Took the over in the tcu/oregon game. Anyone who knows me, knows that I prefer smashmouth defensive football to modern day 7 on 7. Anyone who knows me, knows that I find it hard to go over games in the mid to high seventies because it takes so little to derail the game. A six minute drive that ends scoreless in a game totaled like this is hard to overcome. But it is what the numbers and matchups are telling me to do. Obviously we have two fast paced teams. That is the perception of all and I confirmed it by pace stats just to make sure. That part of the game should be fine. We have the 6th ranked and 13th ranked offenses in terms of number of long plays from scrimmage (over 30 yds). The same two teams sport defenses that are 94th and 99th respectively as far as giving up big plays of 30 yards or more. So we have now coupled fast pace with big play capability of the offenses with the tendency of both defenses to give up chunk plays. Oregon is one of two teams in the nation that averages over 6 yards per carry and are 4th in the nation in rushing yards per game. In fact, of non-triple option teams, only Baylor rushes for more per game than Oregon. Running the ball is still the bread and butter of Oregon. In past years, when TCU used to sport some of the best run defenses in the nation, this type of match up would have worked very favorably for them. This year, largely the part of injuries, the TCU defense ranks a disappointing 79th against the run. Over the final two games of the year against oklahoma and baylor (rain game), the frogs gave up an average of 303 yards on the ground. Can TCU stop what Oregon likes to do? Unlikely. But they will make a few stops in the run game, so let's take a peek at what oregon can do passing, Ducks are 7th in the nation in yards per pass attempt and 35th in yards per game through the air. Moreover, those numbers would be even better had Adams played the whole way. He got injured and had 7 attempts across the four games of georgia state, utah, colorado state and washington state. His replacement, Lockie threw for 136 yards per game over that stretch, considerably lower than the 260 yards or so average they had for the year. It makes a big difference. While the TCU pass defense looks slightly above average in terms of yards given up, they did play in a conference that lights up the scoreboard and their defense from a yards per attempt was actually pretty good at 6.3 yards. Ducks do pose a somewhat unique style compared to what the frogs are used to seeing and while I like Patterson as a rule when it comes to scheming to stop the run and while I think TCU gets a little bit healthier over the month off, they don't rate to stop Oregon with Adams at the helm. TCU averages 564 yards per game in a conference that doesn't play real football. They have decent balance, ranking 7th in passing offense and 24th in rushing offense. Their bread and butter is QB Boykin making big plays. Can oregon stop Boykin and TCU from doing what they like to do? Nope. Oregon's achilles heal all year long has been their secondary. Would you believe they rank 126 out of 128 in yards given up via the pass? Tis true. Oregon does sport an average rush defense.
So we have everything to point to a lot of points: pace, big plays from scrimmage, and both defensive weaknesses matching up against an opposing offense capable of exploiting it. There are going to be fireworks in this game. I wouldn't be surprised to see a hundy scored.