Last night was my first live Beaver game since Ohio State last year ( JS’s first game). I always make it a point to sit behind the Oregon State bench since I typically only get to 2 games per year. There’s so much more you observe in person as opposed to on TV. I took notes during the game and here were the top 5 things I walked away with.
1. Coach Leggi is now my favorite position coach. he was firing the entire defense up for most of the game but especially when things got tight in the 3rd quarter. I thought it was cool that he was encouraging not only just his position group but the entire defense.
The UCLA fans sitting near us even commented that our defensive coordinator was “super engaged”. I had to break the news to them that Tibs ( our real D coordinator) was somewhere up stairs “scheming”.. which I’ll get to later.
2. Big Whitt is still really out of shape. I counted 5 different times where Whitley was asking out from the game because he was straight gassed. On each of those times he would walk straight to the bench like a fighter on the verge of being knocked out and plop down on the bench almost gasping for air. I think kid can be a monster for us but we have to get his wind right.
3. Jake Luton seems to be emerging more as a leader. I was thinking on the way up that in order to start winning this team needs more on field leadership so I made sure to pay close attention to the clearly identifiable leadership moments during the game.
Aside from playing a really good game last night, Luton seemed to have a lot of confidence from the start. After each big play In that first quarter you could hear Jake yelling let’s keep it going.. don’t let up.. or something to that effect. There appeared to be more of an expectation to win last night than I’ve seen before and I think Luton helped set the tone with that from a players perspective.
4. I touched on this during the game thread but our D backs coverage alignment is way too soft too often. I honestly don’t understand it. The other issue is our splits stay the same almost the whole game. 2 corners are always playing off 8-10 yards regardless of down and distance or field position. We were in the red zone on 3rd and 4 with an 10 yard cushion. The next play was an easy pitch and catch first down.
This consistently leaves us vulnerable for easy QB scrambles, bubble screens, slants and hitch routes that are easy pitch and catch plays for chunk yardage. A good OC and QB combo will still easily pick this defense apart. There have been gains on that side of the ball (there had to be) but schematically they are still really easy to prepare for. The saving grace has been that the run D is so much improved.
5. A plethora of quick hitters. The team looks way bigger and legit physically than last year. The natural unis look so clean baby! JS was way more fiery and animated last night than I thought he could possibly be.
All in all a great win last night. Let’s build on it!
1. Coach Leggi is now my favorite position coach. he was firing the entire defense up for most of the game but especially when things got tight in the 3rd quarter. I thought it was cool that he was encouraging not only just his position group but the entire defense.
The UCLA fans sitting near us even commented that our defensive coordinator was “super engaged”. I had to break the news to them that Tibs ( our real D coordinator) was somewhere up stairs “scheming”.. which I’ll get to later.
2. Big Whitt is still really out of shape. I counted 5 different times where Whitley was asking out from the game because he was straight gassed. On each of those times he would walk straight to the bench like a fighter on the verge of being knocked out and plop down on the bench almost gasping for air. I think kid can be a monster for us but we have to get his wind right.
3. Jake Luton seems to be emerging more as a leader. I was thinking on the way up that in order to start winning this team needs more on field leadership so I made sure to pay close attention to the clearly identifiable leadership moments during the game.
Aside from playing a really good game last night, Luton seemed to have a lot of confidence from the start. After each big play In that first quarter you could hear Jake yelling let’s keep it going.. don’t let up.. or something to that effect. There appeared to be more of an expectation to win last night than I’ve seen before and I think Luton helped set the tone with that from a players perspective.
4. I touched on this during the game thread but our D backs coverage alignment is way too soft too often. I honestly don’t understand it. The other issue is our splits stay the same almost the whole game. 2 corners are always playing off 8-10 yards regardless of down and distance or field position. We were in the red zone on 3rd and 4 with an 10 yard cushion. The next play was an easy pitch and catch first down.
This consistently leaves us vulnerable for easy QB scrambles, bubble screens, slants and hitch routes that are easy pitch and catch plays for chunk yardage. A good OC and QB combo will still easily pick this defense apart. There have been gains on that side of the ball (there had to be) but schematically they are still really easy to prepare for. The saving grace has been that the run D is so much improved.
5. A plethora of quick hitters. The team looks way bigger and legit physically than last year. The natural unis look so clean baby! JS was way more fiery and animated last night than I thought he could possibly be.
All in all a great win last night. Let’s build on it!
