In The Wake Of Oregon’s Debacle, I Investigate Who And What’s Responsible For The Truly Embarrassing Night In San Antonio

It was disgusting.

Somewhere…well, actually in many places, there are psychoanalytical professionals due to make a fist full of money from Oregon fans desperate to recover from the experience that was the second half of last Saturday night’s Alamo Bowl.

The Ducks parlayed a dominating 31-point halftime lead, into a triple-overtime loss to a team simply lacking the talent to do just that.

They were definably inept offensively, seemingly incapable defensively, and adequately mistake-prone at all the right moments to cap the – now infamous – biggest collapse in bowl history.

Fans blamed it on back-up quarterback Jeff Lockie, back-up center Doug Brenner, and their season-long crash test dummy, defensive coordinator Don Pellum.  They want Coach Helfrich gone, Chip Kelly back, and Phil Knight to make everything alright by means of the money and influence he’s generously used to put Oregon Football on the map.

But, in the wake of sobriety, a number of deep breaths later, and a handful of days removed from the emotion of the painstaking defeat, I think we should take a second look at the train-wreck that turned us all to stone.

The following are undeniable:

• Jeff Lockie was not good.
• Doug Brenner was no good.
• The defense was not good.

That gives me no pleasure to say, but to suggest otherwise would be a discredit to those who watched, and even to the aforementioned who’d almost certainly tell you the same.  Contrary to the thoughts of countless fans while in the heat of the battle, neither Lockie, Brenner, nor the Oregon defense were deliberately sabotaging the game.  They played poorly.  It happens.  But to me it’s not THAT they played poorly wherein lies the problem, but WHY they did.

The scoreboard will tell you who wins the game, but how you play is a direct result of coaching.  Players will have bad games, and even in the midst of good ones make mistakes.  But the fact that Oregon parlayed a 31-point half into 18 total second-half yards, is coaching, despite the loss of their starting quarterback and center.

Of course, Vernon Adams is a far superior player compared to junior backup Jeff Lockie, and 5^th year senior transfer center Jeff Hegarty is better than Doug Brenner.  But no FBS school, especially one with the talent and resume of Oregon, should be so grossly hamstrung in the manner they were last Saturday night.

There should always be a fallback plan in case of such a situation.  That may entail play selection, personnel packages possibly including Wildcat-type plays, clock management, etc.  Oh, and delivering the football to the quarterback at the onset of a play should rank as high-priority.  No injury should result in that type of ineffectiveness…EVER, and if it does the people responsible for “worst case preparation” should be held accountable.  What we saw from the Ducks in the second half, like it or not, was a coaching staff failing to properly prepare their team, their entire team, for a stone they left unturned.

I’m not “fire the coach” guy, nor am I saying Coach Helfrich and his staff have to go.  However, I am saying that they dropped the ball last weekend and due to such put their players in a position to fail, when success seemed like the only realistic option.

TCU was not the better team in San Antonio.  But their coaches made them think so, and Oregon’s coaches allowed them to look the part.  Mistakes happen, but preparation can limit the likelihood of their occurrence.  Lockie, Brenner, and Oregon’s defense may have lost the battle, but they lost the war due to coaching.  The former I can accept, the latter will eventually have consequences, and the entire country saw that Saturday night.