Should we be pressing the 'upset alert' button for Arizona @ Oregon?

Arizona has a chance because of their athletic defense and their ability to spread the field and pick up short gains at will.

But, if Oregon were to lose, I can guarantee it won’t be because they are looking forward to the Civil War.

Believe me, this close to the prize, and after a bye, they’re not looking past a damn thing. And certainly not one of the better defenses AND the top passing offense in the conference. They haven’t forgotten that UA was a top-10 team earlier in the season.

Now: Does any of it matter? Well, “that’s why they play the game.” The Ducks kind of sputtered into the bye. Their offense had lost its edge, players were banged up, and they had convinced themselves that they could “flip a switch” and put anybody away in the second half. And while nobody has proven they can SCORE much on the Ducks in the second, the team certainly didn’t pull away from Cal. OTOH they leveraged the last bye week, which was preceded by a lackluster effort at WSU, into a 60-13 annihilation of UCLA followed by a 21-point win at USC and a 39-point win against UW. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.

but as an Oregon fan I must say, I feel confident as the Ducks head into Friday night’s battle.

After a tenacious win at Berkeley (seems like every undefeated team has at least 1 close call against a conference rival) the Ducks were extremely fortunate to have a bye. Kelly and Co. will certainly have some new wrinkles to add – to the O, D and Spec teams. Players had some time to digest that game and again realize all it takes is 1 mediocre performance and dreams of Glendale vanish in an instant. Not to mention the crowd… The O Faithful will be happy to see their team back home and will as raucous as ever.

I don’t know if weather will be a factor. As I type this it is 17 degrees outside and getting colder (but no, it isn’t that frigid in Eugene) and weather says snow tonight and tomorrow in Eugene, but warming up to mid-30’s at gametime.

I expect Arizona to bring their ‘A’ game. Stoops is a fine coach and there is a lot of talent on your team. Maybe I’d be more concerned had the ‘Cats beat up U$C. I was at the OSU/U$C game Saturday night and the Trojans looked like they couldn’t wait to get home. Of course they played better against AZ, but still…

Sure to be a great game, whatever the outcome!

I’ve been very dissapointed in the Cats overall performance. Since the Iowa game the Cats have come out flat in almost every game. Especially at home! Then we get a few of our top players hurt and our steep hill became a mountain. I hope we use this crucial bye week to change the pace, but I’m not very optimistic going into this game. We do have that November spoiler thing going for us, but the way we’ve been playong compared to the dominating performance of the Ducks. I just don’t see it. I sure hope I’m wrong, but I’m a realist! BTW I will be talking a lot of smack if my Wildcats pull it off. This would be one of the biggest wins in UA history. A loss would be bitter sweet as I would like to see our conference improve as a whole and see a fellow PAC team win or at least go to the NCG. BEAR DOWN!

Congratulations Arizona fans, you and your football program have succeeded in scarring the living $#*@ out of a fan base. I think I speak for most Oregon camps, that this is one of our biggest tests of the season to date. Stanford was a great game, and a competitive game up until Oregon put its foot on the pedal and blew past them with 40+ unanswered points. But Arizona brings a different type of attacking, athletic defense that should put the scare into Oregon’s offense.

The matchup, really favors U of A. Those two defensive ends will be able to control a lot of the lateral movement that Oregon likes to achieve, using the edge to go north. The only problem for Oregon, is that the ability of CAL to play sound gap control and solid man-to-man coverage will be duplicated by the Cats speedy defense. Oregon will have to exploit one on one matchups, and that may be tough.

The game will played in the 30s, and it’s not like Oregon’s roster is full of Oregonians or guys from the Pacific Northwest. Oregon’s backfield is nearly all from Texas, and they don’t like the cold just as much as Arizona’s roster of guys from AZ, TX, and southern CA. Now, Oregon’s guys live up in the colder, crisper air so they are more used to it. Reason I bring it up, is the track will be slower. Oregon’s speed advantage (very much mitigated by U of A’s own speed) will be alleviated some.

I don’t worry so much about Oregon’s defense. Honestly.

Oregon’s defense has played well all year, and Nick Alliotti’s, Oregon’s D Coordinator has done an excellent job of making proper adjustments during the game. Oregon fans give him so much crud, but he’s recruited some blistering fast athletes who play an extremely physical brand of defense. UA will get their yards through the air, and will have some success on the ground, but I think UA’s offense will be surprised at Oregon’s playmaking ability to be ball hawks and it’s fitness level in that cool air come 3rd qt and 4th qt.

Go Ducks, and for those venturing up from Tucson or Phoenix to Eugene/Portland, have a great trip. Enjoy the fall colors of Oregon.

A win against Oregon would not hurt Arizona’s chioce of bowl games, and might actually help by some fluke of BCS mathematics.

The Rose Bowl this year (and this year only) must take the top non-AQ team (Boise State or TCU) if they lose the top PAC-10 team to the Nat Champ game. Assuming Stanford and Oregon win their remaining games, Stanford will be shut out of the Rose Bowl and will take the #2 bowl game spot, giving Arizona the #3 spot (assuming it beats ASU). The only way to avoid this, is for Stanford to finish in the top-4 in the final BCS rankings and thereby earn an automotic at-large bid into another BCS game.

Stanford is currently ranked 6th in the BCS rankings behind Oregon, Auburn, Boise State, TCU and LSU, and it needs 2 of those teams to lose to climb that ladder. Boise State and TCU will win out (sorry wolf pack). That means Stanford needs two of the remaining teams (Oregon, Auburn and LSU) to lose. If Arizona beats Oregon and either LSU loses to Arkansas or Auburn loses to Alabama, then Stanford will likely finish 4th (ahead of Oregon) in the final BCS rankings, but Oregon would win the tie-breaker against Stanford for the conference title. The result would be: Oregon – Rose Bowl, Stanford – BCS At-Large, Arizona – #2 Pac-10 bowl game (Alamo).

Of course it’s all academic, because the Ducks are going to crush the Wildcats at Autzen. I just didn’t want you to think that the game didn’t matter.

but I don’t see an upset in the cards…..

while we have an above average DL, the LB’s and back four are inconsistent at best and if they aren’t filling the gaps, well I expect to see at least three to five big runs of about 15 to 30 yards and maybe one big back breaker of a sprint for a score.

The Az offence is rhythm driven, pretty sure everyone knows this by now, hence, you crowd the LOS early and break up the cheapies that AZ likes to run to establish themselves, i.e. the one yard receiver screens and slot receiver slant routes and you’ve pretty much got AZ in a panic and Foles never establishes a comfort level, which is when he’s dangerous with the deep ball. Unless AZ changes their stripes and throws a few RB screens or a TE stretch route into the mix or even (God forbid) just attack downfield instead of the LOS stuff, the the Ducks should be able to control the game pretty easily imho. I have yet to see the Cats do anything out of character the entire time that Stoops has run the program so I expect that it’ll be a big one for the Ducks, like 49-17 or the like.

I’ll be glad to watch from home while recovering from my Turkey Coma

What scares me about this Oregon game is:

1. It’s Senior Day
2. Oregon’s had 2 weeks to rest and repair.
3. Oregon’s going to come out a P’ed off.