Good Luck Ducks, Week 10: Fuskies

The Ducks head to Seattle to take on their hated rival to the north. 

 

Just a few days after Oregon cruised to a comfortable win over Colorado, the AP poll that had seemingly inflated the team's stature all season suddenly became irrelevant. The Ducks were suddenly ranked #4 and in position to actually make the College Football Playoffs if the season ended that day. It was a bit surprising, but it looks like Oregon got a much bigger boost for their road win over Ohio State, which still stands as one of the biggest wins in all of college football, than any sort of penalty they received for their loss to a lousy Stanford team.

Can they back it up? With four games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Ducks are up against a grumpy Washington team in Husky Stadium. Every single conference game the Huskies have been involved in has been closely contested. It's not too dissimilar to Oregon's season aside from the much better record on the Ducks side. Both teams should by amply prepared for a tight game down the stretch should it come to it.

Oregon is hoping for another strong performance from Anthony Brown Jr., who looked to be in much better control of things last week against an admittedly inferior team. Ditto for Travis Dye, who despite not being utilized heavily has still managed to find the end zone 6 times in the last two games in the absence of CJ Verdell. Washington is led by quarterback Dylan Morris, who has had some quality games and some rough ones in 2021. Playing at home should certainly help the Huskies, but it remains to be seen if they can hang with the Ducks.

Series History: Washington leads the all-time series with a 60-47-5 record, although the Ducks won 12 straight before a a pair of blowout losses that were erased from my mind. The last two meetings have been nailbiting Ducks wins.

Opponent Talk: QB Morris doubles down on his decision to go to his hometown school instead of accepting offers from others such as Oregon and Notre Dame.

In the last meeting between the two bitter rivals, Oregon came from behind to pull off a close win in Seattle in a pivotal building block towards an eventual conference title and Rose Bowl win.

Game time is 4:30 PM PDT on ABC. Go Ducks!