All college football betting lines and point-spread data courtesy of Bleacher Report’s official odds partner Odds Shark. It’s already week three. Oregon has beaten Riley time and time again when he was with Oregon State and the Ducks have beaten him eight straight times.
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It is hard to believe it has been more than a month and a half since Nebraska started fall camp. OR is ranked number twenty-two in the nation and is coming off a win over Virginia by a 44-26 final score. The defense, which came into this game the weakness, held Nebraska to 14 points.
Many storylines have emerged since then.
Big Red Report reached out to Educk.com publisher Steve Summers to get his thoughts on five questions when it comes to Nebraska and Oregon.
The Huskers do have a history against the Ducks, although the teams haven’t met since the 1986 season, when Nebraska defeated OR 48-14.
“For this team right now, this is a good opportunity”.
Meanwhile, Nebraska plugs along in Year No. 2 of Mike Riley coaching.
“We always say “The Tom Osborne” around here”, Helfrich said, adding that Nebraska’s Osborne “set a lot of standards” during his 25-year career.
Riley won four of his first seven meetings with OR, including three out of four matchups against the Ducks from 2003-2007, but never beat them again with the Beavers.
OR has been tremendous in the role of an underdog with outright wins over Arizona State, Washington, and Stanford a season ago as well as a pointspread cover in a 31-28 loss at Michigan State.
It’s a shame that the coaching staff wasn’t disciplined. From 2007-2014, OR had the Beaver’s number in the Civil War.
As big a challenge as stopping Oregon’s plays is having the ability to regroup between plays.
“This team thrives on big plays”, Banker said.
The teams then traded punts before the Huskers went ahead. The Ducks allowed Virginia, which had 38 yards on the ground in a loss to Richmond, to rush for 193 yards.
OR has athletes all over the field. Running back Royce Freeman might be most unsafe of all, averaging 9.2 yards per rush. Michael Rose-Ivey was flying around the field like a man possessed. The Montana State transfer, Dakota Prukop, has stepped into big shoes at OR and has shown flashes of being something special.
On offense, Nebraska will face a familiar face.
OR switched to a 4-3 defense in the offseason under Brady Hoke. In his first year, the OR defense has moved from a three-man front to a four-man front.
The Ducks probably needed something different on defense.
“For some teams, one mistake is 15, 20 yards”. Kyler Neal’s 9-yard touchdown run with 11:36 left gave the Panthers a brief lead before the Badgers defense reasserted itself. OR has outscored the Buffaloes 52-15 while beating them five years in a row, but this year’s Colorado team looks better than recent ones. Langsdorf said the ability to control the clock will be especially important against Oregon. The Cornhuskers will do their best to contain the speed of the Ducks offense, but if Allen and company are able to get behind the defensive backfield, it will rain touchdowns for Oregon.
The importance of this game is palpable. “It’s going to be very important and I’m kind of excited to be in that environment on Saturday and hear the fans”.
The Ducks plan to use silent counts on offense to counter the noise of Nebraska’s 350th consecutive sellout crowd. “I’ve never been in front of 90,000”, Prukop said.
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“You can just see that extra amount of concentration and focus”.
