Auburndawg's film room: Pass defense

I finally got a chance last night to sit down with my DVR remote control and watch the game again. I particularly focused on the eight big pass plays that led to Oregon scores. Yes, there were big runs too, but on every scoring drive other than the first one, Oregon completed one or more big passes that kept the drive alive, or put them in the red zone .
Watching those 8 pass plays in slow motion three things were clear:

1. Mariotta made a perfect throw every time. He is a much, much better passer than I thought he was.

2. We blitzed once in those eight plays. Four times we rushed 4. Three times we rushed 3. Wilcox was clearly playing conservative and it didn’t work. Mariotta was completely comfortable and had plenty of time. Rushing 3 or 4 guys against 5 blockers is not going to generate pressure very often. Oregon, on the other hand, rarely rushed less than 5 guys. They blitzed. We didn’t. Big difference in coaching.

3. On every one of their big pass plays our guys made mistakes in coverage. Oregon, more than any team I have seen, likes to bunch up their receivers. Two or three receivers would leave the line together, and then break in different directions, and our DBs would hesitate, not sure who to take, the receiver would gain a step or two, and Mariotta would make a perfect throw. In addition, like us, there is run fake on every pass play. On the 65 yard TD pass you could see Shamburger first pause on the play fake, then hesitate when the two receivers came into his area. The WR went right by him.

Coaching , coaching, coaching

Our coaches chose not bring pressure. Our kids should have been better prepared to deal with their pass routes.
Yes, Oregon is great. They seemed to block and tackle a little better than we did. Mariotta is more accurate than Price. They are super fast. But we were also out schemed and out prepared.