Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: Everything is Weird Now

The famed Oregon/Oregon State rivalry game... in September?! 

It's already time for the 128th edition of the Ducks/Beavers in-state rivalry bash. (No one really came up with a better name than that when the Civil War moniker was determined to be outmoded and maybe a little offensive.) Oregon meets Oregon State for the first time as a member of the Big Ten, while recent news has shown that OSU will hang onto their Pac-12 conference affiliation for a bit longer, as they've already announced plans to add four more schools beginning in 2026 and are apparently hoping to bring Cal and Stanford back to the best coast.

The Beavs have won three out of the last four meetings between the schools at Reser Stadium where this afternoon's match is scheduled. If the rivalry, such as it is these days, or the recent road results aren't enough motivation, then the Ducks can also look squarely at the way the first two games this season have gone and look at how the national media has disrespected them. All of the elements are there for a breakout performance by Dillon Gabriel and the squad.

And yet, it's still hard to know what to think of this year's Quack Attack. This is at least partially due to the nature of nonconference scheduling, where the full playbook likely hasn't been available to the offense. The Beavers are coming off of a shutout performance at San Diego State, so the much criticized Ducks O-line needs to be on high alert.

If Oregon wants to silence the deafening sounds of a recorded chainsaw over the Reser Stadium PA, it will need to be a lot more dynamic today while avoiding some of the embarrassing errors that have plagued them early in the season. I'm still cautiously optimistic about this team, but at the same time it's hard to know what to make of them.

Notes and such:

• Reser Stadium can be a bit claustrophobic these days, as it only seats around 35,000. Sometimes it's those smaller stadiums that end up sounding the loudest, but I do wonder if the recent conference music chairs and the game being moved away from it's traditional late November rivalry slot will affect the intensity at all.
• Do they have any history at all? Well, yes! It's currently the fifth most contested rivalry in FBS all-time. The only question is how long will it continue. I believe only next season's contest has been officially scheduled.
• Dillon Gabriel (?) Heisman Watch: The numbers are still there. But will the rest of the team pull through for him?
• Game time is 12:30 PM PDT on FOX in Corvallis. Go Ducks!