There was only one disappointing moment for Oregon on Saturday. Before the Ducks took the field, when everyone was looking at the Autzen Stadium scoreboard to see the traditional playing of the “The Pick.” “The Pick,” as we know it, never played.
Sure, part of Jerry Allen’s iconic call blasted out of the end-zone speakers, and you could make out the shadows of the play that made Oregon football from the highlight montage that was playing inside of a winged O on the scoreboard, but we never got “The Pick” full-stop.
And that, my friends, was about all the Ducks could possibly complain about on a picturesque Eugene day that culminated in a relaxing and satisfying eleventh straight win over the woebegone Washington Huskies.
Never in doubt, this one. Oregon 45, Washington 20.
The Huskies were exposed as pretenders – again. Chris Peterson may have success eventually in Seattle, but against Oregon he was perfectly willing to let his quarterback roll out and punt the ball down to the one, but totally unwilling to let his quarterback pass the ball further than ten yards down the field.
The Ducks carved their rivals open to the tune of 554 yards. Royce Freeman had four touchdowns, and would have had a fifth if not for a late holding call.
It was a feel-good day for Oregon. There was Kenny Wheaton retracing the play that made him famous on the Ducks’ motorcycle pregame and fantastic throwback uniforms commemorating the game twenty years ago.
So now, at 6-1, the season sets up nicely for Oregon. The Ducks have only one game left against a currently ranked opponent – the tenuously #19 ranked Utah Utes – and only one marquee game left, against a quickly disintegrating Stanford team that has three losses and no offense whatsoever.
This team is sitting pretty with a healthy roster, a soft remaining schedule, and the joy of sitting back and watching three of the five teams ahead of them in the AP Poll bash their heads against each other until early December.
A one-loss Pac-12 champion is looking good for the College Football Playoff. That’s not lost on anyone. So the question to figure out over the next month is this: Is Oregon a decent team with a really good quarterback or a really good team with a really good quarterback?
I watched Washington on Saturday. I saw a receiving core that was dreadful, running plays that took forever to develop, and an apparently vaunted front seven get pushed around by one of the most maligned offensive lines in the country.
On the other side of the ball, we got one spectacular play after another: An incredible touchdown catch by Dwayne Stanford was a headliner, but Hroniss Grasu pancaking the hell out of Shaq Thompson was fantastic.
Tight end Pharoah Brown was heavily involved in the offense, and Freeman looked like a future NFL first rounder. His running style – gains of four, two, five, four, and six yards, until he could break loose – harkened back to a freshman Emmitt Smith at Florida.
We’ve heard Freeman could be that good. All preseason, in fact. With the Ducks letting him play, it won’t be long before he’s a star.
The defense under Don Pellum appears to be coming around. They held Washington without a first half touchdown on Saturday and deep pass defending has certainly improved.
When Oregon plays like they have the last two weekends, they impress.
One of the major questions that faced the program in the dark week after the loss to Arizona was whether this current Ducks team had enough talent around Marcus Mariota to compete.
Increasingly obvious was how underrated Nick Aliotti’s defenses were over the last decade, and one look at Casey Matthews and Jeff Maehl on the field at Autzen before the Washington game on the Philadelphia Eagles’ bye week could have brought those fears back.
Oregon is young at the offensive skill positions, and inexperienced on the line. Their defensive backfield – usually a major strength – is as unheralded, outside of a recently suspect Ifo Ekpre-Olumu, as it has been in years.
On that last drive against Arizona, everyone in the stadium looked at Mariota and said, “Save us.”
It was eerily familiar to what the Ducks had to rely on in the Civil War last year. On that day, Mariota had Josh Huff. Against the Wildcats, he had nothing. Obviously, Oregon wasn’t going anywhere if the players around the best player in the country stepped up.
That’s what we saw against the Huskies. These guys looked like they’ve improved, and that makes sense. It takes time to adjust to college football, and time to adjust to new responsibilities.
Oregon should be getting better. Mark Helfrich should be a better coach this year than he was last year, a better coach today than he was yesterday. Pellum and Scott Frost too, who have looked like deer in the headlights at times since their respective promotions, should be more comfortable and effective as well.
Much of any sport – but certainly college football, where the storylines and the seasons, and the attitudes are malleable – is about how you grow over a season.
Responding to adversity is a major part of that, and so far, Oregon has come up aces. UCLA and Washington aren’t that good, but really, how good is Arizona?
We’ll see. Surely Oregon will face further adversity this year, but the road towards the playoff is set. Win five games in which the Ducks will be heavy favorites, and then win the Pac-12 title game at Levi’s Stadium.
The Ducks are getting back to their post-Michigan State vibe, because they’re becoming more than Mariota and his merry men.
Now go watch “The Pick” on YouTube.
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