I would say if there was a team to play Bama that was in the top 10 besides us, and closest to how we play it would be A&M. What I took away from their game is this. Bama's O line is magnificent!! They create gapping holes for their running backs who are a load to bring down. Bama jabs you with the 5-8 yard runs and tightens in your secondary for great screen passes and down the line strikes. They don't care about points as much as they do about time management. If Saban could leave his offense in 8 minutes a drive that would be gravy for them. Slow, methodical punishment. Bama's defense is SOLID and the play there positions with precision. So the nation wants to see Oregon and Bama get after it for all the chicken. So how do we win? I feel it's imperative for Oregon to strike first and not play behind them where Bama can manipulate the clock to their advantage. Luckily we can do that in a hurry. The most important part to me then becomes keeping Bama from a controllable win. Not allowing them to keep our defense out on the field for 40 minutes of that game. They know we can strike them at will, so keeping Marcus and DAT cold on the sidelines seems sensible. They can achieve that with their powerful O line and manageable nothing fancy smash mouth football. Can our defense make stops and get penetration against the best O line in football? This may be the game question right there! Good news for Oregon is we've played two very tall and big lines in UVA and Tennessee. True they are NO BAMA, but their size is close. Our LB's are going to have to get better and better every game for the rest of the year. Sticking those gaps against 5'10 208 backs will be a necessity to beat Bama. This year Oregon is two deep on the D line and we'll need the hockey mentality to run at Bama in waves. This is also the biggest and strongest our D line has been. If there's a year to unseat Bama this may be our year. If we can get ahead by 10 and make some stops, Oregon can beat Bama. I feel confident in that! What do you guys think?
I think it's way too early in the season to be talking about the natty. I would love to play Bama if we were to make it to the championship, but we've got a long way to go and there's a number of teams that could knock us off. The past two seasons have shown me that it's extremely hard to make it through the Pac12 minefield unscathed.
After seeing Stanford struggle against Army, I feel we need to shave the Fuskies quick and have some Pac-12 statement games. This is our year!
I think we've got a good chance this year, as good as we've had, but things like injuries could derails us, or just a very bad game. We need our guys to stay healthy, and we need to play 100% for every game for the rest of the season. I would be ecstatic to see us get back to the Natty, and I would love a shot at Bama. I think we would have given them a game last year, unlike Notre Dame.
Their line is going to create holes against us. They're big, strong, and really athletic. Not only that their running backs have great discipline, are shifty, and hard to bring down. If Oregon is to win they need to not give up the big play, as Alabama loves to set up with their methodical drives, and limit their third down conversions. As Texas A&M proved, their defense can be scored on, but the difference is it's Bama's second game and they would have a month to prepare for us.
Ironically, I think this Bama's worst O-line yet. The only reason they looked good against TAMU was because TAMU lost Moore and their defense was garbage. They stuck around thanks to Manziel, and lost thanks to Manziel(the 2 stupid picks, one of them for a TD) Against Va Tech, Alabama's O-line was TERRIBLE against that seasoned Bud Foster defense. They only won because Va Tech has no offense(Logan Thomas is a joke) and Christian Jones got INCREDIBLY LUCKY. LSU is going to destroy Alabama this year and Oregon/Stanford will probably play LSU in the title game instead of Alabama. You can't Reload an O-line as talented as that last year, plus our D-line looks potent this year.
yup. Injuries are a huge wild card and the ball bounces funny. By the end of the season the roster will be riddled with various injuries... who knows what the landscape will be then the constant battle between fans/media pushing to speculate about the big picture while the athletes understandably have to re-focus on one day at a time is something I find tiresome... especially this early on that said, I want Bama! STOMP
I just refuse to even think about the Natty until we've actually locked it up. I thought we had a good shot the last two years, only to get knocked off AT HOME by USC and then AT HOME by Stanford, so anything is possible.
The Ducks are only giving up 3.4 ypc on the ground, and that's playing two BCS conference teams with lines that were supposed to be able to move the ball.
That is why Tennessee and Virginia were important games. Both teams have huge lines. Yes we'll have to get more technically sound through out the year to compete in the trenches with BAMA, but you can't replicate size and height and we swapped paint and held our own with teams BAMA's size. I doubt Bama has a 6'8 350 NG like the Vols did. Now we just need to sharpen our skills against smaller Pac-12 lines and really start becoming artistic out there on defense. I figure we have Cal and Colorado to really tighten up our LB spots before UW. I circle UW as the hurdle game. We'll know a great deal after that game.
