Much praise has been given to the Oregon defense this past week, considering the unit is what allowed the Ducks to defeat USC last Saturday.
With as much love as the offense has received this year, suddenly the defense has become everyone’s focus. They deserve it, for sure, but let’s remember that the offense is what got Oregon into this position in the first place.
It’s the unit that’s been ranked as one of the best in the nation for the entire season and has been by far the most consistent of the Ducks’ units.
The offense can dictate the pace of a game and has, at many points during the season, muscled past opponents and has run virtually unopposed as well. It has been slowed at times, mostly in the California and USC games, but never has been exposed as Oregon’s weak link during a game – but the special teams and defense have.
Also, take into consideration that most of the Ducks’ injuries have occurred on offense too. They’ve lost Brian Paysinger, Cameron Colvin and Jeremiah Johnson and have still been churning out yards like a well-oiled machine.
The offense is dominant and that’s why it’s the most important factor in Oregon’s remaining games this season. As long as it’s putting enough points on the board, there’s no need to ask the defense to shut out an opponent.
The defense has also been too inconsistent to rely upon. It’s nice to know that it can win a game if called upon at the right time, but if it’s facing a certain type of offense, say a quarterback who can move around in the pocket or past the line of scrimmage (i.e. Jake Locker and Rudy Carpenter) no one should be counting on the defense to hold an opponent to less than 30 points.
The offense, meanwhile, will score 50 points or more if it needs to. It doesn’t even need to have all facets of the offense working either. In the past two games, the passing game has taken a backseat while the running attack has made Oregon one of the most feared and balanced offenses in the nation.
Despite minimal output from the wide receiver position recently, the offense continues to roll up the yards thanks to a maximum effort from the offensive line (the best part of the entire Oregon team, in my mind) and smart decision making on quarterback Dennis Dixon’s part. These days, tight end Ed Dickson is the only guy making huge plays down the field.
But who needs to pass when Dixon and Jonathan Stewart can’t be stopped, right?
Conversely, why would teams need to pass when they can run on Oregon’s defense?
Although the defense did a good job of bottling up Trojan running backs Chauncey Washington and Joe McKnight, there were a few instances where the running backs were running in the open field thanks to a few missed tackles. The Ducks will be hard-pressed to have a similar effort against the Sun Devils running attack that features Keegan Herring and Dimitri Nance, both of whom are rushing for over five yards per carry. Not only that, but Rudy Carpenter is a mobile quarterback who, sore thumb and all, is still dangerous even if he’s throwing outside the pocket.
Defense may win championships, but most of those teams didn’t have an offense that averaged more than 40 points per game. Oregon does, and it’s so fun to watch that whatever the defense does is almost a complete afterthought.
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