Oregon Ducks Coaching Staff Needs a Briefer in Decision Making

The Oregon Ducks, 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Pac-10, will most likely fall out of the Top 25 once the votes are counted.

In the two losses Oregon has suffered this season, a common denominator has revealed itself: Poor decision making by the coaching staff.

For example, in the first few drives in the Boise State loss, Oregon's defense was not giving up any field position to the Broncos. Then, out of nowhere, defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti decided to switch to a prevent defense.

This proved disastrous for the Ducks, as it soon led to many Bronco scoring drives. Of course, not all of that loss can be blamed on Aliotti himself.

On the defensive side of the ball, Oregon's secondary did not live up to its set expectations, as players were getting sucked into the backfield on play-action fakes, making mediocre receivers look like All-Americans.

On the offensive side of the ball, Oregon did not fare much better. When starting QB Jeremiah Masoli took a blatant late hit, he was knocked out of the game with a concussion.

This left Oregon with two options: 1) Put in Chris Harper, who is just another tailback, or 2) burn Darron Thomas' redshirt, and put someone in the game who could pass and run.

This decision was made by Head Coach Mike Bellotti: Chris Harper was put in. Because of an aggravated rotator cuff in his throwing arm, Harper could not throw, and was forced to run the football.

This gave Oregon only one threat on offense. Boise State coaches noticed this, and stacked the line of scrimmage, stuffing the run.

Finally, in the fourth quarter, Bellotti got the bright idea to put Thomas in. Look what happened. Thomas threw for 210 yards, three touchdowns and one interception...in one quarter...on only 10 percent of the snaps in practice. Had Bellotti not been so stubborn, and put Thomas in sooner, Oregon very well would have won the day.

As we can see, the poor choices of Bellotti and Aliotti ruined Oregon's chances of winning the Boise State game.

Now, Oregon has lost another game, this most recent one to No. 9-ranked USC. Oregon came out into the game very strong, and opened up the game with a scoring drive.

The Ducks also looked pretty good defensively, limiting USC to a field goal on their first offensive drive.

That was the precise point in the game when everything fell apart for the Ducks. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly came up with the bright idea to substitute LeGarrette Blount in for Jeremiah Johnson, who by the way, was playing fantastically.

Look how that turned out for the Ducks. Blount was not able to get anywhere. The reason why is because Blount is not as agile, nor does he have as good of acceleration as Johnson.

Don't get me wrong, Blount is a great player, but he can only make good plays once he gets into the open field. Otherwise, he shuffles about the line of scrimmage, and gets stuffed for a loss or minimal gain.

Also, the secondary did not bring their maturity and intellect to the Coliseum with them, as they were being sucked into the backfield, again, by play-action fakes. USC must have taken that example from the Boise State game.

There was a point in the first quarter, where Oregon was doing everything right. They had Pete Carroll looking very nervous and jumpy, Mark Sanchez was throwing off of his left hand, the USC defense looked scared.

It seemed as if every USC player was thinking to themselves, "Maybe our loss to Oregon State wasn't a fluke."

Well, as many of us know, momentum is everything in college football. Oregon couldn't stop a USC fourth-down conversion attempt, which, on the next play, led to a USC touchdown. Then the momentum swayed to USC's favor, and the game was virtually lost.

This being said, Oregon can learn a lot about their coaching staff, and their team in general from looking hard at their two losses this season. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Yet, Oregon's coaching staff tried to "fix it" by taking out Johnson in the USC game, and switching to a prevent defense in the Boise State game.

Oregon's secondary also needs to step up their maturity level. This group of defensive backs is a smart bunch. There is no doubt about that. Each one of the players is very smart. The only problem is that they are not looking too smart by getting fooled on play-action fakes.

What Oregon's secondary needs to do, is to not look at the backfield, but instead, concentrate on the receiver they should be guarding (in man-to-man coverage), or their assigned zone (in zone coverage).

Right now, for Oregon, it is a sink-or-swim situation. If Oregon's coaching staff can work out all the bugs in their decision making, then they should have no trouble winning the rest of their games, and at least making the Holiday Bowl. If not, then Oregon will have a long season ahead of them.