Some draft experts and GM's seem to agree with his thoughts as well. I'd watch his tape pretty closely this year to appreciate what he brings to the table.
I'm actually fine with this move, for us it puts Canton playing with his idol from high school Buckner on the same line. We could be even better if the reports on Canton are even close to accurate! As for AA, he's got the size and length and all the other NFL measurables but I'm not sure he's a TRUE DEFENSIVE impact player and he has a tendency to get hurt at least once a year. Move him to the O line in the pros and it might be a very different kind of pick. In the pros it doesn't matter where AA thinks he should play, he's on their dime then!
Well, Dion Jordan went high due to his physical traits. Some team usually reaches for an underperforming athlete.
I'm not impressed with him. He was solid, albeit unspectacular during his time here. I personally do not feel as though he lived up to the hype.
I agree, that said if his thought is to go pro, the Rose Bowl will be a great game for him to shine and we'll need his show me the money game. Perfect timing!
If anyone gets a chance, watch him in the Rose Bowl, or even when he has been healthy this year. He absolutely is a difference maker. Double teams that he commands dont show up on stat sheets. And it frees up guys like Buckner, Walker, etc, etc, to make plays. I've been quite impressed with him this year.
Yeah, I noticed him pushing two guys back multiple times, he is gonna be on hell of a 3-4 DE, like Justin Smith level.
Stole this from our friends at DuckTerritory. THIS is precisely what I'm talking about with Armstead. None of this shows up in the stat sheet except a "hurry" But it completely blows up the play on 3rd down which is critical. Seriously AA doubters... be impressed
Thats if you single team him. To prevent that you throw doubles at him which frees up Buckner, Walker, and everyone else. The dude has been healthy and on a tear to close out this year!
amazing to me that a big portion of this board's regulars were calling for either or both of Pellum's & Helfrich's heads this season... and yet here we are STOMP
Don't confuse talent and size with coaching, it would be foolish! Buckner, Balducci, Walker, Hill and Dargan have been the goods and no one has said otherwise about those players on this board! Nor has anyone called for Helfrich's head here either, so I'm not sure where this voice in your head is coming from. Course non of us probably want to know the inner voices of Stomp to begin with. As for Pellum? I've called for his head! SURE!!!! For a half season of prevent D , spotting another team confidence and points so you can make adjustments at halftime, I'd say wiser approaches have been taken by DC's. I think the players have decided by being pissed off and called "SOFT" nationally for the first half of the year, to take matters into their own hands and step it up! GOOD FOR THEM!!! Pellum to date has still not executed a safety blitz with a player like Dargan which is a mystery to me, or learned to stack the box on the D line to make an average QB have to throw into our secondary strengths. I will give you Don has gotten better over the last 4 games managing this D, still this isn't a defining D, rather an opportunistic one! FSU handed us 4 unbelievable TO's that we capitalized on, that's not the norm by any means and shouldn't be expected. Think of the yardage if FSU hadn't fumbled almost on cue? Now with OSU on Monday, we all know what they're going to do against our D. Big fast O line hands off establish the run and wait for the play action to develop down field! Their QB is a poor mans Captain Crab Legs and we should be able to get to him if we bring the house. If we play prevent, this QB and their RB's will make us pay for it and they'll control the clock doing it which is even worse by keeping our offense off the field. So the question STOMP, has Pellum learned yet? AA, Buck, Balducci, Walker, Mattingly, Washington, Dargan and crew are plenty talented we all know that, is Pellum going to scheme to capitalize on this inexperienced QB, or hope again that Marcus will bail him out on the other end yet again? I'd like to see Pellum do some wicked scheming for this championship game! He owes it to his players to be that good of a coach now, and if he wants LSU type of offers this is the ultimate platform to do it on!! Monday we'll see!
He's still playing the same Defense he was earlier in the year. The Emergence of Walker, Mattingly and Ragin doing some more, and players like a healthy Armstead have quite a bit to do with it. When better players replace players of lesser quality, that doesnt mean the scheme has changed.
I guess I just find it funny how people argue until they are blue in the face about stats. "Its unacceptable to be here in Total D" ignoring (at least) 2 things. 1... Results... "I WANT CHANGES THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!" Look at Wins and losses and where the team is now... I'd say what they are doing works. 2) Stats that actually matter vs the system Oregon's D plays. ("83rd Total D is terrible!!!") Since Yards dont win games (or maybe that loud crowd would have a valid point), and things like Points actually do... I'll look at Points Per game given up, Oregon's D is 29th at 22.5 ppg given up. Thats including games where teams score Garbage points that dont matter at all (I'm looking at you UCLA 4th quarter, and Garbage TD's in Pac 12 Title game vs AZ) That is a WHOPPING 2.6 ppg worse than vaunted D's such as Michigan St, 2.2 PPG worse than TCU, 1.3 PPG worse than tOSU, and 3.1 PPG worse than Miss St, which by the way is 10th in Scoring Defense. Just my opinion on the D and the coaches.
What D players were replaced? Our front D line has been the same all year. The difference now is AA isn't playing happy smacks against the O line, he's actually pushing them back and helping Buck by being the aggressive player we all hoped he would be! I've been saying this forever, if the D line gets penetration our LB's move up to their spots and stop penetration at the line of scrimmage. That is what's happening now, our D line has finally decided to attack instead of just holding up space at the line. That said DC's have to make scheme changes all the time to adjust to the offensive talent of the team they are playing. Getting to OSU's QB early and rattling him is going to be paramount in this game in my opinion!
The difference that has been mentioned multiple times... Armstead is healthy and doing what he does in the gif above, or commanding double teams because of said health. Ragin and Walker and Mattingly played more and more as they gained more and more trust. Check their stats from earlier in the year, and to later. The difference is better players grew through out the season (Walker, Mattingly, Ragin,) which in turn lessens the snaps of some players who were less effective. Hardrick played less, Malone played less. I never once said players were replaced. With how much Oregon's D sees the field, everyone is going to play. But the "cream" will rise to the top and play more. Unless you are insinuating that Walker, Mattingly, and Ragin and co played the same amount, and as effective early in the year???
here is the link to Defensive PPG. Forgot to add it to my original comment. http://espn.go.com/college-football...otal/position/defense/sort/totalPointsPerGame
