The words “what if” seems to be the ones that will define the 2015 Oregon football season. After Vernon Adams Jr. effortlessly tacked on touchdown pass after touchdown pass in the Ducks’ 48-28 win over USC last Saturday, Oregon is now ranked 18 in the AP Poll and is one game away from finishing the regular season 9-3.
The cries from fans to overhaul the Oregon coaching staff have calmed, while the offense has hummed at the rate fans are used to seeing it at. Head coach Mark Helfrich said Sunday that much of the improvement is due to the quarterback play, but added that “our guys and coaches have done a great job of being realistic and sticking with it.”
He spoke more about the team’s improvement, the preparation ahead to play against rival Oregon State and congratulated Stanford on winning the Pac-12 north, “unfortunately.”
In this five-game run where you’ve gone undefeated, are there areas of the team where you’ve seen drastic improvement?
Mark Helfrich: Well I think there’s been gradual improvement. In football or anything, if you do something wrong and you instantly correct it and you never make that mistake again, you’re better. And that’s the key to playing football. I think our guys and coaches have done a great job of being realistic and sticking with it. Obviously what’s going on with the quarterback play, what’s going on there is an immeasurable factor. That makes everybody better.
Do you feel like your offense is peaking at the right time? And secondly, as coaches you talk about improving. After yesterday’s performance how much do you still have left to improve?
MH: A ton. That’s what’s amazing. To beat a team that’s as good as SC and the way that we did, there’s a bunch of stuff that we can improve upon, whether it’s protections, identification, coverage identification, progression by the quarterback, we got a couple missed assignments up front, couple missed assignments on the perimeter, we had a couple penalties that were unnecessary, a ton of stuff on special teams.
Aiden Schneider leads the nation in FG percentage, does that affect how you run the offense in the red zone?
MH: It can. It’s certainly great to have that confidence in your back pocket. I love touchdowns. But the way he’s done it and he has the total confidence of the team, that’s a big deal too.
After watching the tape, did you see a lot of improvement specifically in the secondary?
MH: Improvement and stuff that can be still improved upon. That’s the sign hopefully of development of improvement, you’re beating a team that’s really good, that’s hot, that’s extremely talented, and you’re still overcoming some of your own mistakes.
Chris Seisay’s return — how did that help the defense and was his return expected?
MH: It was great to have him back. It was a surprise that it was that quick. But just to have, we don’t have a lot of depth, it’s experience on the run. So anytime you can pack that in with a guy that’s been out there a little bit is important and big.
With Oregon State’s struggles, do you play up the rivalry game narrative?
MH: Much more so about us. Just as we did last week. It’s about their fronts, their percentages, all the thing we break down leading up to a game plan. Its all about us.
How much did you watch of the Stanford-Cal game?
MH: I watched most of it, yeah yeah. Congratulations to Stanford, unfortunately.
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Oregon does great job of ‘sticking with it,’ now winners of five straight
Justin Wise
November 22, 2015
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