The Oregon Death Spiral (Long)

#1
TBtheGBwiththeTD

TBtheGBwiththeTD

Baller By Nature
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#1
We have all had time to clear our heads and sober up after the nightmare that was the Oregon beatdown. It left me thinking, What happened? After some thought I have come to the realization that a multitude of things lead to the "death spiral" as I have dubbed it.

Let's start at the matchup. Most of us did not want to truly realize just how poor a matchup this game was all along.

What is the purpose of Oregon's racetrack style offense?
A. To tire the opposition and force players to stay on or off the field; We have zero depth on defense. We knew and still know this. Anyone who felt our starters could play the whole game at full strength or that the backups could hold their own against those playmakers was fooling themselves.

B. To take advantage of confusion and momentum; We have an extremely young secondary. Once they made a few mistatkes and the ducks got rolling, was there ever really a chance they would figure it out on the fly?

C. To demoralize and change the opponent; Oregon wants you to look up and wonder if you can stop them. They want you to believe you have to score, now. Once you have your head down as soon as you look up they've scored again. I didn't see a ton of quit saturday. But you have to know the frustration had to be tremndous.

Oregon has a really good secondary. They knew we had a new QB and inexperienced pass catchers. They loaded the box with 7 guys to limit us to small chunks through the run attack. They trusted, and rightfully so, that their corners did not need help on the outside. When the pass game couldn't make Oregon change the plan we were in trouble. Who's gonna run the ball 75% of the time when you're down 24 and can't stop the other team? When you need to score you have to be able to throw. We couldn't even keep them honest through the air.

The "death spiral" occured when they made us try to beat their strength with our weakness, all while leaving our defense spinning in circles looking for oxygen and answers. Oregon blows you up when you can't sustain offense. We went three and out, or close to it, far too many times in a row. Oregon has special speed and ability on offense. You cannot feed the beast by giving them the ball over and over. This team is not made to play from behind at all, so when it happened, it got ugly.

The matchup with Oregon was a nightmare from the get go. It was strength vs weakness all day long.

Now Alabama and Georgia will do the same thing to us, not quite on that scale, if we can't figure out how to at least force them to respect the pass. Florida doesn't have the offense to get it rolling like Oregon did. If we can get something done through the air, whether it be Worley or someone else, our offense can give our defense a chance.

I expect the defense to be better after this. They have a lot to learn from and to be honest it wasn't entirely their fault. They certainly did not play well but it is far from hopeless.

Let's regroup as a fan base and support our guys down in gainsville, and everywhere else for that matter. Respect the process. The sky is not falling. ect...

That's all I got. Go Vols!

Edit: It has been correctly pointed out that Oregon did not stack the box. The point of that comment was to say they were playing the run more so than the pass.

We still had a decent running performance, but as stated above they want you to abandon the run and we did/(had too?)
 
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#2
#2
Good post TBGBTD.

I expect our offense will improve as the season progresses.

Our defense should in no way, shape, or form look like it did against the ducks.
 
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#3
#3
Honestly, I think our boys were beat before they stepped on the field. I think they knew it and it reflected on the field.
 
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#4
#4
I want Tennessee to become the oregon of the S.E.C., this means no one over 4.4 at the skill positions on O and D. Speed and more speed, hit the trail and recruit it.
 
#5
#5
I would have liked a tighter score line, but I'm not all the surprised about the result. We have a long way to go to get back to where we want to be. That doesn't mean we don't have talent but the one thing I liked Saturday was that no one really hung their head or quit. Getting beat by Oregon isn't the worst thing that can happen and frankly that's the best offense we will face all year. There is no one in the SEC that runs an offense like that and unfortunately our pass game is starting from scratch and we have a lot of youth in the secondary, this is a recipe for disaster. As for next week, expect it to be a much tighter game, not sure we have much of a chance without a pass game that keeps the defense honest, if we can find one then we have a legit chance, if not we could lose something like 13-3. Take heart though, while this year and next year will be tough, we are going in the right direction.
 
#6
#6
For those of you that say the result wasn't unexpected or it's the best offense that we will face all season, I say WHAT? If this is your thinking then it appears you don't know what the word compete means. I seriously doubt that the coaches and players think that way. In all the years competing in different events, I've never known an athlete or coach that thought they were going to gets their butts kicked going into competition. I say take that kind of defeatist attitude elsewhere.
 
#7
#7
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment with the exception of Oregon loading the box and forcing us to throw.
They really never had to load the box becuase our offense was trying to throw way too early rather than forcing them to load the box.
And, honestly, they never really stopped the run. It was a lack of patience and, possibly, a mindset going in that they would shut down the run therefore we never truly gave it the chance it deserved.

My point being: If we knew all the things going in that you listed above, why were we even attempting passes until they had completely shut down the run by selling out to stop it?
 
#9
#9
Last year, most folks on the board thought this would be a tough year because we'd be losing Bray, Hunter, Patterson, Sentimore, etc...Most thought because of the tough schedule we'd be lucky to get to a bowl game.

What changed? The coach. That's it.

A new coach is not what we need...we need a magician, someone who can make a QB appear out of thin air. I kid.

Still don't understand the expectation to beat the likes of Oregon or UF.
 
#11
#11
BigBadVol said:
For those of you that say the result wasn't unexpected or it's the best offense that we will face all season, I say WHAT? If this is your thinking then it appears you don't know what the word compete means. I seriously doubt that the coaches and players think that way. In all the years competing in different events, I've never known an athlete or coach that thought they were going to gets their butts kicked going into competition. I say take that kind of defeatist attitude elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Quote me next time. I never said that the coaches or players thought that way. In fact, I am pleased with how they handled it after the game, they need to have that attitude. As a fan I have the luxury of looking at things objectively and for that reason I can say that the outcome isn't surprising... because it isn't. That's not because I don't believe in my team or that I am being negative, I look at what we have and our situation and that's how I draw my conclusion. Any fan who seriously thought we had a chance to win doesn't know squat about football. As for the players and staff, they damn well better think they can win every game, as a competetor you NEED that, everyone knows that's part of having a competetive edge. Also there's nothing defeatist about it, I'm not getting down on the team OR the staff, sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade and right now this football team is rebuilding and learning a new system. It's unrealistic to expect the same team that went 5-7 with a terrible defense, that lost 70% of it's offensive output from last year to suddenly become an 8 win team. I'm more interested in what adjustments are made and how adversity is handled. Building a winning attitude isn't pumping sunshine and hoping for the best, it's about hard work and understanding that it's not an easy road, neither is it a straight road and there will be bumps along the way, Saturday was one of them. And yes, Oregon's offense is by far and away the best offense we will face this year. Objectivity goes a long way.
 
#12
#12
can't understand for the life of me why we continue to harp on the oregon game.the results are in.tennessee needs to focus on the gators now.go vols.
 
#13
#13
While credit is due and Oregon is very good at what they do I personally have never cared for that helter skelter approach to the game. Hell you can't even take your eyes of the game to open a beer or you'll miss two plays. Jeez it's worse than Arena League, might as well let them have two players in motion towards the line.
It's not a true battle of the best players against the best players. It's the defense on their heels with little option for substitutions.
The umpires heads are on a swivel just trying to get a ball back on the field and a decent spot. I'm truly amazed there are not more procedure penalties in that style of O, if I'm the official "I'm" calling a personal time out so everyone can catch their breath.
Jeez,
 
#14
#14
OP - Oregon rarely stacked 7 in the box. At times they only had 4 in the box and still stopped the run with 3 or less yards. Go back and watch it. Their 3 D-linemen stuffed our 5 best "NFL quality" O-linemen at the line of scrimmage for most of the game. Oregon then sends LB's and safeties forward into running lanes once they see the play is a run. This will happen again this week, with Georgia's 3-4, with Bama's 3-4, against USCe, etc. Which is why we need a QB that can run the zone read. There has to be a wild card, an element of deception, since the match-ups and passing game are not good.

I personally do not see this being a very good year now that I see our O-line in this system. I back Butch and like where he is trying to go. I just think we need to understand that Butch's system/scheme is mismatched with most of this roster, especially the upper classmen that he has to depend upon to execute it.
 
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#15
#15
I hope that this games serves as a lesson to buy out these types of games in the future in order to avoid humilating the team and its fan base. I am sure the AD hasn't been harrassed all week like I have in the office. Its ok, I am used to it. I am also a Royals fan. Never thought I would see the Royals on track before the Vols.
 
#16
#16
If you are telling me that them having 59 points by the end of the 3rd qtr is not unexpected then I really have nothing else to say. Pathetic.
 
#17
#17
BigBadVol said:
If you are telling me that them having 59 points by the end of the 3rd qtr is not unexpected then I really have nothing else to say. Pathetic.
Click to expand...

Was just explaining what I saw and how I think it happened. I will never say I expected it but I wasn't shocked. And there are no excuses. We flat out wern't good enough and it was unacceptable. How much blame goes on the players, this staff, last staff ect is up to you.
 
#18
#18
They want you to believe you have to score, now. Once you have your head down as soon as you look up they've scored again.
Click to expand...

I swear to god this happened. I flipped the channel to the Bama game about 3 times within 2 minutes. Each time I came back to the channel, they were kicking off again. I thought the broadcast was glitched out then realized they had put up 51.
 
#19
#19
BigBadVol said:
If you are telling me that them having 59 points by the end of the 3rd qtr is not unexpected then I really have nothing else to say. Pathetic.
Click to expand...

I never said I expected that score line, my point was and is that the outcome of the game is not surprising when a reasonable person objectively looks at both teams. I still have tremendous faith in this team and staff, but we aren't going to beat a team like Oregon, not for a few years and the talent gap is just too wide plain and simple. I don't understand why people are shocked by this after 4 years of coaching turnover and attrition.
 
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