The Ducks are on a bit of a roll, entering the first week of BCS rankings at #11 in the country with a 5-1 record. Oregon remains the only undefeated team within the Pac-10 conference. After a bye week to rest, Jeremiah Masoli is likely to be back under... er... near center (the Ducks primarily use a shotgun formation) for the first time since the first half of the Washington State game 3 weeks ago. Today's game is a Rivalry Game in perhaps the most mean-spirited rivalry in the conference as Oregon heads up to Husky Stadium in Seattle to take on Washington. The Huskies had a long stretch of national prominence but hit rock bottom last year and even carried the nation's longest losing streak into this season. This series hasn't been much of a contest in recent years, but this year's version of the Huskies should give the Ducks all they can handle as they've played nearly everyone they've faced this year close, including a win over USC.I couldn't find a card with a Duck uniform showing that I hadn't already featured on the blog for this week, but I know this is my first Patrick Johnson card so I will talk about him this week. By the way, I like the design and think I would probably want to collect the 2000 Topps set if I actually collected football cards. Johnson was a world class sprinter who was the Ducks deep threat in the mid-'90s. He went on to win a Super Bowl ring with the Ravens. He also had some very memorable plays up north in enemy territory.
Game time is 12:30 PDT. It's being televised regionally by ABC, so it also should be available on ESPN GamePlan, ESPN360.com and at good local sports bars near you. Go Ducks!
This team is horribly underrated but let's see if they can pass their big test against SC.
ReplyDeleteThey're up to #10 in the BCS now, but that's probably not high enough. Nearly all of the computer rankings like Oregon more than USC and have them generally ranked higher than the polls do. Stupid flawed humanity.
ReplyDeleteThe most well-known computer ranking has the Ducks at #3, but what they submit to the BCS has them at #5 because the BCS removed margin of victory from its equation awhile back. (Margin of victory, incidentally, is a bit of a slippery slope - the Ducks, for example, could have easily won yesterday's game by 40 points but decided to play it safe with Masoli and put in a lot of reserves on defense. Meanwhile, Alabama and Iowa do not really get punished for squeaking by.)
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt09.htm