Good Luck Ducks, Week 14: Dirty Dawgs

 

It's Rivalry Week as Oregon takes on Washington.

The Ducks Big Ten conference schedule will end in the same way as it did last season and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It's time to face the Washington Huskies as the last test before leaving it all up in the hands of the CFP committee. Theoretically, the Ducks could still end up in the conference championship game, but they would need Michigan to pull off a fifth straight win over their hated rivals as well as take care of business today.

Oregon knocked off USC last week in a very satisfying way, all but ending the Trojans chances of making it into the playoffs themselves. While the injuries, particularly to the Ducks talented receiving corps do continue to concern, they were able to spread the ball around once again to an array of ball carriers and pass catchers. Two Oregon tight ends came up big once again, and I'd like to see them utilized even more while they have a lot of their talented wide outs sitting on the bench.

The Huskies are led by sophomore QB Demond Williams Jr., who has put together a nice season for his 8-3 squad. Washington is more of a run dominant team this year and the talent disparity between the two schools has narrowed considerably since last season, which will certainly make winning on the road a tougher challenge this time around.

Notes and miscellany:

• There have been plenty of big moments in this rivalry, but since the move to the Big 10 it feels like something is missing. I think the hatred felt more... organic, maybe, when it wasn't the scheduled last week of the season. Now it feels a little more manufactured perhaps. There certainly isn't a week's worth of hype about the game all over the local news channels like there was with the Civil War. For now, at least, this is just going to feel like the last game of the regular season and not much more.
• Opponent fun fact: While I'm not much of a dog person, I can certainly admit that huskies are pretty cool looking dogs. Of course, Washington's live mascots over the years have been Alaskan Malamutes and not actually huskies, strictly speaking. Prior to adopting the Huskies as their official team name in the early 1920s, however, Washington's mascot was named Sundodger. As in, you know, there's not a lot of sun in Seattle! Apparently it wasn't very popular.
• Opponent history: Washington leads the all-time series 63-49-5. After winning three consecutive close games from 2021-2023, they were blown off the field in Eugene last season. Let's hope this game is more like that game and not the ones that came before it.
• Game time is 12:30 PM PST on CBS in Seattle. Go Ducks!