Oregon is a solid football team. At 5-2 with a 3-1 Pac-10 record, the Ducks are no slouch, and ASU cannot go into this home game with the same, soft mentality they approached the Cal game with.  Our defense needs to come out like they did against USC, and we better hope our offense made some massive leaps over the by week.

Oregon's two losses came against USC (worse loss than ours actually - good news?) and Boise State (Oregon made a comeback bid, and even burned a redshirt on one of their freshman QBs to do it, but it was all for naught) while blowing out Washington at home, blowing out Utah State at home, edging UCLA at home, and beating Purdue on the road (good win).

Clearly Oregon seems to be the candidate for  runner-up in the Pac-10, so this would be a huge building block for the rest of the season for ASU. First thing in our ASU vs Oregon preview will be to take a look at some of Oregon's top players at each position.

 

QB

While Justin Roper and Darron Thomas have both had extensive play time, Jeremiah Masoli has been getting the start the past few weeks.

Masoli - 51/96, 53.1% CMP, 579 YDS, 5 TD / 1 INT, 6.03 YDS/A, 48 CAR, 242 YDS, 5.0 YPC, 1 TD

A dual threat at QB, Masoli is somewhat of an enigma. He really has not shown a whole lot in the passing game, but has been the leading passer in the majority of Oregon's games.  His accuracy is somewhat suspect, and he is not the biggest guy (5'11, 208 lbs), but the soph is really an athlete.  He ran for 170 yards (!) against UCLA. Granted, he also was 5-19 (26%) passing for 42 yards, but the guy is a threat. It will be interesting to see how the D plays him.  I think it would be prudent to force Masoli to throw - put Nolan or Nixon on him as a spy - and set the coverage into a Cover 2 zone and force him to beat us with his arm.

via blog.oregonlive.com

RB

Oregon uses a very balanced running attack with 5 players over 20 carries on the season, and 7 players over 10 carries. There are three rushers we will focus on, LeGarrette Blount, Jeremiah Johnson, and Remene Alston the first, second, and fourth most productive rushers on the team. (The third is Masoli)

LeGarrette Blount - 82 CAR, 592 YDS, 7.2 YPC, 10 TD

via photos.oregonlive.com

A monster (6'2, 230 lbs) reminiscent of Stephen Jackson, Blount has been absolutely dominant this year.  Rushing totals of 98, 99, 111, 131 and 132 yards have already been tallied.  The junior has been contained only once really - against USC he rushed 9 times for 0 yards.  Other than that game, his lowest YPC average is 5.3. The guy is a monster, and with him and Masoli in the backfield, the Ducks have an EXTREMELY dangerous tandem of runners. Our defense will be put to the test - and run defense is not our strong suit.


Jeremiah Johnson - 89 CAR, 515 YDS, 5.8 YPC, 7 TD

via www.cfwphoto.com

The senior, who seems to be more of a workhorse, short yardage back, has seen about the same amount of action as Blount.  It is interesting that the team has only been able to get each of these guys 80-some carries, as they are both talented.  Johnson is not as much of a threat as Blount for the home run, but he is a talented runner with strength, and will be a nice change of pace from Blount.

Remene Alston Jr - 21 CAR, 161 YDS, 7.7 YPC, 1 TD

via cache.gettyimages.com

Not a ton to say about the talented sophomore, since he has only gotten play time in 3 games, Alston has crazy speed and could be someone to watch if he gets on the field.



Tomorrow we will continue with our WR/TE and defensive analysis.