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Most years, Utah would have given Oregon a game. We’re quickly realizing, however, this isn’t most years for the Ducks.
Forget the quarterback thing.
Had Utah beaten Oregon on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium, we’d be sitting here saying the same thing we always say about the Utes:
Just when you thought they were down, Kyle Whittingham’s squad pounces from the brush!
It’s how they’ve won consecutive conference titles. It’s how they’ve been the most consistent team of the Pac-12 era while playing in a conference with headline grabbers in Los Angeles, Seattle and Eugene. We spend the year talking about everyone else, yet it’s the little-mentioned Utes that came into Saturday winners of 18 straight at home. Most years, few would’ve blinked had their third-string QB Bryson Barnes and the 6-1 Utes pulled off another shocker against the Ducks.
But watching No. 8 Oregon dismantle No. 13 Utah 35-6 on Saturday from start to very finish made me realize, for the first time this season, that this isn’t just a most years team for the Ducks.
Most years, Oregon doesn’t have a quarterback making his 56th start, one who can go into a stadium with College GameDay on campus and calmly navigate his offense to a crowd-quieting 75-yard touchdown drive to start the game.
Most years, Oregon doesn’t have a running back like Bucky Irving, one who lost a fumble for the very first time in his career on Saturday and made up for it with 119 hard-earned total yards. Or a receiver like Troy Franklin, whose 99 yards made up for that abysmal1 season-worst showing of 79 yards last week against Washington State.
Most years, Oregon doesn’t have a defense that can play a team with a major weakness and completely exploit it like the Ducks did on Saturday. Utah had 142 passing yards and Barnes was twice picked off by Tysheem Johnson. Most years, the Ducks don’t wrap up tackles like they did on Saturday. Or they don’t have a veteran safety who hits the way Evan Williams did.
Most years, Patrick Herbert isn’t out there laying the lumber and catching passes from the tight end spot.
And most years, the Ducks wouldn’t head into the first College Football Playoff selection committee rankings deserving of much attention. But on Tuesday, the last day of October, the Ducks should get just that. Because at 7-1, with a resume that now includes wins over three teams that have been in the top 25 this year, this is the best Oregon team since one of those years.
“We got a special team. We have a special quarterback. I think anybody in the country can see that,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said afterward. “Today was our first four-quarter football game.”
He added: “I thought we played our most complete football game since I’ve been head coach here.”
That’s something, considering Oregon hasn’t looked overmatched once this season. The Ducks have a top-five offense, a top-10 defense and one loss to a top-five team, on the road, in one of the best football games of the season. Over the last decade, Oregon has had years of very-near excellence. They’ve had stellar quarterback play like this year. They’ve had good running backs and strong offensive lines and secondaries that have led the conference in interceptions. Do you remember how hard Noah Sewell used to hit? Remember all those passes Dillon Mitchell caught that one year? But despite Oregon’s standing as one of college football’s better programs this century, the amount of years where all of those things have come together in one package can still be counted on a lone hand.
The funny part: this thing was staring at us from the start. Earlier in the year it felt hard to gauge how good the Ducks were, not because of performance, but because of balance. The Ducks weren’t that pass-first team like the Huskies. They didn’t have the Heisman-winner like USC, or the experience on the sideline of these Utes.
But the more the Ducks play, the more you realize this team is just good across the board and each week, Lanning gets a little drier behind the ears. And as USC falters and Michigan (allegedly) cheats and Oklahoma joins the land of the unbeaten no longer, you start to realize the team that went into Salt Lake City on Saturday and made the Big 12-bound Utes appear as if they were playing with a scholarship deficiency, well, that team might just be playoff quality.
There’s plenty of football left to play. The Beavers still loom. So, too, might the Huskies for a rematch in Las Vegas.
But fate is in these Ducks’ hands. Most years, you can’t say that.
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
Heavy sarcasm.
