[DC]

Not to sound over-confident, but I think we should be able to handle UCLA next week.  We get them at home, motivation certainly wont be an issue.  Maybe both teams held stuff back for next week, that's true.  But, our defense pretty much plays straight-up, hard-nosed defense.  It's not a gimmick scheme that can be "figured out" and beaten.  We seem to have strong players now at pretty much every position, and on most positions we go two-deep with quality players, thanks in part to the team scheming to beat Oregon by playing two full sets of defensive players.  Is it possible that we have not only the best defense in the Pac-12, but the best TWO defenses in the Pac-12, in our first and second teams?  I assume we get Terrence Stephens back next week.  The one thing that makes me nervous is the injury situation especially on special teams with both Zychlinski and D. Terrell missing.  Fumbles, muffs, etc could come up and bite us.  But at least the backups will have a full week to prepare in case those two are missing.

If a bunch of fluke plays don't go against us, and barring unforseen injuries and the like, I think we win this game the same way we have since Hogan has taken over as QB: intense D, solid run game, and enough big plays by the QB (including things like converting 3rd downs to keep drives going, not just 40-yard bombs) to control the game.

We seemed to have some trouble covering their 6'-6" TE.  How would you defend him?

[DC]

Not to sound over-confident, but I think we should be able to handle UCLA next week.  We get them at home, motivation certainly wont be an issue.  Maybe both teams held stuff back for next week, that's true.  But, our defense pretty much plays straight-up, hard-nosed defense.  It's not a gimmick scheme that can be "figured out" and beaten.  We seem to have strong players now at pretty much every position, and on most positions we go two-deep with quality players, thanks in part to the team scheming to beat Oregon by playing two full sets of defensive players.  Is it possible that we have not only the best defense in the Pac-12, but the best TWO defenses in the Pac-12, in our first and second teams?  I assume we get Terrence Stephens back next week.  The one thing that makes me nervous is the injury situation especially on special teams with both Zychlinski and D. Terrell missing.  Fumbles, muffs, etc could come up and bite us.  But at least the backups will have a full week to prepare in case those two are missing.

If a bunch of fluke plays don't go against us, and barring unforseen injuries and the like, I think we win this game the same way we have since Hogan has taken over as QB: intense D, solid run game, and enough big plays by the QB (including things like converting 3rd downs to keep drives going, not just 40-yard bombs) to control the game.

We seemed to have some trouble covering their 6'-6" TE.  How would you defend him?