Tag: Jeffery Bassa

Ranking Pac-12 Defenses midway through the season

Which Pac-12 team has the best defense so far this season? We break down the numbers and find out.

The Pac-12 has never been known for its defensive prowess. Instead, the hallmark of the Pac-12 has always been a high-octane passing offense, but that doesn’t mean defense is any less important. Yesterday, I ranked all of the offenses in the Pac-12, which you should check out if you haven’t already. Today, I’m ranking each defense in the Pac-12 as we look forward to the second half of the season.

One of the metrics I use throughout this article is “stop rate,” a stat championed by the Athletic (subscription required). Simply, stop rate is the rate at which defenses force a turnover, a turnover on downs, or a punt. For reference, Michigan leads the league in stop rate at 87.5 percent, which means they force a stop 87.5 percent of the time. Bringing up the rear is New Mexico, with a stop rate of 33.3 percent meaning they allow a score of 66.67 percent of the time.

Below are each of the Pac-12 defenses ranked:

Ducks Wire Player of the Game: Jeffery Bassa leads Oregon defense

Jeffrey Bassa had a team-high 9 tackles and the game-sealing pick-six vs. Texas Tech. He is our player of the game.

That was not an easy game, but the Ducks managed to grab a win. There were plenty of mistakes, and it’s definitely not the way the team will want to look going forward. But, a win is a win, and this was a big one.

No one played perfectly for the Ducks, but the standout player in my eyes today was Jeffery Bassa. He led the team in tackles with 9 of them — 8 of them were solo tackles and 1 of them was a TFL. And while those things are important, Bassa’s biggest contribution was obviously his late-game pick-six to stop Texas Tech’s final effort and clinch the game for the Ducks.

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The pick came after Tyler Shough was hit by Brandon Dorlus as he was throwing. Bassa was probably five feet from Shough, but despite the close range, he caught the ball surely, and from the jump, nobody had a chance to catch him.

As Oregon moves into Week 3 against Hawaii, tackling will surely be a focus for the defense unit. There were too many instances tonight where Red Raider ball carriers were able to slip the first tackler. It resulted in the extension of several drives, and almost cost the Ducks the game, so having a sure-handed tackler like Bassa, was all the more important for Oregon tonight.

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Bo Nix dishes on Dan Lanning and Kenny Dillingham at Pac-12 media day

“He was one of the biggest reasons I came to Oregon to begin with.” Bo Nix on head coach Dan Lanning

In addition to Dan Lanning and Jeffery Bassa, Oregon Ducks QB Bo Nix took the stage for Pac-12 media day, on Friday afternoon. He answered the media’s questions about his relationships with other players and coaches, past and present, as well as questions about the upcoming season for the Oregon Ducks.

Nix had some good insights into how the Ducks will fare in 2023, as well as how things have changed since last season. One of the things Dan Lanning brought up in his time with the media was the introduction of a new focus for the whole team this offseason of going from “good to great” as a program, which was an idea that was echoed by both Nix and Bassa in their time with the media.

Below a Bo Nix’s most notable responses to questions from Pac-12 media day: