David Braun in his weekly press conference said it wasn’t a problem with the offense taking its foot off the gas. Well, there were plenty of other problems, especially with containing Oregon’s offense. This week, I’m diving more into the Oregon offensive film to see what it did so well to attack Northwestern’s defense, but I also have some Wildcats offense sprinkled in with how the passing offense stood out in the first half. It was a tough loss on the road, especially with a 20-6 lead in the first half,
but that makes the margin for error a very thin line for the remainder of the season.
Weekly Aidan Chiles passing
Every week, Aidan Chiles shows off his arm. This season has been a revelation for Chiles as his accuracy and poise have improved tremendously. On this first play here, Northwestern has three players stacked up in the backfield behind the right tackle, from which Griffin Wilde runs a seam route and bursts past the match coverage the Ducks run for a massive touchdown. Chiles stays calm in the pocket and waits for Wilde to break open and finds him for the long touchdown. The second play is a shotgun look where Chiles once again stays calm in the pocket. He goes through his progressions nicely here, first looking toward the bunch on the left side and then shifting over to find Wilde cutting in on the dig route. Oregon rotates into its match coverage, but Wilde is able to break inwards behind the linebackers, where Chiles hits him right in the hands.
The third play, Drew Wagner motions across as Chiles starts in the shotgun. He rolls to his right when the pocket collapses and is able to draw in the linebacker because of his rushing threat. He then throws a touch pass a bit behind Wilde, who adjusts to make the grab as his defender’s momentum carries him away from the ball. The fourth play starts under center in a singleback look with Wagner motioning across. Chiles fakes to Gavin Sawchuk, rolls to his left, jukes a defender in the backfield, continues rolling to his left and then throws off balance to Wilde as he cuts upfield into open space. Great awareness from Wilde here to get open for his quarterback after the play broke down and Chiles had to improvise.
Raiola’s revival
Dylan Raiola had his best game of the season against Northwestern’s injury-riddled defense. It did help to have most of his wide receivers healthy, but he carved up the Wildcats’ defense like it was Thanksgiving and not Halloween. On the first play, Northwestern drops into a Tampa 2 look, and Raiola waits for his receiver Jalen Lott to get past the right-side hard flat before he fires to him on the sideline. Lott then makes a quick cut after the catch for extra yardage as Northwestern’s defense struggled with tackling for most of the day. The second play, Northwestern runs Tampa 2 once again with Kobie McKinzie dropping into a deeper zone. This throw from Raiola isn’t that good, but the effort from Lott to make the contested catch is outstanding. He simply mossed Ore Adeyi.
Northwestern runs man coverage with one deep safety in the third play, and Evan Stewart makes Brenden Deasfernandes pay with his top-end speed to come open on the deep crossing route. Raiola makes the throw and Stewart is able to get his feet down in bounds despite Deasfernandes being right behind him. If the throw was a split second later or a tiny bit behind Stewart, this play likely falls incomplete. On the fourth play, Northwestern runs man coverage once again, and Raiola gives Dakorien Moore a chance in a one-on-one. Montae Pate starts about 7 yards opposite of Moore, and Moore just beats him off the cut to the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
On the fifth play, NU runs Tampa 2 again, with McKinzie committing to the deep 9-route from Lott. Raiola takes his time in the pocket, and Moore springs wide open in the space where McKinzie would have been if not for the clear-out route. Northwestern runs man again on the sixth play, and Jamari Johnson flat out beats Adeyi from the jump and has a step on him the entire way until Raiola drops it in the bucket. The seventh play is a Cover 2 man look from the ‘Cats, but the commotion near the right-side deep safety allows for Stewart to get open on the right sideline enough for Raiola to get the ball to him.
For the eighth play, Oregon runs a trips set to start with Johnson then motioning inside to block. Northwestern runs man defense here, and Moore beats Adeyi with his speed before cutting back after the catch to spring free for the 75-yard touchdown. The ninth play was what sealed the game for Oregon. The Ducks decided to pass with under two minutes and no timeouts for Northwestern, and Raiola heaves the ball off his back foot to Johnson who is breaking upfield. Johnson bobbles the ball yet still comes down with it, and then Oregon went on to kneel the clock out. It looks again like Northwestern ran man here, likely expecting a run, with the defenders biting when they thought Raiola could have been sacked. That allowed Johnson to spring free.
