Mario Cristobal's Gambit: Pac-12 Championship Review

Mario Cristobal brought the Oregon Ducks and his new contract to the top of the Pac-12 for the second straight season. And he did it by beating USC again.

I would give anything to be a fly on the wall in Mario Cristobal’s annual preseason strategy meeting.

You know the one.

The meeting where he lays out all of the things he wants to do with his team. His long list of strengths, big ideas, and the opportunities he sees throughout the schedule.

After he lists it all out, he then looks for the perfect combination of things where he can confidently say: “if we just do enough of this, we can win the games on our schedule.” 

And then he draws a big fat line.

Above that line? Anywhere between two to four of his most interesting, exciting, and dominant elements. He’s going to do his best to forget all about that stuff until at least December.

And below that line? Pretty much everything he’s actually going to put into his game plans throughout the year.

He’s saving all the good stuff for later.

Last year, it was Herbert’s Rose Bowl-winning legs. This year, it was Anthony Brown in short yardage, you-absolutely-need-this-one plays. I like to call them, Masoli plays, but we’ll get back to that.

Mario wants to show every important opponent as little revealing information on tape as humanly possible—making the entire season a chess match. 

Maybe his strategy harshly challenges his team to win without a game plan that maximizes their ability. Maybe it can frustrate and confuse fans midseason, in both wins and losses.

But with his postseason pedigree, it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t work.

The Ducks are back to back Pac-12 Champs, after all.

Andy Avalos’ Arizona Interview?

Credit to last week me for astutely noticing that the second half of the Cal game was a harbinger of the creative pass rush to come.

At just the right time, Avalos turned himself into Dr. Heat—maybe not like an M.D., but more like a Ph.D. of Blitz Education (which is still very much deserving of the title of Doctor, for what it’s worth).

The Ducks picked their moments to blitz in a lot of different ways, some from the Nickel, and some from one or two linebackers, but they also sent just three or four A LOT.

Brandon Dorlus, Austin Faoliu, and most of all, Kayvon Two-Time Thibodeaux, were relentless in their pursuit of Kedon Slovis. They set up camp in the backfield all night long, and hurried, affected, and messed with nearly every drop back in one way or another.

And those individual efforts were backed up with more aggressive play calling from Avalos than we’ve seen all year.

He’d float his linebackers like Sewell or Andrew Faoliu up to the line of scrimmage pre-snap, betting big on stopping the run. That bet paid off since the Ducks allowed a measly 38 yards from USC in total rushing.

So, while selling out hard for the run, and blitzing more often than he ever has, Avalos put all his trust in the secondary to cover a ton of ground and withstand the Trojans’ monster passing attack. And all that pressure lead to mistakes, and turnovers, and big games all around.

Dede grabbed the first pick of the game, and Slovis kept pressing from there. Another ill-advised pass made its way towards Jamal Hill, and those two early INTs turned into points.

Oregon’s year-long battle with the turnover margin felt won.

Later on, Jamal Hill doubled up when he picked off a huge late-game throwaway; Mykael Wright kept up his streak of big USC games with three pass break ups; and DJ freakin’ James turned in four tackles and a touchdown-saving break up that has already been forgotten way too soon.

It’s safe to say that the secondary let the front seven cook, and then it cleaned up the mess.

Fourth Down Anthony Brown

The one big wrinkle that Mario clearly kept close to his vest all year was revealed on Friday night, and that was the playmaking ability of Anthony Brown Jr. in short yardage.

On fourth down, at the goal line, and with a helluva two touchdown showing, Brown was electric and productive and trustworthy—everything you’d expect from a four-year starter.

The way Moorhead and Mario utilized Brown clearly caught USC off guard, and that’s the whole point of saving this kind of platooning for the big postseason game. It’s that reason that I don’t think it was due to a total lack of trust in Tyler Shough, but rather a great deal of confidence in the overall game plan, and how Brown could be a key to that.

I hope to see more Fourth-Down-Brown against Iowa State, and maybe even with a little something extra, a la Howry to Harrington?

Now, I’ve been Team Tyler all year, and honestly I still am.

Shough leads the conference in passer rating and yards per completion, he ranks second in passing touchdowns, and he is third in yardage. The noisemakers can keep trying to make the guy out to be Braxton Burmeister, but he’s just not.

He has proven himself to be fallible. Absolutely.

Especially in bigger moments down the stretch of the season, his first year starter nature was far too apparent for a program that wants to compete at the level that Cristobal wants to compete at.

But I’m not writing him off for his hometown Fiesta Bowl. Or for next year’s starting job. He’s going to fight, he’s going to grow, and he’s going to get more chances to sling that thang. 

So, as excited as I am about what Anthony Brown brought (and can bring) to this offense, I won’t be hopping off the Tyler Train.

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Winning big games is awesome—even in covid.

Winning conference titles is even better—even in covid.

And winning in Los Angeles is an awesome investment in the future of this program that Mario Cristobal will never take for granted.

Maybe this one has an asterisk next to it, maybe it doesn’t. I’d still rather Oregon win the Pac under these circumstances than let it be anyone else.

And the trophy is just as big as the last one. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.

Go Ducks.