Rankings? Polls? The Bowl Championship Series?
The Oregon football team doesn’t want to hear any of that talk.
All the Ducks care about is that their record is 2-0 after two games and that’s that. No more needs to be said. Except, of course, that a well-worn saying has been repeated often in the Oregon locker room lately.
“A win is a win is a win.”
The first “win that was a win” came when the Ducks escaped a hard-fought 31-28 battle at Autzen Stadium on Sept. 1 over a Wisconsin team that then went on to lose 32-20 at home against surprising Fresno State the following week.
Then came Oregon’s 24-10 victory against an inferior Utah team on Sept. 8 that left many fans with an unsatisfied feeling despite watching the Ducks improve their home winning streak to 22 games.
It seemed that the Oregon faithful were expecting to see their beloved Ducks steamroll the Utes by a score of 36-7 (like they did against Nevada last season) or 42-13 (like they did two weeks later against Idaho), or perhaps even 72-10 (like they did against Nevada on Sept. 18, 1999).
A game like that provides the perfect opportunity for players like second-string quarterback Jason Fife to get some snaps and work his way into the system.
Instead, Utah only trailed 16-10 heading into the fourth quarter before Oregon finally opened the game up with a Joey Harrington 14-yard touchdown pass to Keenan Howry with 13:41 to play.
And afterwards, when questions were asked about the sluggish effort and what it will do to their national title hopes and rankings, the Ducks broke into their expected one-game-at-a-time speeches.

“I think we’re going to have wait to see how Utah does the rest of their season,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “We’re going to do what we need to do and take things one game at a time. I don’t know about a national championship. I mean, that’s our goal.
“But all we can do is win and if we do that, I think that’ll be enough.”
Added Rashad Bauman: “We might drop in the polls, but that’s not our concern. We just try to do what it takes to win the game.”
Against Utah, the Ducks won thanks to a defense that held Utah scoreless in the second half, while surrendering only 37 yards rushing in that time, and thanks to an offense that converted key scoring plays when it had to.
The first of which came less than four minutes into the game on Oregon’s second drive when Harrington lofted a 25-yard pass to Howry for the early touchdown.
On Oregon’s next offensive possession, though, the Ducks drove down to the Utah three-yard line but Maurice Morris got tripped up for a loss of one and Oregon had to settle for a Jared Siegel 21-yard field goal.
“I don’t care how we control the ball, all I care about is points,” Bellotti said. “And in that situation, we need to push it into the end zone.”
Utah would make the Ducks pay on its next series by driving 80 yards down the field in nine plays, capped by a Adam Tate three-yard run for the touchdown. Oregon bounced back on top, 16-10, after Maurice Morris took a pitch from Harrington and ran three yards for the score, but Bellotti certainly was not pleased with his team’s lackluster first-half performance.
“We were giving them a lot of easy things in the first half,” Bellotti said. “Overall, though, I’m very pleased with the victory, but I think we made it tougher on ourselves than we needed to.”
The third quarter of the Oregon-Utah game, which saw no points scored, was a direct contrast from the entertaining third quarter in the season opener.
Against Wisconsin, the Ducks clung to a 10-7 halftime lead. But then the defensive battle turned into a shoot-out when both teams traded two touchdowns apiece that produced five lead changes.
First, Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi completed a touchdown pass to Darrin Charles for 13 yards. Then Harrington answered back with an 11-yard play-action scoring pass to tight end Justin Peelle.
Follow that with an Anthony Davis 69-yard scoring dart for the Badgers and a Harrington one-yard sideways scoring pass to Morris, and the third quarter suddenly turned the game into a preseason classic.
Of course, the fourth quarter wasn’t any less exciting, as the Badgers took a 28-24 lead on a Sorgi one-yard keeper up the middle, but with four minutes left in the game, Harrington did what he does best: He made a big play.
Facing a critical 4th-and-1 on the two-yard line, the senior Heisman Trophy candidate lunged in between two linemen for the game-clinching touchdown.
“We got off on the right foot this year,” said Harrington, who has completed a combined 40 for 75 for 498 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions.
Now, with two weeks to prepare for the Sept. 22 Pacific-10 Conference opener against Southern California at Autzen Stadium, the Ducks said they know they have much to improve upon during the bye week and don’t want to have to deal with any more talk about where they will be ranked or what their wins mean.
“I don’t care … we’re 2-0,” Harrington said. “As long as we can continue to have more points at the end of the game than the other team, it doesn’t matter to me.”