Do You Feel Lucky? 5 Things Stanford Must Do To Win at Oregon
This weekend's lineup of college football games is sure to make for a very competitive weekend of top 25 action. No. 7 Florida goes up to Tuscaloosa to try to get some revenge from last year against an Alabama team that kept them from a national championship appearance. Texas and Oklahoma have their annual showdown, which assures the viewer some fireworks.
The marquee matchup, however, is in the PAC-10 as the No. 9 Stanford Cardinal roll into infamous Autzen Stadium to take on the fourth ranked Oregon Ducks. The winner of this game will not only have an early edge on a PAC-10 title and potential Rose Bowl appearance, but also gain an inside track into a potential national title run. The latter is more geared toward the Ducks as a win could catapult them into the No. 3 spot, jumping Boise St., or even No. 2 should Alabama or Ohio State fall.
Autzen Stadium is famous for being a place where great teams, players, and coaches are swallowed whole by the noise emitted by 60,000 screaming, mostly intoxicated Duck fans, who are lead by their extremely passionate student section. If the Cardinal want to accomplish what so many other teams have failed, there are five things that must happen...
Score Early, Score Often
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The best way to take the life out of a jacked up home crowd is to put their team in a hole early. Now while Autzen fans are famous for never being discouraged, an early score followed by possibly another one would go a long way to quieting the crowd and taking the adrenaline out of Chip Kelly's squad. Oregon has already shown twice that they are more than capable of coming back from an early deficit, but taking the wind out of the Ducks and their fans early will be the only way to assure some sort of continuity on offense. That is until the roars begin coming if the Ducks make it close.
Make Darron Thomas Beat You
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LaMicheal James is the nation's 11th leading rusher, and he missed the first game of the season. The back is averaging 7.2 yards per carry on the ground and is capable of taking any run to the house. Darron Thomas has skated by the first few games on the heels of an unrelenting ground attack. He has shown flashes of what they think he will be, but he has not been close to being tested yet. Stanford needs to load up the box and make stopping James priority number one. Oregon has a good receiving corps, but Stanford will have to live with man coverage on the outside. Loading the box will also bring pressure up the middle, which will force Thomas to make uncomfortable throws off his back foot. Those of you who watched the first four games, saw that Darron trusts his arm almost to a fault and will force some balls in tight spots that have the potential to go the other direction.
Throw, Throw, Throw
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Last Saturday, Arizona St's Steven Threet racked up huge passing yards on the Ducks, throwing for 387 yards and three touchdowns. The defense, which hadn't been on the field a full game's time yet, looked tired and there were tons of gaps in Nick Aliotti's zone blitzing scheme. Threet did throw four interceptions and was sacked quite a few times, but he still picked apart the Oregon secondary with precision. Andrew Luck is no Steven Threet, he's much much better. Luck is the preeminent pro-style quarterback in all of college football and should have no trouble dissecting the Oregon defense. If Stanford wants to win this game, they may have to throw the ball 50+ times as Oregon has not shown nearly the same amount of vulnerability on the ground. A strong aerial assault will go a long way to walking out of Autzen Stadium victorious.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Protect The Quarterback
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The Ducks are tied for 18th in the nation with 11 sacks over their first four games. More importantly, though, is that the pressure brought from Kenny Rowe and Brandon Bair forces fumbles and interception from a hurried quarterback. The sacks allow the Ducks to play back on third down and keep the offense in front of them. Stanford's offensive line needs to keep Andrew Luck upright and protected. They may need an extra tight end in on the line to keep from getting overloaded in the backfield. Aliotti will be dialing up blitzes all game and Stanford's line needs to be prepared for an onslaught of fast, strong linemen and linebackers flying at them all game.
Hold On To The Football
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It sounds simple enough and every coach spends countless hours reenforcing this very point, but that's because it is a valid one. Oregon is third in the nation with nine INTs this season. Their defense is a a very high risk, high reward scheme. When they pressure the QB, they force turnovers. When they don't, they get burned. For example, Oregon's defense allowed 597 yards of total offense last week against the Sun Devils of ASU, but they also racked up seven turnovers, including a fumble return for a TD. Oregon has a stud Sophomore corner in Cliff Harris and Stanford would do well to stay away from his side of the field. If, at the end of the game, the turnover column in the Stanford box score is a 0, there is a very good chance the Cardinal come out on top.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
