USC Trojans Run-A-Duck

Oregon put up 613 yards of offense against Southern Cal's defense enroute to a 47-20 shellacking of #5 ranked USC. The Ducks, led by QB Jeremiah Masoli and RB LeMichael James made it inside the red zone 9 times out of their total of 11 offensive drives. You make it inside the opponent's 20 yard line that many times, you will come away with lots of points. and the Ducks did. This was the Trojans' worst loss in Head Coach Pete Carol's tenure in Los Angeles.

The ducks now have the inside track to the PAC-10 Title, but if they can win out, and win convincingly as they did Saturday Night, they just might be playing for much more than the PAC-10 Crown. the last time I saw Oregon play, it was the debacle at Boisie St. ending with Ducks RB LeGarrett Blount's TKO of a Boisie St. player. The Ducks were throttled by the Broncos on the blue turf. They looked like anything but a top 25 team.

but give credit to Head Coach Chip Kelly. He suspended Blount for most of the season (Blount may actually be reinstated), which he had to do. However, Ducks quack caller Jeremiah Masoli, RB LeMichael James and the rest of the Ducks picked up the pieces and, unlike Humpty Dumpty, put their season back together again.

Since that blue performance on BSU's blue turf, the ducks have beaten California by 39, Washington St. by 46, UCLA by 14, and Saturday defeated the #5 ranked team in the country by 27. Oregon was ranked #10 before the thrashing of USC. They will most certainly will be ranked in the top 5. Oregon is one outstanding football team that no one, up until now, is talking about.

One big turning point in this game, in my opinion, was win Kelly wanted his offense to try and score before the third quarter ended. He didn't want to interrupt their rhythm and momentum. It was a smart move because the Ducks scored with just 5 seconds left in the third to make the score 41-20 to start the 4th quarter. Many coaches would have just waited till the start of the next quarter, but Kelly wanted to keep attacking and it was a good thing that the Ducks did.

Oregon still has two tough away games against Stanford next week and then Arizona two weeks later. In between those two games, they have the Sun Devils of Arizona St. at home, and of course, the Civil War game with the Beavers in Eugene to close out the season. If the
Ducks keep playing like they did against USC, they will most certainly assure themselves no less than a trip to the Rose Bowl. Realistically, for the Ducks to play for the National Title, they must win out and hope Texas and Iowa loses. The winner between Florida and Alabama in the SEC Championship Game will play for the National Title, so if the Ducks win out, and the Longhorns and Hawkeyes lose one or two games, they would have a very good shot of playing the Gators or Crimson Tide. However, the prospect of Iowa and Texas losing two games is highly unlikely. Iowa might lose a game, but I doubt Texas loses again until their bowl game, if then.

To sum it up, the Ducks will most likely play Iowa in the Rose Bowl. If both Texas and Iowa win out (Texas will probably play Kansas St. or Mizzou in the Big Xll Title Game), the Longhorns will probably get the upper hand because of their more dominating victories than those of the Hawkeyes. Texas would then play either Alabama or Florida in the National Title Game. Nevertheless, what Oregon Head Coach Chip Kelly and his team have done since the debacle in Boisie at the beginning of the year is one of the biggest stories in College Football this year.