Post by wilkyisdashiznit on Jul 20, 2018 12:31:47 GMT -8
Remind anyone else of 2016, when we lost Mageo and Strong over the offseason? We weren't a good defense last year, but Ugwoegbu and Crawford were two of our better players on that side of the ball. Of course we went on in 2016 to significantly improve on defense, but I attribute that more to a weaker schedule and having a more efficient offense than really great strides by the defense.
The link above is a link to one of our pages more than a year ago, back when McMaryion was still on the team and there was hope. Despite McMaryion still being on the team, I think that you and I were on the we are pretty sure that CGA is trash bus.
A lot of posters on here were talking about the defense "improving" in 2016, but a lot of posters on here (myself included) noted that the run defense numbers actually regressed in 2016. The passing defense was improved, so teams ran the ball more. So, Oregon State's defense lost ground on things like time of possession, but the total yardage numbers looked "better."
The truth about the 2016 defense was that the front 7 hollowed out and would further hollow out in 2017. 2016's secondary was great, but it probably included the two best seniors on the team in Devin Chappell and Treston DeCoud. When they graduated, they created two giant holes in the pass defense that no one was able to fill. Still the real problem with the defense in 2018 was exactly the same as in 2016 and 2017, the run defense couldn't stop anybody and quarterbacks had time to enjoy tea and scones before finding an inevitably wide open receiver.
The schedule was weaker in 2016 than in 2015. The fact that the 2016 Oregon team was the worst Oregon team in more than a decade and the game was in Corvallis really helped to mask a lot of the very obvious problems with the 2016 team.