College Football: Was Oregon the Leading Pretender Exposed in Week 1?

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Note to Oregon, try and learn from Ohio State and avoid playing SEC teams not named Georgia, Ole Miss or Vanderbilt.

Is Oregon bound to be another Ohio State and be the butt of all the jokes about playing SEC teams?

They entered this past weekend's game against LSU ranked one spot higher than the Tigers and came away looking like a school kid who was beaten up by the school bully. Though the stats look close, the 40-27 score shows just how little statistics mean when put up against muscle.

LSU really did nothing fancy. They just lined up and punched Oregon in the face, over and over and over.

The offenses were actually pretty well equally matched. Both teams had 18 first downs and there was only 62 yards difference in total offense. It was LSU's ability to make their yardage count that made the difference.

Oregon got their yardage passing; LSU, for the most part, got theirs by simply pounding the ball down the throats of the Ducks.

All that team speed doesn't mean much when it's used against players weighing 30 pounds more, in better condition and just as fast.

If Oregon thought they saw the best SEC defense in Auburn this past winter in the BCS game, they now know better.

If Oregon is the flagship of the Pac-12, then the whole conference would be dinghies in the SEC, where apparently Oregon would finish mid-pack at best. LSU will beat few SEC teams by such a hefty margin.

The SEC did take a hit Saturday by having Georgia, who is sadly now a lower tier-SEC team as of late, get equally punched out (if not more so) by Boise State. However, having a perennial top-five team like Boise beat up on a team that struggled to make a bowl last year and ended up with a losing record is a far cry from having the top team in the Pac-10 pummeled so publicly.

I guess it just wasn't a day for schools of the uniform of the week club. Georgia's uniforms were as ghastly as their play and I've quit trying to keep up with what uniforms Oregon will wear. Is a Kardashian the team's equipment manager?

Notre Dame was the only other top-20 team to fall, but at least they weren't beaten up and pummeled; they sort of gave the game away with a multitude of mistakes that cost them multiple scoring opportunities and ultimately the game.

In Week 1, there was only one top team in college football with egg on their face after the game, and the sad thing was that it was the Ducks themselves that laid the eggs.