Oregon Football: Ducks Top Arizona State Despite Injury to Darron Thomas

No LaMichael James? No Darron Thomas? No problem for No. 9 Oregon.

The Ducks dropped Pac-12 title contender Arizona State, 41-27, without the benefit of their Heisman Trophy-caliber backfield.

James had been ruled out for Saturday's game after dislocating his elbow against Cal last week, while Thomas left in the third quarter after "tweaking" his left knee on a running play.

Ironically enough, Oregon's offense actually picked up following Thomas' exit. Redshirt freshman quarterback Bryan Bennett sparked the Quack Attack to 20 second-half points with his blinding speed and infectious energy, thereby turning a three-point deficit early in the third quarter into a 14-point advantage by the early portion of the fourth quarter.

Thomas emerged from the locker room in the third quarter jogging under his own power, though with a brace on his left knee. As important as Thomas is to the normal functioning of Chip Kelly's offense, the Ducks should be able to get by without him for a while if need be, with games against conference curmudgeons Colorado and Washington State on tap for the next two weeks.

Oregon's win over an 18th-ranked Sun Devils squad should go along way toward restoring the team's credibility in the eyes of the almighty pollsters. The Ducks were dominated by No. 1 LSU in their season opener at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, but have rebounded rather nicely, winning each of their last five games by an average margin of 33 points.

With a win over the Pac-12 favorites in their collective pocket, the Ducks proved to the college football world, on national TV no less, that Stanford isn't the only BCS-worthy team in the Pac-12 this season.

That being said, the Ducks are hardly out of the woods just yet. They still have road games at Washington and in Palo Alto against the Cardinal left on the slate before returning home to Autzen Stadium to finish up against USC and Civil War rival Oregon State.

And then there's the matter of their injured stars. The next few weeks will test the notion that Oregon's success is predicated on its system, not its players.

The brilliance with which Bennett replaced Thomas, and that with which Kenjon Barner and De'Anthony Thomas filled in for James, suggested that the Ducks can and will survive without its two marquee talents.

The lowly Buffaloes and the toothless Cougars won't provide much of a counterargument, though the Huskies and the Cardinal—Oregon's chief competition in the Pac-12 North—will certainly have something to say about it.