As Oregon heads into Week 7 of the college football season, its story is just beginning to crescendo. The time? Now. The cakewalk? Over. The eyes of the nation? On Eugene. With the Ducks sitting at 5-0, and 2-0 in the Pac-12 after their bye week, it’s all getting serious.
The last eight games of the season have head coach Dan Lanning’s team facing six currently ranked teams, including the reigning Heisman winner, last year’s Pac-12 champions, Oregon’s eternal rivals for what could be the final time and this week’s visit to Seattle.
As Oregon’s final year in the Pac-12 races towards its conclusion, this is where mentality will be defined, mettle will be tested and champions will be crowned. This is why fans watch sports.
First up is a crucial away trip to No. 7 Washington (5-0, 2-0 Pac-12), against whom last year’s season teetered on the precipice before falling short. It comes on the back of a bye week for both sides, through which the Ducks will have attempted to sustain the momentum that they gained in their 42-6 win over Stanford.
Not only is it a chance for the two top-ranked teams in the Pac-12 to go head to head, it’ll see two Heisman trophy contenders in Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. face off. Both quarterbacks are expected to declare for the NFL draft following the season, and the final stretch will be their chance to boost their stock going into next April.
The week afterwards, Oregon will return to Autzen Stadium for the first time in nearly a month as they welcome the Huskies’ rivals. Pegged by many as a sneaky contender, Cameron Ward and No. 19 Washington State (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) will look to drag the Ducks back toward the pack. WSU put the division on watch when they took down No. 15 Oregon State in their first top-25 matchup of the season, and could snag wins over both Oregon schools for the first time since 2018.
The following weekend’s matchups against a No. 16 Utah (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) team whose potential is unknown, followed up with a potential ‘reset’ game against Cal (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12) come racing down the Ducks’ throats soon after.”. Last year, the Ducks managed a comfortable win at a similar point in the season, but as the difficult games rain down upon the team, every game becomes a must-win if (as they argue) the Ducks’ goal is a playoff spot.
In that vein, what’s important to consider is dispelling the notion that a team that loses can’t make the College Football Playoff. It’s not so important whether a team loses so much as when it does so.
For the Ducks, it’s vital that they not drop one of their last three games — an always-powerful No. 19 USC (6-0, 4-0 Pac-12), a potential trap game away at Arizona State (1-5, 0-3 Pac-12) or the unpredictability of a visit from No. 15 Oregon State (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) — for fear of falling down the AP poll faster than even their electric receiving core can remedy. In fact, if there’s one area that they can afford to come out second-best in, it’s almost undoubtedly this week’s College Gameday matchup. Though losing out to a direct Pac-12 and CFP rival is obviously undesirable, it allows for the chance to build back with a stretch of games that suddenly appear as an endless line of opportunities — and that’s the exact mentality that Oregon will look to hammer into every practice, drive and game.
A gauntlet of tests, as this stretch has become for Pac-12 teams, will examine not only the football ability, but the mental fortitude of a Ducks team that seems the most mature it’s been in years. It’s a program’s farewell to the Pac-12, it’s a statement of intent as they enter the Big Ten and it’s an opportunity to define an era. That doesn’t roll around too often, does it?
There’s few teams — and even fewer players — who can say with confidence that they had that level of impact upon a season. At such a junction in history as the college football landscape is faced with today, it’s nearly inevitable that somebody will seize the chance to write themselves into the history books. If they can pick their way through their final eight games, the Ducks might just find themselves standing on that precipice. All fans can do is watch.
