Good Luck Ducks, Week 9: Work To Do

The Ducks look forward towards a strong second half.

The streak is still alive. Oregon pushed their winning streak over the rival Washington Huskies to 12, thanks in part to the return to the lineup of a healthy Vernon Adams Jr. I'm sure that if calling "re-do" on a season was possible, Adams would be the first in line. Not every issue solved itself at once, as the Ducks squeaked out a relatively low scoring win up north, but there were some things to like about the win. It also gave them a much needed boost of confidence heading into a bye week where they could lick their wounds.

Last season's sudden star Darren Carrington finally made his season debut after his playoff drug-related suspension. He did not disappoint, catching two bombs from Adams in what was hopefully a sign of things to come from a deathly silent vertical passing game. The defense looked improved, but it was facing a Huskies line that has struggled to move the ball with consistency.

The North division title and, by extension, the Pac-12 title game appears to be out of reach at this point with Stanford holding a 2 game advantage in the loss column over the 4-3 Ducks. In fact, if Washington State happens to win out, it would be the Cougars and not the Cardinal headed to Santa Clara to play for the conference crown. Oregon can still finish strong and get in a good bowl game if they play as well as they did against Washington. A win tonight (Thursday night?!) in the desert vs. Arizona State certainly seems doable, with the Ducks win streak in this series standing at 8 games. It seems unlikely at this point that Oregon would have much of a shot at Stanford, but I wouldn't count these Ducks out of anything else right now.

Oregon's last visit to Tempe (2012) was over at halftime.

Game time is 7:30 PDT with national coverage on ESPN. Go Ducks!