Oregon got well against UCLA last Saturday.
The Ducks thought they were in trouble last week, but then they got a good long look at the Bruins and decided that they’d be just okay.
42-30 was the final score, but this game was over five minutes into the third quarter.
UCLA’s only victory against Oregon was that Jim Mora didn’t finish the game face down in a pool of blood after his coming together with defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
The Bruins are dysfunctional. Their season has gone around the bend. And if the Ducks weren’t too busy running past the home team Saturday afternoon, UCLA’s fate could have served as a cautionary – and heartening – tale.
Oregon is fine. Their season is intact. Everything that the Ducks want to accomplish is still on the table. In a year in college football that is already off the rails, a 12-1 Pac 12 champion is not getting left out of the playoff.
This isn’t to minimize Oregon’s very real struggles in the first part of the season that boiled over two Thursday nights ago against Arizona. But if the Ducks prepare and approach each of their remaining games like they prepared for and approached UCLA, they’ll end 2014 with their pride and status intact.
Oregon attacked the days following the loss to Arizona the right way. They focused, and improved, and came out on Saturday eager to impress.
I think the Ducks couldn’t wait to play UCLA. I think that coaching staff, and that offensive line, and even Phil Knight, who strode into Mark Helfrich’s postgame press conference at the Rose Bowl and sarcastically announced, “I’m here!” wanted to shut everyone up about the imminent demise of Oregon football.
I think the Ducks couldn’t wait to play Michigan State in week two. It showed then. It showed against UCLA. When Oregon watches the clock waiting for kickoff, they’re at their best.
The problem over the last two years at times – and even back to Chip Kelly’s last year in 2012 – has been the malaise that has thickened and deepened around Eugene with each passing blowout win.
Winning has become the norm. The resting place. The status quo. Winning football games has lost much of its thrill at Oregon. The Ducks expect to win. They expect to win big.
That’s why, in part, we see Oregon play so flat, so often.
The hunger to win each and every game is gone. Certain matchups break through the malaise – like the Michigan State game, and like the UCLA game this week for different reasons – but too often, Oregon is sleepwalking. And you can’t run on autopilot and expect to not to crash once or twice in a college football season.
In what are quickly becoming the old days, Oregon had a desperate need to win every game.
Especially during the conference schedule, every week brought an incredible high or a horrible low. The conference battles – all of them, be it Cal, USC, Oregon State, or anyone else – were the lifeblood of the season.
It was the same intoxicating drama that makes each week in the SEC so magnetic: Each week is big. Each game is epic. Every win matters.
Washington comes to Eugene this week. It’s a big game; irrespective of the traditional rivalry that many around both programs swear is bigger and more intense than the two school’s respective in-state rivalries, and irrespective of the fact that this is an important divisional conference game.
And yes, rivalries like this one don’t die in a single decade. Fans make rivalries, and everyone still cares about this one.
Oregon is 5-1. So is Washington. The Huskies have a new coach in Chris Peterson who draws confidence from everyone around him, and he’s looking for a statement win.
The game is in primetime, on broadcast national television.
Ten years ago, anyone associated with the Ducks would have killed for the scenario we’ve got this weekend. It’s important that Oregon, and their fans, remember that now.
This is a big game. It should be treated as such. For sixty minutes and about four hours on Saturday, Autzen Stadium should be the center of the Pacific Northwest universe.
If that’s the Ducks’ mentality, it’ll only take them about twenty minutes to make their point, and in the process they’ll remind everyone why they’re so good too.
Some like the Pac 12 because of its parity this year, but I think the conference has been disappointing. Too many teams are just flat mediocre. Oregon, with the right amount of hunger and focus, can steamroll any opponent they want that remains on their schedule.
But that’s going to require a level of intensity from this team that we see all too rarely. Partially, that’s because Oregon can play at 75% and still win the majority of their games – but as the Ducks saw against Arizona, seasons can get away fast.
Now seems like a good time to mention that this year is the 20th anniversary of The Pick, objectively and subjectively the greatest play in Oregon football history.
If you were around before 2010, you probably know Jerry Allen’s radio call by heart.
That was the moment Oregon started their rise to the top of the college football world.
The Ducks have latched onto The Pick as its rallying point this week, with fantastic throwback uniforms the highlight of a series of nostalgic throwbacks.
I don’t think it’s any secret that this game, and this season are a question for Oregon – and it’s not only the question of whether this program will continue to be excellent or fall back to being just another good team.
There’s also a question of whether Oregon can recapture their spirit – whether the Ducks can, every week, provide the type of rollicking falls that were so much fun to follow since Kenny Wheaton jumped that out route twenty years ago.
This weekend against Washington is a big test. The Ducks need to need to win. They need to come out with their ears on fire in their first home game since the Arizona loss.
We’re almost halfway through a season that hasn’t been what anyone has wanted, and still has the chance to be everything everyone wants. The crossroads is getting closer. Oregon has to realize what makes them special before it’s too late.
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