Hungry, Focused and Determined: The Ducks Will Beat Arizona State

I have no excuses for being so lazy this week. This has actually been the easiest week of the term and I haven’t even slept enough, written enough or eaten enough. I have no excuses. Apathy 1, me 0.

That being said, I have to get in a quick prediction before tomorrow’s (yikes!) 7:20 p.m. game against Arizona State.

It’s expected to be right around 40 degrees at kickoff, and of course, will only get colder as the game wears on. That doesn’t bode well for the boys from sunny Tempe, Arizona, where it will be a warm 70 degrees tomorrow evening.

Last weekend, Oregon was completed outplayed by Stanford. No if, ands or buts about it. The Cardinal were easily the more focused team, and even though the Ducks might be more talented, they played wore us down and Toby Gerhart punched us in the mouth for a TKO.

Well, that’s not going to happen this week. For many reasons.

First of all, Oregon will respond from the loss like they did against Boise State. Carson York, a freshman lineman, quoted Confucius in his story special the Oregonian , “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

That shows great maturity from someone who has only been around Chip Kelly for half of a season. Imagine how the upperclassmen look at it.

York continued, “This Saturday's game against Arizona State is another opportunity to prove what kind of a team we have, and to display the kind of character that we have come to define ourselves by.”

That kind of talk makes me believe that Oregon will not let a loss get them down. Instead, I think that the loss makes them just that much more dangerous of a football team. And Arizona State has the misfortune of playing the Ducks at the wrong time.

Secondly, Arizona State doesn’t have Toby Gerhart or Andrew Luck, the only two players who have exposed the Oregon defense this year.

Instead, the Sun Devils have two mediocre running backs, and Brock Osweiler, a true freshman. Ask Washington State’s Jeff Tuel how well true freshman fare in Autzen stadium. Not too well.

According to John Hunt in the Oregonian , Arizona State hasn’t scored more than 24 points against a team other than Idaho State, Louisiana-Monroe and Washington State. Not necessarily the fiercest competition.

There is no way the Sun Devils should even be in this game by late in the second quarter.

The Ducks are back in the Autzen Zoo where the non-stop, jet-engine noise should easily rattle the inexperienced Osweiler.

This game is all about whether the Oregon defense will show up, because there isn’t much doubt that the offense will be there, as they put up over 575 yards in last week’s loss.

And after listening to how hungry and focused this Oregon team is coming off of the loss, I think the Ducks are going to make this game ugly, and fast.

Prediction: Oregon 42, Arizona State 10.

The UOsportsdude.com