Oregon-UCLA: Ducks Avenge Last Season's Shutout Loss, but Questions Still Linger

One of the biggest questions surrounding this year's Oregon Ducks football team regards Oregon's ability to bounce back after a loss. After the Ducks' unexpected home loss to Boise State, questions lingered about the coaching staff's decision making and the maturity of Oregon's defensive backfield.

These questions were answered the following week with a 63-14 embarrassment of the Washington State Cougars, in which Jairus Byrd had two interceptions.

However, the following week, Oregon suffered their worst loss in five years, leaving the Coliseum with a 44-10 loss to USC. Again, more questions were asked about the coaches' decision making and the maturity of the defensive backfield.

Well, Duck fans, even though Oregon rebounded with a 31-24 victory over the UCLA Bruins on homecoming night, the questions asked after the USC game still have not been answered.

Oregon should have won this game by a much wider margin. Not only was Jairus Byrd robbed of an interception for the second time this season, Oregon's defensive backs dropped four other probable interceptions.

Let's face it, UCLA was basically giving this game to the Ducks. If Oregon's defense wants to live up to the expectations that the world gave them during the preseason, it needs to follow one simple rule: If a ball hits you in the hands, you catch it.

This rule can also be applied to the Ducks' receiving corps.

Not only have the media's questions not been answered, but my biggest question has not either: Why have the Ducks not given the starting quarterback role to Darron Thomas?

Look at the statistics, my friends. Darron Thomas leads all Ducks quarterbacks in two positions: Passer Rating (132.7) and Yards Per Completion (7.28).

In the Boise State game, Darron Thomas threw for 210 yards and three TDs in one quarter, AND on only 10 percent of the snaps in practice.

Jeremiah Masoli proved to us all in the UCLA game that he is a true scrambler. He had 170 rushing yards in the game but only 42 passing yards. Thomas is truly a dual-threat quarterback, one who can pass AND run. After Nate Costa, Thomas should be the next best option to run the spread option offense.

So why hasn't Thomas been given a single start? This perplexes many Duck fans. If I were to give a pep talk to the whole Ducks football organization, my first point would be made to the coaching staff: Have faith and confidence in your players.

Look at Boise State. Head coach Chris Petersen had complete confidence in his redshirt freshman quarterback, and look what happened. He tore apart the Ducks defense. Granted, Walter Thurmond III was out with a bruised hip, and the secondary was sucked into the play action pass, but the statistics are astounding.

The best thing that the coaching staff can do for their team is to have complete confidence in their players. An athlete may not be the best in the nation, but when their coach backs them 100 percent, it adds to the athlete's own confidence.

The Ducks won the day. Nobody can deny that. But one thing that Oregon needs to do going into this bye week is search deep inside themselves.

Maybe with two full weeks to prepare for a crippled Arizona State team, the coaching staff will make the correct decision to back Darron Thomas 100 percent and reward his play with the starting quarterback job.