Defense Dominates Second Oregon Scrimmage
EUGENE ? The University of Oregon’s much-publicized offensive restructuring appears to be a work in progress as the defense held a decisive upper hand in the Ducks’ second major scrimmage of the spring Saturday afternoon in Autzen Stadium.
Oregon’s offense could muster only eight first downs in the 75-play scrimmage and was held scoreless until late into the one-hour, 15-minute workout. Quarterbacks Kellen Clemens and Brady Leaf each engineered 25-yard touchdown drives, capped by a 3-yard Clemens-to-Dan Kause pass and a 1-yard Leaf-to-Garren Strong throw.
"I think we have a lot of work to do on special teams, I was very, very disappointed where we are right now," Bellotti said. "I thought the defense out-played, out-hustled and out-hit the offense today. It had nothing to do with scheme, it was attitude and desire. I was very, very impressed with our first-team defense. I really thought they flew around, they made the offense think, they took away some of their aggresiveness and then they made some key open-field tackles to stop some plays. Justin Phinisee made a couple of plays early and just across the board I was very pleased with their effort today and their intensity."
Clemens finished the day completing nine of 18 passes for 27 yards while Leaf connected on four of seven aerials for 41 yards and one score. The Ducks’ second-team quarterback, Dennis Dixon, completed four of six throws for 25 yards in addition to carrying the football eight times for 21 yards. The longest completion of the afternoon was a 21-yard throw by Leaf to red-shirt freshman Jaison Williams.
"I don’t think we were extremely sharp at the quarterback position, I thought that our offensive line was the poorest we’ve been all year in terms of overall pass protection. But again, I think the defense stepped it up a notch. The defense’s comfort zone with seeing this offense for eight consecutive practices is starting to do it a little bit. Our receivers have to block downfield. If they don’t block, this offense cannot be effective. That’s a huge component of it."
The Oregon running game actually look better from the offense’s spread formation than its passing attack. Red-shirt freshman tailback Terrell Jackson led all rushers with 32 yards on seven carries while senior tailback Terrence Whitehead contributed 30 yards on eight attempts in his first uninhibited action of the spring.
"It was frustrating," Clemens added. "Unfortunately some of the success we’ve had in practice didn’t carry over. We had some good things going towards the end but all-in-all, I think this one goes to the defense. We didn’t execute today. A lot of times when you make it live, the defense steps up there, they can cut it loose a little bit more while we’re still working through some things and thinking. But they outplayed us today."
Junior wide receiver Kyle Weatherspoon led all receivers with 25 yards on four receptions while Demetrius Williams caught five passes for 12 yards.
Placekickers Paul Martinez and Luke Bellotti each misfired on a pair of field goal tries ranging from 33 yards to 52 yards during the regular portion of the scrimmage before the duo were each successful on one of two tries at the conclusion of the controlled workout.
The Ducks will return to the practice field this week with workouts scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
