Football Practice Report: Sept. 26
09/26/17 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
After an inconsistent showing up front at ASU, Oregon's offensive line got to work shoring things up for California's visit Saturday (7:35 p.m. PT, FS1).
Venue: Outdoor practice fields
Format: Full pads
If you'll allow your reporter to break through the fourth wall and go first-person:
A day's worth of practice notes typically fills a full page in a 6-inch by 9-inch notepad. Down one column are general notes about who is participating, changes to the depth chart, injury stuff for my own records, etc. And down the other column is a list of highlights, separated by the type of period in which they occurred – 7-on-7, 11-on-11, special teams and the like.
Midway through practice Tuesday, the Ducks went 11-on-11, with the travel squad facing off against the scout team. The first highlight I noted was a pass play. The second was a nice rush by Royce Freeman – which goes into the notebook as "21 run." The very next play was a similar result, hence the small "2" next to the original notation.
The thing about that period was, Freeman had so many nice gains, I stopped noting them individually. At the bottom of a list of other highlights, I simply wrote: "21 just running really well."
Which is a great sign, of course, particularly after a game Saturday at Arizona State in which Freeman rushed for just 81 yards, just over half his season average to that point. After the loss, and again prior to Tuesday's practice, the UO offensive line tried to shoulder blame for offensive inconsistencies at ASU. In Tuesday's practice, they set out to clean them up.
"It's been great getting back into it, getting back to what we do best," right tackle Calvin Throckmorton said. "It was simple mental mistakes during the course of the game, that caused negative plays."
The Ducks committed 14 penalties in the 37-35 loss, several on the offensive line. The UO blockers also faced a heavy pass rush from the Sun Devils' "Cover 0" defense, which sacrificed on the back end in order to overload the box and pressure the quarterback. There were even a couple reps on which it seemed center Jake Hanson and quarterback Justin Herbert weren't on the same page regarding the snap count.
"It's just not being locked in as a unit," Hanson said. "When one person doesn't know, that falls on all of us."
Position coach Mario Cristobal brushed off concerns about the pass rush; given that Oregon was usually outnumbered up front, he thought the line protected as well as it could under the circumstances. His big focus going forward is cleaning up the penalties.
"A little bit of that is communication, a little bit is being out of sync," Cristobal said. "And we've got to fix it. There's no other way to it. We've got to do a better job on first down avoiding those things, preventing them from happening, to stay on schedule. We got off schedule, we got out of sync, and it really affected how we did on third down."
Based on the way Freeman was running Tuesday, the offensive line was more in sync that it had been at Arizona State. Now the Ducks want to repeat that, in another padded practice Wednesday, and particularly when they return to the field against California in Autzen Stadium on Saturday (7:35 p.m. PT, FS1).
Other highlights: In the opening "Insanity" two-minute drill, Herbert quickly moved the offense down the field. But the last play was a shot into the end zone that Tyree Robinson broke up. … With the twos on the field, Taylor Alie zipped a short pass to Jaylon Redd, and safety Brady Breeze thumped him just after the ball arrived. But Alie got the offense rolling, and ultimately threw a touchdown pass to Darrian Felix. …
In the team period Freeman dominated, Malik Young beat George Moore to flush the quarterback on one rep, and on the next one Young wrapped up Kani Benoit near the line. Cyrus Habibi-Likio got to the second level on a run play against the travel squad defense, although on the next play Troy Dye wrapped him up at the line. Later, Mike Irwin rolled out and attempt a short pass that Arrion Springs swatted away. … Later in 7-on-7, Deommodore Lenoir jumped a route for a pick-six, and Herbert found Taj Griffin matched up with a safety for a touchdown pass.
Other observations: One of Willie Taggart's self-critiques from the loss was that he didn't stoke "the juice" in practice as much last week as he had earlier this fall. Not coincidentally, Tuesday's practice began with a "bulls in the ring" drill that often appeared at the start of practices during preseason camp. Redd won a rep for the offense, and linebacker Blake Rugraff had the edge in a long, drawn-out battle for turf with Ryan Bay. The longer they battled for ground, the more their teammates got fired up, setting the tone for an energetic practice. …
Doug Brenner spent a few reps of a mid-practice team period with the No. 1 offense at right guard. … Walk-on tight end Taylor Stinson wore No. 99 on the scout team and did his best to mimic Cal's Malik McMorris, a 285-pound fullback who has two receptions and two rushes this season. … Today was the first day this fall players had to balance practice and school, which began Monday. A couple dozen Ducks were dismissed early from practice to assure they got over to campus on time.
Pre-practice interviews:
Co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Mario Cristobal
