Is The Pac Back?

A new era for one of college football's oldest rivalries.

It’s pretty crazy that this is the first time Oregon and Oregon State have played each other as two undefeated teams since 1933.

It’s also crazy that this is the first time they’ve played each other while not members of the same conference since 1963—they were both Independent from 1959-1963.

But do you know what’s craziest?

I’m writing this in September.

And seeing as how we’ll never play the Beavs in late November again, we’ll also miss out on more legendary stories like the one ESPN’s Shelley Smith told before the 2020 Civil War.

“Once I was [at Reser Stadium] with my niece Vanessa, who was wearing a Ducks' jacket, and she got hit on the head with a chunk of ice. It didn't knock her out, but it knocked her silly."

But just because the sun’s gonna be out tomorrow, doesn’t mean the Ducks couldn’t still get knocked silly.

And if they’re still smelling their own preseason hype farts as they head into a hostile, bitter Reser Stadium, they’re gonna get hit with more than just ice chunks.

They just might get his with an F word.*

*Fraud

But none of that has to happen!

We all know that the Ducks can become the Ducks at any time. Dan Lanning’s teams are capable of flipping on the Terminator switch and shoving teams into the dirt whenever they decide to—just look at what they did to Utah in Utah last season.

So whatever Dan did in the week leading up to that game, I hope he did it this week, too.

Over the last year we’ve poked fun at the Beavs for essentially being relegated to a conference with Boise, Fresno, and San Diego State. Well, they really showed us yesterday when they *checks notes* joined a conference with Boise, Fresno, and San Diego State.

But just because it’s easy to have fun at their expense doesn’t mean they’re any less of a threat tomorrow. They’re 2-0, fresh off a 21-0 road victory over SDSU, and will be extra motivated to beat a team that left them in Corvallis to die.

If we’re not equal parts careful and lethal, they’ll beat us, and we’ll be laughed out of the State of Oregon quicker than Ammon Bundy.

We need to be physical, we need to be sharp, and honestly we just need to run the dang ball.

Jordan James fought his little tail off just to get 102 yards against Boise, and most of the time he wasn’t getting any help at all from the offensive line, forcing him to create space all by himself.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about injuries and personnel along the o-line, but no matter what the combination is up front, these guys just need to play as if they belong to the better resourced program with a significantly deeper talent pool.

Because they do.

But the Beavs have played tough up front thus far, only allowing 77 yards per game on the ground.

Granted, they’ve played some lowly competition, but so did we, so until we see something different, I’d give OSU’s run defense the edge heading into tomorrow.

JJ is clearly our RB1, but whether it’s him, Noah, or Limar, the o-line better be able to push the Beavers around and finally bring some real balance to this offense.

Because, as we know, the team that runs the ball in Corvo, wins it all in Corvo.

Even though Damien Martinez is now living in the 305 with Cristobal and Danny Boy Cane, our little brother has found himself a two-headed beast in the backfield.

Ole Miss transfer Jam Griffin (#8 on the field, #1 on the all-time name list), and Colorado transfer Anthony Hankerson (#0) have both had fast starts to the season. Griffin had 160 yards and 2 TD against Idaho State, and Hankerson went for 155 yds and 2 scores in the same game.

Clearly, Idaho State had a weakness and the Beavs exploited it to the fullest extent of the law, but that doesn’t change the fact that these two backs will be a unique challenge for our defensive front.

But, I think Harmon, Caldwell, and our linebacking corps—with or without Bassa or Jacobs at 100%—got plenty of practice last week against Ashton Jeanty (who only ran for 151 yards if you subtract his 70-yarder, which I will) can stifle Griffin and Hankerson enough to keep Oregon in this game.

If Oregon controls the ball and finally dominates in the trenches, then they’ll win handily. But if they get pushed off the line of scrimmage and let Beavis hang around late into the afternoon, then they’ll be tormented with the buzz of chainsaws on a scale hitherto undreamt of.

Also, maybe none of that will matter and it’ll be another messy game where we survive on dumb luck and pure talent just to limp into the Bye Week as the worst 3-0 team in Oregon history.

But we can’t do that forever, so I’d love it if we got to see some real, honest-to-goodness improvement out of our Duckies.

Rivalry Quick Hits:

• OSU’s quarterback is Idaho transfer, Gevani McCoy. McCoy lead the Vandals deep into the FCS playoffs last season, and I fear that if he had been the starter for them two weeks ago—and if the Ducks played just as bad as they did—then I might have already written my annual, “Whelp, We Lost,” blog.

• This blog’s namesake, Rich Brooks, played and coached for OSU, and then obviously coached at U of O. He was 22-2-3 all-time in this game, making him the undisputed King of Oregon.

• Watch carefully for Dillon Gabriel to surpass an old Joey Harrington record tomorrow: one touchdown thrown vs. Oregon State. Yup, that’s right, Captain Comeback played in three of these games and never threw one into the endzone. Maybe DG reaches that mark, or maybe he just runs in a couple of scores, but as long he doesn’t threaten Joey’s other Civil War record of five INTs in 2000, I’m pretty sure I’ll be a happy camper.

Joey got his revenge in 2001. Photo c/o Oregonlive.com

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Hopefully the Ducks can find that special switch they keep in the Hatfield Dowlin Complex that turns them into the Top Five team they’re supposed to be.

But I’m not going to lie to you, we haven’t seen that kind of mentality from this team yet, and that makes this one extra scary.

I hope they’ll prove me wrong, but I’m not sure a road game at the Angriest Version Of Reser Stadium Ever is the right environment for this team to finally figure everything out.

But I think we’ll survive.

I’m not sure if we’ll cover, but I think we’ll survive.

34-21, good guys.

Go Ducks.