OFFICIAL Mully is reporting unconfirmed OC is.....

[Aesopian]

7 keys to understanding Oregon Ducks offense

Oregon's high-powered offense played many of its games on late Saturday nights — past the bedtimes of many East Coast college football fans. • So the Rose Bowl served as a wake-up call for Florida State and the rest of the country. The second-largest cable audience of all time (more than 28 million) saw the Ducks put up 59 points and 639 yards of offense on defending national champion Florida State. • "I think the sky is the limit with our offense," said Byron Marshall, Oregon's running back turned receiver. • Here's a primer on seven factors that make the Ducks offense so good heading into Monday's national championship game against Ohio State:

1. It's fast

The Ducks ran a play every 21.7 seconds this season. That's more than three seconds faster than FSU and about four seconds faster than Ohio State. Only nine teams in the country were quicker than Oregon.

At top speed (and when not eating the clock during wins), Oregon is even faster than that. Before the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl got out of hand, the Ducks averaged one snap every 17.3 seconds, according to a rough Tampa Bay Times analysis.

The speed gives defenses less time to set up or substitute, and it's also hard to replicate in practice.

"You can try to do it as much as possible, but you know it's only going to be different in the game," FSU defensive end Mario Edwards said before the Rose Bowl. "Because they do it every day."

Early in the second quarter in the Rose Bowl, Oregon had already gone through 16 plays in 3:37 on one drive. The Seminoles were gassed and had to burn a timeout; the Ducks finished the 88-yard drive with a field goal.

On the next drive, FSU tried to substitute players but couldn't get set on third down. Oregon snapped the ball quickly, leading to Thomas Tyner's 1-yard touchdown run and an 18-6 lead.

2. It's efficient

The Ducks boast the No. 2 scoring offense in the country (47.2 points per game), but that's more than a product of how many plays they run. No team in the country scored more points (relative to how long it held the ball) than the Ducks. But the Buckeyes weren't far behind.

Team Points per minute
1. Oregon 1.74
2. Baylor 1.66
3. Marshall 1.60
4. Western Kentucky 1.58
5. TCU 1.52
6. Ohio State 1.44
3. It's confusing

Oregon's connection with zone-read option runs is well known. Quarterback Marcus Mariota (left) reads the defense, then decides whether to keep the ball or hand it off to a running back (or receiver).

The Ducks passing game is equally confusing for defenses. Mariota threw the ball 27 times during the first half of the Rose Bowl. All but five of those passes involved some sort of misdirection: a pump fake to a receiver, a designed quarterback rollout, a fake handoff to a teammate, or some combination of the three.

According to profootballfocus.com, Mariota used play action on 51 percent of his 372 passes during the regular season.

4. It's aggressive

Oregon tried to convert on fourth down 26 times this season; only 22 teams in the country went for it more often. The Ducks succeeded half the time.

No team had more successful two-point conversions than Oregon (four). And only Arkansas State attempted more of them than the Ducks (11). Ohio State, by comparison, went for two only once.

5. It uses short passes

Part of the Ducks' offensive speed comes from its play selection.

Only two quarterbacks in the country have thrown for more yards than Marcus Mariota (4,121), but his passes are usually short rather than downfield. Here's a breakdown of how far his 36 Rose Bowl passes traveled:

0-5 yards downfield: 20

6-10 yards downfield: 3

11-20 yards downfield: 8

More than 20 yards downfield: 5

6. It has versatile players

Marcus Mariota is the obvious example. The Heisman Trophy winner has passed for more than 10,000 career yards and rushed for more than 2,000 — a reason why the Bucs are expected to consider him for the No. 1 overall pick, if he declares for the draft.

Byron Marshall is talented enough to rush for 1,038 yards last year, switch to receiver in the offseason, and lead the team with 834 receiving yards this season.

Royce Freeman (right) has a team-high 1,343 rushing yards. The only freshman to put up better numbers in conference history is former Ducks star LaMichael James.

7. It evolves

The Ducks aren't the same under second-year coach Mark Helfrich (above) as they were before Chip Kelly left for the NFL's Eagles.

Oregon has always relied on the run, but it ran the ball about two more times per game in Kelly's four seasons as coach than it has under Helfrich.

But the Ducks passing attack is up under Helfrich. Oregon had 900 more rushing yards per season than passing yards under Kelly; in Helfrich's two seasons, the Ducks have totaled 1,200 more yards through the air than on the ground.

"It's a constant evolution," Helfrich said. "With anything, you're trying to find the edge."

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/college/7-keys-to-understanding-oregon-ducks-offense/2213073

 

[dabears70]

Surprised Mark Helfrich isn't looking at the Titans to work with Marcus Mariota again.



Matt Nagy is the boss not Mark Helfrich so if he sees him acting out of line it should be put to a halt pretty quick.

I know who the boss is and who's calling the plays i was simply saying it's something he needs to be mindful of cause he only needs to talk the wrong way to one of these guys once for it to become a problem. Never said it was gonna happen.

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

He would bring lots of experience in the RPO system, and uptempo. It would be the ultimate spread college offense, meets the West Coast NFL offense. It would be a Hybrid Spread WC. Be one hell of an offense to watch

It would certainly suggest to me that Nagy plans on being quick to the line of scrimmage, and wants to exploit substitution rules. Another rule, is the headset issue. Mully brought it up this morning (I was half asleep so perhaps I'm going to get some of this wrong) that Sean McVay would have the Rams get to the LOS quicker and he was able to survey the field and relay coverage to Goff. It's an exciting prospect to see how Mitch would do in a setting like this.

Nagy was always an interesting candidate for me because of the spread style concepts that Andy Reid runs. I thought Mitch might thrive in an offense like that.

 

[bears26]

This offense will attract WR free agents now and in the future.

 

[modo]

Odd hire to me. A HC with limited play calling experience hiring an OC with zero NFL play calling experience. That's a very green combination. Hopefully it works out.

 

[Josh2J]

Looks like its official now, multiple outlets reporting and just got an ESPN notification on my phone

 

[Luke]

If you recall Negs presser, he said that he wanted to control the pace of play. Mix in Helfrich and they are mimicking Mcvey in trying to get the offense to the los early

 

[dabears70]

Ross Tucker
@RossTuckerNFL
2m2 minutes ago
Matt Nagy hiring Hiestand as OL coach & Helfrich as OC from college shows he knows deal in terms of NFL teams incorporating more and more college concepts. Great early sign for Bears.

We have a new young mind as our HC now instead of the older vets who are set in their ways. The white board in the offensive coaches room will be filled with exciting plays and plays that will fit what Trubisky did in college and fit his style more. Good times ahead.

 

[bears26]

Adam Jahns
‏@adamjahns
5m5 minutes ago
The #Bears had competition for Mark Helfrich, too. My understanding is that UCLA (Chip Kelly) wanted him as OC and Arizona as head coach.

 

[Luke]

It would certainly suggest to me that Nagy plans on being quick to the line of scrimmage, and wants to exploit substitution rules. Another rule, is the headset issue. Mully brought it up this morning (I was half asleep so perhaps I'm going to get some of this wrong) that Sean McVay would have the Rams get to the LOS quicker and he was able to survey the field and relay coverage to Goff. It's an exciting prospect to see how Mitch would do in a setting like this.

Nagy was always an interesting candidate for me because of the spread style concepts that Andy Reid runs. I thought Mitch might thrive in an offense like that.

this.

 

[dabears70]

did you enjoy their "national championship"?

Hahahaha i didn't make the Disney parade

 

[dabears70]

It would certainly suggest to me that Nagy plans on being quick to the line of scrimmage, and wants to exploit substitution rules. Another rule, is the headset issue. Mully brought it up this morning (I was half asleep so perhaps I'm going to get some of this wrong) that Sean McVay would have the Rams get to the LOS quicker and he was able to survey the field and relay coverage to Goff. It's an exciting prospect to see how Mitch would do in a setting like this.

Nagy was always an interesting candidate for me because of the spread style concepts that Andy Reid runs. I thought Mitch might thrive in an offense like that.

Was he your 2nd choice after J.McD?? I know FloridaMike had you convinced that that's who we were getting and that we were all gonna look like fools when he was announced as our HC. lol

 

[bears26]

Matt Miller@nfldraftscout
8m8 minutes ago
Matt Miller Retweeted Adam Schefter
Nagy is building one hell of a staff. Love that he’s tapping into the college game to get guys

 

[Aesopian]

[video=youtube_share;kHrWT8KLiGc]https://youtu.be/kHrWT8KLiGc[/video]

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Was he your 2nd choice after J.McD?? I know FloridaMike had you convinced that that's who we were getting and that we were all gonna look like fools when he was announced as our HC. lol

How is your new apnea mask?

 

[WindyCity]

I really wasn't expecting Nagy to come out of the gates and start putting this type of staff together. This is beyond my expectations.

 

[Aesopian]

Mark Helfrich was the OC for Oregon when Kyle Long was a duck. I wonder if Kyle Long gave his opinion on Mark.

 

[anotheridiot]

Always two ways to look at things, one way is a new innovative staff with no scars from past head coaches, The other way is you get a college guy and a first time coach will always have the room. No Ditka and Ryan here, and if it does happen it is because we have one hell of a team.

Bottom line, Nagy did not do much under Reid, just like Pace did not do much under Loomis, so there is just as much that can go wrong as what can go right.

 

[Akuma2000]

It's gonna be cool to see the Bears have a new innovative playstyle from Nagy, giving the Bears a new identity on offense etc...

 

[ping001]

He went 37-16 in 4 years as Oregon HC. So he had a winning record.
As far as being a understudy to Chip Kelly, His spread offense did actually work in the NFL ,Michael Vick was actually pretty productive in it and Nick Foles threw 7 TD's in one game. Im not saying it was a complete success, but it did have some success his 1st 2 years as eagles coach he went 10-6.