Oregon Football: Ducks Prepare to Pound Buffaloes, Then Trojans

For the past two weeks, Oregon has watched both Florida and Kansas State jump it in the BCS polls but not in the human polls. While on the surface the Ducks will say all the right things, this has to be something that will only motivate this team going forward.

The past two weeks the Ducks have jumped out to huge leads but have taken their foot off the gas. While the final score may indicate a close game, Oregon has steamrolled everyone that it has played so far this year.

This week, the Ducks have a glorified scrimmage against Colorado, a team that they should have handled by the half. While the pressure from the fans will be to lay it on thick and put up a ton of points, what needs to be remembered is that the Ducks play USC the next week.

Coming into the game against Colorado, Duck fans can expect that coach Chip Kelly will be running a vanilla offense and not looking to show the Trojans all that much.

On top of running a simplified offense, the Ducks will also look to get starters out as soon as possible. While Oregon possesses the talent to run up the score, the Ducks simply do not need to nor should they run the risk of having a starter get injured the week before their trip to play USC.

With the way that the Ducks are playing both on offense and defense, they appear unstoppable. The defense is shutting down opponents and getting the ball back in the hands of cool and calm quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Defenses have had nightmares slowing down the Ducks. So far this year, Kelly has shown that you have to worry about Kenjon Barner and De'Anthony Thomas running the ball, Mariota taking off in the zone-read, Colt Lyerla lining up at running back and Bryan Bennett coming in. And when they have needed it, the passing game has been efficient. 

While we still have to wait for the Pac-12 showdown of the year, if the Ducks keep playing the way that they have to this point, then Oregon will run over Colorado and USC.

Joe Penkala is a B/R National Featured Columnist who covers college football. You can contact him @joepenkala.