Their bye week will leave them as observers this weekend, but Monday, it left them running through the Casanova Center hallway cheering with glee.
It seemed the players themselves, after a team meeting in the second-floor film room, were the last to know that Monday practice was canceled, part of their rest time before Civil War week starts next Monday.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” junior safety T.J. Ward said of the end of Monday’s meeting. “(Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti) was like ‘You’re free to go.’ I was like, huh?”
So began Oregon’s second bye week of this season, the last coming in between wins against UCLA and Arizona State in mid-October. The Ducks practiced Tuesday and will continue today and Thursday before taking Friday off.
Without a game to prepare for this weekend, some were still riding the high of beating Arizona 55-45 in a wild game Saturday that featured more than 1,000 yards of offense.
“I think we’re all pretty excited,” senior center Max Unger said. “A win’s a win but that was a hell of a win we had. That was one of the best wins against a team I don’t really like.”
Oregon returned from its last week off with a precise 54-20 win over the Sun Devils, but players know their next game, the Civil War in Corvallis, will be against a team still in the hunt for its first Rose Bowl bid since 1965.
“Oregon State’s a better team than ASU so we’re not going to treat this like the same situation at all,” Ward said. “This is big stakes.”
With an away game against Arizona this weekend in Tucson, Ariz., the Beavers are no lock to stay in first place in the Pacific-10 Conference.
Arizona came back from 48-17 down to get within three points of the Ducks before allowing a late touchdown run with just more than three minutes left. The near-win had Wildcat safety Nate Ness fuming to the Tucson Citizen newspaper.
“We have to come out there with our heads on fire and stop and punch them in the mouth,” Ness said.
Oregon, meanwhile, will stay on the couch this Saturday. The extra days of practice don’t necessarily mean Oregon will begin to install its game plan for the Beavers early, Unger said, it’s usually put in the Monday before. Preparations could be moved up slightly because of the loss of next Thursday due to Thanksgiving.
An extra film session on the Beavers might find its way in, he said, but “there’s only so much scouting you can do.”
Time off to rest defense
Oregon’s defense was on the field for 42 of the game’s 60 minutes Saturday, which would be a warning sign in itself if it weren’t a trend this season. No team in the Football Bowl Subdivision has been on the field for more plays, 864, than the Oregon defense. That can be attributed directly to the Ducks’ quick-strike offense, which has either scored or punted quickly this season, with the worst time-of-possession average in the nation at 24:56 per game.
That could be because the Ducks have scored on 30 touchdown drives on five plays or less, tied for second-best in the nation. Thirty-four scores have been on drives of two minutes or less, also tied for second.
While some were concerned the break will interrupt the Ducks’ offensive groove, Ward said it’s the perfect time to get a break.
“I think mid-to-late season would be the best time for it because the body’s starting to fall apart, so that rest helps,” Ward said.
Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, who won league and team honors for offensive player of the week after his 387 yards of total offense and five touchdowns Saturday, isn’t exempt from the wear of the 11 games so far this season.
“Especially this late in the season, bye weeks are always good because everybody’s got that late season wear on their body,” Masoli said.
Rivalry 101
There are only 17 native Oregonians on the Ducks’ roster, but out-of-state players’ perception of the Oregon-Oregon State rivalry has grown since their arrival.
“When I first came here they showed me some videos of the fog bowl (of 2005), stuff like that,” Masoli said. “It has a nice ring to it, ‘the Civil War.’”
For other players, the nuances of the nation’s seventh-oldest college rivalry game, in its 112th year, have come with time.
“It’s my third year and (it means) more now than it did my freshman year,” Ward said. “The first time I played Oregon State it was just like, I didn’t feel it pregame, but when we got on the field I just felt all that hate.”
Unger, a Hawaii native, considers the game against Washington a bigger rivalry than Oregon State. That said, he knows how much the game means just by watching his Oregonian teammates.
“Guys who come from this state – it’s life or death, pretty much,” he said.
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