It's a matchup so lopsided that Vegas won't even take a bet on it.
A week after the Ducks cracked the Buckeyes in The Horseshoe, they're coming home to Oregon for a heroes' welcome as they host FCS Stony Brook of the Long Island Sound.
Games like this abound in the opening weeks of the college football season. Everyone except Stanford and USC plays them. Last weekend number one rated Alabama crushed Mercer 48-14, Georgia dispatched UAB 56-7, and Oklahoma pounded Western Carolina 76-0.
Quarterbacks feasted. Spencer Rattler of the Sooners put in a productive half day's work, clean and comfortable in the pocket as he tossed 20-26 passes for 243 yards and five touchdowns. The Tide's Bryce Young demonstrated to his sponsors that their million dollars of NIL money was well invested, connecting on 19-27 for 227 yards and three TDs.
Heisman candidacies were thus effectively burnished.
It's an annual rite of fall, this feast of cupcakes. In the SEC they like it so much that they repeat the soiree in late November.
In Week 12, when Oregon is on the road at Utah (in what figures to be one of their most physical and imposing clashes of the year) Georgia will host Charleston Southern, Texas A&M welcomes Prairie View A&M in the battle of the Agricultural and Mechanicals, and LSU picks on Louisiana Monroe.
Twice a year the bullies of college football grab the shirt collars of the puniest kids they can find and drag them through the wood chips under the monkey bars.
It's an opportunity for the alumni to feel good about the state of the program and pad the record. It allows coaches to take a longer look at players for next year and the year after. The AD is happy, counting all the money.
Most importantly it protects the conference's chances at sneaking two into the college football playoff.
The Ducks earned the right to have a developmental week by taking on one of the biggest tests on the NCAA calendar in Week Two, besting two-touchdown favorite Ohio State in their own hallowed edifice, something that hadn't been done since Baker Mayfield, no respecter of opponents, planted the flag on the tOSU logo after a 31-16 victory in September 2017.
With a truer display of class, Oregon won a big one but it cost them. The team is banged up. Kayvon Thibodeaux is still nursing a bum ankle. Justin Flowe, Dru Mathis and Cam McCormick are out for the year. Mase Funa is hurt. Brandon Dorlus and Treven Ma'ae are a little dinged up. Jackson LaDuke was hurt in camp, still recovering.
One of the things a coach dreads most is a run at one position, and that's exactly what the Ducks have suffered. The linebacker corps has been decimated. Noah Sewell, who took a nick himself in one of his many collisions in Columbus, may have to be a 60-minute man in the middle once PAC-12 play starts.
There will be some shifting and adapting to compensate, which fortunately is something Tim DeRuyter is very good at.
Back in January when DeRuyter was hired, DSA publisher A.J. Jacobson interviewed Trace Travers of the Golden Bear Report. He asked his Berkeley counterpart about the defensive coordinator's strengths:
"DeRuyter adapted the defense around what worked. For example, Cal lost OLB Cameron Goode in game one of 2018 and didn't have any depth at the position. DeRuyter moved defensive end Tevin Paul to OLB to shore up depth, and Paul ended up leading the team in tackles for loss that year. He's good at molding his scheme around talent."
Oregon's 2021 season has a lot of promise, but for the Ducks to stay on the road to the college football playoff, DeRuyter will have to work his magic. Fate has given him a massive coaching conundrum, the riddle of the injury jinx, a Gordian knot of x-rays, inexperience and high expectations.
The FCS nonconference game comes at a great time. It allows him to rest players that need more recovery time while it also allows him to tinker, taking an extended live-action look at Brandon Buckner, Keith Brown, Jeffrey Bassa and Jabrill McNeill, find out who can do what and who can help him now.
Brown played extensively against the Buckeyes and looked good in his first action. He went down also, but Mario Cristobal said it was mainly cramping and a slight strain.
So Oregon's keys to the game start with this:
1. Get healthy, rest and repair
2. Maintain their own standard of effort and attention to detail
3. Smooth out the passing game.
The Ducks must improve the timing and connection between Anthony Brown and his receivers. Hitting on some deep balls remains a high priority. They should continue to work Kris Hutson and Troy Franklin into the rotation--both have shown some promise early, and both have deep-strike capability.
Along with that, they need to figure out how to coordinate line spacing and blocking techniques to give Brown, 6-2 with a low throwing motion, lanes to complete slant passes and crossing routes, which have been a major glitch and point of vulnerability in the first two games.
4. Play as many guys as possible.
Identify the number two quarterback and who is ready to contribute during league play.
Because next week, as the saying goes, it's about to get real.
