For the Oregon football team, the line of scrimmage has become a line of measure.
The Duck offensive line has not performed to its potential in the past two weeks, and everyone on the team knows it.
“There can’t be any real excuses for not getting the job done,” right guard Michael DeLaGrange said. “It’s not hard just to block someone and get them out of the way or hold a guy from getting to the quarterback. That’s all we got to do, and something we need to get done.”
Oregon has not gotten it done lately. In games against Washington State and Utah, the offensive line allowed a combined nine sacks.
“Our biggest problem is at the line of scrimmage,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “We’re not doing a good enough job of blocking.”
All of this comes after a win over Michigan. The Ducks allowed one sack in the 31-27 win over the Wolverines. After that performance, left tackle Adam Snyder became the first Pacific-10 Conference offensive lineman to receive Pac-10 Player of the Week honors in eight years.
“It’s been frustrating,” center Dan Weaver said. “We’ve been playing some solid guys but we aren’t playing up to our potential for sure. I don’t know what it is but we are definitely going to change some things in the way we practice and the way we do things. Hopefully it will regenerate that same old attitude we had.”
What happened to that attitude?
“Once you beat a team of Michigan’s caliber, it’s almost natural,” Weaver said. “Nobody’s as good as Michigan on the rest of our schedule, so maybe we don’t have to prepare as much, but it’s not the case. We have to prepare even more.”
Preparation will be key, especially in the minds of the coaches.
DeLaGrange said the Ducks plan to step up the intensity this week in practice so they can be fully prepared for anything the Sun Devils bring.
What will it take to be the offensive line of old?
“We have gotten away from some of the fundamental things that we need to do to protect the quarterback and to run the football,” offensive line coach Neal Zoumboukos said. “Obviously, as a coaching staff we need to get back to those things to be able to achieve that high level again.”
Zoumboukos said those fundamental things include pad level, proper posture in pass protection, moving the feet and using the eyes.
Injuries have made it difficult on the offensive line, forcing the Ducks to change some players’ positions. Oregon lost senior Joey Forster early on. DeLaGrange has been dealing with a shoulder injury and sophomore Ian Reynoso has played with a knee injury.
“Injuries are no excuse for poor performance, and we have not performed well the past two weeks, period,” Zoumboukos said.
DeLaGrange said that the blitzes the offensive line has seen in the past two weeks have been contributing factor to the line’s play.
“They were bringing blitzes like nothing else,” he said. “Obviously that affected us and we’re obviously working on it a lot more now so we’re going to be able to pick those up.”
DeLaGrange is expecting the Sun Devils to blitz if Oregon becomes stuck in passing mode again. Arizona State saw it work for Washington State and Utah, so DeLaGrange is expecting the Sun Devils to “bring everybody they got.”