Good Luck Ducks, Week 8: #1 With a Target

After a much needed Bye Week to lick their wounds and smooth out the feathers a bit (sorry!), the Ducks find themselves ranked #1 in every poll voted on ranked by something with a brain and a conscience for the first time in school history. As much as it was exciting to wake up late Sunday morning to confirm that the Ducks indeed were #1 in all the land, the feelings disappeared just hours later when relatively untested Oklahoma Sooners took all of the accolades of a #1 BCS ranking upon its first release of the season. With that comes all of the pressure, as the last two #1 ranked teams have lost in as many weeks. Even though Oregon won't have the little #1 next to their name in the scorebox tonight, they know that they too have a major undertaking to do every week for the next six weeks. Oregon cannot simply just win every week to stay in the national championship hunt. They have to win big every time.

Tonight's opponent is UCLA, known as much for their stunning domination of Texas as their embarrassing losses and anemic offense this year. There's no doubt that the Bruins will try amd force the running game - the only thing working for them this season - down the throats of the Ducks O-Line, but Oregon survived and ultimately stuffed Stanford's attack already this season. I am confident that they will beat UCLA by a sizable margin if everyone plays their game they way they should.

Thanks again are due to Too Many Grandersons for a numbered jersey swatch of D-Will, who so far has yet to catch on with another NFL team after being released by the Ravens at the beginning of the season. Someone give this man a call! I'm sure there's a concussed receiver out there somewhere who is in need of a replacement.

Game time is 6:00 PDT tonight at Autzen with national TV coverage on ESPN and ESPN 3D, whatever that is. Seriously... what is that?