Good Luck Ducks, Week 8: Give Me Boilermakers

 

Oregon hits the road for Friday night football. 

Coming off of an epic victory last weekend over Ohio State, it's a short turnaround for the Ducks with all kinds of targets on their backs. The Buckeyes game was everything as advertised: a nailbiting, back-and-forth game with explosive plays on both side of the ball. It came down to the final seconds, with the clock running out on OSU's attempt to get into field goal range after Oregon coach Dan Lanning exploited a (soon to be closed) loophole to shave a few seconds off of the clock before the final snap.

There are a bunch of tough teams ahead, and tonight's prime time matchup against Purdue has all of the potential trappings of, well, a trap game. The Boilermakers are coming off of a 50-49 OT loss to a ranked Illinois team, who the Ducks will be seeing soon themselves. Purdue can definitely score, as evident by last week, but they just haven't been consistent with it. Oregon will be looking for a little more consistency itself, especially in the kicking game, which wasn't quite up to par last Saturday.

The Ducks survived losing start DE Jordan Burch last week due to an injury he suffered in practice and will likely be without him for a stretch. Other players stepped up well in his absence, but as the season goes long, the depth chart always seems to wear thin.

I'm still not used to this Friday football stuff. I'm not sure that I'll ever like it, but it does free up my Saturday a bit and lets me enjoy flipping around through other games without being stressed about it.

Notes and such:

• Two things Purdue always reminds me of: Drew Brees on the cover of NCAA College Football 2K2 (great game!) and decades of sportswriters calling them Purdon't.
• Do they have any history at all? The schools have met just three times on the football field and all three matches have been decided by less than seven points. The last meetings were a home-and-home series in 2008-09. Oregon holds a 2-1 edge.
• Ducks ranking this week: 2 (AP). Oregon moved up with the big win last week as expected, but stays below Texas after the Longhorns trounced their rivals. We're still a couple of a weeks away from the first edition of the only rankings that matter.
• Dillon Gabriel Heisman Watch: As the Ducks go, so does Gabriel's Heisman chances. He's still in the conversation.
• Game time is 5:00 PDT on FOX in West Lafayette. Go Ducks!