A hopeful take for the Oregon Ducks

So far this season the Oregon offense has been working at three-quarters throttle, not in terms of speed or effort, but in terms of distribution and workload.

They've gone to Kenyon Sadiq and Dakorien Moore just a few times a game. They've shown the deep ball but not featured it. Noah Whittington has sat out the last two games, after carrying the ball 14 times for 159 yards, 11.4 yards a carry.

The Ducks have played in four name-your-score games against weak opponents. Their backup quarterbacks-- three of them-- have played six-and-a-half quarters. They've used 13 ball carriers and 12 receivers and spread the ball around.

In that way they're like a pitcher with an overpowering fastball who has cruised through the first four innings mixing up their pitches while not bearing down, showing the high heat only once or twice.

Penn State is a good, tough, disciplined team with some great players. There are challenging matchups in this game and the energy and atmosphere are as intimidating as any setting in sports,

Urban Meyer has said the White Out was worth ten points to the Nittany Lions, a wall of noise and energy that can be error-inducing, even overwhelming. It's destroyed the concentration of a few opponents.

Once end zone faces the student section, dancing in your face at critical moments. It's a setting where a quarterback can't hear himself think, where communication gets reduced to hand signals and nods. An offensive line has to be completely in synch, or they're lost.

It's an intensity that can't be simulated, and behind it is one of the best defenses in the country.

But Oregon has an offense that runs on pure rocket fuel. If tackles Isaiah World and Alex Harkey are ready for the tough task of holding out elite edge rushers, if Dave Iuli, Iapani Laloulu and Emmanuel Pregnon can stay in sequence and make a crease, this Oregon attack has weapons with NFL speed and talent.

The Nittany Lions will win some battles in this game. But in this matchup of Top Ten teams, Oregon gets to drill down to what they do best, their best plays and playmakers. And those five or six guys are among the best in the country.

The Nittany Lions can cover Dakorien Moore, some of the time. But they can't defend Moore, Sadiq, Malik Benson, Noah Whittington and Gary Bryant Jr., not all at one time. The Ducks have more big-play potential than any team in college football, and in this game, they'll unleash the best of it, down after down.

But a football game can go in a variety of ways. There are shootouts and blowouts and four-quarter heavyweight fights. A great game between two top teams requires patience, composure, resilience. If the Ducks can keep their heads about them in an environment where less skilled and connected players lose theirs, they can win.

The defense has to get some stops. They have to make Drew Allar uncomfortable, at least part of the time. Dan Lanning said, "But there's gonna be highs and lows in this game regardless, right? There should be plays that they win. There's gonna be plays that we win. It's really about the next play. That's the next most important play."

Sadiq said, “I think coach (Dan) Lanning said it great today, it’s a white out because it’s Oregon. They know what's coming. We know what's coming. So, I said it's going out there, and who executes the best. It's just about eliminating the crowd aspect and going in there playing our game.”

In Happy Valley, they have to play with one voice, one mindset and a total focus on the next play. Their auditions suggest they can.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. PSU can't hit what they can't see.

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