This week the road to the championship rolls through Pullman, Wash., where the No. 3 Oregon Ducks will take on the Washington State Cougars in true David vs. Goliath fashion.
Entering the game, Oregon (5-0, 2-0 Pacific-10 Conference) boasts the top-ranked offense in the country, which has put up an average of 56.6 points per game this season. Coming off a monumental win over then-No. 9 Stanford last Saturday, the Ducks have another speed bump to cross this week when they match up with Washington State (1-4, 0-2 Pac-10) Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
This week Oregon improved another spot in the national rankings, having jumped TCU and Boise State in consecutive weeks, but second-year head coach Chip Kelly has kept his composure throughout.
“This team’s mature and they understand that we don’t get governed by outside influences,” Kelly explained. “We prepare against our division and we’ll go out and compete against that division on Saturday.”
When the two teams met in Autzen Stadium last fall, the Oregon defense held the Cougars to just six points and put up a 52-spot on a struggling Washington State defense. Not a lot has changed between the two programs, and statistically Washington State is simply outmatched.
Oregon does feature the best offense in the country, while the Cougars are ranked 116th in scoring defense and 118th in total defense. In the past three meetings the Ducks have outscored Washington State 168-27, outscoring the Cougars by an average of 47 points per matchup.
Washington State is noticeably younger than the imposing Ducks, having played 24 first-time players in the team’s season-opener against Oklahoma State — seven were true freshman. But for Kelly, this week will be an opportunity to iron out several of the first-half kinks that have hindered the Ducks throughout the season.
Oregon saw itself slip into a bigger firs-half hole than expected against Stanford last Saturday, and that’s something the defense is confident will improve as the season progresses.
“We didn’t change anything,” senior defensive tackle Brandon Bair said. “We went into the locker room, everybody was quiet, calm. Coach was quiet, calm. He said just keeping doing what you’ve been doing, you know what you’re supposed to do, you’ve been trained to do it. So just go out and keep being yourselves and that’s all we did.”
Bair and the Ducks’ defensive line will see plenty of one of the most experienced offensive lineman in the Pac-10 in Washington State right tackle Micah Hannam. Since the Cougars’ season-opener in 2007, Hannam has started every single game the Cougars have played. Now in his redshirt senior year, the Gig Harbor, Wash., native has started in a Pac-10 leading 42-straight outings. But unfortunately for the Cougars, Hannam won’t be curing any defensive woes come Saturday.
Last year Oregon put up 42 first-half points on Washington State, with five rushing touchdowns and one through the air. The Ducks’ LaMichael James had a relatively quiet night, recording just 81 of Oregon’s 318 total rushing yards, and was one of five Oregon players to run for a score in that game.
James now sits 193 yards behind Michigan’s Denard Robinson as the nation’s leading rusher. James has carried the ball 89 times for 712 yards (eight yards per carry) and seven touchdowns this season, and will likely grasp one of the top spots on the Oregon career rushing list by the time his sophomore campaign concludes.
In addition to climbing through the polls each week, James has also successfully made his case as a 2010 Heisman Trophy contender. He and some Oregon teammates have already received national attention, but that’s something they’re not soon to fill their heads with.
“We just want to go in and win every game,” sophomore quarterback Darron Thomas said. “Each game we keep going up, that’s not really what we thinking about right now. We’re just thinking about game by game, but we keep increasing. That’s a good thing.”
[email protected]