Oregon Football: 6 Things You Will See When the Ducks Play the Sun Devils

This week, ESPN's "College Gameday" makes its way back to Eugene for a game between the Ducks and Sun Devils that could help shape both teams' seasons.

Oregon is fresh off a big win over Cal last Thursday night, but it appeared to come at the expense of losing LaMichael James for an unknown period of time. 

In this series, Oregon has won six straight and hopes to make it seven this Saturday. 

While watching these two teams kick it off, here are six things you can count on seeing. 

Cliff Harris Starting

Chip Kelly and Cliff Harris have finally found some common ground, and that is that Cliff Harris needs to be in the starting rotation of corners. It is clear that when Harris is out on the field, the defense takes on a new persona and is much better.

If Kelly hopes to keep the Sun Devils' passing game in check this weekend, Harris must be on the field more often than not. 

LaMichael James Dressing

When players begin to filter out, look for LaMichael James to be fully dressed and stretching with the team. Unfortunately, this is where the good news ends for Duck fans. 

At this point, Kelly is making sure that Arizona State has to spend some time preparing for James, but all it is at this point is gamesmanship. 

Darron Thomas off and Running

With the loss of LaMichael James in the running game, Oregon will need other players to make significant contributions to the run, and one of those players is Darron Thomas.

What made Oregon so effective last year was that teams had to respect that when the Ducks would run the read-option, Thomas may take off with it. 

So far this year, Thomas has been extremely conservative but will need to turn it loose this week as the Sun Devils will be crashing in on the run. 

Defense Continues to Bend but Not Break

One thing that has been underrated about the Oregon defense to this point this year is while they are giving up a lot of yards, they continue to go with the mentality of bend but do not break. 

In this week's game against ASU, this mentality will be extremely important because if they continue to force teams to punt or kick field goals, it becomes impossible to keep up with the Oregon offensive attack. 

Sun Devils Dropping Like Flies

Last year, one of the tactics that Arizona State tried against the Ducks was going down with some questionable injuries. After the game was over, the plays were analyzed over and over and looked even worse on reply.

This Saturday, expect to see some of the same from the Sun Devils as they look to control the pace that Oregon tries to set.  

DeAnthony Thomas Steps Up

With the loss of James and the reluctancy to let Darron Thomas run the ball, expect a huge amount of the workload to be put on the shoulders of DeAnthony Thomas.

So far, Thomas has shown the ability to be a big playmaker in the passing and running game, and the Ducks will lean on that big play potential even more this week.