I want to look at how Cristobal may use wide receiver sets …