Tuesday, I began previewing the Pac 12 North by evaluating the Cal Golden Bears. Today, I continue my North league preview by looking at the Oregon Ducks.
Fresh off another 12 win season and a Rose Bowl victory, the Oregon Ducks enter the 2012 campaign with high expectations despite losing their dynamic offensive duo of Lamichael James and Darren Thomas. Sophomore Quarterback Bryan Bennett will be given the keys to the Ducks high tempo offense and will look to build on the success he had last year in limited action. Bennett threw for 369 yards and six touchdowns, while throwing zero interceptions last season. He will be joined in the backfield by two of the fastest running backs in the county in De'Anthony Thomas and Kenjon Barner. Thomas and Barner ran for a combined 1534 yards and scored 18 touchdowns in the Ducks multiple backs offense. Thomas was also the Ducks leading receiver last year with 46 catches for 605 yards and nine touchdowns. Bennett will also have WR Josh Huff returning from last year's squad. Huff had 430 receiving yards along with two touchdowns last season. Look for Huff's role to increase in the offense this year now that he will be the Ducks #1 receiver along with the fact that Bennett will be able to throw the deep ball more consistently and accurately then Thomas did. The best thing for a young quarterback to have is an experienced offensive line and Bennett will have that this year with three of the five linemen from last year's team returning. This will not only help Bennett run the offense and have protection during passing downs, but it will also help take some of the load off of him in that the offensive line can carry out all of its protection schemes in a variety of situations and not rely on Bennett to help them adjust to different defensive schemes. While I believe the Ducks offense won't be as explosive as it has been the past couple of years, I do expect them to continue putting points on the board through the use of their spread option ground game as well as through more down field passing.
The Ducks defense will need to continue to improve this year if they expect to contend for a national title after the loss of their top two offensive players. With seven returning starters led by Senior's Dion Jordan and John Boyett, the Ducks defense will look to repeat last years takeaway performance, which saw them cause 29 total turnovers and accumulate 45 sacks as well. The Ducks defense, however, gave up a lot of yards and had trouble stopping middle to upper tier teams that had good quarterbacks last year like Arizona(31 points), Arizona State(27 points), Washington St(28 points) and UCLA(31 points). This could've been caused by the fact that the offense would score so quickly, that the defense wouldn't get much of a break and would have to go back out on the field shortly after coming off. Another cause that could've attributed to this is the fact that the Ducks high octane offense would get them a 14 to 21 point lead, which would cause opposing teams to throw on almost every play in an attempt to quickly make up the deficit. With the Ducks playing a prevent like defense to keep offenses in front of them to prevent big plays and keep the clock running, they were susceptible to giving up short to intermediate route's that picked up a good chunk of yardage. Now that the offense is under the helm of a new quarterback, the defense will need to step up, since it won't have a safety net to bail them out if they have a bad game. I believe the Ducks team defense will be better in 2012 than it was in 2011 and with the offense transitioning to a new quarterback, I expect the defense to add some wrinkles and play aggressive when they have the lead rather than sitting back and playing a vanilla prevent defense.
2012 Schedule Prediction 10-2 Overall 7-2 Conference
The Ducks defense will need to continue to improve this year if they expect to contend for a national title after the loss of their top two offensive players. With seven returning starters led by Senior's Dion Jordan and John Boyett, the Ducks defense will look to repeat last years takeaway performance, which saw them cause 29 total turnovers and accumulate 45 sacks as well. The Ducks defense, however, gave up a lot of yards and had trouble stopping middle to upper tier teams that had good quarterbacks last year like Arizona(31 points), Arizona State(27 points), Washington St(28 points) and UCLA(31 points). This could've been caused by the fact that the offense would score so quickly, that the defense wouldn't get much of a break and would have to go back out on the field shortly after coming off. Another cause that could've attributed to this is the fact that the Ducks high octane offense would get them a 14 to 21 point lead, which would cause opposing teams to throw on almost every play in an attempt to quickly make up the deficit. With the Ducks playing a prevent like defense to keep offenses in front of them to prevent big plays and keep the clock running, they were susceptible to giving up short to intermediate route's that picked up a good chunk of yardage. Now that the offense is under the helm of a new quarterback, the defense will need to step up, since it won't have a safety net to bail them out if they have a bad game. I believe the Ducks team defense will be better in 2012 than it was in 2011 and with the offense transitioning to a new quarterback, I expect the defense to add some wrinkles and play aggressive when they have the lead rather than sitting back and playing a vanilla prevent defense.
2012 Schedule Prediction 10-2 Overall 7-2 Conference
Arkansas State W 42-10
Fresno State W 35-20
Tennessee Tech W 45-14
Arizona W 35-17
@Washington St. W 49-21
Washington W 38-28
@Arizona State W 42-17
Colorado W 49-10
@USC L 24-35
@California L 35-38
Stanford W 28-7
@Oregon State W 38-17
