Oregon couldn’t finish the Washington State last Saturday . They attempted to address their secondary problem by starting Charles Nelson at safety. The Cougars would go on to beat the Ducks in double overtime, with Cougars quarterback Luke Falk throwing for 505 yards and five touchdowns.
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Nelson however, in his debut at safety was amazing, he was all over the field, most notably laying the boom on Washington State receiver Dom Nelson relieving him of his helmet. He had a touchdown saving tackle and led the defense with 12 tackles. Nelson also played on the offense side, getting a chance to play both sides of the ball, as Oregon’s iron man of the game, he looked better on defense.
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The offense, which is overloaded with playmakers is banged up, but the defense, especially the secondary is Oregon’s greatest liability in every game. So it makes more sense to keep him on the defensive side of the ball. The Ducks should think about keeping Nelson at the safety position. Some may think the sophomore is a bit undersized at 5’8 170 to play safety, but he showed that is not a concern. He gives them stability in the secondary and hopefully others in the secondary can feed off him.
This is not the first time Oregon has used a offensive player on defense, they converted quarterback Ty Griffin to corner with mixed results. Nelson however has excelled in his new position, hopefully he will become a permant fixture in the secondary for the Ducks.
A great ability for Oregon is that they always seem to be able to plug in athletes in the offense whenever they need to and seem to have success. They need to try the same thing on the defensive side of the ball. With the Nelson move to safety, the Oregon coaching staff proved they can improvise with the defense too. Hopefully, they can plug more guys into the secondary to give the Ducks a chance to regroup and finish strong in the Pac-12.