Good Luck Ducks, Week 11: Crunch Time

Oregon is back at home and still has some life in their season.

The Ducks are coming off of a massive win at Ohio State this week, inexplicably back in the playoff discussion for some reason. They would certainly have to win out, make it to and win the (last?) Big Ten conference championship game just to have a chance at this, but there just may be a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel of the lost season. No matter how this season ends up, these athletes will at least have the satisfaction of beating the Buckeyes (on the road!) in a wild fashion, throwing up 38 straight points on the board after a rough start to the game.

Oregon faces Ohio State's bitter rivals today in a battle of teams that fired their offensive coordinators in the middle of the season. The Ducks struggled at times to even resemble an FBS offense under a first-year OC promoted from within have been well documented here and elsewhere, while the Wolverines have seen deeply shrinking point totals ever since the Chicago Bears old Tecmo Super Bowl era QB left the program (after winning a title, of course) to go ruin the Chargers.

It will be a battle of the backup quarterbacks once again (well... maybe), with Tommy Carr (well... maybe) lined up to suit up against Oregon's Dylan Raiola. Incumbent starter Bryce Underwood was recently replaced, but after last week's loss to Michigan State, it seems like there are questions abound. Speaking of questions, if today's Ducks look anything like the Ducks of the last two weeks, well... there won't be a lot of questions. However, it's completely fair to expect anything today, as this Oregon season has certainly been a strange and often frustrating ride.

Notes:

• Even if everything goes perfectly for the Ducks from here on out, I think they would still need multiple strange things to go their way for them to end up in the playoffs after all of this. The whole ranking thing is a stupid opinion poll of a tiny group of randos, and if I'm one of those randos, it would be hard to overlook how pathetic they looked over long stretches of multiple games this year.
• Opponent fun fact: I'll break from my typical fact-finding mission here (this can be fun if it's a team with an interesting nickname/mascot, but we all know what a wolverine is, I think?) and give a shoutout to Dennis (Too Many Verlanders), a longtime card trader buddy who always pops in for a friendly Ducks support comment. He won't be doing that today, of course, but it's always appreciated.
• Opponent history: The overall series is at 3-3, but this will be just the second meeting as Big Ten opponents, with Oregon winning most recently in Ann Arbor in 2024.
• Game time is 12:30 PM PST on FS1 in Eugene. Go Ducks!