While the sun beamed down on the Autzen stadium turf for Oregon football’s first extended scrimmage of spring workouts Saturday, coach Mike Bellotti wasn’t in a mood to match the weather.
Part of his problem stemmed from the passing game, which accumulated just 83 yards on 13-of-26 passing with three interceptions between the five quarterbacks who saw action.
Justin Roper was picked off by junior linebacker Kevin Garrett on the first play of the day, freshman John Boyett snatched up Cade Cooper’s deflected pass to end the game, and somewhere in between sophomore cornerback Anthony Gildon intercepted a Darron Thomas offering.
“With the exception of the first play I thought Justin Roper probably did a decent job,” Bellotti said. “I thought our freshmen showed flashes of competence, maybe even the kind of athleticism we like, and they threw the ball and made some good choices but, again, they made a couple mistakes.”
Roper was 6-of-10 through the air for 25 yards, Cody Kempt completed two of his seven pass attempts for 29 yards and Thomas was 2-of-3 for 14 yards. Freshman Chris Harper ran the ball three times for 14 yards and Cooper added 12 yards on 1-of-4 passing.
But all the blame couldn’t be placed at the feet of the young Oregon quarterbacks; there were several bad snaps in the shotgun formation.
“They were victimized by poor snaps that sort of destroy the timing of the play,” Bellotti said in defense of his quarterbacks. “When you’re in the shotgun if that ball is not accurate then it destroys any opportunity to run this style offense.”
Senior defensive tackle Simi Toeaina pounced on one of the bad snaps for the fourth turnover in the offense’s 14 series.
That’s twice as many turnovers as touchdowns. The Ducks’ offense found the end zone twice, both on the ground.
“I thought we ran it well,” Bellotti said. “I think our offensive line and our running backs did some very, very good things.”
Junior Andre Crenshaw rushed 10 times for 31 yards and a score, and sophomore Remene Alston, Jr. gained 34 yards on six carries, but junior transfer LeGarrette Blount stole the show again with 11 carries for 68 yards and a score. Blount had four rushes of more than 10 yards and his longest of the day went for 17 yards, the last five spent dragging several defenders.
“LeGarrette has impressed me the entire spring practice,” Bellotti said. “One, LeGarrette’s better than I thought he might be, simply because of JC status, and the other two guys have improved because of (his) presence.”
Another newcomer came up big for the offense, as transfer Jamere Holland led all receivers with four catches for 32 yards.
“Our secondary is doing a really good job in pass coverage,” Bellotti said. “They’re communicating very well so it’s harder to throw the ball down the field.”
Four times the defense forced the offense to attempt a field goal and Oregon’s kickers converted three of the chances, including Matt Evensen’s 53-yard kick. Bellotti said he was displeased with the offense’s failure to capitalize on field position.
“They drove the ball but then when we got down into plus territory we had to settle for field goals,” he said.
The defense came out on top decisively in the scrimmage, allowing two touchdowns and three field goals while forcing four turnovers on the 14 series played Saturday, but Bellotti wasn’t entirely pleased with their performance. He attributed the offense’s success at running the ball to poor play by the interior defensive line.
“Overall though, not pleased with our defensive line play. We have to be better up front,” he said, “It was an opportunity for the young guys to step up and show up, and they didn’t show up in a manner that’s going to help them today.”
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Defense takes away scrimmage spotlight
Daily Emerald
April 13, 2008
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