It’s going to be quite the offensive battle on Saturday in Tempe.
Something extraordinary is going to come from either the Ducks or Sun Devils. And it’s not going to come from either teams’ defense.
Don’t believe me? Look at the 2000 and 2002 seasons, respectively.
Don’t remember them? Well, you’re sure missing out on some pretty interesting memories.
In 2000, the Ducks had their throats in the pits of their stomachs. They’d been on a five-game winning streak heading into the game at Sun Devil Stadium. Arizona State looked to be a minor match on Oregon’s road to a prominent bowl.
Oregon was set to lose in an upset against the Sun Devils that day, but with just 33 seconds left in the game, the football gods made running back Mike Williams drop the ball at Arizona State’s 17-yard line.
The gods made Oregon recover that loose ball and on the next play, gave Justin Peelle hands of gold. The tight end caught Joey Harrington’s pass in the end zone and tied the game at 49.
After Josh Frankel missed a field goal — his eighth miss in 12 attempts at that point in the year — the Ducks responded when they got the ball back from the Sun Devils. This time, Allan Amundson raced to the far corner of the end zone and put the Ducks up, 56-49.
Arizona State outlasted the Oregon defense, but then, the gods finished their day at Sun Devil Stadium. They made Todd Heap miss a pass on a two-point conversion, and the Ducks, and their fans, could breathe a sigh of relief.
“I’m in complete and total shock right now,” Harrington said after the game. “We played so hard out there. We battled our butts off.”
Next, flash forward to the 2002 season. Oregon is off to a 6-0 start and looks invincible heading into the Oct. 20 game at Autzen Stadium.
The Sun Devils must have gotten the antidote to Oregon’s hot start. They put 35 points on the board in a shootout — so much that Andrew Walter passed for 536 yards — and defeated the Ducks, 45-42.
There’s no Harrington comeback this time, no monster runs by Onterrio Smith either. Oregon, which led 21-10 at halftime, was all-out beaten.
In 2001, when the game wasn’t close, the Ducks won, 42-24.
In 1999, Oregon won by just three, 20-17. Before that, in 1998, the Ducks hung up 51 points at Autzen. The year before that, the Sun Devils scored 52.
One would have to go all the way back to 1990 to find the last time either squad failed to score in double digits.
The schools are the poster boys for the Pacific-10 Conference. They’ve got quarterbacks who can throw, receivers who can glide and secondaries who are bare in the cupboard.
There’s going to be a lot of “whoa nellys” from ABC’s Keith Jackson on Saturday. It wouldn’t be surprising to see either team post 50 points, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the victor won the game in the waning moments of the game.
And if there’s any doubt, just remember Peelle and his hands of gold.