09-27-2015, 07:00 PM
We have yet to beat a really good spread team. Spread teams, by forcing the line to run sideline to sideline, will put a particularly tough strain on the defensive line. Our thinness there will be dangerous, and every offensive coordinator with the proper tools will test it.Â
I really do fear all of our coming opponents. UCLA looms particularly large, but even an unheralded team like Washington State could get its spread offense pumped up at home to challenge us, and Oregon has a very long time to get itself back together before we face them.
For us to reach for those dreams, the offense needs to keep doing what it has been doing and Hogan, McCaffrey, and the offensive line need to stay healthy. We need to figure out how to nurse our defensive line through the coming gauntlet--something that looks especially precarious just now. And the secondary needs to show it can disrupt the spread passing game. And we will have to win the Big Game--which now begins to look like a serious game and not a romp for the first time in a while.Â
I really do fear all of our coming opponents. UCLA looms particularly large, but even an unheralded team like Washington State could get its spread offense pumped up at home to challenge us, and Oregon has a very long time to get itself back together before we face them.
For us to reach for those dreams, the offense needs to keep doing what it has been doing and Hogan, McCaffrey, and the offensive line need to stay healthy. We need to figure out how to nurse our defensive line through the coming gauntlet--something that looks especially precarious just now. And the secondary needs to show it can disrupt the spread passing game. And we will have to win the Big Game--which now begins to look like a serious game and not a romp for the first time in a while.Â