Ask an O-lineman or a QB (particularly a young QB) how much a crowd of 100,000 can effect their play. There is a big money playmaker Cliff Harris making another great play.
UO's defense was the best in the Pac-10 last year. His defense is a gamble defense, relying on athleticism.
Young quarterbacks get rattled, I agree. Sure there's a disadvantage to hearing the snap count when it's loud, for an offensive lineman, but it should never be sufficient to almost neutralize a huge talent edge. But as I figured, it was just a bad half of play (or almost a bad half...the final minutes of the first half were strong). In the second half, Oregon is separating itself.
His defenses get gashed by power running teams. Tennessee's coach screwed up by not staying with the run in the 2nd half.
You can counter that by loading up against the run...the opposing offense has to throw the ball at that point. But UO's athleticism helps there.
They really haven't had a chance to run on them as much in 2nd half and Oregon has adjusted to the Tennessee game plan to power the ball through with Poole. The 2nd half has been dominated by Oregon because they've controlled the ball in the second half. I'd like to see time of possession in this half. Thats definitely the key to beating Oregon is controlling the ball and wearing out the defense with power running. It helps if you have 2 RB's to rely on, not just 1 like the Vols.
That was #13 that returned those punts. Its Cliff Harris, a shutdown corner. #6 best corner in the nation as a Senior.
Good call. Not sure of the exact moment you posted it, but man did they go on a huge run ever since that last minute of the first half.
Not going to say I hit the nail on the head exactly, but the difference between the two halves was what I was getting at. You stall and kick 3 pt field goals, and you're going to get yourself in trouble against a physical team playing in front of 105K people. But when you have some break-away TDs (like James 70 yard run and the pick 6 that followed) Tennessee was suddenly down so many points that you knew, they knew and the fans in the stadium all knew they were never going to make it back from that deficit. Gotta admit, another nice. If they put another 72-0 on PSU next week, gonna have to be getting some national attention in the top 5.
