For a team that buys in to the ‘Win The Day’ mentality, Pac-12 championship talks will seem premature.
But following Oregon’s 26-20 win over Washington, that’s exactly what some stars of this Ducks football team had on their minds, even though the Ducks are more than two games behind Pac-12 North-leading Stanford.
In Seattle, a reporter asked if the Ducks could run the table, a question that was leading and equally premature in the first place.
“I think we can,” Adams said. “You know, we just got to clean up the little mistakes, the little baby mistakes, the penalties, continue not to turn the ball over and be better on third downs. I think we do that and I think we have a good shot at it.”
Defensive end DeForest Buckner echoed a similar thought after the game.
“The win is a foundation for the second half of the season. Obviously our goal is to win out, so we have the opportunity to be one of the best teams up there (in the Pac-12 standings),” said Buckner.
A six-point win over Washington – a team thought to finish in the bottom half of the conference before the season – and Oregon is ready to run the table?
The Ducks played well. Give them credit. They protected the football, the secondary kept Washington’s receivers in check and Oregon had a quarterback who threw the ball with some authority.
A good foundational restart, perhaps.
But a momentum boost to then win out? That seems foolish. Senior linebacker Rodney Hardrick agrees.
“The way we look at it, it’s each day, each practice, each meeting,” Hardrick said to me after Tuesday’s practice. “So [we] really don’t care about anything that’s going on, any expectations or anything like that. We focus on what we need to do each day.”
Sure, Adams and Buckner — and the whole Oregon football team — felt good after the win and were likely excited to move forward – they’re human. And the reporter was trying to exploit that emotion in his or her recap – we’re human.
The win needs to be taken for what it is: A step in the right direction.
“[The win] doesn’t really change much, but guys are more enthusiastic, have a lot more energy,” Hardrick said. “Things are going easier. People are doing their jobs correctly.”
And that’s what they’ll need to do to get by Arizona State, California, No. 8 Standord, USC and Oregon State to complete just the regular season. Obviously, it can’t be ignored that there is more than a month of football left before the Pac-12 Championship on Dec. 8 is played.
Focus in on the Sun Devils and you’ll see a team in an eerily similar situation. Both teams are 4-3 overall, 2-2 in the Pac-12, coming off a bye week, got routed at home to a conference foe, and most importantly, can’t afford another conference loss.
So, if there’s one thing Oregon cannot have going in to Tempe, it’s too much confidence and an expectation to return to Eugene with a win.
While I’m not forecasting such ideas, if the Ducks have any shot of returning to Santa Clara to defend their title, they first have to win today.
Contact Andrew on Twitter @AndrewBantly
Bantly: Can Oregon run the table? The question seems to counter what the program preaches
Andrew Bantly
October 28, 2015
Adam Eberhardt
For a team that buys in to the ‘Win The Day’ mentality, Pac-12 championship talks will seem premature. But following Oregon’s 26-20 win over Washington, that’s exactly what some stars of this Ducks football team had on their minds, even though the Ducks are more than two games behind Pac-12 …
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