SJSU grades: Defense
Oregon won its final pre-Pac-12 game on Saturday 35-22 over San Jose State, running their season record to 3-0 heading into their crucial league tilt with Stanford this weekend. Duck Sports Authority wraps up its SJSU analysis with the Defensive grades
Overall B (22 points, 16 first downs, 296 total yards against, 12-16 third down defense, 2 takeaways)
The Ducks made the Spartans one-dimensional and did not have to try too hard to do it. The Ducks had a match-up issue in the defensive backfield that caused most of the damage the visitors were able to inflict. In the big picture though, Oregon was quite good on defense against San Jose State even if the fans were not satisfied with the margin of victory.
Defensive line B (Jelks 5 tackles, sack, 1.5 tfl, BrUp, Cumberlander 2 tackles, sack, Baker 2 tackles, Faoliu 2 tackles, qbh, Scott 2 tackles,
Jalen Jelks had a very good game although his stats don’t do him justice. He hit the quarterback four times, which the official stats do not count, and hurried the quarterback several times in addition to those. Jelks graded as the top DE in college football for Week #3.
Austin Faoliu did well against the run but did not apply much pressure on the QB. Like Faoliu, Jordon Scott was more effective against the run than pass, although he was double-teamed often.
Overall the defensive line did well. San Jose State had 29 net yards and one first down rushing.
Top three DL grades were to 1. Jelks 2. Faoliu 3. Scott
Linebackers B+ (Hollins 8 tackles sack, 2 tfl, FF, INT, BrUp, Apelu 6 tackles, sack, BrUp, qbh, Dye 5 tackles, Slade-Matautia 3 tackles, Winston 3 tackles, BrUp)
Justin Hollins had perhaps the best game of his career. He was all over the field both in run support and pass rush. The length he has on the outside, coupled with that of Jelks, does constrain the passing lanes for the opposing quarterback. Hollins was especially effective in pass rush although his big plays certainly help this unit’s grade.
Lana Apelu was good for the second game in a row. The strength of his game turns out to be in the pass defense game so far this year. The Ducks sent him blitzing five times and in those he got a qbh and a sack.
Isaac Slade-Matuatia was very effective during his 26 snaps in both run defense and pass rush. He blitzed four times, hit the QB once and hurried him once.
Winston and Dye each had a missed tackle which, of course, do not help this grade. Winston was an excellent blitzer against the Spartans and the Ducks sent him a lot.
Keith Simms was in for five plays, all of them SJSU tried to pass. The Ducks blitzed him on 3 of those plays and he did hurry the quarterback one of those times.
Top three LB grades were to 1. Hollins 2. Slade-Matuatia/Winston tie 3. Apelu
Defensive backs B (Amadi 8 tackles, 0.5 tfl, 2 BrUps, Graham Jr 5 tackles, 3 BrUps, Holland 3 tackles, INT, Lenoir 2 tackles, BrUp, McKinley III tackle, Stephens tackle, Pickett tackle, BrUp)
Ugo Amadi had a nice game with three balls completed out of 7 thrown his way for only 16 yards. He was very good in run support as well.
Jevon Holland was very good in pass coverage too, giving up 24 yards in 5 attempts, picking off one of them. He did get dinged for his coverage of Josh Oliver on the 17-yard TD catch.
Thomas Graham had a tough game, particularly when he covered Bailey Gaither or Tre Hartley. Combined those two caught the ball 6-8 times SJSU went to that match-up for 150 yards.
Nick Pickett was in for 73 snaps but was only thrown at twice, both of those falling incomplete.
The real problem this game for the DB group, unfortunately for Thomas Graham, was his coverage of those two wide receivers I mentioned above. Take away that and SJSU has less than 150 yards of total offense on the day.
Top three DB grades were 1. Amadi 2. Holland 3. Pickett