Good Luck Ducks, Week 5: Midterm Exam

If the Ducks were tested before, playing in front of 100,000+ on the road against an SEC opponent, and were tested even more by playing in the desert heat against a painful defense, what do you call this test? This isn't quite a final exam, but it has the weight of a midterm. Stanford might just be the toughest opponent the Ducks will face in conference play, but they are fortunate to have them at home. They also happened to be the only Pac-10 team to beat Oregon last season.

Last season, the Ducks could not stop Stanford on the road as they ran play after play up the middle and over the top. Oregon scored plenty of points themselves, but Stanford's punter was seen napping on the sidelines in a hammock near the Gatorade cooler, with a novel at his side. This year, however, there's no Heisman finalist running back. Of course, if you listen to the pundits, quarterback Andrew Luck is the top QB in the country and is a potential Heisman candidate of his own accord. Tonight's game will be huge - a big matchup between undefeated top 10 teams in just the fifth week of the season - and will likely be the most telling sign for how this season will play out. ESPN's College Gameday program is also making it's nearly annual visit to Eugene in honor of the big game.

Today's seriously sweet-looking card, incidentally, was provided by Too Many Grandersons. Usually I give every trade its own post, but all of the cards I talked my way into receiving are Ducks-related football cards, so most of them will likely be used for future posts such as these. Jonathan Stewart has had a rough go of it this season with the Carolina Panthers as their entire offense has sputtered, but hopefully he (and they) will rebound soon and give me something to root for on Sundays.

Game time is 5:00 PDT with national TV coverage on either ABC or ESPN2 depending on where you live. Go Ducks!