The #3 Ducks host a pesky Washington State Cougars team in a #Pac12AfterDark affair.
In recent years, Oregon has had the most trouble with two Pac-12 North teams no matter what their records represented: Stanford, who upset them once again, and Washington State. The Cougars at one point were winners of four straight in the series, but the Ducks have won the last two. Still, for any players that have been around the program for more than a couple of years, the sting of losing to the Cougars must still linger. With the high stakes that accompany any game involving a top 5 team at this point in the season, you would expect all players to be on high alert.
The Cougs are coming off of a convincing win over Arizona State and could take over first place in the Pac-12 North with a win tonight. With Mike Leach and the "air raid" days a couple of seasons behind them, Washington State still has a formidable passing attack behind sophomore QB Jayden de Laura and his top target Calvin Jackson Jr.
The Ducks went with a full-on ground assault against the Huskies last week, which limited their passing game to just 98 yards from Anthony Brown Jr. It seems pretty unlikely to see a repeat of that scenario, even though Travis Dye has been the biggest part of their attack in recent weeks. Cougars/Ducks games have usually been settled through the air (aside from a certain game 20 years ago), so Oregon fans will hope for another productive but efficient game from their quarterback. Only Utah and Oregon State remain on the schedule after this one, so I think we're beyond the "trap game" possibilities at this point.
Series History: The Ducks lead the all-time series 51-42-7 and are coming off of two straight wins.
Opponent Talk: The Cougs are looking for turnovers. Let's try not to be sloppy this time.
Oregon got the monkey (or Cougar) off their back with a late game drive that ended in a game winning field goal in their last match at Autzen in 2019.
Game time is 7:30 PM PST on ESPN. Go Ducks!
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