SCOTTSADALE, Ariz. — Oregon’s offense is easily the most recognizable in the country — the breakneck tempo, LaMichael James, the mysterious play-calling cards. But what exactly is the Ducks’ defensive identity?
Cornerback Cliff Harris, arguably the unit’s top playmaker and easily its best talker, ponders the question for a second before delivering this highly descriptive analogy: “We’re like a great white shark in the ocean just swimming on the surface. Everything that’s in front of us, we eat it up.”
Harris and his largely unsung teammates don’t always chew up opposing offenses — they rank 25th nationally in total yards allowed (331.6 yards per game) — but they do usually leave them mangled by game’s end. In reaching Monday’s BCS National Championship Game against Auburn, the 12-0 Ducks have limited foes to an impressive 18.4 points per game (12th nationally) in large part by producing 35 turnovers (third nationally).
A few Pac-10 opponents left sizable imprints on the scoreboard — USC put up 32, Stanford and Arizona State 31 — but their paths to the end zone narrowed considerably when it mattered most. Oregon ranked fifth nationally in red zone defense (67.6 percent and became particularly stingy the further the game went: In 12 games, Oregon allowed a combined 83 second-half points and held all but four teams scoreless in the fourth quarter.
“I think [Oregon's defense is very underrated," said Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, the man who presents the Ducks' stiffest challenge to date. "I don't think they get what they [deserve] because all the attention goes to their offense. For anybody to hold teams to what they have, I take my hat off to them.”
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Much like his unsung unit, Ducks defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti is practically the antithesis of his counterpart Monday night, Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn. While Malzahn, five years removed from high-school coaching, is considered a rising star and a guru of the no-huddle spread offense, Aliotti, 56, is a career assistant who’s spent 21 years on Oregon’s staff (over three separate stints) and whom Ducks fans have mockingly referred to in the past as “Nick Allow-a-lot-i.”
“I won’t put myself in any guru category,” said the animated and often hilarious coordinator.
But this year’s defense is arguably the best unit he’s orchestrated, one that’s allowed Oregon’s fewest points per game since 1980 but went largely unnoticed over the course of the season and is probably the last thing on people’s minds heading into a much-hyped showcase of two prolific offenses.
“We feel like the red-headed stepchild,” said Aliotti. “The defenses are going to have to play a little bit during the game. Maybe we’ll just get on the field when we’re giving our offenses a chance to rest.”
Aliotti’s defense isn’t necessarily defined by one overriding philosophy. He’s changed his approach from year to year based on the personnel. Last year’s team, which suffered a rash of injuries to its secondary early in the season, stuck mostly to the basics and was shredded late in the year by quarterbacks like Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor.
This season, with a secondary led by stalwart cornerbacks Harris and Talmadge Jackon to go with veterans up front (senior defensive tackle Brandon Bair, senior defensive end Kenny Rowe) and at linebacker (seniors Casey Matthews and Spencer Paysinger), Oregon
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