Possible fake injuries are slowing down the Oregon Ducks offence
The Oregon Ducks offence has been a nearly unstoppable force all season long and teams around the country have been looking for ways to keep them off the scoreboards.
A recent trend, which seems to be slowing down the high-powered Oregon offence, is other teams faking injuries. Players laying on the ground clutching injuries only to appear back on the field a couple plays later. Ducks fans believe that this tactic is
being used to slow down the offence and give the opposing team more time to regroup and get the proper personnel on the field.
“Obviously, you don’t know when a player is really injured and not injured,” Ducks head coach Chip Kelly told the Associated Press. “I don’t know really what can be done about it.”
In terms of rules there is nothing the officials can do, as the NCAA does not have a specific rule against faking an injury. The official wording states that the act is ‘unethical’. However, there are no official rulings that can be made on the field.
Kelly originally raised the possibility of fake injuries after a game against the Arizona State Sun Devils on 25 September, saying that several Sun Devils were flopping. However, the issue was moved into the spotlight after a tight game against the California
Golden Bears in week 11. Early in the match-up a defensive lineman from Cal made a tackle and managed his way back to line, then after looking at the sideline fell to the ground holding his leg.
Nevertheless, Kelly does not seem fazed by these ‘fake injuries’, as the Ducks have rolled through the 2010 season, currently sitting at 10-0, only scoring less than 40 points once.
“If teams are doing that, and I don’t know that they are, you have basically thrown up the white flag and said you can’t play at our pace,” said Kelly. “I don’t know if you really want to say that you can’t play the style of football that we’re playing.”
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