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Oregon aware a post-USC letdown would ruin year

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Updated Nov 7, 2009 1:02 AM ET
     
 
Now that Oregon, after its demolition of USC, has become The Team That Nobody Wants to Play, there are all kinds of delicious possibilities at the Rose Bowl. Never mind the BCS Standings, where the Ducks are eighth. Give us Oregon vs. Alabama. Let's see what Nick Saban can dial up against the Ducks' spread option. Or Oregon vs. Texas. Colt McCoy and Jeremiah Masoli might be the two best quarterbacks in college football this season. Oregon vs. Florida. Let Brandon Spikes and LaGarrette Blount sort it out — an eye for a black eye. But the opponent that most worries Oregon coach Chip Kelly is one they are not used to in Eugene — prosperity. The Ducks showed they could handle adversity nicely, rebounding from that opening Thursday night disaster in Boise to win seven in a row — including routs of Cal and USC. The 47-20 win over USC was the worst thumping, by far, of the Pete Carroll era. So, after scoring more points, running up more yards and having a margin of victory that was 16 points greater than anyone else against Carroll's Trojans, what do you do for an encore? That's essentially the question that Kelly has posed to his team.
"Do you want to be defined because you had a big win over USC in the middle of your season and you finished 7-5?'' Kelly asked rhetorically. If the Ducks, who play at Stanford, Arizona State, at Arizona and Oregon State over the next month, do some backsliding the rest of the way, they would not be without company. Dating back to when USC became USC again — say, about the middle of the 2002 season — the Trojans had lost seven Pac-10 games. Those seven teams won their next game just twice — Oregon in 2007 and Oregon State in 2006. But those teams then lost the following week. Last year, seven days after Oregon State shocked No. 1 USC on national television, the Beavers lost at Utah, 31-28. By the end of the season, that was hardly an embarrassment — nobody else beat the Utes, either — but the Beavers did not play nearly as well as they had the week before and blew a fourth-quarter lead. "I would hope not, but maybe it did,'' Oregon State coach Mike Riley said of the effect the win over USC had on the loss at Utah. "The psyche of a team is a tremendously important factor going into games.'' Coaches can talk — and players can repeat talking points — about turning the page, moving on and focusing on the here and now. But nobody else is interested in that. "If you do have the good fortune to beat them, then you get a lot of attention for it and people want to talk about it all week,'' Riley said. "People that watch football — the fans and of course, (the media), they get the opportunity to basically re-live the last game for as long as they want to. We go on to a different deal and it's always a little bit scary. I think it's a trap.'' Washington coach Steve Sarkisian knows just what awaits the Ducks. The week after surprising the Trojans in September, the Huskies went to Stanford and were thumped, 34-14. Stanford is one of the most visitor-friendly environments in football. Forget the cliche of the alums deciding whether to set down their glasses of Chardonnay so they can applaud — there just aren't very many people in the seats, even at what is now an intimate stadium after its renovation. "The challenge to replicate was from the emotional standpoint — the energy, the enthusiasm, the emotion that goes into college football,'' Sarkisian said. "It was difficult to match when we went to Stanford. When you play at home in front of an energized crowd at Husky Stadium, there was so much energy in the air — from the fans, our sidelines, maybe even our coaches. When we went on the road, in my opinion, I didn't feel that same emotion, that same energy.'' Stanford, which has lost at home only to USC over the last two seasons, will provide a good test for the Ducks on a couple of fronts. How will their defensive front seven hold up to the pounding of Stanford's physical tailback Toby Gerhart, and — more intriguing — how will the Stanford defense cope with Masoli and Co.? Carroll blamed himself for trying to scheme too much against Oregon, saying his defensive players did not play freely. There were too many cases when the Trojans did not stay in their assigned gaps, and Masoli or LaMichael James exploited their lack of discipline. Stanford may be much slower, but it has a head start — an extra week to prepare and a few more IQ points. Still, the chances of other teams catching Oregon for the Pac-10 title appear remote. Only Arizona is within a game in the loss column, and the Wildcats still have to play at USC and at Cal. But don't bring up the subject of a berth in the Rose Bowl — or better — to Kelly. "We don't talk about championships,'' Kelly said. "Our motto is and our motto will always be: Win the day.'' So far, that has not been a problem on Saturday.
Tagged: Oregon State, Stanford, Texas, USC, Oregon, Florida, Arizona, Arizona State

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