EUGENE — Oregon had its most trouble defensively against Ohio State when the Buckeyes went up-tempo and the Ducks weren’t ready.
On the 27-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson, Oregon’s defenders were looking down at their wristbands for the play call when the ball was already snapped and Ohio State scored with ease.
Oregon’s coaching staff owned the communication issue, which was also a problem a week earlier against Fresno State.
“They caught us,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said. “When they’re going tempo, your defensive calls have to match the tempo. You can’t match it with a wrist band. That’s a mistake by us that we’ll fix and move forward on. You see it coming and you have enough time to get it communicated. We’ve just got to do a better job as a staff, all of us, to make sure that we get a play in quickly, something that is very simple to understand, not a dissertation. Get those things in, everyone sees it, communicate it, line up and go. Because we gave up a couple of shots.”
Defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter shouldered the responsibility for not getting the play calls in quickly enough and having the defense ready for up-tempo situations, which occurred on more than the one drive last week. Ohio State also hit Oregon for consistent gains using 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends) during the third quarter and only stopped due to a false start penalty.
“We’ve put stuff in place immediately right after that game to make sure that’s not going to happen again,” nickel safety Bennett Williams said. “As far 12 personnel stuff, it’s getting adjusted. First game we’re going to have some mistakes like that. Didn’t like to see it carryover to second game but we don’t let that happen again.”
Stony Brook isn’t expected to utilize tempo on Saturday (4:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network) since it’s wildly overmatched so the changes Oregon has made won’t necessarily see a lot of in-game use until Pac-12 play.
“You’ve got to put your guys in those situations where they know the automatics that we go to,” DeRuyter said. “So they’re not waiting for a call from the sideline. That’s something that we’ve practiced the last couple of days and we’ll continue to practice that until we get better at it.”
On the field, the onus will be certain players to get the defense set, specifically field safety Verone McKinley III and middle linebacker Noah Sewell.
“I think urgency is big,” McKinley said. “I think within the cycle of the snap, getting your eyes back, getting the call and then relaying it so we can play, you don’t have to think about it. For me being the deepest I got to make sure I communicate that to everybody.”
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