For the past several seasons, Utah and Oregon have been very different teams. The Utes rely on a grind-it-out, physical style, while the Ducks use their flash and speed to leave teams in the dust.
But Saturday’s matchup between Utah and Oregon will feature two teams that have taken very similar paths this season. Most importantly, it will feature two teams that are in the midst of a devastating losing streak, desperate to change the course of its season.
Utah enters Autzen Stadium on Saturday as losers of three straight, all in conference play. The Utes opened their conference schedule with a 30-24 win over Arizona, but lost starting quarterback Tyler Huntley in the process because of a shoulder injury. Up until that point, Huntley led a dominant Utah offense to the tune of 966 passing yards, completing over 76 percent passing with 6 touchdowns.
Granted, Utah played a relatively weak non-conference schedule, but those are the kind of numbers that a Pac-12 quarterback should put up against North Dakota, BYU and San Jose State.
Utah went onto to win its game against Arizona with backup quarterback Troy Williams, but it’s been all downhill for Utah ever since. The Utes dropped their next two games, in albeit close fashion. A 23-20 loss to Stanford was followed by a 28-27 loss to USC, and while there were many positives to draw from each game, losses are still losses.
Huntley returned to action last weekend against the suddenly resurgent Arizona State Sun Devils. His presence was supposed to give Utah that needed edge back to close out those narrow games. Instead, Huntley and the Utes struggled to find rhythm and the Sun Devils took advantage, intercepting Huntley four times.
“Nothing was good,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham told reporters after the game. “We are disjointed. There is not a lot of flow. We do not have an offensive rhythm.”
That’s where the Utes stand entering Saturday, with a “disjointed” offense and a quarterback who’s trying to get his feel for the game back.
Doesn’t all of that sound familiar?
Oregon enters Saturday’s game having experienced much of the same road and many of the same issues that Utah has. Injuries, specifically to its quarterback, derailed Oregon’s early season success. The Ducks have lost three straight games since Herbert went down and haven’t won since their conference opener against Cal.
The difference in the two teams, though, is that Utah’s struggles boil down to the fact they lack an identity on offense. Oregon, on the other hand, runs the ball at a much higher rate than it throws. That was true even when Herbert played.  
“We have an identity,” head coach Willie Taggart said. “We’ve just got to add onto that identity.”
Linebacker Troy Dye said that while Utah is struggling, Oregon can’t look overlook any team at this point in the season, given its own current struggles.
“Guys have bad games, so you can’t really hang your hat on the one bad game or two bad games that they’ve had,” Dye said. “We’ve just got to go out there and treat them like they were at the beginning of the season.”
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