Paint By Numbers: Will Stein bullied 20-year-olds all Saturday afternoon

No. 9 Oregon manhandled rival Oregon State in a 49-14 road win on Saturday, Aug. 14.

After a rewatch of the game, pouring over Pro Football Focus pages and some Googling, the gameplan and play calling Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein put together for the Beavers defense was a masterclass in exploitation.

What does that mean? Of the 27 passing attempts Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel had, 14 were thrown at pass-catchers defended by Oregon State linebackers and nickel corners. Linebacker Isaiah Chishom was the target on six, fellow linebacker Melvin Jordan IV was thrown at once and nickel corners Sailasa Vadrawale and Josiah Johnson were the target on four and three attempts, respectively.

The running thread between these four players is their lack of experience and game reps. Chisom and Vadrawale are both redshirt freshman, the former played sparingly in 2023 with just 25 total snaps before starting against Notre Dame in the bowl game. Vadrawale had never in his career played more than 20 snaps in a game before San Diego State in week two. Jordan IV, a redshirt sophomore, exceeded 50 snaps in a game just twice prior to earning a starting role in 2024. Johnson, the eldest of the four as a redshirt junior, played more than 10 snaps for the first time in his four-year career against Oregon.

The offensive play calling for the Ducks was, seemingly by design, predicated on making young and inexperienced players make quick decisions after the snap. It was a classic school-yard bullying of the youngest kid on the playground which, unfortunately for Oregon State's defense, won't be reprimanded by a teacher.

With Stein as the surgeon and Gabriel his scalpel, RPOs were the lacerations that bled the second level of Oregon State's defense dry.

RPOs, or run-pass options, aren't a new trend in college football. In all reality, the concept is older than the author of this article with roots dating back to the early 1990s. Public consciousness caught on to the scheme and made it a household piece of football discussion in the mid-late 2010's when it caught on in the NFL with teams like the Philadelphia Eagles during their Super Bowl LII run, the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals with quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray.

The easiest ways to identify an RPO are with the quarterback and running back, especially at the mesh point between the two. The longer and more obvious the quarterback holds the ball to the gut of the running back, the more likely he is making the read to pull the ball or give it to the back. Leaving a defender — more often than not an edge rusher — unblocked is also a tell, with that being the player the quarterback is reading to make his decision. A receiver turning his head to look for the ball while running a route is also a give away.

In Oregon's case on Saturday, it was more pass-run option, with Gabriel taking the passing option on a number of plays.

The first play to take a look at is a fairly simple one.

This screenshot, taken as close to after the ball was snapped as possible, results in Gabriel throwing a slant route to Tez Johnson for a 17-yard gain. Gabriel has two options on this play — either give to the running back, Jordan James in this situation, or throw the slant to Johnson. Gabriel has two reads: the corner playing over Johnson, Vadrawale in this instance, and the play-side off-ball linebacker Jordan IV.

Looking at both Vadrawale and Jordan IV, you can see where they're both looking — in the backfield. Jordan IV is already taking a step down toward the line of scrimmage to fill a gap in the run game, while Vadrawale has his hips pointed inward and giving Johnson leverage to the inside.

Oregon State is likely attempting to play that outside leverage on Johnson with the hope that he'll run a slant concept like this and Jordan IV will be able to pick him up in a zone. Jordan IV commits to the run, Gabriel makes the throw to Johnson for a big gain.

OK, next play.

So similar idea here. Gabriel can give to James for the run or pull the ball and make a throw to tight end Terrance Ferguson at the top of the screen. Ferguson lines up as an inline tight end and before releasing for his route, sells the run by initially engaging with Gabriel's read on this play. The read key for Gabriel is Nikko Taylor, who commits to the run and crashes down to attempt to make a tackle on James.

Taylor actually makes a really good play by quickly realizing that Gabriel kept the ball and jumps to try and bat it down, narrowly missing. Melvin Jordan IV is again the play-side linebacker and commits to the run. But, like Taylor, Jordan IV realizes Gabriel kept the ball and tries to make a pursuit to Ferguson in the flat before getting picked up by Oregon left tackle Josh Conerly Jr. and erased from the play.

Safety Skyler Thomas is ultimately the guy to impact this play. He's playing about eight yards off the line of scrimmage and recognizes Ferguson leaking to the flat pretty quickly and makes a break for the tackle. Ferguson just overpowers him a bit to grind out an extra three yards in what ends up a five-yard gain by Oregon.

OK, last one.

Switching to first-person mode briefly, this is the penultimate play and what sparked digging into this for several hours on my day off. I'm a sicko, what can I say. But sitting in the press box, it stuck out to me because Oregon kept coming back to concepts like this. I tweeted about it and even wrote about it in my column, but it kept bugging me. So now you get this article that may end up longer than Homer's Iliad at this rate. To my count, Oregon ran this exact play, or some variation of it, at least five times on Saturday.

What happens here is Stein gives Gabriel three options. He can hand the ball to the back, keep it himself for a scramble up the field or throw this to Ferguson in the flat. Gabriel's first read key is the play-side edge rusher, who is left unblocked, in this particular screenshot that player is Nikko Taylor, but Thomas Collins also ended up the read a handful of instances. The second read is the linebacker Isaiah Chishom and how he reacts to Ferguson in the flat and Gabriel hitting an open running lane — if he doesn't commit to the handoff.

Both Collins and Chishom bite on the run fit. Gabriel keeps the ball and makes the short throw to Ferguson, who then turns up field for a gain of 20 yards.

As previously said, Oregon would come back to the look a handful of times. Oregon State picked up on the specific play as the game wore on, with Melvin Jordan IV making a solid play to sit patiently between the tight end in the flat — that time it was Patrick Herbert — and Gabriel, with the Oregon quarterback making a flip at the very last second to Herbert.

The running theme with all three plays was Oregon State's overcommitment to stopping the run. On nearly every play the Beaver linebackers kept their eyes in the backfield and came downfield to fill against the run, and nearly every time Gabriel took advantage of it for gains to keep them ahead of the sticks or push Oregon further down the field.

Oregon State head coach Trent Bray noticed it after a review of the tape himself.

"We cut guys loose," Bray said about the defense. "I mean, that's really what happened. That goes back to the fundamentals of (their) responsibility and how to play. It wasn't that a guy beat us physically at the point of attack, it was we straight up cut a guy loose too many times and they were wide open. That's why no one was there. Those are the things that cannot happen, that's too easy for an offense."

With Purdue the next team up on the schedule, it'll be interesting to see if the Boilermakers try to double down on the same plays Oregon utilized and how the Oregon State linebackers and edge defenders respond to it.

Oregon State takes on Purdue for its week four action at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Reser Stadium. For those not attending in person, the game will be broadcast on The CW.