Holding Court
Attention all Oregon opponents this season.
Yards on the ground will be hard to come by for you.
An all-out passing attack may be the only way to score on a strong Oregon run defense.
Yes, we know the Ducks lost two key assets on their defensive line from last year’s squad. Former Oregon defensive linemen Igor Olshansky and Junior Siavii both entered this year’s NFL Draft and were
chosen by San Diego and Kansas City, respectively.
If you think those two important parts of a pretty good defensive line that gave up an average 107.1 yards per game rushing will hurt the Ducks, then think again. Oregon ranked 16th nationally against the run last season and that was without their top recruit from the previous year, Haloti Ngata.
Ngata, who was a 2002 freshman All-American tackle, missed the entire 2003 season due to an injury. The Salt Lake City, Utah, native injured his left knee in the first quarter of the first game last year against Mississippi State.
And now, the Ducks will look forward to the 6-foot-5, 345-pounder to anchor the inside of a deep and talented defensive line.
Ngata’s injury may have been a blessing in disguise for Oregon, as it allowed many of the younger Ducks to play and develop rapidly.
Many people around the team believe that the defensive line can repeat last year’s dominance against the run and that it will probably be the backbone of the defense.
Who else to look to than
head coach Mike Bellotti for that
assessment.
“I think the defensive line has the potential to be the strength of the team,” Bellotti said. “We have linebackers that have started and played well, but we don’t have a lot of depth or experience there.
“Robby Valenzuela, Matt Toeaina, Haloti Ngata, Devan Long and Chris Solomona give us a very good base to start with.”Long benefited greatly with the increased playing time when he posted 11.5 sacks last year, which placed him fourth in the Pacific-10 Conference. His output was the best at Oregon in over 10 years and he returns as the conference’s sack leader this season.
Just imagine how good this defensive line would have been if Olshansky had chosen to remain in Eugene for his senior season instead of forgoing his last year of eligibility.
Oh well.
The Ducks will move on without him with their first true test this weekend as Indiana visits Autzen Stadium for the first time.
There is no doubt that Indiana’s running game will severely be tested this weekend.
Even though the Hoosiers gained a total of 203 rushing yards on Central Michigan last weekend, it could be said that they did it against a weak Chippewas’ defense that yielded a whopping 195.8 yards per game the previous season.
Indiana’s three-headed pronged attack of BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Chris Taylor and Yamar Washington scored three touchdowns with an average of 4.0 yards per carry.
But we do have to remember that it occurred against Central Michigan.
When Hoosiers’ head coach Gerry DiNardo assessed his offensive line’s performance last weekend, it did not sound very promising.
“They graded OK,” DiNardo said. “Some of the older guys could play better, but at the same time those were the guys who missed camp with injuries.”
Indiana’s offensive line better be up to the task this weekend or else the all important battle at the line of scrimmage could thoroughly be dominated by the home team.
If that occurs, look for Hoosiers’ quarterback Matt LoVecchio to be throwing and throwing and throwing all day.
The game can ultimately come down to whether Oregon’s secondary can hold LoVecchio and Indiana’s receivers to a limited passing game.
How will the Oregon defense look this season? We’ll see this weekend.
