My question last week against Utah was, "Will we still be successful running the ball against a highly ranked run defense?" and the answer was 152 Lovely yards of Yes.
My question this week is "Can we stop a run offense -- especially when their QB is out and Wazoo exposed how they can be whipped when they're one-dimensional?" It's an interesting test because of the variety of ground weapons -- Freeman who is recovering and is powerful, Benoit who seems more balanced, Brooks-James the 5'9" speedster, and Burmeister, the running QB.
My answer is -- we better be able to stop this ground-based offense (with a passing game we should dare to pass) or we could be in big trouble with teams with a decent QB.
The offense seems like it's on an exciting upward trajectory. If Chryst plays like last week (even better than the stats due to dropped balls) and the O-Line picks up the blitzes last week and plows like they've been plowing all season, and with JJAW back, if we scored 23 against Utah, I think an improving offense hangs 41 on Oregon.
With PK and Phillips out the first half, I see Oregon getting 14-17 the first half and almost nothing the second.
Final question: does the smoke play a role, and if so, whom does it favor? In the East Bay tonight, the smoke seems to favor the home team. But who knows? Maybe it favors the underdog, which would be bad news. I'd assume it favors the more powerful team with more depth, who have been living in this damn smog all week.
Stanford, 41-17.
My question this week is "Can we stop a run offense -- especially when their QB is out and Wazoo exposed how they can be whipped when they're one-dimensional?" It's an interesting test because of the variety of ground weapons -- Freeman who is recovering and is powerful, Benoit who seems more balanced, Brooks-James the 5'9" speedster, and Burmeister, the running QB.
My answer is -- we better be able to stop this ground-based offense (with a passing game we should dare to pass) or we could be in big trouble with teams with a decent QB.
The offense seems like it's on an exciting upward trajectory. If Chryst plays like last week (even better than the stats due to dropped balls) and the O-Line picks up the blitzes last week and plows like they've been plowing all season, and with JJAW back, if we scored 23 against Utah, I think an improving offense hangs 41 on Oregon.
With PK and Phillips out the first half, I see Oregon getting 14-17 the first half and almost nothing the second.
Final question: does the smoke play a role, and if so, whom does it favor? In the East Bay tonight, the smoke seems to favor the home team. But who knows? Maybe it favors the underdog, which would be bad news. I'd assume it favors the more powerful team with more depth, who have been living in this damn smog all week.
Stanford, 41-17.