Oregon Ducks Face ‘Very Athletic’ UCLA Team, Look to Get Back on Track

The Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins both suffered their first loss of the 2014 season last week. Oregon lost at home in the one-hundredth consecutive sellout at Autzen Stadium 31-24 to the Arizona Wildcats. The UCLA Bruins fell at home in Los Angeles to the Utah Utes. Both teams are coming off games where their Offensive Lines have become an issue.

The Bruins gave up ten sacks on Quarterback Brett Hundley last week and over the last two games the Oregon Ducks have had similar issues with their injury plagued Offensive Line giving up twelve sacks on Quarterback Marcus Mariota, who admitted on Tuesday during his press conference that he has some bumps a bruises this season, “Typical football stuff, you get banged up throughout the year and you have to fight through it.”

More from Oregon Ducks Football

• Oregon football: Ducks and Coach Prime playing it cordial leading up to Saturday
• Oregon football: Ducks find complete game effort in win vs Hawaii
• Oregon Ducks must get run game going against Hawaii
• Oregon football storms back in 4th quarter to win vs. Texas Tech
• Oregon Football: Ducks dismantle Portland State, look ahead to Texas Tech

The page has turned to UCLA week and Mariota and Hundley have had comparisons drawn between them over the last few seasons, this year is no exception, “He’s a great guy. He’s very versatile. He’s a dual thready guy who can make plays with his legs and his arms. We have to prepare for that guy.” As it stands both Oregon and UCLA still have a chance to play for a National title.

However, only one team will continue on that path after Saturday. As far as if there is a sense of urgency with getting a win this week, Mariota said the team ha remained calm without dwelling on the loss last week, “There’s no sense of panic or anything like that. Focus on today and get better and get ready for Saturday.” Mariota added another thought about the 2014 season so far. It seems that the team is a little sluggish on offense and we’re not the only ones that see that, “We could play a lot faster. We understand that tempo is a good asset for us and if we could play faster it would help us out.”

The loss against Arizona was a team loss, but the Wildcats did a good job up front on both lines to earn the win over Oregon. Part of the problem is the injuries, but one aspect that has not really been discussed is recruiting and other teams in the Pac-12 Conference getting better and catching up to the talent level of Oregon and UCLA. Mariota said the rest of this season will be a fight, “Across the board I think our conference is really tough. If you don’t come out to play and execute on every drive you’ll lose. We’ve just gotta prepare. If we continue to play games and we’ll fight until the end then we’re willing to do it.”

The fight begins again this weekend as Oregon hits the road to take on UCLA. Kickoff is set for 12:30pm Pacific Time on FOX.

For more on the Oregon Ducks , the rest of the Pac-12 and any cool tidbits we find along the way follow us on Facebook and Twitter.