After the Ducks beat USC in a 62-51 shootout victory, it didn’t take long for the most talked about game of the season to fall right back into the center of attention.  The Trojans announced they relieved a student manager of all duties after he intentionally deflated some of USC’s game balls, in theory making them easier to catch and throw.  There’s no indication (though there is suspicion) that the manager was instructed to alter the balls, and USC claims he was acting without direction.
The incident has even been covered — hilariously — by  Taiwanese animation studio Next Media Animation.@@http://www.nma.tv/@@ As for the Ducks, the general consensus seems to be that what they can’t control, they can’t worry about. Avery Patterson@@checked@@ said he wasn’t aware of the situation, and despite one reporter’s persistence, he couldn’t come up with any real advantage of doing so.@@checked links@@
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Sunday Morning Quarterback’s Matt Hinton@@http://www.sundaymorningqb.com/@@ takes a look at just how talented @@checked@@the Ducks are on offense. The results are gold for the stat-obsessed. Through an original statistic he calls “time of knockout,” Hinton looks at how long it takes Oregon’s lead to swell to more points than it will surrender all game.  USC is the only opponent the Ducks didn’t knock out, and Washington State was the only opponent the Ducks didn’t knockout in the first half.
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The player of the week honors keep rolling in after Oregon’s win over USC.  This time it’s Marcus Mariota @@checked@@and the weekly award given out by the Allstate Sugar Bowl. @@http://www.allstatesugarbowl.org/site.php@@
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Kenjon Barner also picked up a pretty nifty individual honor, as he was named a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award, @@checked@@the award given to the best running back in the nation at the end of the year.
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The college basketball season officially tips off today, and with that here is the UniWatch season preview.  Shockingly, Oregon is not featured.@@checked@@