Lucas Clark: Last week in Palo Alto, Calif., the Oregon Duck defense was completely punished by Stanford senior running back Toby Gerhart, who rushed for a school-record 223 yards and three touchdowns against what was considered one of the top defenses in the Pacific-10 Conference prior to the game. Oregon struggled to stop both the run and the pass throughout the day, but after seeing them in practice this week the Ducks look like they are as sharp and ready to bounce back as I’ve seen them all season. And with the ASU coming to Autzen Stadium, where Oregon is 5-0 this season, I expect to see a revitalized team come Saturday.
 
Nicholas Kosmider: Oregon hasn’t been alone in getting run over by the bruising Gerhart. ASU has only allowed one 100-yard rusher this season. You guessed it. Gerhart. But outside of the Stanford running back’s performance, the ASU defense has been stellar against the run, allowing just 87.4 yards per game on the ground. The Sun Devils are playing for their postseason lives, as several one-possession losses have put ASU at 4-5 and needing at least two more wins to become bowl eligible. Motivation shouldn’t be hard to come by.
 
LC: The Sun Devils have definitely had their fair share of tough losses this year, but the defense has been nothing short of superb throughout the season, as they’ve allowed 30 or more points on only one occasion. ASU’s second-ranked scoring defense and top-ranked rushing defense in the Pac-10 will prove to be an interesting matchup with an Oregon offense that has tallied 1,183 yards of total offense and 89 points over the last two contests. Junior quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has improved week in and week out and has shown just how versatile of an athlete he truly is. First-year head coach Chip Kelly always says that with his offense, he wants a quarterback who can run, not a running back who can throw, and he has definitely found that with Masoli.
 
NK: ASU knows all too well what Jeremiah Masoli can do as the leader of the prolific Oregon offense. Last season in Tempe, Masoli directed an offense that ran for 320 yards in a 54-20 win over the Sun Devils, a game that gave ASU coach Dennis Erickson nightmares during the offseason. Erickson noted Masoli’s maturation as a passer this season, in addition to his ability to make big plays with his leg. The ASU secondary has tightened up of late, especially last week against USC when it held freshman Matt Barkley to just seven-of-22 passing for 112 yards. The secondary will be depleted this week, though. Senior starting cornerback Terrell Carr has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest on campus Monday night.
 
LC: Even with a dinged up secondary the ASU defense is still one of the tops in the conference. But as the record has shown for the Ducks through the first seven weeks of conference play, nobody seems to have the answer to slowing down redshirt freshman running back LaMichael James who is averaging 135.5 yards per game during Pac-10 play. James surpassed the 1,000-yard mark last weekend and has shown that despite his 5-foot-9-inch, 180-pound frame, he can with out question handle the load of the top rusher in the Oregon backfield. Fellow redshirt freshman Kenjon Barner has provided a strong compliment to James as well, but it will come down to how much push the offensive line can get up front against the ASU defense that allows less than 90 yards per game on the ground.
 
NK: LaMichael James is giving everyone fits in the Pac-10. The Trojans are still likely having flashes of the downright scary performance that James haunted USC with on Halloween. With that said, ASU has done well against small quick backs like James, holding vaunted Oregon State sophomore Jacquizz Rodgers to 87 yards earlier this season. ASU’s struggle will be doing enough on offense to take advantage of the performance of its ‘D.’ As of Tuesday evening, Erickson had not decided which quarterback, freshman Brock Osweiler or senior Danny Sullivan, will start at Autzen Stadium on Saturday. Regardless of who the signal caller is, ASU will have to do better than the 353 yards it averages per game (eighth in the conference) in order to have any hope of keeping up with an Duck offense that has scoreboard operators busy all season.
 
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