Good Luck Ducks, Week 6: Don't Feed the ZonaZoo Trolls

 

The Ducks hit the road to face the Wildcats down in the desert. 

 

Oregon won comfortably against Stanford last week and takes a 2-0 (4-1 overall) conference record into Tucson tonight to take on an Arizona team that has already tripled the number of victories they had in 2021 (1). Bo Nix kept it rolling last week, picking up a career high 141 yards on the ground as he's been more of a dual threat than expected so far this season.

The 'Cats are led by sophomore QB Jayden de Laura, who has a talented group of receivers to work with. Given the Ducks inconsistencies in defending big plays so far this season, this seems like a dangerous combination that could lead to a lot of scoring. On the other hand, the Ducks ground game has dominated of late and Arizona's defense against the rush has been less than stellar. Bucky Irving certainly has become a favorite player of mine to watch. If Oregon can establish the ground game from the start, they have a good chance of controlling the clock and the scoreboard.

Notes and other things:

• The Ducks bye week is coming up next week, with a potential conference shaping showdown with UCLA on the other side of it. They can't afford to let this be a trap game.
• Every trip to Arizona reminds me of this legendary 2009 game which saw some ugliness from the "ZonaZoo" (no space, apparently) when an Oregon cheerleader got hit in the head with a nearly full water bottle after the game.
• Of course, Oregon's student section had some issues of their own recently against BYU, though it was more of the offensive verbal assault variety. College!
• The weather should be pleasant once again for this game. It'll be interesting to see how the Ducks handle their first bad weather game of the year, but it looks like we're a ways away from that yet.
• Game time is 6:00 PM PDT on the Pac-12 Network in Tucson. Go Ducks!