S1W11 - Oregon & Stanford Ready for Battle Atop Pac-12 North

PALO ALTO, CA - The University of Oregon football team has just arrived in Palo Alto in preparation for the Thursday night matchup between the Ducks and the Stanford Cardinal. With only one conference loss Oregon is sitting in first place in the Pac-12 North, one game up on the Stanford Cardinal who have been topped twice in back to back weeks leading up to the matchup with Oregon.

In preparation for the matchup, Oregon announced its all-white uniform will be making a return after its successful debut in LA a season ago:


An Oregon win would all but decide the Pac-12 North as the Ducks would just need to win one of their final three games to clinch the divisional title. A Stanford win would open up a ton of possibilities for the final chapter of the conference season, as Oregon, Washington and Stanford would envoke a three way tie for first place atop the division. Here are the details: with a Stanford win, Oregon holds the head to head advantage over Washington, Washington holds the advantage over Stanford, and then Stanford would hold the advantage over Oregon. Phew, lots of brain work there... The three way tiebreaker will have to wait for a later day to analyze, but right now Oregon would have the easiest path to the divisional title, as they would still control their destiny in the conference given their superb undefeated divisional record at the moment.

The rivalry between Coach Revospeed and Coach D1U-Fear goes back to the origin of the PAC-10*(12) Dynasty. In year one, Stanford took the edge over Coach Revospeed (who at the time was coaching at UCLA) in pretty dominant fashion, using Stepfon Taylor to carve up the Bruin defense. When Revo made his way to Eugene, the series shifted. Oregon topped Stanford two years in a row before having to head to the Farm and losing in season 2 of last year's dynasty. So if I'm not mistaken the series is even at 2-2.

Both teams have extremely efficient offenses, but ultimately pride themselves on their defense. Stanford's rush defense is known to be one of the best in the country, and the Oregon Ducks have similar statistics in the rushing category as well, as both units are checking in as top 10 nationally ranked rushing defenses. Of course, both offenses are run-first attacks (one from the spread, one from the I-Formation), so the game will ultimately be decided by which QB has the most effective and efficient game. Marcus Mariota and Kevin Hogan are both in the top tier of the conference in passer ratings, while Marcus owns a slight edge in completion percentage and interceptions.

If there was ever a game that would be a true tossup, it's this one. Oregon is trying to bury the rest of the division with a win, while Stanford is trying to keeps its title dreams alive. Who will win? I can't wait to find out!

 untrue. ....we lost 2 of 3 not back 2 back.