It’s never good for a team to lose its offensive coordinator after finishing as one of the top 20 offensive teams in the nation.
But if anyone is going to benefit from Oregon offensive coordinator Gary Crowton’s departure, it’ll be Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart.
Although Crowton’s spread option scheme worked wonders at times, Dixon never seemed to have a full grasp of the offense and looked constantly befuddled during the second half of the season.
His only 300-yard passing effort came during the Oklahoma game when the Ducks found themselves behind and the wide receivers found themselves wide open in the Sooner secondary during the final minutes.
Dixon benefited from the defense’s goofs more than he did from his ability to throw beyond the coverage.
And after passing for 263 yards against Cal, Dixon never reached the 200-yard mark for the rest of the season and threw four touchdowns and nine interceptions during that stretch.
But Dixon shouldn’t shoulder all of the blame. During the Ducks’ struggles, the wide receivers weren’t making things any easier for their quarterbacks, often disappearing during games and getting lost in Crowton’s complicated offense.
Even with all of its troubles, the spread offense was a thing of beauty when it was working to perfection. When Oregon was 4-0, Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel said he would take the Ducks to beat USC if the game was played at a neutral site because, he said, the offense was operating “like a well-oiled machine”.
I didn’t disagree with his assessment at the time, but something must have gone horribly wrong before the Ducks’ 45-24 loss at Cal in their fifth game.
How could an offense that was so effective during its wins look so inept in its losses?
Well, in a spread offense a team’s first priority is to pass first before establishing the run and it’s what led to Oregon’s offensive downfall. When Stewart, the offense’s best player, becomes a second priority and an opposing defense is able to contain the pass, bad things happen.
So with Crowton’s departure wouldn’t Oregon coach Mike Bellotti want a fresh start by changing the offense and put less emphasis on the passing game?
Bellotti’s response has been “No.” The spread offense will remain intact and there are no plans to alter an offense with players he believes are best suited to use in the spread scheme.
But I don’t buy it.
Bellotti’s been known to steer the media in one direction and then go another way and this is likely the same type of thing.
If he plans on putting all of the same pressures in the hands of either Dixon or Brady Leaf again, it’ll be time to question his strategies.
That’s why the offense should “dumb down” and revert to something more traditional and have Stewart line up directly behind the quarterback in a type of pro-style offense that he prefers.
If Oregon can alter the offense to something similar to Boise State’s scheme, it would do wonders for Stewart. Broncos’ running back Ian Johnson, while talented, doesn’t possess the same type of natural ability that Stewart has and he ran for 1,714 yards and an NCAA-best 25 touchdowns.
Plus the Broncos were successfully creative in their play selection, something Crowton and the Ducks were not.
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