Yes the receivers struggle with separation but where is the creativity to help that? Screens, back shoulder fades, 'picked' crossing routes.... there are a number of things they could be doing that I saw very little of if any.
yep....Oregon had their worst group of skill players this season in a long time: Saladin McCullough, Reuben Droughns, Maurice Morris, Onterrio Smith, Terrence Whitehead, Jonathan Stewart, Jeremiah Johnson, Legarrette Blount, LaMichael James, Kenjon Barner, De'Anthony Thomas, Byron Marshall, Thomas Tyner, Royce Freeman that's 22 years of Duck RB's; 10 all-pac-12 runners; 25 thousand yard seasons, if I counted correctly. CJ Verdell and Travis Dye are going to end up to be pretty good RB's, but they are unlikely to match the hight end talent on that list. I could do the same thing at WR too...and at TE. There were just too many recruiting failures over the last 3-5 seasons also, after Taggart left last season, Oregon lost commitments from five 4-star WR's, 3 of which are 6'4 or 6'5. and size is something the Ducks desperately needed at that position I don't disagree. The Ducks ran a lot of bubble screens toward the sideline, but that's about it. They hardly ran any RB screens till late in the season. Very few short zone passes and crossing routes, although I'd estimate that those require confidence in the receivers and there was little reason to have that. But more than that there just wasn't nearly enough mis-direction, which has been a Oregon strength for a decade. The Ducks didn't attack the edges enough. Almost no fly sweeps or any kind of sweeps for that matter. No RPO's (although that's understandable because an injured Herbert would have been a disaster). the Duck offense was too predictable. It allowed the defense to load the box and it didn't exploit that nearly enough. Personally, I think Cristobol placed too much confidence in his OLine. They were generally good (especially in pass-protection) but the play-calling seemed based upon having a dominant OLine, and they weren't that. Also, losing Sewell for half of the season really threw the line out of sync. Pretty amazing he was a starting left tackle from day 1 as a true freshman
For most of this team returning, which makes the Ducks favorites in the PAC 12, a top-5 recruiting class, a chance to play with his brother, and a chance at a better season to cement his credentials as a top NFL draft pick? Protected against injury loss with insurance...sounds like a pretty good decision to me.
I found this article that explains the process pretty well: http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/20592832/how-college-football-players-get-insurance
