Position Group Check-In: Oregon's Ragtag Offensive Line
Mario Cristobal lost one of the best players in program history (plus four pros), and replaced them with juco transfers, a walk-on, some career-backups, and still built the top o-line in the Pac-12.
We’ve always known that Mario Cristobal could coach the hell out of an offensive line, but even I wasn’t optimistic enough to think that Oregon’s mixed-and-matched group would make such a clear statement their first time out.
The Ducks lead the conference in rushing in Week One with 269 yds, and they didn’t allow Stanford as much as one sack on Tyler Shough. That would be a solid enough performance for a relatively seasoned o-line, but the showing was made even more impressive by the fact that this group of guys had never played in a single game together.
Last year’s big men got a lot of attention—and for good reason. Calvin Throckmorton, Shane Lemieux, Brady Aiello, and Jake Hanson were experienced, reliable, and they all graduated up to the NFL. And the fifth wheel of that group, Penei Sewell, understandably opted-out this season due to the fact that he just might be the best professional prospect in the country at any position.
After losing that kind of generational fire power, the average person could understand if the Ducks needed at least half a season to get the new bunch dialed in.
But that’s clearly not how Cristobal operates.
Instead, Mario and OL coach Alex Mirabal have wrangled up a group of guys who took almost every possible path to get to Eugene: junior college transfers with some experience like tackles Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, George Moore, and guard TJ Bass; longtime program guys like center Alex Forsyth and tackle Steven Jones; and even a former walk-on (as of a few weeks ago), like guard Ryan Walk.
And in Walk, Pro Football Focus have found a new object of their annual Oregon offensive line affections when they tapped him as the top offensive lineman—and the third overall rated player—in the Pac-12 for the opening week.
PFF writes:
“[Walk] saw action at both left and right guard in Week 10 but was bullish at each position. His 89.6 overall grade and 90.2 run-blocking grade were both tops among offensive guards in college football.
Walk forfeited zero pressures from both guard spots on 26 pass-blocking snaps, providing quarterback Tyler Shough plenty of time in the pocket up front.”
Junior Alex Forsyth perfectly disappeared into the role of center while snapping to Shough in both the pistol and shotgun formations with ease. I personally love when an entire game broadcast doesn’t have to point out the performance of the center—as Oregon fans, we know firsthand that centers get called out for poor snapping performance, never for flawless ones. The center is also the de facto captain of the line, and while Forsyth has deep experience at nearly all positions upfront, his clear program knowledge and leadership seem to make him the perfect figurehead for this group.
Former Duck Geoff Schwartz has a pretty great weekly film studies of blocking schemes from the pro and college ranks on Twitter, and he couldn’t pass up breaking down some tape this week from Sala The Beast:
In his daily media availability last week, Cristobal mentioned that Joe Moorhead’s offense moves quick enough and spreads the ball around in a way that could allow a team to more or less, “hide the offensive line,” but we all know that isn’t something MC is interested in. Instead, this line has been cast in the same mold as the decorated group that preceded it—with both athleticism and sheer power.
Mario’s offensive line philosophy has never been about evaluating individual players. Instead, he chooses to look at how each combination of guard/tackle/center works together as a unit. He approached all of the offseason losses with that same unit-centered mindset, and managed to build something awesome out of not a whole lot.
After Penei opted out, I greatly underestimated this whole position group, and that was my mistake. I saw them how I wanted to see them…in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.
Sala, Bass, and Moore were “the juco guys.”
Forsyth and Jones were the program long-haulers.
And Walk was the underdog walk-on that was being overlooked.
But it’s clear that under the leadership of Mario Cristobal, this scrappy group of misfits has what it takes to come together and roll over the Pac.
Yes, they’re basically The Breakfast Club in the form of an offensive line.
Go Ducks.