ASU Football: First Look at Oregon

The Arizona State Sun Devils (5-5, 2-5 Pac-12) just lost their fourth straight game and things aren’t going to get any easier with the No. 6 ranked Oregon Ducks (9-1, 7-0 Pac-12) coming to town.

The Ducks defeated the Arizona Wildcats last week 34-6 and clinched the Pac-12 North, while they continue to fight for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

However, the Sun Devils are still struggling to gain bowl eligibility and will need to win against the Ducks or their final game of the season against the Arizona Wildcats next week.

Let’s take a look at the Ducks:

A winning offense

There’s no doubt about it the Ducks are a talented offense and it starts with potential Heisman candidate: Justin Herbert.

The Eugene native will be one of the top quarterbacks heading into the draft and already has over 2600 passing yards this season.

He has thrown 28 touchdowns, and only three interceptions, averaging 266 yards a game which is the most in his college career so far.

The lack of a pass rush for the Sun Devils is something that they have struggled with tremendously and could be something else that hurts them this week against a dominant quarterback and his offense.

The Sun Devil pass defense is ranked 115th, allowing an average of 270.9 pass yards per game.

The Ducks are currently averaging 37 points per game, while their opponents are only averaging 14. Their offense has 52 touchdowns on the year, with opponents have 15 total.

They’re doing something right on both sides of the ball.

New coordinator? No problem

Oregon’s defense started this season off with a new defensive coordinator, Andy Avalos. That hasn’t been an issue for this defense and they seem to have adjusted very well to their new coach.

Under Avalos, the Ducks held their first three conference opponents to just 10 points or fewers. These teams included Stanford, Cal and Colorado.

They have 17 interceptions this season, the most in the conference. The Ducks also lead the Pac with 32 sacks.

Senior Troy Dye leads the squad with 32 tackles and two sacks this season. He averaged 5.6 sacks per game. Dye has 7.5 tackles for a loss.

In his previous three years at Oregon, Dye had racked up 302 tackles, 10.5 sacks and three interceptions.