Saturday, November 14, 2015

Good Luck Ducks, Week 11: Spoiler Alert


Oregon faces their most difficult challenge with revenge on their minds.

After giving up a school record 742 yards to Arizona State in a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it 3OT win the previous week, the Oregon Ducks came home to face Cal and promptly set a new school record on the offensive side of the ball to the tune of 777 yards. A slow start had the Ducks down 10-0 before Vernon Adams and assorted backs rolled up 31 straight points on the reeling Bears. While the final score (44-28) wasn't quite indicative of how impressive Oregon's offense was nor was the defense the smoothest thing to see, it would seem that things are heading in the right direction going into today's game.

And boy, what a game it is. Hello, Stanford. Old friend. Ruiner of Ducks national championship hopes in both 2012 and 2013. Currently sitting atop the Pac-12 North. Yeah, that Stanford. Stanford has the only shot in the West at making the coveted 4-team Playoff field this year, so you can bet that Oregon is even more fired up than usual to take them down.

Four year starting QB Kevin Hogan leads the Cardinal, while their biggest star is ex-Denver Broncos star Ed McCaffrey's son Christian, a all-purpose sophomore tailback who seems to never leave the field. After their flat opening week performance against Northwestern, Stanford has looked every bit like the best team in the Pacific time zone. However, with Oregon's offense finally starting to fire on all cylinders, the conditions are ripe for an upset. It's been many seasons since Oregon has even had an opportunity to pull off a bonafide upset, which makes this game all the more intriguing. Beyond just a win today, the Ducks would still need a lot of help if they were to to get a glimpse at the Rose Bowl, so their role is truly of the spoiler today.

In 2011, LaMichael James & Co. took down Andrew Luck's Stanford squad a few pegs.

Game time is 4:30 PST with national coverage on FOX. Go Ducks!

2 comments :

  1. Interestingly, Jeremiah Johnson was one of the guys I pulled a dupe from in my CFL box. It is already set aside for a future mailing.

    ReplyDelete

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