Oregon dropped from the rankings after losing 26-16 to California on Saturday, so head coach Mike Bellotti’s pre-practice talk with the team was simply to show them where they stand with three regular season games left.
“Basically, (I) just showed them the rankings and the standings in the Pac-10,” Bellotti said before a rain-drenched practice inside Autzen Stadium on Monday. “There’s three teams that are one game ahead of us. There are six teams that have a chance legitimately to be involved in this.”
The Ducks (6-3, 4-2 Pacific-10 Conference) will stay within the state during that final stretch, with consecutive home games against Stanford on Nov. 8 and Arizona on Nov. 15, then the Civil War against Oregon State at Corvallis on Nov. 29.
Statistically, the Ducks’ two-week homestand should help. In 27 conference games, the home team has a record of 19-8. Overall, the winning percentage is even better with a record of 30-16 in 46 games, a 65 percent chance of winning.
Weakside linebacker Spencer Paysinger, who intercepted his first career pass Saturday in the first quarter from Kevin Riley, said the speech inspired the team.
“We have three more games to go and we’re still in the thick of this,” Paysinger said. “We can get it, we just gotta win out.”
Bellotti said he “broke” an unwritten coaching rule not to talk about future games with the team, but said he wanted to give his players a sense of what they still have left to play for.
“We don’t control our own destiny but we control how hard we play. I think a lot of people forget very quickly. We have a chance this year to win 10 football games.”
Bellotti also stood by his comments after Saturday’s game regarding the Ducks’ passing game, saying it had taken “a step back” by throwing for only 84 yards. Jeremiah Masoli ran for 97 and now joins LeGarrette Blount and Jeremiah Johnson in the top 10 Pacific-10 Conference rushers, but threw for 44 yards and two interceptions.
“I don’t think you can win the Pac-10 throwing the ball the way we did,” Bellotti said, who added that Masoli “gives us the best chance to win.”
Oregon trainers held Masoli out of Monday’s practice for muscles in his right foot he strained early in the Cal game. Backup Justin Roper relieved Masoli on Oregon’s final offensive drive as Masoli’s injury got worse. Blount had an athletic tape club on his right hand and wrist to protect against an injury he suffered against Cal. Bellotti said he will also be ready to play this weekend.
Masoli did return Tuesday to practice and said he’d be ready to go Saturday.
Roper said he saw heavy coverage on Oregon’s wide receivers Saturday as well, which contributed to Masoli’s ineffectiveness passing by forcing him to scramble to find openings in the defense. Facing fourth down near midfield on the second to last drive for Oregon, for example, Masoli ran across the field looking for an open target but ran out of bounds on Oregon’s sideline without any other option.
That coverage on the receivers makes it especially hard on the offensive linemen, said offensive tackle Fenuki Tupou.
“It’s pretty hard because we’re taught to block for about four, five seconds but it’s hard for someone to get open constantly scrambling around and to hold our blocks,” Tupou said.
Bellotti wasn’t taking anything away from Stanford, which is coming off a 58-0 win over downtrodden Washington State, only its second league shutout since 1974. That win was a 17-0 blanking of Oregon.
More impressive than a win over Washington State, however, has been the Cardinal’s continued improvement on offense. In 2007, Stanford averaged 111.2 yards per game rushing but has improved to 209.2 this season behind tough line play and a bruising running back in junior Toby Gerhart.
Gerhart averages 101.2 yards of that rushing strategy, third-best in the conference, and is less than 200 yards away from breaking the school single-season rushing record of 1,084 set in 1991.
The Cardinal rank second in the league in rushing behind Oregon, and that could come in handy with another forecast for rain Saturday in Autzen Stadium.
“Via the run, they can do some things,” Bellotti said. “Their line of scrimmage on both sides is very formidable.
“Stanford is for real.”
So, too, is Oregon’s defense. Cal had two drives starting outside of Oregon territory that resulted in points, and Bellotti raved about his team’s hitting and physical play again Monday.
“I thought that our defense played outstanding football. They were a dominant entity on the field in terms of taking it to Cal,” he said. “They were really awesome.”
That included T.J. Ward, who officially finished with 10 tackles and two forced fumbles, yet the Ducks counted 13 on film study. Oregon coaches also petitioned for him to be the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week, but that went to Cal linebacker Zack Follett.
“We haven’t played that fast in a long time,” Ward said. “We caused five turnovers in the first half, and I haven’t heard of that from any team in a long time.”
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