On Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, Fox), however, Washington is ready to flip the script. Add that to the defensive performance from last weekend and redshirt quarterback Dakota Prukop and freshman quarterback Justin Herbert have quite the obstacle ahead of them.
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Is it time for OR to make a change at quarterback, leading into a key Pac-12 clash against No. 6 Washington? However, Washington’s lack of game film on Herbert might give the Ducks an edge. OR is now last in the division at 0-2 in the conference, with losses to Colorado and Washington State to start the season. He capped it with a 4-yard touchdown run. They’ve had bad defenses, inconsistent quarterback play, staff changes and an overall uncertainty in the program.
Jake Browning is second in the FBS in passing efficiency after completing 70.7 of his passes for 1,444 yards with 17 touchdowns and two interceptions. Though each school plays its in-state counterpart on Rivalry Week, there’s no question the most heated series for both programs is this border war, and the Ducks’ decade-plus of bragging rights tweaks the Huskies.
Head coach Chris Petersen seemed unconcerned by the apparent disarray among the Ducks. “Certainly the styles that we play and the schemes we see changes every week”. “I think the defense was a disappointment of Washington’s 35-28 overtime win at Arizona two weeks ago, and that will be a reminder this week. It is business as usual as we go about getting better”.
Luckily (for Oregon), they’ve got more faith than George Michael when it comes to such things. The struggling defense allowed 371 passing yards and 280 rushing yards to the Cougars, who were the second team in a row to average over seven yards per play against the OR defense. OR has won 12 straight games over Washington, which is a great cause of anguish for the UW fan base. This right now looks like one of the bottom half teams in the Pac-12, going to a freshman as a lifeline against what looks like the odds-on best team in the conference. “We have to stop Royce Freeman”.
Jesse Woodhead of The Daily Evergreen sits down with Washington State volleyball’s Taylor Mims, the reigning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, for this feature article. He’s a big reason why the Ducks rank second in the league in both kickoff return average and punt return average.
Herbert has only had nine career snaps with the Ducks but ran for a touchdown last week against the Cougs.
UW’s defense matches up well against the Ducks’ offense.
The problem is that OR knows it’s floundering a bit, calling for the ole “players only” meeting to discuss the way things are going … before letting Washington State roll up 280 yards rushing on them.
The Huskies are 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games on fieldturf and 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall.
After they sacked Stanford’s quarterbacks eight times last week, the Huskies took the national lead with 21 sacks this season. He beat out Terry Wilson and Travis Jonsen for the backup job.
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“He’s just one of those guys that works extremely hard every rep of practice, whether it’s defense or special teams”, Helfrich said of Dye on Thursday. We had a meeting last night and nothing about it was discussed. But Huard’s pass to the outside hung in the air, and Wheaton jumped the rout, caught the ball and sprinted the length of the field the other direction, delivering a 31-20 win to the Ducks.
