No grades and analysis would be complete for the Oregon – Southern Utah matchup without one big caveat: SUU is an FCS team. This means that coming out of high school, probably nobody on the Thunderbirds’ roster had a Pac-12 offer. But with that grain of salt thrown in, there was plenty to see on the field as the Ducks opened up their 2017 season with a resounding 77-21 win on Saturday night.

After releasing the Offense Grades earlier, we now take a look at the other units with an analysis of defense and special teams.

Defense B- (21 points against, 365 total yards against, 14-18 third down, 3-3 fourth down, 2 takeaways) Saturday’s defensive performance was a mix of good and bad but overall a vast improvement versus last year in several areas.

DL B- (Jelks 5 tackles, tfl, block, Mondeaux 3 tackles, sack, BrUp, George 2 tackles, Carlberg 2 tackles, Kampmoyer tackle) The defensive line is not going to have great statistics with a three-man base front. This is the group that faces the blockers, tries to maintain their lanes and plays both run and pass equally. Like the OL, often it is the good work of this unit that shows up in the statistics of others. All that said, Jelks and Mondeaux made some nice plays but other than that it seemed this group did a lot of taking on blockers and getting good push at the line of scrimmage. As the season goes on against tougher OL’s, it would be nice to get more production up front in terms of big plays.

LB B+ (Dye 10 tackles, sack, 2 tfl, INT, BrUp, Hollins 6 tackles, sack, Leiato 5 tackles, Apelu 5 tackles, Swain 4 tackles, Winston 3 tackles, Hotchkins 2 tackles, Moi sack) Troy Dye kind of stole the show on defense for the Ducks displaying a high level of activity and a nose for the ball. Justin Hollins made some nice plays as well and overall this group was active and high energy. Very nice to see from the middle of the defense. Dye’s INT helps this grade.

DB C+ (Springs 5 tackles, 2 BrUps, Graham 5 tackles, Amadi 4 tackles, sack, INT, BrUp, Gibson 4 tackles, Williams 3 tackles, McGraw 3 tackles, Griffin 2 tackles, Pickett 2 tackles, Lenoir BrUp) Good and bad from these guys. The bad was the cushion they lavished on the SUU receivers, particularly early in the game. It was as if the Ducks felt the Thunderbirds were lining up a trio of Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens and Randy Moss out there. But news flash…they weren’t and they got burned with the underneath stuff early. Amadi did a good job out there most of the time and freshman Billy Gibson was impressive. The T-birds clearly decided to pick on freshman Thomas Graham and he rewarded them with several pass interference calls. Some things need to be and improved upon with this group but they definitely have the talent to be very good. Amadi’s INT helps this grade.

Special Teams B Overall for this game the special teams groups seem to be quite solid. Punting is not a settled issue but at least against Southern Utah, the kick coverages, returns and kicking looked darn good.

KO B+ (Schneider net 42.8 ypko, 5/12 touchbacks) Kickoffs and coverage were good and need to remain that way next weekend.

KOR B- (Brooks-James 39.2 ypr) Overall very good job by the return team blocking and by TBJ running except for the fumble.

Punt B (Net 37.3 ypp, Stack 2-40.0, Maimone 1-46.0) The coaches said it was a close battle between Stack and Maimone for the punter spot and the proved it is still up in the air by letting both of them take whacks at it.

Punt return B+ (Nelson 12.0 ypr) Charles Nelson is a brave and usually sure-handed punt returner who could break one at any time. He made good decisions when to fair catch.

Kicking A (Schneider 11-11 PAT) Perfect job by Aiden Schneider though the Ducks kept scoring TD’s so he didn’t get any field goal tries.

Coaching B (11-100 penalties, +0 TO ratio) Kind of a mixed bag here. Execution was quite good and the level of excitement by the players was obvious with towels waving and dancing on the sidelines much of the game. We’ll see how the “swag surfing” plays out in close battles or if it exists when the Ducks are behind. But it really is a metaphor on how Taggart and staff are running this team; have fun and celebrate success. Hopefully the 11 penalties are not the type of price to be paid in terms of discipline. From the 10,000 foot view though this was an important win for the new staff and sets the tone beautifully for a big matchup next Saturday against a very good Nebraska football team.