Two teams with drastically different seasons will meet Friday in the 110th Civil War.
On one hand, there’s an Oregon State team that overcame a seemingly devastating loss on the road at Boise State and consecutive home losses against California and Washington State, to win five of its last six games.
The Beavers are now bowl eligible at 7-4, third place in the conference.
Once-belittled quarterback Matt Moore and head coach Mike Riley have also squelched heavy early-season criticism. Riley finally won that marquee game that could define his coaching career by ending Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans’ run of 27 straight Pacific-10 Conference victories, and Moore, the same quarterback who tossed 19 interceptions a year ago, has just six this season and a streak of 117 passes without one.
All is well in Beaver Nation right now.
That’s not the case for the Oregon Ducks.
A season that began with such promise after a 4-0 start has given way to a disappointing late-season collapse marred by uninspiring play on the road, turnovers and ineffective quarterback play.
None of that was more evident than in the final home game of the season last Saturday against Arizona.
The Ducks turned the ball over six times, including three by quarterback Dennis Dixon. He finished just 14-of-22 passing for 88 yards and no touchdowns, meaning he’s thrown eight interceptions and one touchdown in the last five games. And that one touchdown came against Div. I-AA Portland State.
To top it off, there’s uncertainty about who’ll be the starter Friday between Dixon and Brady Leaf – certainly not the ideal situation heading the final game of the regular season.
(Who knows, maybe consistently booing your starting quarterback is a strategy Oregon fans should try out; it’s worked masterfully for Oregon State.)
So, instead of a joyous send-off for 19 Oregon seniors Saturday, what transpired in Autzen Stadium was the most pitiful scene since the Ducks’ 55-16 loss to Washington State in 2003.
The most difficult realty for Oregon is that in the game of college football, momentum is everything, and they’ve got none right now.
Say what you want about a rivalry game and throwing the records out the window because of the emotion involved, but, in this series, momentum has proved the deciding factor.
Last season Oregon State limped into Autzen without its starting quarterback and following two home losses to Stanford and, guess who, Arizona.
The Beavers were thoroughly trounced by an Oregon team that’d won six straight.
Glance back at the 2004 season. The Ducks lost a heartbreaker at Cal before returning home and losing to UCLA. With both teams needing a win to become bowl-eligible, Oregon State whipped Oregon 50-21. The Beavers had won four of five.
Here comes the brutal reality for Oregon:
Friday, the Ducks will enter Reser Stadium not having won a road game since using a fake field goal to defeat a three-win Fresno State team. They’ll have lost two straight games and four of their last seven.
To add to that, Oregon hasn’t won in Corvallis since 1996.
It’s difficult to fight history.
But Friday, while the Beavers and their fans may celebrate a miraculous turnaround to their season, resurgence by their quarterback, and a sudden rebirth by their coach that likely saves his job, the only solace for Oregon may be that its postseason travel plans probably will include Las Vegas.
And that’s much more appealing than El, Paso, Texas.
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