Oregon Ducks Look to Climb Out of The Middle of The Pac-12 North

The Oregon Ducks avoided dropping to the bottom of the Pac-12 North along with Oregon State, and posting a losing record with a win over Washington 26-20. The Ducks looked sloopy in their win, but a win is a win, it improved them to 4-3 and 2-2 in Pac-12 play. Their defense held Washington to the lowest points allowed this season with 20 points.

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In the secondary, Oregon made another change, moving safety Tyree Robinson to cornerback he lead the team with 11 tackles. The defense had a strong showing, sacking quarterback Jake Browning four times, and seemed to get good pressure on him. Browning, who hurt his shoulder, did not play on the Huskies final drive. Backup quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels came out with not that much time left on the clock. This time Oregon didn’t allow a game tying touchdown like last week as freshman cornerback Uga Amadi picked off a pass to put the game away with just seconds left to go in the game.

Oregon on the offensive side of the ball was lead by two returning stars, Vernon Adams and Darren Carrington. The Ducks with Adam’s return look to win now, instead of the future, and he remains Oregon’s best player behind center. He led the Ducks, going 14 of 25, for 272 yards and two touchdowns. His mobility helped to extend plays, it also gives the Ducks the best chance to continue to make a run at the Pac-12 North title. On the other hand, it leaves Oregon’s future in doubt in who will lead the Ducks in the next few years to come.

Darren Carrington returned from missing six games for a failed drug test. It looked like he had been playing all season long, as he caught five passes for 125 yards and catching both of Adams touchdown passes. The return of Carrington gives the Ducks a perfect compliment to Bralon Addison at the wide reciever postion, making the offense even more dangerous. Royce Freeman was his usual self carrying the ball 27 times for 138 yards.

It was nice to see players returning to the offense, as Oregon has seen their offensive playmakers banged up this year. Many fans can play the what-if game: if Adams had remained healthy would games had turned out different? Fans will have to put that aside as at least Oregon looks to be competitive for the rest of the season. They, however, need to win out to stay alive for the Pac-12 North Title, and hope that teams like Stanford and Cal finish the season going downhill.

The Oregon Ducks hve a bye this week, so they will get the chance to be well rested and get as close to hundred percent for the rest of the season. Mark Helfrich and Company next travel to the desert to take on Arizona State on Thursday, October 29th(7:30pm Pacific Time, ESPN)

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