[OutsiderFan]

That was a great article.

Chip Kelly kinds of makes it clear that if you are to err on the side of taking out the Oregon QB as a run threat, that's the best way to stop the Ducks.  He does not want his QB running very much, because he doesn't want him to take a pounding.

The other thing is, if Oregon is making its play calls based pretty much exclusively on where the defense lines up pre-snap, it seems defenses have to be ready to do a lot of shifting and disguising their coverages.

As for Stanford in particular, I would play a lot of nickel defense (take one ILB off the field) and spy Amanam (and Harris) on Mariota.  Don't make Thomas and Murphy make decisions between taking the QB and the RB on the option.  Tell them to hit the RB all the time, and Amanam to hit the QB hard every time.  Stanford's DL seems to be good enough that losing one ILB isn't going to dramatically hurt Stanford's defense against the run. 

It will be quite interesting to see what Mason has schemed and strategized for this game.  I mean my guess is a butt-load of focus was put on defending Oregon this past offseason.

[OutsiderFan]

That was a great article.

Chip Kelly kinds of makes it clear that if you are to err on the side of taking out the Oregon QB as a run threat, that's the best way to stop the Ducks.  He does not want his QB running very much, because he doesn't want him to take a pounding.

The other thing is, if Oregon is making its play calls based pretty much exclusively on where the defense lines up pre-snap, it seems defenses have to be ready to do a lot of shifting and disguising their coverages.

As for Stanford in particular, I would play a lot of nickel defense (take one ILB off the field) and spy Amanam (and Harris) on Mariota.  Don't make Thomas and Murphy make decisions between taking the QB and the RB on the option.  Tell them to hit the RB all the time, and Amanam to hit the QB hard every time.  Stanford's DL seems to be good enough that losing one ILB isn't going to dramatically hurt Stanford's defense against the run. 

It will be quite interesting to see what Mason has schemed and strategized for this game.  I mean my guess is a butt-load of focus was put on defending Oregon this past offseason.