As soon as the schedule came out, everyone, and we mean everyone, circled Oct. 12 on their calendars.
The schedule officially reads “Ohio State at Oregon.”
But there’s a lot more to it than that. After Saturday’s games, it’s very conceivable that the No. 1 in the nation, the Buckeyes, could come to Eugene to face a Top 5 team in the Ducks. Nearly every national pregame show will be on hand to witness the Big Ten matchup.
It’s still strange that Ohio State at Oregon is a Big Ten matchup, but here we are.
But in order for this game to be the highly anticipated matchup, a lot needed to go right in the first six weeks of the college football season. Oregon had to not only avoid an upset and win its first five games, but it would have been nice for the Ducks to show they are ready for the physicality of Big Ten action.
Mission accomplished.
In their first two conference games against UCLA and Michigan State, the Ducks defense has allowed just one touchdown. Oregon showed its prepared to take on such a quality of an opponent such as Ohio State and think they have a chance to come out with a victory. It would be one thing to in high-scoring affairs, but if the defense showed they couldn’t slow down the Bruins or Spartans, no one in their right mind would think the Ducks had any hope against one of the best teams in the country.
Oregon has hope.
Not only do the Ducks have hope, they fully expect to come out of next Saturday’s game (4:30 pm PT, NBC) with a victory.
Sure the offense needs to stop turning the ball in the Red Zone and come away with points, but those mistakes are easy avoided and fixable. They have confidence that the defense is more than up for the task and give the offense a chance to eventually win the game.
Holding UCLA to just 47 yards rushing and Michigan State to 57 on the ground is a good start. Ohio State isn’t going to rush all over the opponent, but if the Ducks can make the Buckeyes one-dimensional and force quarterback Will Howard to throw the ball in third-and-long situations, the Ducks know their secondary will win most of those battles.
Winning those small battles will win the overall war with Ohio State and it will be a war. It won’t be pretty, but Oregon would take the win any way it can get it.