Football Practice Report: Oct. 22
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Venue: Outdoor practice fields
Format: Shells
On a practice rep last week, Taj Griffin was in the backfield with Vernon Adams Jr., who pulled the ball to keep it on a read-option play. Charles Nelson was playing safety, and had Griffin taken the handoff the two would have been 1-on-1 to decide the outcome of the play.
How would things have worked out between perhaps the two most dynamic athletes on the team? They didn’t have to wait long to find out. On Thursday, Griffin had one man to beat on a long run – Nelson – and made an explosive cut that left Nelson on his backside while Griffin was racing to the end zone.
The play had players on both sidelines hooting. Nelson has made plenty of defenders look silly while playing receiver and returning kicks the last two seasons, and here was a rare instance in which he was on the other side of the outcome.
“I told him if we get the chance again, I’m gonna try and get him,” Griffin said playfully after practice. “So I had to try to put it on him. We’re just having fun though, nothing serious.”
The long run was good to see from a player coming off a rough evening in Seattle. Lately the primary backup to Royce Freeman, Griffin carried eight times at Washington on Saturday, and finished with minus-four yards.
The Huskies came into the game leading the Pac-12 in rush defense, and figured to load up against the run given the Ducks’ recent issues in the pass game. And Oregon was playing without two starters on the offensive line, after Tyrell Crosby exited following the first quarter.
Still, Griffin has been encouraged by position coach Gary Campbell to be more of a north-south runner when possible.
“They definitely were in on the run; that made it tough,” Griffin said. “They did a good job. But I feel like that opened up the pass game. …
“There were some times there really wasn’t anything there, and there were some times I definitely should have gotten north and south. But that comes with being young. I’m going to make mistakes, and I’ve just got to get better; we went over the film, they told me things I need to do so things like that won’t happen, and I don’t plan on anything like that happening again.”
Other highlights: The Ducks conducted a couple periods with the offense given the chance to drive the field, rather than run plays from the same spot. In 7-on-7, Jeff Lockie converted three straight third-down attempts, to Pharaoh Brown, Zac Schuller and Jalen Brown, before having a fourth-down pass to Pharaoh Brown in the end zone fall incomplete. In 11-on-11, Adams used a 55-yard catch-and-run by Dwayne Stanford to get his group into the red zone, where another Adams-to-Stanford connection resulted in a touchdown. …
There were more second-and-long situations reviewed as well, piggy-backing off Tuesday. Adams moved the chains on a pass to Bralon Addison and with a couple of quarterback runs. Taylor Alie did a nice job checking down to Kirk Merritt for a conversion. … In position drills, Pharaoh Brown had a catch over the middle despite tight coverage. On his next rep, Reggie Daniels evened the score for the defense by jumping on front of a similar route and breaking up the play.
Other observations: Head coach Mark Helfrich, offensive coordinator Scott Frost, defensive coordinator Don Pellum and defensive backs coach John Neal were on hand for practice. The rest of the staff presumably was out recruiting. … After practice, the team was introduced to 14-year-old Cayden Pierce, a resident of Camas, Wash., who is wheelchair bound. Pierce was presented with a jersey by his favorite player, Freeman, and given the chance to break the post-practice huddle. … The Ducks will be off Friday, and practice again Saturday.
