From SilverStream:
I attended today's scrimmage, and spent most of my time focusing on the tailbacks.
It was pretty clear that Malcolm Agnew had the best day among the tailbacks today. Agnew ran hard and well all day, showing toughness, balance, and looking sure-handed with the ball. He scored a 20-yard TD on an excellent catch and run up the middle. He also blocked hard and effectively on pass plays, knocking down a number of pass rushers on cut blocks. Agnew seems to have improved his blocking a lot since last season — especially his cut blocks. Based on today's scrimmage — and assuming he stays healthy — I'd guess that Agnew is going to be listed #1 at TB this week or next on the Beaver depth chart.
I also thought that Storm Woods looked good. SW only had a couple of carries, but he too ran hard, and was tough to bring down. SW also did a good job blocking on pass plays.
Chris Brown only came in near the very end of the scrimmage, but I thought he played okay, too, in a limited role. He had one gain of 10+ yards on a pass/lateral to the right side where he juked a defender, turned upfield, ran hard, and proved hard to bring down. Chris Brown looks like he is somewhat behind Agnew and Woods at the moment in terms of being ready to play TB in PAC-12 games, but that's to be expected (as a true freshman in his second week of summer camp). I also think Chris Brown could use some time in the weight room, to get bigger and stronger (he doesn't appear nearly as big and strong as Agnew). In other words, I don't think Chris Brown will step in right away and be a star at TB. But he has potential, as pretty much everyone has said. Just not sure whether it's going to be this season or next….
Jordan Jenkins was the least impressive TB today (at least to me). A couple of his runs went nowhere, and he looked a bit slow getting to the line of scrimmage. But JJ did a good job blocking on pass plays, and did break one run to the outside for decent yardage. JJ looks like a solid back up or third down option when/as needed, but Agnew and Woods seem clearly better.
Terron Ward did not play in today's scrimmage.
For more details, see the play-by-play report below.
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P1: Quick out to Cooks for a good gain, Jordan Jenkins at tailback but didn't do much on this quick pass
P2: Jordan Jenkins run over left tackle, JJ cut inside and picked up 2-3 yards (nothing special)
P3: Quick out to left to Obum Gwacham for 5+ yards; JJ flared to right as secondary receiver but no action otherwise
P4: Quick out to Cooks to the right side, faked one tackler, turned upfield for 5 more yards, then hit and fumbled ball out of bounds — Coach Brennan yelled multiple times to Cooks: "Lock it up!", who nodded his head — JJ at tailback, but didn't do much on this quick pass
P5: Malcolm Agnew's first play in scrimmage, at TB behind York at FB: handoff to left side, MA cut it inside quickly, hit quickly, but still gained 4-5 yards with some tough running and good balance
P6: Agnew over left guard, cut inside, slipped a tackle, stayed low, picked up another 5 yards or so with more tough inside running
P7: Fake to Agnew, pass to FB, Agnew threw effective cut block on Scott Crichton that kept him out of the play
P8: Off tackle run by Agnew, cut it inside again and fought off hits to gain 3-4 yards — again, tough inside running by MA
P9: Storm Woods first play — fake to SW into the line, SW then cut down an onrushing linebacker, pass complete to Clayton York outside for about a 15 yard gain
P10: Storm Woods over left tackle, plowed into a small hole which quickly closed, moved the pile for about a four yard gain — good inside running by SW
P11: In red zone, on 7 yard line, fake to Storm Woods into the line, then Mannion threw a high fade pass to Obum Gwacham in the corner of the end zone for the TD — nice to see the Beavers using Obum's height and jumping advantage in the red zone with the fade!
P12: Second unit in, with Cody Vaz: first play is completed pass to Tyler Perry, Jordan Jenkins was at tailback — faked into line and helped with pass protection (nothing special)
P13: JJ took handoff on play designed to run over left guard, but nothing there, so JJ tried to cut back to his right, but slipped — no gain (or perhaps a loss of a yard)
P14: Quick slant completed to Obum on the right side for 10+ yards; JJ at tailback moved to left and blocked DE John Braun on the play, getting in Braun's way (but it was a quick play, so not much for JJ really to do)
P15: JJ at tailback; play action pass to Connor Hamlett for 14 yard gain; JJ after fake didn't do anything notable
P16: JJ at tailback, fake handoff, then JJ drifted through the line and into the middle, caught a short pass, and turned upfield to gain 7+ yards
P17: False start by R. Mullaney on left side; Mullaney chastised and pulled out; Agnew now at tailback, handoff to right side, MA got outside and picked up 5+ yards, knocked out of bounds on right sideline by Kell, but Agnew kept his feet and never went all the way down — good balance and toughness
P18: Agnew used as a checkdown option on an attempted quick pass to Kellen Clute (incomplete)
P19: Storm Woods in at tailback, on this play acted as checkdown receiver on right side, downfield pass route complete (to Hatfield, I think) for about 10 yards; after the catch, Storm Woods did a good job of blocking the defensive back near the right sideline, to give the receiver a chance to pick up a few more yards
P20: In red zone, from 20 yard line, Agnew in at TB again, fake handoff to Agnew, who ran through the middle of the line, turned and caught a short pass from Vaz, turned back upfield and eluded tacklers to dance into the end zone upright, after which MA pointed to the sky — excellent catch and run for the TD by Agnew
P21: Agnew at TB, Mannion back in at QB with first unit: first play is right side slant to Obum for 8+ yards; Agnew did not do much on this quick pass play
P22: Storm Woods in, gets handoff, runs over right side, met quickly, with Andrew Seumalo trying hard to strip the ball — Woods hangs on to the ball, and keeps driving forward, gaining about 3 yards — tough running by Woods
P23: Quick slant to Cooks on the left completed; Storm Woods executed a good cut block vs. onrushing lineman
P24: Storm Woods floated to the right and caught pass; juked and evaded a linebacker (I think it was DJ Welch, although I'm not positive) and then took a hard hit downfield from Scott Crichton and held on to the ball for about a 5 yard gain
P25: Jenkins in at tailback — took handoff and ran over left guard, slow to hole, gained about a yard
P26: Jenkins over left tackle, then cut the play outside and gained 8+ yards on a nice run
P27: Flare pass to FB; Agnew threw an excellent cut block on Scott Crichton to protect Mannion
P28: Jenkins at TB: took handoff over left side, cut back to right, got stood up, made about a yard
P29: Shotgun formation, JJ on left, circled over the middle and caught pass from Mannion for about 5 yards — JJ went down pretty quickly/easily
P30: Fake to Agnew into the line, pass protection broke down — Mannion would have been sacked on this play had this been a real game (only time pass protection really broke down all day)
P31: Draw play to Agnew — good cut to the right after taking the handoff, picked up 6+ yards with tough running — hard to bring him down at the end
P32: Shotgun with Agnew to the right — incomplete pass downfield, Agnew a checkdown receiver on the play, but not involved in the action
P33: Second unit in — Cody Vaz to Tyler Perry on the right side for 8+ yard gain; Storm Woods in as checkdown received on the left side, but not involved in the action
P34: Fake handoff to Storm Woods, then quick out to Mullaney for 5+ yards
P35: Quick slant to Mullaney for 10+ yards; Storm Woods in at TB but not involved in the action
P36: Quick pass to Mullaney again on the left side for 5+ yards; Storm Woods in at TB but again not involved in the action
P37: First play for Chris Brown at TB in the scrimmage: quick pass (perhaps a lateral) to Chris Brown to the right side, plenty of room to run, turned upfield, juked one defender, then continued for 10+ yards before being tackled — nice catch and run
P38: Chris Brown in at TB again, ran off tackle to the right, got through the line and gained 4+ yards, stood up by several defenders but kept fighting and did not go down easily
P39: Chris Brown, took handoff on play designed to go over left guard, but took it outside instead and got gang tackled for no gain (or a loss) — not a great decision to take the play outside, but again tough to bring CB down
P40: Red zone play — attempted pass to Clayton York to left side, dropped by York; Chris Brown did a decent job of pass protection on the play
P41: Red zone play from the 6 yard line: Cody Vaz throws a high fade pass to Mullaney in the left end zone, Mullaney jumps high and comes down with the ball for the TD. Scrimmage ends on that TD play.
Question — it sounds like most plays were quick hitters, but there were still defensive players in the backfield (rb’s blocking guys). What’s the impression of the pass blocking? How many plays took a while to develop (downfield passes)?
It sounds like run blocking is decent.
I really was focused on the tailbacks today, following them wherever they went on each play (even when the TB’s were just checkdown options or decoys). So I didn’t get a chance to watch the o-line much today during the scrimmage. As noted, most of the pass plays were short to medium passes that developed quickly, with only a few longer-developing pass plays (on one of which the pass protection broke down). On the quick developing plays, the QBs had sufficient time to throw (as suggested by the very high completion percentage during today’s scrimmage — only a couple of incomplete passes and over 20 completed).
However, for what it’s worth, let me add this. I got to Reser a few minutes before today’s scrimmage started, and was able to watch a pass-protection drill — in the south end zone — involving one-on-one “live contact” matchups between first string o-line and d-line players. In one of those drills, Dylan Wynn bull-rushed Michael Philipp, pushing him into the backfield, and knocking Philipp on his rear end. Then, a few minutes later, Dylan Wynn went up against Isaac Seumalo. This time DW ended up on the ground, after Isaac handled DW at the line of scrimmage, and then pushed him down at the end of the play. Just two data points, nothing more. But I liked very much what I saw from DW on the first play, and from Isaac Seumalo on the second….
Thanks so much for these, keep up the great work!
Does Wynn look like he is up to 270lbs?
Hard to say for sure, but DW does look somewhat more “bulked up” to me.
Good work, thanks SS.
Nice.
What’s the next focus?
Thanks SS!!!
I’ve read that neither Poyer nor Reynolds played.
If the QBs were something like 23 of 25 does this give an indication of the talent or skill level behind Poyer and Reynolds?
Not sure I have warm fuzzy feelings about the O dominating the D. Queezy feelings might be closer to it.
I wasn’t watching the cornerbacks, but it certainly did seem that Beaver receivers were getting open rather easily all day, an observation confirmed by the very high pass completion percentages of both Mannion and Vaz. From this, I guess it’s reasonable to be concerned about the play of the second unit CB’s. The fact that Markus Wheaton — arguably OSU’s top receiver — didn’t play in today’s scrimmage makes the performance of the second unit CB’s even more problematic.
But it wasn’t just the CB’s, and it wasn’t just the first unit. The offense (both first and second units) moved down the field pretty steadily all day against both the first and second unit defenses. From today’s scrimmage, I think it’s fair to say that the OSU offense is ahead of the defense at the moment, that the defense has some work to do to catch up.
Sure, it’s still only the second week of camp. But if OSU is going to have a chance of beating Wisconsin in week two, the defense will have to play a whole lot better than it played today, and better start shaping up sooner rather than later….
What I read at Olive, the defense was not using any schemes, just doing it vanilla, and working on technique. So no surprises for the offense, and they dominated, which they should, exp with quick developing plays.
And….Poyer and RR were not in there, to balance out Wheaton not playing.
To me this says Mannion and Vaz also, have it together, and the line is doing some blocking for the run. Looks positive to me.
Thanks for the report, SS!
The defense played with no schemes…so what you are telling me is they played like they usually do.
Banker at his best – they just “weren’t playing assignment football. We’re going to tighten a few things down, change some approach angles, and we’ll get better.”
lol….my 6:30 post appears ahead of my 4:30 post…..now that could get confusing….
With the caveat of staying healthy, from what we’ve seen from him, can we get excited about Agnew? i think I can. i recall a solid back who ran hard and was a chore to bring down, with some evasiveness to boot. sounds like woods is right there too.
OK I guess SS. Next time could you focus a little more and give us some details?
Thanks,
Now its clear why the O had such a good day – according to Olive Reuben Robinson did not participate…
I think Agnew has potential, and I recall last year Angry saying sometimes he looked like Quizz out there. But I don’t think his hamstrings are to be trusted. Yet. Better keep giving Woods and Brown work to prepare them.
I can’t remember a time where the fullback got that much work. I like it. Especially York, He’s got a motor.
I just have to say, thank you SS for all the practice reports! I’m pretty sure I spotted you at a scrimmage last spring. Do you record notes into your iPhone?
SS>Cliff>>Buker
Max: Yes, most likely that was me. I record my notes into my (Android) phone as I watch practices, and then transcribe the notes when I return to my home office. My goal is to provide the most careful observations I can about what occurs in selected parts of each practice — so that other Beaver fans can “see” what’s happening in the practice, even though they can’t attend in person.
SS these reports are so awesome to read while sitting down here in Trojan land. Keep up the good work buddy!
It’s funny that every time I see Agnew’s name I your reports my gut tightens and I’m hoping the next works don’t include fumble or hamstring. Man I hope he doesn’t fumble or blow out a hammy…. I want to see this guy in action. Is there nothing they can do to keep his hammy’s well?
When can we expect SS to apply to the Oregonian for a writing job?! Or better yet, a scouting job for the OSU football team?! :p
OT… this is what I’ve always thought.
Then again, I’ve also thought rankings shouldn’t come out until the fourth week each year.
Forgot the link:
http://www.thepostgame.com/commentary/201208/better-without-em-northern-manifesto-southern-secession-chuck-thompson-sec-bcs
SS… did you forward this report to Riley. I doubt that he, and the staff, are aware of all the details included. JB
Oh crap, don’t do that! Sure as hell he’ll be banned from practices.
His written notes are as clear as video!
BAN HIM!!!!! BAAAAAAAN HIM!!!!!!
OT… winning does not guarantee butts in seats.
http://www.registerguard.com/web/sports/28602318-41/state-game-oregon-season-tickets.html.csp
Note ticket inflation is only touched upon, and SOS isn’t mentioned. We’ve talked about both and how they affect real sales numbers. And they seem to be more real than just putting a winning team on the field. Add that Autzen’s parking lot (and tailgating space) is disappearing from what used to be a pretty good scene. And add the new TV deal. People aren’t finding value in even a winning team.
This is why I think the calls to “expand” Reser are folly. Yes, eventually the west side needs to be upgraded, but esthetics are the least of the reasons involved. Apparently, 50K is just about right for this region’s real, die-hard fans for either team. There will be days when demand trumps capacity. But the mean is going to favor the smaller capacity in the long run.
Maybe the argument should be for more bells and whistles rather than capacity. Maybe game day experience and accommodation is just a nice thing to do for the rather static population you’re going to see every week.
I have a friend who is a die-hard duck and has had season tickets for the last five or so years. We had several conversations last season about how the energy level during tailgaiting had been steadily declining, mostly due to the fact that most fans assumed each game (with the exception of a few) would be a slaughter, and there just wasn’t as much to get excited about. Wooohoooo, we are going to win easily again!
Obviously, that is a good problem to have, but it would be ironic if it actually translated to reduced ticket sales.
On this point; I allowed myself to get scammed on some tickets to last year’s civil war at Autzen. As I stood there, refused by the ticket-man and realizing I had no tickets to the game he says, dude, just get in line there are still tix available.
I ended up getting a pair of outstanding seats for very reasonable cost.
Now that I think about it though I think I remember most duck fans looking forward to the PAc-12 champ game the next week more so than killing the Beavs again so I’m sure that had something to do with it. Regardless, to not even sell out the CW when you’re in the Rose Bowl race….
I’m not sure how that works. I have a friend who has spent the last several years walking up to the ticket office and purchasing tickets just before game time because he doesn’t want to pay the extra fees and surcharges involved with season tickets. And his pics of the game prove his statements that he gets good seats.
I’ve heard the explanation that these are buy-back tix, but he says he sits in a variety of seats throughout the season, some with the opposition fans, some with Duck boosters, etc.
But the end result is that he hasn’t missed a game in some 15 years (when he’s in town).
Just to add to what has already been said, Thanks SS. This is the kind of stuff that gets me excited for the season, an actual analysis of what happened at practice/scrimmage. Well Done!
OT: Nicholls St. appears to be one of the teams in the running for the services of Tyrann Mathieu, although the young man is currently in a rehabilitation center. I wish Tyrann the best, but that’s just the Beavers luck. Seeing visions of the Honey Badger taking a punt to the house at Reser. Ugh.
No, he isn’t going to play football this year: http://www.fox8live.com/story/19300600/fox-8-exclusive-tyrann-mathieu
Good for him and his family. I hope he finds peace.
What a stupid fucker. Has life by the balls and pisses it away.
He’s a kid sucked into a world where every vice imaginable was there for the asking. Les Miles and his control over his team and its boosters/agents/hangers-on may be a more likely target for disdain. Regardless, he is doing the right thing first, and thinking of school/football second. Perhaps he’s pissed nothing away and suddenly grown up. I think he’s gained more than he’s lost if he’s truly sincere about this.
If not? Then yes, what a stupid fucker.
Good report. Sounds like Agnew is asserting himself as the #1 back.
Based on the way it sounds like the reps were doled out, here is my guess at the depth chart.
1. Agnew. Positive reports on blocking and holding onto the ball.
2. Woods. Haven’t heard much negatives about him. But we’ll see when he gets live game action. (side note – just saying reports on him sound very similar to McCants).
3. Ward. Injury is not helping him. I expect Ward to be the 3rd down back.
4. Jenkins – Experience puts him over Brown. Back up 3rd down back.
5. Brown – There’s no more time for him to surpass the others. Time to redshirt him. Let him get bigger and stronger for next year.
OT… wtf?
http://tracking.si.com/2012/08/17/ucla-adria-gasol-walk-on/
I’ve heard Adria was not sold on playing hoops. Just like his brothers, he was a goofy no-talent tall guy in high school. But just like his brothers, he can be a late bloomer. I don’t know if his dislike for the game was due to his awkward abilities. But UCLA stands to get more out of this relationship than just a late bloomer, if he does become one.
So I was watching the Pac-12 NetworksOR station and it was the “Oregon” preview with interviews with Chip Kelly and a few players. Well, Chip Kelly said his secret!!! He stated that he wants a QB who can run and not one who can throw! So, Chipster doesn’t care if his QB’s can throw. Which means, that with defending Oregon means you assume every play is a run play to force them to try and beat you with the passing game. shut down the run game, and they will try to beat you with their weak pass game. make them one dimensional.